Saturday, June 18, 2005
Breakfast at home with Patrick: cereal and strawberries. Cut my hair. Did some work for Corinna's website. Picked up Tina at the airport. Picked some wild plums from trees in our backyard. Patrick and I had thought at least one tree to be a cherry tree, but we now think they're all plum trees with very small fruit. Snack at Bittersweet Cafe (510-654-7159, 5427 College Avenue, Oakland, bittersweetcafe.com and bittersweetchocolatecafe.com). This is a small chocolate specialty shop with chocolate and non-chocolate beverages, sweet and savory snacks, and lots and lots of chocolate which I think normally cannot be found in American grocery stores. We ordered a handful of chocolates: peppered pineapple (pate de fruit over milk chocolate ganache with black pepper), brazileño (Tasmanian honey and brazil nut praline), banana flambé (banana puree with caramel); two macaroons; two chocolate ginger cookies; the Bittersweet European hot chocolate (rich, deep chocolate taste, non-dairy) for Patrick; the Spicy! hot chocolate (a kick of pepper and a hint of cinnamon and rose) with homemade marshmallow for Tina; and the ChocoLatte (mocha) (chocolate, espresso, milk) for me. The tastes that can be found here are very delicious, and the staff seems to be very knowledgeable about chocolate. Emphasis on local and organic ingredients. We especially liked the macaroons. We were expecting the chocolate ginger cookies to have a ginger taste throughout the chocolate cookie, but it seems to be just the ginger dot in the cookie's center. Lunch with Shannie, Nicki, Brandon, Gavin, Tina, and Patrick at Citizen Cake (415-861-2228, 399 Grove Street). By our receipt, our server was Selah, and we ate at table 6/1. Patrick and I shared a Chinese chicken salad, Shannie had grilled cheese ultima, Brandon had turkey panini, Nicki had Chinese chicken salad, and Tina had the turkey scramble with green onion biscuit. For dessert, Patrick and I shared rose petal creme brulee with saffron cookie, Shannie had banana Foster's, Brandon had (dessert special?), Nicki had chocolate birthday cake, Tina had peach pain perdue with organic peaches and bitter almond ice cream and raspberry coulis. Home. Dinner with Jenny, Tina, and Patrick at Michael Mina restaurant. We did the 3-course $88 per person prix fixe menu and shared everything. At MM, everything is served in threes, so each course consists of a main ingredient prepared in 3 different ways. There were four of us, so the menu that follows simply lists all the things we ordered. For example, in Course 1, one plate was scallops 3 ways, another plate was foie gras 3 ways, and so forth. Somehow we misplaced the menu that they had given us from this evening, so the 3 variations listed here are from their current menu on their website and might not actually reflect what we had (because we can't remember it all exactly now). Course 1: seared diver scallops (hot in front) and marinated scallops (cold in back) (Meyer lemon, sevruga caviar; yellow corn, black truffles; scarlet beet, Maine lobster), langoustines wrapped with pancetta (this evening it was not tempura langoustines per the menu's norm) with chilled ceviche [the menu on the website says: "maroon carrot, ginger; Asian pear, galangal; green papaya, mango" but our were instead 3 melons: cantaloupe, watermelon, and honeydew]), roasted foie gras (in front) with torchon (in back) (Santa Rosa plum, young ginger; Maui gold pineapple, vanilla; crimson rhubarb, vanilla), sesame-crusted soft shell crab with Dungeness crab falafel (English pea, lemon cumin; chick pea, toasted garlic, saffron; fava bean, vine ripened tomato). Intermediate tableside classic course: ahi tuna tartare (scotch bonnet pepper, bosc pear, sesame oil). Course 2: pan-fried black bass (sticky rice cake, baby bok choy, ginger soy; basmati, dried fruits, snow peas; forbidden rice, chile eggplant, orange jalapeno), Alaskan halibut with brandade (dungeness crab, English pea, parsley potato; smoked sturgeon, sun-dried tomato, braised artichoke; salt cod, morel, jumbo asparagus), whole fried Amish chicken for two (truffled macaroni and cheese, carrots and cipollinis). Dessert: banana tarte tatin (caramel sauce, cinnamon ice cream), citrus (key lime pie, mascarpone sherbet; fallen lemon souffle, creme fraiche sorbet; tangerine creme caramel, tangerine ice cream), strawberry (rhubarb shortcake, marshmallow; oatmeal butter crisp, caramel sauce; bread pudding, fudge sauce), coconut cakes with ice cream (pineapple pound, roasted coconut; fromage blanc carrot, rum raisin; shari's german chocolate, dulce de leche), chocolate (peanut butter pudding cake, peanut butter shake; banana bread pudding, banana pot de creme; devil's food cake, caramel sundae). We ordered 2 wines, one a sancerre, the other an Australian pinot noir. (more details to come)