André-Pascal throws down.

To most families, Father's Day means taking Dad out & pampering him, but in the Casséus household, in means Dad in the kitchen, feeding the flock. Sous Chef Stef & I made the lengthy trip to the upper east side for some awesome food yesterday.

When we were growing up & still living with the 'rents, we were pretty much the only people among our circle of friends who HAD to be home for dinner. No matter where we were or what we were doing, everything stopped around dinner time & we would be home, on time, for the family meal. Meals were normally very formal, very European & very good. André switched the game up a bit by serving up an informal Mediterranean buffet of sorts, hold your breath, there are a lot of dishes here...

- Grape leaves filled with spicy rice and pinola
- Hummus twice mixed with tahini plus a touch of paprika
- Egg plant caviar with suptle dashes of crushed dried mint
- Confit of eggplant with capers and dried tomatoes blended with a touch of harisa
- A thick offering of greek yogurt topped with crushed garlic, lime juice (a competitor to hummus)
- A beautifully arranged plate of crisp leaves and legumes
- A "white and black plate" of demi sel feta and oil cured black olives.
- An offering of falafel and kibbe.

We ate for hours, talked about old times & told dirty jokes. A great night.