Ad Hoc, Street, and BarBersQ - The Fried Chicken Trifecta

A preview of coming attractions – a platter of fried chicken at Ad Hoc:


People up here are always baffled by how far I’m willing to drive for food. The Nappans are always shocked that I do food shopping in Berkeley (it’s cheaper!) and the people in San Francisco can’t understand why I would drive from Napa to the city for dinner. In Los Angeles no one thinks twice about rejecting a potential squeeze because they may be considered geographically undesirable but a true foodie worth his or her salt will drive anywhere for a good meal.

How far was I willing to drive (one way) for good fried chicken?

Ad Hoc (11 Miles):

Ms. Diva Princess was in the city for a few days and informed me that she would be coming up to Napa to stay with me for a day or two. It’s only the best for my little Princess so I made rezzies at Ad Hoc. It didn’t really matter what was on the menu that night since all Princess needs is a bottle of wine to make her happy. Nevertheless, I was thrilled to discover that it was fried chicken night since I’ve been hearing of its infamy for months.

Some balk at paying $48 per person for fried chicken but how many of those dinners are served with a white anchovy salad?

And French Laundry garden vegetables?

I totally dug this fried chicken. The execution was perfect: nice and crispy without being greasy. The batter had a nice kick to it. Princess remarked to mumsy that she was unimpressed with Ad Hoc since they “only served fried chicken” but she obviously forgot that she raided my refrigerator the next morning and ate three beautiful pieces and left me the dregs – those dregs still tasted pretty damn good the next day.

Fried chicken is normally served on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of each week.

Street (46.9 miles):

When I told mumsy that I was going to drive into the city for a fried chicken specific dinner, she said, “When you were really skinny you wouldn’t go near fried chicken.” Well, I’m not really skinny anymore and I’ll now drive 50 miles for it.

I was initially a little skeptical about the fried chicken at Street. I had read that it was skinless and I wondered if the chicken would be dry. I was pleasantly surprise when I took my first bite: although it was not really juicy, the meat was not dry at all. The coating was crispy, well seasoned, and not at all greasy. Everyone really liked the fried chicken but I have to say that this chicken needs to be eaten right away – it wilted tremendously on the ride home (ok, ok, it was a long drive and I got hungry) and wasn’t as good left over the next day.


The sides here are a carboholics dream: fresh shucked sautéed corn; mashed with gravy; and if you are feeling indulgent, you can splurge for the sour cream corn bread - and I suggest that you do. I wasn’t too enamored with the coleslaw though, it had too much celery seed in it and it also tasted like the acid in the dressing was Meyer lemon which gave it a somewhat weird flavor like slightly sour (not in a good way) mixed with lemon ice cream.

Fried chicken is served only on Sunday nights.

BarBersQ (5.2 miles):

The unveiling of the BarbersQ fried chicken (Pepper approved!):



After reading about fried chicken night at BarBersQ in Napa my expectations were really high. The chef, Stephen Barber, took a foodie road trip throughout the state of Kansas researching fried chicken, and his efforts have paid off: I had an excellent meal. I was a bit worried at first since I got the dinner to-go but the chicken stayed very warm and crispy in its container on the ride home (it’s obvious that this chicken is fried to order). This fried chicken dinner was my favorite of the three due to the well seasoned and crispy crust (they use a flour coating as opposed to a batter) and the fact that the meat was uber juicy. And it tasted great the next day.

Although my favorite mashed were at Ad Hoc, BarBersQ gravy was fabulous – it had such a rich, deep flavor. The meal is also served with collards. These I had an issue with: they either had sugar in them or the restaurant used a very sweet vinegar to flavor them. I guess it’s a matter of personal taste but I prefer a savory chile spiked vinegar on my greens. Since I wanted to go into a carb coma, I also ordered a side of macaroni and cheese which was fairly good.

Fried chicken is served all day Sunday.

Ad Hoc
6476 Washington Street
Yountville, CA 94599
(707) 944-2487
http://www.adhocrestaurant.com/

Street
2141 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 775-1055
http://www.streetonpolk.com/

BarBersQ
3900 D Bel Aire Plaza
Napa, CA 94558
(707) 224-6600
http://www.barbersq.com/

Yu's Garden (of Earthly Delights)

Below, can this noodle whore go anywhere without ordering a bowl of wonton noodle soup?




