Minako Organic

The day after Thanksgiving we had a wonderful date day. After sleeping late and having light breakfast and early lunch (both meals consisting of leftovers), we headed up to the Marin Headlands for a 2.5 hour hike up through the Miwok trail and down along the Coast Trail. The air was fresh and while the sky was not completely clear, it was beautiful out there. The hike entitled us to a short nap after which it was time to talk about dinner. There was no way in "H E double hockey sticks" that I was going to cook dinner - I was completely exhausted from cooking for 16 people and wanted to wait just one more day to deal with the turkey-drip laden roasting pan soaking in the sink. Off we went to Minako on Mission and 17th.

It was our first time there, though it often gets high ratings in local best of sushi lists. The restaurant uses organic ingredients wherever possible and the chef takes great care in the each item delivered to our table - in taste and presentation. The food was outstanding. We had 2 appetizers, though the Tofu Nato came with apologies after everything was served since the chef takes extra long to prepare this dish of fried tofu with scallions and a sweet and sour sauce. The 2 sushi rolls we ordered had extremely large, fresh pieces of fish, in order to be able to taste each flavor in the roll, we were told. The organic roasted barley tea was a perfect complement to the meal. There were 2 slight disappointments - I specifically ordered fresh salmon nigiri but received smoked salmon which had been on the menu. Also, the service wasn't as good as it could have been. Perhaps the post-Thanksgiving food coma had also taken the mother daughter team who runs the restaurant hostage.

And just so you know, we didn't have turkey for breakfast; we had pie.