Alli and I have eaten at a lot of special restaurants, and I’ve blogged about some of them before. One thing we haven’t done is eat at a really, like, crazily high end place together. Poor folk, etc. But, armed with a gift certificate (holiday gift from Dan and Dalia. (Hi Dan and Dalia!) and on the occasion of Alli’s birthday, last night we went to Michael (fucking) Mina!
I just want to tell you what we ate there. But if you’ve never seen the place, it’s in the Westin St. Francis in Union Square. It’s totally beautiful inside. The service was absurd. and I mean also that I am a little uncomfortable with that level of professionalism, both in its sort of the-diner-is-royalty thing and in some of the actual aspects of it: its weird gender problems, its rigidity, etc. But I did really appreciate feeling like I could ask our person absolutely anything about what we were eating, and that he could talk about the food without condescension or the sense that we were annoying him with questions.
As far as the food goes, it is complete artistry. It may not have been the most meaningful restaurant experience I’ve ever had (though it was very much so), but it may have been the best food, all things considered.
Mina is known for serving “presentations”, generally three takes on a given ingredient. We chose to do a three course pris fixe, and luckily got to taste everything on each other’s plate. This isn’t cheap. The pris fixe is $100 at minimum (extras for treats: foie gras, crab, caviar, beef), but by the end of the night I was convinced that it is a bargain. I mean, including the amuse bouche and mignardise at the end, I had thirteen (flawless) courses. And since I bit off all of Alli’s and she mine, we each tried 22 dishes!
Before the pris fixe courses started rolling in, we both were given an amuse bouche. Of lobster and crab. Lobster and crab three ways. The ways: beautiful lobster salad with tail meat, celery spears, and buttons of watermelon radish (reminding me how good shellfish and celery are. shellfish and celery!), rich lobster consommé with tapioca, and finally a fried crab tortellini over a lemon aioli type sauce.
For the first course I had bacon-wrapped scallops in three different chowders: one with corn, jicama, sweet peppers; one with young leeks, Yukon potatoes in a cream sauce; one “Manhattan” chowder with tomato concasse and celery. Alli had the Dungeness crab presentation; poached claw wrapped in endives with three different sauces, two whole legs with one of the best sauces I have ever tasted, made of butter, crab stock, and espelette pepper; finally a cioppino, Mina-style, with backfin meat, squid, and tinkerbell peppers.
For the second course Alli had the “Bouillabaisse”, starting with pan-seared branzino with perfectly crisped skin over a fennel slaw and burnt bread aioli; a poached turbot with a lobster mousse and a saffron lobster hollandaise; finally, an arrangement of shellfish: a scallop, a tomato stuffed clam, and a tempura calamari with sauce pistou (French pesto). I went with the duck. And oh my god: crispy skin rare duck breast with parsnip puree, star anise jus, and roasted apples; seared foie gras with pink lady apples, apple puree, and this gorgeous sweet parsnip bread; and what really took me over the top: leg rillettes formed into a breaded and lightly fried cake, topped with apple butter and mesclun.
Finally, or almost finally: dessert. The theme of my dessert was floral chocolate, so it started with a white chocolate and rose petal panna cotta with hibiscus foam and crumbled macaroon, a S’more with saffron marshmallow and pistachio puree, and deep dark chocolate ice cream with lavender sauce and shortbread. Alli’s dessert presentation focused on quince, and I thought all three were even better than my chocolate desserts (though they were phenomenal). Hers started with a quince paste and something she described as halvah-like but unfortunately I can’t find or remember the dish too well; but I do remember well the orange blossom donuts with apple chip and quince jam and the quince cobbler with ginger ice cream.
The wine was gone, the cognac I had was gone, and with our check they brought us cold bon bons, one with white chocolate and rice, the other with dark chocolate and sesame.
I kept proclaiming near the end of our meal that it was the “perfect” amount of food, but it was actually a little too much, not that I’m complaining. I wouldn’t give back one of those 22 courses.
Again, when I think about the best restaurant experiences that I’ve had, this one really stands out. It’s not where I would go when I want to eat something (pork hearts, pig’s feet) I thought I could never prepare (that would be Incanto). It’s not where I would go when I want Tuscany in San Francisco (that’s Delfina). But it is utterly inspiring cooking. It’s the kind of meal that makes me want to spend the next month straight in markets and in the kitchen; it makes me want to buy fillets of fish, cut them into three pieces and make three different preparations and do this on like a Tuesday. It was beautiful.
p.s. the photo above depicts the bacon-wrapped scallops chowder, but, again, I didn't take it. Thanks anonymous flickr person!