Ever since my brother got married, mumsy has discovered that it’s easier for him to fly to China to visit his mother-in-law than it is for him to drive to Los Angeles (from San Diego) to visit her. This past Mother’s Day, said brother and his bride drove up the 101 to Hollywood (ok, Dear Reader how close is Silver Lake to both the 101 and Hollywood?) to attend an anti anti Beijing Olympics rally but had no time to stop by and visit for even five minutes. It has come down to this: if we want to see him we have to meet him in Orange County.

But since he has started taking us to Yu’s Garden this is not such a bad thing. Not only is the food good it’s also incredibly cheap. There is a menu that you can order off of but it’s so much fun to choose from the various hot and cold delicacies from their “deli” case. Two items piled on a plate costs just under $5; for a buck more you can get three items.




Plate No. 1 consists of star anise braised chicken “drumettes” and a sesame seaweed salad (or maybe it’s gong cai?)

Plate No. 2 consists of a yuba (tofu skin) salad and a wonderful chopped green bean salad with ground pork. The green beans had some type of really yummy sour funky flavor in it (this was my favorite dish, I could have eaten it all day long.)

Plate No. 3 consists of more tofu salad (can you ever get enough?) and “drunken” chicken. These two dishes go so well together.

Add another plus to this place: there is a Ranch 99 and a fro yo place that serves LAMILL coffee in the same complex.

Update: since I'll be en Napa for Thanksgiving, male sibling will actually be going to mumsy's house for dinner; I guess it was me who he was avoiding all along.

Yu’s Garden
5408 Walnut Avenue, Suite H
Irvine, CA 92604
(949) 654-2366

Santouka Ramen - I would kill for a bowl of shio ramen right about now

The weather has been perfect in Napa and the pool has stayed blue. It takes me about 30 minutes to get to my favorite food stores in Berkeley. The best Ranch 99 is in Albany. I have finally found a way to avoid driving through American Canyon to and fro Napa. Could anything lure me back to LA now? Perhaps there is one thing, something that I cannot find even up here: a steaming bowl of Santouka’s shio ramen with special pork.

Surely, Dear Reader, you’ve this experience: you taste a dish for the first time and it’s so brilliant that you remember it forever. I had this experience when I tasted the miso ramen with special pork:


And the spicy miso ramen:


However, both miso ramens pale in comparison to the shio ramen:


How can I describe the taste? To paraphrase my good friend, Monsieur De…, it’s just so fucking sexy. Now, with very few exceptions, other ramen broths just taste like salted water to me. You take one sip of the shio broth and you say, “wow!” – it’s just so rich and deep in flavor. Is this what umami tastes like?

Let’s get a closeup this luscious pork:





Now, I’ve felt this way about ramen before. The meal that I had at Momofuku Noodle Bar in October ’05 was one of the best in my life (and I went to Per Se during that trip as well).

How did the miso ramen at Santouka Ramen compare to glorious Momofuku Ramen last year?



And which is the favorite between the two this year? Let's hear the verdict:



If you are really hungry, you can get ramen sets with various rice bowls like salmon roe and more pork!




I’ve recently discovered that there is a Mitsuwa Marketplace in San Jose but unfortunately, no Santouka Ramen (it appears that along with Downtown LA and San Gabriel, San Jose is the only other store in the country without a Santouka.)

Santouka Ramen
Mitsuwa Marketplace
3760 Centinela Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90066
http://www.mitsuwa.com/

Green With Envy

image courtesy of SMH Good Food Month

If you're in Sydney for the month of October then you have no excuse to miss the myriad of events for Good Food Month. As for me, all I can do is watch and grit my teeth in covetous annoyance that I am not in the country for perhaps the best month in the food year. If there was one pick for the whole of Good Food Month, I would recommend getting yourselves to the Sydney Food and Wine Fair in Hyde Park on November 1st. Aside from being able to sample dishes from the best Sydney bars and restaurants, your eager appetite can raise money for the AIDS Trust of Australia. Everybody wins, what more could you ask for.

