Petite Maison

Marissa gave me two valuable gifts for Mother’s Day last month. The first, is she guest blogging for me for two days, which you’ve already seen.  The second, a mother/daughter night out, I cashed in on last night. It became urgent to spend my gift ASAP because we just learned, the day before, that Marissa received a long sought-after internship at San Francisco Magazine.

Ironically she already has a 10-day trip for the wedding of one of her college roommates to San Francisco planned, she leaves for that today. Then she’ll be home for only 6 days before she needs to go back and report for her new position! It is a whirlwind (actually more like a tornado) around here now!

We went to my friend, Chef James Porter’s, Petite Maison,  had the most perfect and lovely French dinner.  We sat on the garden-enclosed patio and feasted on Escargots de Bourgogne (snails in roasted garlic, parsley butter, with a toasted baguette) and Moules Maison (black pei mussels, pastis, thyme, charred lemon) to begin with while sipping a refreshing Domaine des Cantrelle Rosé (one of the best Rosé wines I’ve had this side of the ocean!)

Marissa ordered the Marget de Canard (seared duck breast, sauteed spinach, pee wee potatoes, orange glaze) and I had the Poulet Roti (foie gras stuffed jidori chicken, pomme purée, braised mushrooms, herb pistou), as you can see, we loved them both so much, we forgot to take pictures before we dove right in – both were absolutely succulent and so wonderfully French!

My advice – get to Petite Maison while it’s still nice enough to sit on the shaded and misted patio before the temperatures rise much more…. and if you want to make it extra special – take your daughter with you!