Tres Servings of Masa's Tres Leches

My friend Jen (who is as Che obsessed as me) turned another year better this week and in honor of her birthday, we headed out for a fancy dinner on the town. We went to Masa, a trendy spendy Mexican place on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis.

It was Jen's pick, but I was equally eager to eat there. Last year, not long after the restaurant's doors first opened, I interviewed the head chef - Saul Chavez - about his Mexican upbringing for an article I was writing. Mexican food, he had said, wasn't all refried beans and tacos, and through Masa's menu, he was trying to showcase the finer side of Mexican cuisine.

Consider it showcased! Between the cocktails and the main plates (mine being a scrumptiously rich chicken mole) Jen and I managed to wrack up a $70 bill!

When it was time for dessert I deferred to Jen. It was her birthday, after all, and anyway, I already knew exactly what she was going to pick: the tres leches cake.
Jen loves tres leches cake. I could live without it; chocolate will forever call my name. But since I often hang out with Jen, and since we often go out for dessert, I've sampled many a tres leches about town.

However, Masa's tres leches cake is the best tres leches cake I've ever had!

I had only planned on one bite, maybe two. Instead, I gobbled half the helping, and even scarfed down the last two fork fulls once Jen said she was all done.

The cake was ultra moist, as tres leches is supposed to be, but unlike so many of the other tres leches I've tasted, this one wasn't overly wet. Its white, whipped topping was dusted with zest of lime and two swirls of refreshing fruit puree - one mango, the other grapefruit - polished off the presentation.

I could easily have eaten tres servings of this tres leches!