So take heed this advice, do not miss out on Good Food Month and make the most out of all the free events and classes on offer. There isn't a better opportunity to get yourself more involved and immersed in the Sydney food scene than this month. I'm a little biased but Sydney has probably one of the best and most vibrant food cultures in the world so don't waste any time.

And please, if not for the love of food, do it for me, the poor little Aussie food blogger stuck in London unable to partake in all the delicious fanfare but can only sit here in envious discontent about the insurmountable hurdle that is geography.

Check the website for more details.

If you are interested in getting the lowdown on what has earned the badge of being the best in Sydney check out these articles from the Sydney Morning Herald.

It was great to see Victoire win best bread, as I've always been a devotee to this small but formidable Balmain bakery, keep that bread arising!

And it was also great seeing Mamak, a favourite, cheap, late-night haunt of ours, get some acknowledgement for being one of the most authentic Malaysian restaurants in Sydney. If you don't know where to start, try the Nasi Lemak, a traditional Malaysian breakfast dish, you won't go wrong with it.

Gail's Garden Party, Hampstead

The invitation's a little smudged but you get the gist. Just follow the smell of baking bread.

Can a garden party without an actual garden, in fact be called a garden party? Well, I'm not sure if the small patch of grass along the laneway where the Gail's Bakery party took place could be considered a garden but nonetheless, the amount of cakes and pastries made up for the lack of greenery. Gail's Garden Party, held annually in Hampstead was every carb lover's dream, with enough cakes, sandwiches, breads and sweets to make your blood sugar curdle.

A tower of delight- cannelles, iced lavender and almond cake and some flourless chocolate cakes in the foreground.

There was the chilli chutney stand, Spanish chorizo and exotic sausages and the odd cheese stall peppered throughout, namely the iconic Neal's Yard Dairy, however most of the focus was on Gail's magnificent selection of baked goods. There was more flour and sugar in this one narrow laneway than you could shake a stick at. I was in my element.

Multigrain and artisan loaves; beautifully glazed challah bread; Neal's Yard Dairy stall; blue vein cheese.

Precision slicing of jamon; panini central; chorizo picante for those who like it hot; stuffed green olives wrapped in sardines.

Slices, muffins and bread sticks, all part of the enticing window display at Gail's Hampstead; orange and poppyseed cakes; classic carrot cake; pistachio filled meringue.

With a grin from ear to ear I made my way through stall after stall of goodies to ease that grumbling tummy. After a sun-dried tomato sandwich and some cheese, I decided on some iced lavender and almond cakes and a couple of incredibly beautiful cannelles- my new vice.

Front counter goodies- iced lavender and almond cakes, beautifully moist and aromatic.

I have never come across cannelles being sold at bakeries in Sydney, so seeing so many around and about London really is a novelty. My first taste were at the Borough Markets, 3 cannelles for a pound; they were delicious, a little chewy, but for my first ever cannelles I didn't know what to expect. The cannelles at Gail's were a little bit more spongey and light, less chewy and more airy. So I'm not sure which one is more authentic, or whether they are both, all I know is I'm happy to be polishing off either one right now.

Gail's cannelles were soft, light and airy, and not to mention incredibly moreish.




It's not a party without a bit of booze, wild boar salchichon; cookies, pastries and quiches at the outdoor Gail's stand; German sausage sizzle.

Gail's Bakery Hampstead
64 Hampstead High St
London NW3 1QH
Phone: 020 7794 5700
Email: hampstead@gailsbread.co.uk


Gail's Bakery Notting Hill
138 Portobello Rd
London W11 2DZ
Phone: 020 7460 0766
Email: portobello@gailsbread.co.uk

Gail's Bakery St John's Wood

5 Circus Rd

London NW8 6NX

Phone: 020 7722 0983

Southbank Food Festival: Slow Food London

It seems that I have fortuitously stumbled upon a glut of food festivals here in London of late, and I'm not complaining. I'm welcoming any opportunity to eat well and see London at the same time, and it appears to me that the food culture here is as lively as I had imagined.

