Water, Water Everywhere

Unique: the monkfish ($25) braised with holy basil and wild ginger in green curry. Accompanied by hearts of palm and baby Japanese eggplants, sauced in the creamiest of coconut curries, this is an amazing use of monkfish, a difficult fish to deal with anyway, in a dish that seems quintessentially Thai yet unlike any curry you've tasted (the pointed heat of the ginger is remarkable). Unique: a crab cake ($12) flavored with a sweet-and-sour hot red curry, served with corn and cucumber relish and sweet chili aioli. Unique: venison loin ($33) served in a Thai restaurant at all, with sweet potatoes and jasmine rice. Not unique: A pan of overly fatty duck breast ($26) with grapes, lychees, and pineapple that needs to be thought through again.

Desserts were as graceful as the final stroke from a calligraphic pen. Sorbets and ice creams are homemade and artfully paired with finger-sized banana spring rolls ($10, with caramel ice cream); Kaffir lime leaf flan ($10, with lemongrass sorbet and a cardamom crème fraîche that has an almost cheesy consistency); chocolate ganache cake ($10, with Earl Grey ice cream); a trio of sorbets — lychee, mango, raspberry — all endearingly strange and refreshing. We topped these off with sweet ice wine and a glass of muscato.

My heart's out, my hat's off, to the Four Rivers for all its verve, its guts and style and imagination, its poignant eco-friendliness, its rare beauty. This is the first restaurant of an almost insanely talented couple. In a just world, a restaurant like this would meander on forever. May they go with the flow.