When I surveyed the San Antonio culinary scene due to my planned LoneStarCon 3 trip, the two restaurants I discovered that seemed to be musts for dinner were Bliss (which I visited the Friday of Worldcon) and Nao, part of the Culinary Institute of America (which I visited Saturday).

In both cases I made reservations long before I had any idea who’d be joining me, having no doubt that I’d find the right foodie friends who’d want to tag along. I already told you who came with me to Bliss. For Nao, my co-conspirators were Simon and Angela McCaffrey, plus Rosemary Claire Smith, who also went on my pilgrimage to Franklin BBQ Thursday morning.

I hadn’t even known there was a C.I.A. school or restaurant in San Antonio before I started my research, having been aware only of the ones on the coasts. But as soon as I learned of it, I knew I was in. I liked the idea of seeing the future chefs of tomorrow today.

Which isn’t quite how it turned out. Since we visited over Labor Day weekend, the students ended up all being off, which meant that we were instead taken care of by professionals, not those attempting to prove they’d actually learned what they’d been taught during their years at school. I was told that a student’s service in the restaurant was the equivalent of a thesis (though that was the word I offered up, not our server), and that each student had to spent six weeks at the end of their schooling working in the restaurant—two in the back of the house, two in the front, and then two in the back again, moving through all stations of cooking and dealing with customers.

So due to the holiday, I can’t tell you how the students would have done. But the teachers did just fine!

One of the more interesting things about Nao is that it was rotating through regional Latin American cuisines, and while we were there was offering an Oaxacan tasting menu.

None of us chose the full tasting menu, because there were too many other intriguing dishes available, but we certainly sampled a few of them.

Our first small plate was albondigas en salsa (smokey tomato-chipoltle sauce). That is, meatballs. Moist and tangy, but not too spicy.

Next up, charred shishito peppers (scorched light soy, lime, and volcanic salt). An impressive dish. The delicate peppers melted on the tongue with a complex flavor. We all agreed that this was one of the hits of the night.

Our final small plate was from the tasting menu—Oaxacan spiced nuts (cashews, peanuts, almonds, aji, cumin, oregano, garlic). I don’t know enough about Oaxacan cuisine to know what about their flavor made them Oaxacan, but I do know that the flavor was an intriguing one. And I mean that in a good way, not in the way we sometimes use “intriguing” when we’re trying to avoid saying something bad. I wanted more.

Next came the appetizers, with Angela and Rosemary choosing grilled endive, crispy bacon, and goat cheese (toasted serrano chiles “toreado,” pecans and pear shrub).

I went for the pork belly and wild mushrooms (clear mushroom and malanga root broth, scallions). Our server felt the need to warn in advance that this was a broth, as some customers hadn’t been reading the menu correctly, I guess, and so were expecting a plate of pork belly. But I knew what I was getting into, and liked it. The broth was rich, the pork belly comforting.

Simon went for the “Caldo de Piedra” from the Oaxacan tasting menu—shrimp stone soup (rich lobster broth, shrimp, light serrano cooked with hot rocks).

When it came time for the entrees, we ordered entirely from the Oaxacan menu, two each of the two possible dishes, then shared. So I got to taste the Red brick mole with beef tenderloin …

… as well as the Herbal mole verde with chicken.

For some reason, I was surprised that neither mole sauce was terribly spicy, which is not how I remembered mole sauce from the time I visited the Yucatan peninsula. Not, as they say, that there’s anything wrong with that. But it was unexpected. Which again shows how little I know of Oaxacan cuisine. So the dishes were tasty and educational!

Then came a challenge—what to choose from the dessert menu!

I didn’t get to taste any of the Aji Amarillo-ginger peach cobbler (homemade vanilla bean ice cream, raspberry shrub coulis), though those who ate it ended up wearing big smiles.

But the Maracana (banana citrus biscuit, mascarpone cream, banana carpaccio, nougat nibs, banana paper, chocolate sauce) I ordered was so amazing, a photo alone was insufficient to capture its wonder, and so …

… I needed to Vine!

Truly a marvel to behold. And the flavors and sensations&#8212a mix of soft and crisp, dense and light, fruity and chocolatey—made it, to my mind, the dish of the night, and the perfect way to end our meal. Definitely a dessert worthy of applause!

A marvelous meal, with the only hole in our experience not knowing how different the night would have gone had we been served by students rather than professionals.

Guess that means I’ll have to go back!