MASA's Restaurant, A Perfect Wine, and Heavenly Lady

I thought I would go ahead and post the menu of my orgasmic dinner at MASA’s, in San Francisco, last Wednesday, because I can’t stop thinking about it, and desiring to go back.

Black Sea Farmed Osetra Caviar, dashi gelée, radish, scallion, kumamoto oyster tempura

Sautéed Artisan Foie Gras, wild huckleberries, tokyo turnips, petite licorice

Sautéed New Zealand Langoustine, flageolet beans, baby red chard, sauce mignonette

Sautéed Breast of Paine Farms Squab, fuyu persimmon, confit leg, pomegranate sauce

Cauliflower à la Florentine, roasted matsutake mushrooms, gribiche, balsamic vinaigrette

Artisan Cheese

Chocolate-Caramel-Walnut Tart, fleur de sel, chocolate-orange sauce, chocolate-walnut streusel, earl grey ice cream

For wine, in addition to a fine glass of oaky, unctuous cal chard go with the foie gras, I selected a bottle of 1999 Pichon Longueville Baron Pauillac, which cost what I thought was a very modest $208, given the status of the restaurant. I could not have asked for a tastier or more appropriate wine for the dinner. If someone had served it to me blind and said it was a First Growth, I wouldn’t have thought differently. It is a Second and has a very prestigious looking label, as many of us know. I am surprised the effect of the exploding First Growth prices wouldn’t have buoyed such a formidable second more, especially in a restaurant. It was classic, elegant and perfectly mature.

I mentioned briefly in another post that before flying to San Francisco I enjoyed three very fine French dinners over three evenings in New York City, but found MASA’s eminently superior. I probably had a better dinner somewhere, sometime, but I can’t remember where or when. Some of the difference is the San Francisco vibe. It is hard to describe but something you can easily fall in love with.

Damned synchronicity! At exactly the second I typed somewhere, sometime, an incoming email popped into view from a lady I shared a dinner with at The Wine Seller in San Diego a year and a half ago. I posted that experience on WLDG, as much about the magnificence of the lady as the dinner, as I recall. I had sent her a note about MASA’s, remembering the similar seven-course dinner we had. She said about five minutes ago, now, that MASA’s sounded wonderful but she couldn’t imagine anything being better than the San Diego dinner, which she said she is still raving about. On that wine list there was a bottle of 1947 Cheval Blanc, for $20,000, as I remember. I looked at her and said, “Do you think we should just go head and order it and worry about the consequences tomorrow?” She didn’t say yes, or no, but I thank the lord she didn’t say yes. So, how can you say that one dinner is better than another when they are made in Heaven? It is just nice to be in Heaven, give the alternative, however it might be defined.

[Jenise]

Quite a meal, and a perfect wine choice. You've been dining well! I've never been to Masa's myself. It's a restaurant my father and his wife used to rave about on all their trips to San Francisco, so I have always thought of it as a stodgy, 'continental' style restaurant. Dad always favored that style of food and the familiarity of the named dishes of his heyday (lobster thermidor, steak diane etc) over modern food titled, like the dishes you list, by ingredient and source.

Quite a meal, and a perfect wine choice. You've been dining well! I've never been to Masa's myself. It's a restaurant my father and his wife used to rave about on all their trips to San Francisco, so I have always thought of it as a stodgy, 'continental' style restaurant. Dad always favored that style of food and the familiarity of the named dishes of his heyday (lobster thermidor, steak diane etc) over modern food titled, like the dishes you list, by ingredient and source.

It is stodgy; they even request that gentlemen wear jackets. It was a pleasant oasis in this contemporary world where nobody wants to fuss. Of course, a couple of men were either just ignorant, or defiant, one wearing a T-shirt, of all things, and it wasn't warm out. My waitress said they discourage such dress, but don't turn anybody away. Hard times everywhere.

But the food is not traditional, at least not anymore. I think you would like it because of its subtle complexity, while at the same time being...I feel kind of embarrassed using the term...orgasmic, but when my comely waitress implied that the foie gras would be, that set up the sensitization and it almost was. Never had anything melt and merge with my senses quite like it did. I found myself reaching a euphoric peak, kind of like...remember the foodie dining with the famous critic in Dinner Rush?, which I knew I had to fall from even before the meal was done. And the wine being better than I even expected put the whole affair over the top.