I think I’ve finally recovered enough to start detailing a whirlwind tour of my old stomping grounds in California last week.  There were so many insanely fantastic things going on that I’m having to break the whole thing into two parts – Part One, which is all about meeting up with friends, the fried chicken at Ad Hoc, and eating ox penis.  I figure that’s plenty for an update.  Part Two will deal with my attendance at the First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival, and all of the awesome things that happened during it.

MONDAY

My good friend Trish and her boyfriend Jarred were kind enough to invite and ferry me to and from the home of what many have claimed is the best fried chicken they’ve ever had.   (As a quick aside, I’ve mentioned Trish many times before in posts and I’m now going to be calling her, “The Queen of Candy” because she always has some new and neat candy or cookie at the ready.  I’m actually trying to convince her to start a candy-centric blog, because I know she’ll be awesome at it.)  Anywho, The Queen, Jarred and I piled into a car and drove the 2+ hours to Yountville to visit Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc.  It was so, so worth it.

The first course was this beautiful beet and potato salad that had a wonderful mustard dressing with it.  We knew that every possible detail had been taken into consideration just by looking at it.  I’m not a huge fan of beets, but these were perfectly soft and the whole salad really set the tone for the rest of the meal.

Here it is:  the best fried chicken I’ve ever had.  Colonel, you better be scared.  I realized that I’ve already used the word “perfect” to describe the beets, but I’ve got to pull it out again.  Perfect.  Perfect, perfect, perfect.  This fried chicken was perfect.  The crust was light, golden brown, and bursting with flavor.  The chicken meat itself was the definition of tender, each bite melting in my mouth.  They had added a light sprinkle of rosemary leaves over the chicken, but the herb wasn’t overpowering at all, instead subtly adding its flavor as we ate.  Folks, do me, yourself and your friends a favor: Make this chicken at home and share it.  My new buddy Arnold over at the venerable inuyaki.com has a copy of the recipe up on his website with pictures and everything.  Just do it.  Thank me and Arnold later.

Not to leave the side dishes out, we were also served these Pardina lentils with Carolina gold rice.  The lentils had a unique mustiness that worked well without stealing the spotlight from the fried chicken.

This heirloom bean ragout, roasted autumn squash and roma tomato confit was wonderful, but again was just completely over-shadowed by the chicken.  I was happy it was there.  I enjoyed eating it.  But at the end of the day, it was all about that awesome, awesome chicken.

The next course was a serving of Hidden Springs Farm Ocooch Mountain cheese, Marshall’s Farm blackberry honey and a spiced nut medley.  The name of the cheese proved to be fodder for a hilarious discussion on pronunciation, with the waiters weighing in with their own ideas.  The cheese itself had slightly grainy texture to it with an intense flavor that tapered off into a slightly nutty aftertaste.  The honey from Marshall’s Farm smelled and tasted wonderfully of blackberry and we doused the cheese with it.  They paired together like two pieces of a puzzle.  The spiced nuts were nice, but not really worth going into.

Thankfully, the last course was nothing more than a simple cupcake.  A red velvet cupcake with a light cream cheese frosting and puffed rice covered with dark chocolate, but still it was pretty small.  At this point in the meal we were all stuffed to the point of popping, but we “forced” ourselves to polish them off.  Dense rich cake, creamy frosting, crunchy chocolate.  An excellent way to end the evening, and it made our tongues red too.  Thank you Trish and Jared so, so much.

TUESDAY

The next night was going to be special:   I was finally going to meet up with Hank Shaw from Hunter Angler Gardner Cook.  Hank was the first person that wasn’t my mother to really give me encouragement and feedback on this site.  Without those kind words, I very well might have called it quits way back then.  So, thank you again Hank (and thanks Mom!) for that gentle push forward.  To left left of Mr. Shaw is Miss Holly Heyser, who has managed to convince me that I should really look into hunting.  She’s got her own website about hunting that’s just a blast to read.  Check it out if you’re looking for some motivation to pick up a shotgun.

I jumped into the Jeep my friend Sharon had lent me for the week and started on my way up north to Sacramento.  Three hours later, I arrived and found parking near Grange, the restaurant Hank had mentioned in our e-mail exchanges.  Apparently there was going to be a book reading by a famous forager named Langdon Cook too!

I screwed the dates up.  I was a day early.

There, I said it.  I’m human, and I had made a very human mistake.  Thankfully, I managed to get in touch with Hank and explained the situation.  Hank has no problems adapting and over-coming, and thirty minutes later we were all sitting at a table in Grange, talking and laughing.  They’re both incredibly friendly, witty and personable people, which should be a shock to no one.  Their personalities in real life are just like their online personas.

Tonight, Hank is taking part in a Iron Chef style competition using duck against the head chef of Grange, Chef Michael Tuohy.  Here’s a video that explains the whole shebang much better than I could. God speed Hank, and thank you again so much for everything!

WEDNESDAY

For lunch, I met up with a fellow I’d met on Twitter named Joel Peterson.  Joel had suggested that we hit up Bun Bo Hue An Nam in San Jose, which he visits at least once a week.  It turns out that they serve a “very special” dish called Bún bò Huế.  Here’s Bourdain’s take on it (fast forward to 5m37s):

The thing that makes this version “special” is the inclusion of ox penis.  That’s right, ox penis.  I was having a Bourdain moment of my own, with the phrase “it will make you strong” echoing in my head over and over.  But before I get into the fact I ate genitals, let’s talk about the soup itself.  The stock was ultra-tasty with flavors ringing in from all over the spectrum.  Spicy, beefy, some tartness from a squeezed lime, a slight sweetness from somewhere.  The noodles had a great bite to them, and were the needed starch for the dish.  A little congealed pork blood and a velvety, peppery sausage called Chả lụa helped round things out.  And last, but so not least, was the ox penis.  To be honest it was a bit underwhelming, because it was little more than a glorified piece of tendon.  Same taste, same rubbery texture.  I highly suggest everyone try a bowl if you can.  Just order it without the penis.  Trust me.  Thanks again for taking me out to lunch, Joel!

Next week, Part Two!