chipotle | Yay, coyote food

Off to dinner tonight with

revar and Dave B. to a restaurant in San Francisco called Maya. Yep, a Mexican restaurant. I've always liked Mexican food, and one of the things I've liked about the Bay Area is that it's covered with taquerias and has some great "home cooking" authentic Mexican places. Maya, though, is fine dining Mexican -- one of a very few in the area. (I can think of maybe two or three others, two of which serve tapas-style rather than full entrees.)

I started with a tamal, shredded chicken, covered with a sweet chipotle sauce and drizzled with cilantro oil. Dinner was pipian de puerco, pork marinated in a tamarind vinaigrette, served on top of roasted corn puree and covered with a pumpkin seed sauce. It was one of the best pork dishes I've had -- certainly the best in a long, long while -- and it was definitely the best tamale I'd had, period.

dracomistle had the tampiqueña, if I'm remembering right, a grilled filet mignon;

revar had barbacoa de cordero, a lamb shank braised with green mole sauce, while Dave had the roasted corn soup -- something often singled out in reviews of the restaurant as a great dish. Dessert for me was sliced fruit served with an intense mango sorbet and an equally intense raspberry sauce. (Naturally,

dracomistle had something heavily chocolate, Maya's version of the tres leches Mexican cake.)

Was it good? Fantastic. And, for a famous restaurant with a celebrity chef, pretty reasonably priced. I'll be back next week.

Well, okay, probably not that soon. But I'll definitely be back.