But the evening's true climax arrived in the form of a multicourse dessert that included melon soup and phyllo napoleon with chocolate, caramel and coffee Chantilly.

At my home Mr. Loiseau began his summer menu with a cold melon soup seasoned with fresh tarragon and dry sherry.

Specialties include a melon soup served with mint, rabbit with prunes, and lobster.

In Vietnam, raw bitter melon slices consumed with dried meat floss and bitter melon soup with shrimp are popular dishes.

A cracked-wheat tart topped with slivered asparagus preceded an assortment of sorbets in a green melon soup.

And I liked what we got as a finale: a melon soup laden with fruit and anchored by a little oval of passion-fruit sorbet.

Also among the specials was winter melon soup.

A thoroughly enjoyable meal included cold melon soup garnished with Iberico ham, warm seafood salad and squid cooked in its own ink.

(The least expensive items, at $6, are the gelatin that sold the owners, and, for dieters, a melon soup.)

The menu offers a melon soup, a terrine of mushrooms; escalopes smothered in foie gras or duck flavored with lemon.