TN: DInner at Morimoto

Last weekend Jean and I managed -- amdist a weeklong family gathering -- a night out in Philadelphia, returning to the restaurant Morimoto

featuring the cooking of erstwhile "Iron Chef Japanese" Masaharu Morimoto. With a sensational dinner of hamachi tartare, steamed scallops with ginger and scallion (in a sublime broth), dote nabe (dashi-poached oysters with spicy red miso and bacon - unbelievably intense flavors), a warm mushroom salad served in endive leaves and pan-roasted, white miso-marinated black cod we had:

2004 Fritz Haag Riesling QbA: n: peaches, pink grapefruit, subtle minerality p: round, full entry, off-dry, mildly citrusy and stone fruit

I chose the wine to go with a majority of the dishes, and it did surprisingly well. I was struck with the surprising weight for a QbA wine, but the restaurant had correctly placed it in the "rich and aromatic" grouping rather than with many other Rieslings in the "crisp and refreshing" group. In the end, it was a bit too much for the subtlety of the scallops and was overwhelmed by the dote nabe (even a Pinot Noir would have been) but was an excellent match for the hamachi, the salad and the black cod (perhaps my favorite fish, especially in its miso-glazed preparation).

Chalk up another one for the QbAs of '04! Mark Lipton