44883 Fri Mar 31 02:13:06 -0800 2006 6 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 221371 So the bar at MM? Totally rocks. Nice selection of dessert wines and delicious dessert choices. The room in general? Too noisy for my taste, were I having dinner and wanted normal decibel conversation with my meal. But for one of those nights when my friends ask me the whiny question, "Where can we get desssserrrrrrt?" it's perfect. We did see some people eating the tasting menu at the bar and having a fabulous time. This might be a nice option for a solo diner. There are three dessert trios on the menu: this one's citrus-themed. I forget what the other two were. Something like "chocolate" or "coffee" or "vanilla." From the left: lemon ginger cake (with meringue top) with ginger sorbet, lemon cheesecake with meyer lemon sherbet, and lemon napoleon with saffron ice cream. The first pairing was the clear winner. They went together so well, and the ginger sorbet was the perfect consistency, concentration, and sweetness. The cheesecake and sherbet tasted a wee too much like cream cheese for me. The lemon napoleon was crispy layers of pastry filled with lemon curd and enrobed in sugar syrup. I would have liked it on its own because I like extremely tart desserts, but it paled in comparison to the ginger treats and tasted much too tart in comparison to the other desserts. Perhaps they need to put it on leftmost side of the plate so that people try it first. Or maybe it's designed for right-to-left readers of Arabic, Chinese, and the like (?!). The saffron ice cream tasted nothing like saffron and had tiny strands of mint in it. Lisa didn't taste it at all (thought I was nuts, but hey what's new?), but I thought it had the distinct oceany smell of incredibly fresh sashimi. It really threw me for a look. I can't explain it. Root beer float, Mina style. Good root beer, sassafras ice cream, and sassafras sorbet (yes, there were both). The warm gooey chocolate chip cookies were amazing as well. So we kept asking the wait staff "What's so special about the root beer float?" It was great. GREAT! So comforting, so familiar, and yet so fancy. You've never had a root beer float like this, yet it really makes you feel like a kid in a candy shop. Fantastic. I would not hesitate to order this down home (for Mina) dessert again; it's the kind of thing that would pick you up on a blue day. You're thinking, "7 desserts for two people?!" Yeah, it was overkill. We need to learn to share. Link: http://www.chezpei.com/2006/03/michael-mina-desserts-and-drinks.html Image: http://www.chezpei.com/uploaded_images/DSCN1316-717757.JPG Fri Mar 31 02:13:06 -0800 2006 0 nooodles 1 221377 Ah, you forgot the best part: cheese and salami night at Hidden Vine. Tiny, little place tucked into Cosmo Alley, they have free cheese, salami, etc. on Thursdays which was excuse enough for us to go (our powers of faux financial logic are astounding!) because hey! free dinner! Had the Bordeaux flight (nice,$14?) and nooodle's great syrah (she'll have to post the name, can't remember). The best part though was trying a dessert wine we had never heard of: a NV Barolo Chinato from Cocchi Piedmont (along w/ a vin santo and something else). Think a mixture of wine and fernet or vermouth. I've included a link w/ a little info below. It was VERY interesting, will definitely try again. The discovery that nooodles had never tried tokaji meant we had to get one STAT! Again, any excuse...so we ended up at Michael Mina's. There are more than just the three dessert trios: they also have root beer float, pineapple finacier, and a lady apple tart, and I think a butterscotch pudding? The napolean was actually key lime and I thought the lemon cheesecake actually came w/ some sort of cheesey/yogurty ice cream but nooodles was doing the writing so.... Now if we can find a 12 step program to free us of our Four Season Bar addiction.... Link: http://www.terredavino.it/Prodotti/Horeca/e_barolochinato.htm Fri Mar 31 10:25:08 -0800 2006 221371 0 CH Addict 2 221383 "Chinato" = flavored with cinchona bark. Hence the similarity to Fernet. They often have it at Incanto. Refreshing after an overindulgent meal. Fri Mar 31 11:26:58 -0800 2006 221377 0 Robert Lauriston 2 221387 Show off. I bet you couldn't remember all that at around 11pm last night. My surprisingly good Syrah was a 2004 Rabid Red, Syrah-based blend, California. This was recommended to me after I commented that I liked the 2003 Hahn Estate Meritage Bordeaux-style blend but wanted something different (the Hahn is more of a cabernet sauvignon+merlot). Even though they're completely different wines, the server said people who like the Hahn tended to like the Rabid Red (fun name, no?). He couldn't explain why, but he was absolutely correct. I liked it even though I usually don't enjoy syrah. Having tried fernet for the first time only recently, I think I like chinato better. To me (opposite reaction of CH Addict), it tasted sweeter and less concentrated than fernet. I could drink it without chugging ginger ale, or maybe it's the sugary ginger ale that's making fernet taste so bitter. It's also much redder and has more of a wine taste. The full (and current) Mina dessert menu is here: http://www.michaelmina.net/michaelmina/menus_desserts.html It's true, the meyer lemon sherbet was more like ice cream, and the ginger ice cream was more like sorbet. Note to CNET designers: perhaps all Chowhound posters should be subject to a breathalizer test before being allowed to hit "submit." Obviously the haze of syrah and tokaji impaired my ability to remember the whole evening. But what an evening it was. Link: http://www.thehiddenvine.com Fri Mar 31 11:53:18 -0800 2006 221377 0 nooodles 3 221389 oh, but we forgot your dessert wine at Mina's! A sweet riesling from Australia (? Austria seems more likely) with the name Ba in it. I just remember making sheep noises all night (which may explain why I think it is Australia). Better than the tokaji! Fri Mar 31 11:59:46 -0800 2006 221387 0 CH Addict 4 221395 This is where the Moleskine comes in handy. Kracher Cuvee Baa, Austria 2003. It's definitely Austria, NOT Australia, because I remember him saying something about it being an Austrian/German riesling-type dessert wine. Baa, baa. Less syrupy and lighter in color than that particular tokaji, and cheaper too in case someone ends up at Mina and can't choose between that and the tokaji. The both of us found the dessert wine inscrutable--between the two of us I think we recognized six out of twenty, if that. I was so lost the bartender took pity on me and poured me the Kracher (pronounced craw-sher). Official name of the chinato from The Hidden Vine: NV Barolo Chinato Cocchi. This thread should more appropriately be named Mini Union Square Bar Crawl. Fri Mar 31 12:15:11 -0800 2006 221389 0 nooodles 1 221423 Gosh! Chatting w/ the sommelier revealed that he has his own website w/ the whole wine list in a downloadable form. Finally took a look now and good golly! that's a big selection! I can't speak intelligently as to the pricing, I will leave that to the CH wine experts. I should add that I know Rajat, hadn't seen him in years. Link: http://www.rajatparr.com/ Fri Mar 31 15:16:23 -0800 2006 221371 0 CH Addict