Michael Mina - Page 2

Restaurant review: The chef's new downtown digs have breathed new life into his formerly fussy dishes

01.11.11 - 7:17 pm | Paul Reidinger |

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Michael Mina's pork belly with geoduck salad

GUARDIAN PHOTO BY RORY MCNAMARA

I recognize such outbursts of right-wing media thugs because I've seen them before. In October 2008, when I dared to mention other obvious absurdities — Sarah Palin, our antediluvian Cuba policy — abuse also poured in from afar and I was even denounced by noted high school graduate James Taranto in the politics blog he writes for The Wall Street Journal. The wing nuts of the right perceive, I guess, that tax cuts for the rich — following bail-outs for reckless Wall Streeters — are politically touchy in a time when the federal deficit has become an aneurysm. They believe that media intimidation, even of small fry like me, is always worth a try. And plainly they believe that the next presidential campaign is already on. There, I agree with them. *

MICHAEL MINA

Dinner: Sun.–Thurs., 5:30–10 p.m.; Fri.–Sat., 5:30–10:30 p.m.

Lunch: Mon.–Fri., 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.

252 California, SF

(415) 397-9222

www.michaelmina.net

Full bar

AE/DS/MC/V

Comfortable noise level

Wheelchair accessible

Comments

You realize you sound like a

You realize you sound like a moron, right? A paranoid moron.

Posted by Guest Cara Ellison on Jan. 18, 2011 @ 7:55 pm

ha ha

late. So very late.

Posted by marke on Jan. 18, 2011 @ 7:58 pm

I don't think that anyone was

I don't think that anyone was trying to intimidate you. It's more likely that they were just pointing and laughing at you because you come across as ridiculous when you try to inject politics into restaurant reviews.

Posted by Dan on Jan. 18, 2011 @ 8:01 pm

and you seem

completely unfamiliar with the concept of criticism, or this site.

Posted by marke on Jan. 18, 2011 @ 8:12 pm

Sometimes that impulse is overwhelming

If I were associated with Michael Mina, I'd be highly offended that your review was sidetracked by your desire to report on the attention you've received from conservatives and your emotions about the encounter.

You said "It is a writer's job to afflict the comfortable and complacent", but that's incorrect. It is a writer's job to offer facts, observations and analysis that will be of value to the reader, not to his own desires and purposes. Going further, it is the job of a writer who is a restaurant reviewer to review restaurants.

Perhaps, though, you've set your sights on higher goals. I suppose it's reasonable to try a venture into political commentary if you envy high school graduate James Taranto's position as political commentator at the Wall Street Journal.

Posted by Just passing through on Jan. 18, 2011 @ 8:40 pm

Green isn't your color

And loooky! Just on time, the lonely are afflicted by the bemused--noted high school graduate notes the ineffective tiny-minded heckling in his Facebook feed.

I do hope you're feeling fulfilled.

Posted by Statler (or maybe Waldorf) on Jan. 18, 2011 @ 9:41 pm

Yes, Mrs Ford, but how was the food?

This is a restaurant review, right? Perhaps a little indication of the contents of your plate wouldn't come amiss?

Posted by Guest Clemence de Roch on Jan. 19, 2011 @ 3:42 am

Don't you have a fact-checker?

James Taranto didn't graduate from high school. He dropped out.

Posted by Guest on Jan. 19, 2011 @ 4:21 am

Wow.

Wow. A little tetchy there, eh Mr. Mina? Really settling scores from 2008, are we?

You've seriously been concerned about an internet dustup from 2008, all the way forward to today?

Posted by Bellanca on Jan. 19, 2011 @ 9:51 am

Not a contest

I have read Mr. Taranto for many years and almost without exception he has excellent critical thinking skills, no matter his achieved scholastics. I am sure he would soundly defeat you in any political debate. You're just sore because he calls out sportswriters, restaurant crtics and other journalists who stray too far afield and insist on looking silly, just as you have done here.

Posted by Guest on Jan. 19, 2011 @ 12:50 pm

What a buffoon

I don't think I've ever read a restaurant review so obviously written by someone who was so completely full of himself. I'm not sure that I ever want to read anything by this clown again.

Posted by Guest on Jan. 19, 2011 @ 1:25 pm

Terminally self-un-aware

I love the condemning of the "rich" with their $250K tax "cut" while reviewing a food serving establishment that only folks paid in the $250K range can afford. What an ultra-maroon.

Posted by Guest Harvarrd@Cal on Jan. 19, 2011 @ 2:16 pm

What was that?

How bizarre.

I thought your web designer might have made a formatting error, and placed a politics article in the food section. I was reading about huckleberry preserves and it suddenly got transformed into a rant by a 23 year old wearing a Che t-shirt.

