As soon as I reached the 10,000 point plateau in my Open Table account, I cashed out for the $100 gift check and made reservations for Michael Mina. Michael Mina was unsurprisingly a great dining experience and fully justified in its perpetual recognition as a hallmark of San Francisco cuisine. I allowed all of the indelible flavors to fully digest but was still having difficulty articulating it late last week. I turned to ML for a little help.
GreensandBrowns: would you like to write a few words about michael mina?
that would be beneficial for both of us
a draft by end of day will be terrific thank you
ML: a draft?
please...
i don't do drafts for you
GreensandBrowns: ok final copy
ML: you get no editing rights whatsoever
GreensandBrowns: ok i agree
This instantly reminded me of an old Sports Guy (aka Bill Simmons) feature in which he convinced his wife to offer weekly football picks to supplement his own. She agreed once the Sports Guy agreed to the following term (link to article here):
"When I offered her a chance to pick games every week, she begrudgingly accepted under one condition: Along with her picks, she gets one paragraph to rant about something each week. And I can't edit it. In fact, nobody can edit it."
We tend to find parallels with our heroes but this isn't really about that. There seems to be some consistencies among successful relationships. I digress...
Unfortunately, ML's golden words have yet to arrive, and GreensandBrowns cannot wait any longer for her coveted prose. Let's look forward to a future post in which ML can share insights such as this one about a recent trip to Namu in San Francisco.
Back to Michael Mina...the flavors are delicious, at times stunning with a terrific balance of delicate and comforting. The food is rich, at times so decadent that more than a couple of bites can lose its initial impact. That's not any disparaging remark about the food. It's more a reflection of how pleasantly jarring the first bite of each component is. Additionally, establishments like this make photography fun. Much to ML's chagrin, I really enjoy gathering digital prints of these edible art pieces.
Michael Mina is excellent and is probably the best dining experience I've ever had (I've decided that it's impossible to rank this kind of thing objectively as I've always mistakenly tried to do. Case and point, I'm probably most content with a hearty bowl of Shin ramen. On a cold day, nothing can beat this). I will say though that any fair assessment requires placing Michael Mina in its proper context, juxtaposed to its peers. I haven't been to enough places of this caliber to offer any kind of serviceable comparison at this point.
Lastly, I realize that all of our gastronomical adventures are actually a means rather than an end in itself. Dining at Michael Mina allowed me to mentally check off this establishment as we continue to climb up the epicurean mountain toward the pinnacle. Every new flavor we try, every innovative technique we are exposed to, is all in preparation for that seminal moment. This blog might as well be called, "PJS' journey to The French Laundry".
So, yeah. Michael Mina. Great.
Favorite: Poached pork belly with quail egg  |
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