And I don't even reallydisagree with your take on the top level tax breaks, but dude, stay on topic - or maybe just get a blog.

Posted by I-Am-Confused on Jan. 19, 2011 @ 3:09 pm

Paul Reidinger

There is a word for this fellow. Dork.

Posted by Guest I am not confused on Jan. 19, 2011 @ 4:53 pm

I'm sure everyone in the San

I'm sure everyone in the San Francisco Bay Area is absolutely shocked to hear a criticism leveled against Bush. Talk about speak truth to power. I hope your publisher enjoys the traffic.

Posted by Guest on Jan. 19, 2011 @ 7:09 pm

Oh, son. Do you really

Oh, son. Do you really believe you have it in you to take on James Taranto? Brighter lights than you have tried to take him on and have come out looking foolish. Ask Paul Krugman.

Posted by Guest on Jan. 19, 2011 @ 11:57 pm

The Writer's Job

"It is a writer's job to afflict the comfortable and complacent, and so a few weeks ago I noted the absurdity of Senate Republicans' waging all-out legislative war to extend the so-called Bush tax cuts on adjusted incomes over $250,000 when doing so requires us to borrow yet more money from foreign creditors, chief among them China."

1. The first portion of this "sentence" is one of the self-absorbed things I have ever read.

2. The job of an editor is to make sure that ridiculous run on sentences like this never see print. You do realize that there are 3 sentences in there right?

3. You are a food writer. You probably don't mind being a food writer, but actually having to stay on topic is so...so difficult. I mean you have so...so many important thoughts that everyone needs to hear. It's called a blog my friend. Get one. I hear they are handing them out for free.

4. If your job description really includes the task to "afflict the comfortable and complacent", why are you writing dining reviews? Also, why are you writing liberal commentary into your dining reviews in San Francisco? Why am I wasting your time asking you these questions? You need to be hard at work attacking the entrenched conservative mindset....in San Francisco.

PS, "What a maroon" - B. Bunny (whose job was also to afflict the comfortable and complacent)

Posted by Mike on Jan. 20, 2011 @ 12:29 am

On originality and the lack thereof...

We note in passing that "It is a writer's job to afflict the comfortable and complacent," is not an original coinage. The "writer" may well think it is something from Mother Jones, but that too is wrong.

Usually, when a writer with integrity slaps a colorful coinage into a piece he surrounds it with quotes if a direct quote, or with single quotes is not direct, or with the phrase "to paraphrase."

Good writers know this. Good writers work daily for such places as the Wall Street Journal and do not labor in this corner of common obscurity.

Posted by Vanderleun on Jan. 20, 2011 @ 10:56 am

The high school dropout is a

The high school dropout is a columnist for one of the most widely read newspapers in the country. You are a food critic for a free website that nobody has ever heard of before he linked to you. But I'm sure that college diploma is all spiffy and shined and hanging on your wall. Good for you.

Posted by Paul Zummo on Jan. 20, 2011 @ 11:09 am

Pay no attention to these wingnuts

It's genuinely impressive that in spite of your impressive education you've chosen a rather inconsequential career path. Anyone can endeavor to make a mark in the world, it takes real character to shack up with a doctor and be the dlletante wife.

Posted by Guest on Jan. 20, 2011 @ 11:39 am

I like it.

I have no idea who any of these people are or where they live, but I'm a San Francisco foodie, as well as a political activist. As such, I look forward to Paul Reidinger's columns every week.

I think the review strikes a proper mix of food and politics. And Paul should consider it a compliment that people read his reviews from as far away as Cape Cod.

Posted by Greg on Jan. 21, 2011 @ 9:39 am

Lots of name-calling here:

Lots of name-calling here: moron (with the "maroon" variation -- how about macaroon, for food-relatedness?), clown, dork -- they left out twit, a personal favorite of mine -- along with lots of billowing adjectives.

A friendly note to you invective-slingers: Your comments say everything about you, nothing about me. They reveal you: what is on your mind, what makes you squirm. You're taking your clothes off in public when you say stuff like this.

But by all means, say on!

--PR, 3/9/11

Posted by Guest on Mar. 09, 2011 @ 2:34 pm

Request To Webmaster - Names at top of AND on links to comments?

To the webmaster,

Can you find a way to put our names at the top of our blog comments and also have them show up on the links in the comments boxes?

It would be a huge help to be able to identify before we read a comment who the author is so that we don't have to tediously wade through reams of nonsense and abusive comments from trolls...

thanks..

Posted by Eric Brooks on Mar. 09, 2011 @ 3:06 pm

duly noted

but the commenter name is already in bold right at the bottom? We will take your idea into consideration.

Posted by marke on Mar. 09, 2011 @ 4:46 pm