And what shall I say about the weather? Even though today, London is at its typically rainy best, the past few days and weekends have been gloriously warm and sunny. I was quite the cynic and had scoffed incredulously at the prediction of sunshine and warm weather in the last few days, although have since been eating my words. An Indian summer seems like the perfect primer before the cold snap hits.

Weather aside, the Southbank Food Festival was held a couple of weeks ago although it's taken me some time to actually get my act together to write up a post. What's new- procrastination, it's the underlying motif of the blog. So, the Southbank Food Festival was an understated 3-day celebration of the Slow Food London movement, that championed the principles of sustainable living and farming, and basically sought to enlighten and challenge people to think more about the food they were eating.

There were about 40 different stalls set up around the Southbank, by the Thames, and there was a tent dedicated to cooking demonstrations throughout the day teaching people stuff like how to feed your family for under a fiver (£5) and how we can all use sustainable products more. My most favourite demo of course was by the lady who owned Choc Star who showed us how to make a chocolate, almond and orange terrine. The best part of the demo was of course the end, where we all got to have a taste.

As fast food encroaches upon most of eating habits it was more than encouraging to know that there is a movement to counter the insidious thing that fast food is doing to the culture of eating, farming and mostly our health. That's why farmer's markets are so great, you can meet and actually get to know the people rearing the animals and growing the vegetables that you are eating, and you know the food isn't stuffed with nasty hormones and preservatives that will one day turn you into a mutant.

So here are a few snaps of day 2 of the Southbank Festival. My recollection of the actual stalls are getting a bit foggy but I'll try my best to give you at least, somewhat vague descriptions.

Different varieties of apples from Franklins Food Emporium in Kenington; can't resist a cupcake shot wherever I go, can I? Beautiful pot of flowers, mushroom medley frying in a large pan.


Middle eastern spices and sauces; almond semolina mini cakes, simply divine; cheese, cheese and more cheese!


Slow food stall; cross-section of salami; hard cheeses.


One of my favourite stalls, Choc Star, the home of the most decadent chocolate terrine made with Valrhona chocolate, the van travels around the United Kingdom sharing the joys of eating chocolate with people, look out for the van it could be coming to your town; some sourdough breads.


The tiniest cafe I've seen, a quarter of the London Eye; espresso drip; beautiful crusty bread.


Artists making their mark on the pavement; French cheeses along the Thames sunset; frying up some Churros.


Crates of organic Worcester apples; squash to brighten up your day; more crates of apples; organic sparkling apple juice.


Artwork around the Southbank.


Textures and patterns around the Southbank; Rabbit pasta.

Thames Festival, Spetember 2008

The Thames Festival held on the South Bank was on last weekend and was a bevy of market fare, food stalls and entertainment. And to top it all off the weather was incredibly genial and sunshine surprisingly forthcoming that day despite some clouds overhead. We warmed ourselves while having lunch on the Southwark Bridge looking out at the expanse of the river, St. Paul's Cathedral and the ubiquitous construction cranes that seem to dot the London skyline.

The real reason for making our way to the festival was the Feast on the Bridge. The whole of Southwark Bridge was closed to all traffic to make way for food stalls from different cuisines and cultures and two long dining tables that stretched almost the length of the bridge.

There's nothing like a pig and a pint to start off this feast; London skyline.


Stir crazy, this stall was very popular.


There's nothing like a cupcake tower to soften any sweet tooth like myself; a colourful spread of Caribbean food including a chick pea salad; strawberries and cream, an English classic.


One of my favourite stalls on the bridge, a middle eastern bazaar of goodies including burgul pockets filled with eggplant, baklava and pistachio birds nests.


An interesting find, deep soup ceremony at low tide; feasting on the longest dining table I've ever seen; beautifully russeted pears; burnt sugar- all things caramelised and sweet; what's a burger without some ketchup, squeeze on.


The smell of corn on the grill is mouth-watering; confections at Cocoa Loco; Richard Howard oysters, the same ones from Borough Markets; view from the fourth level balcony at the Tate Modern looking down on people learning to Salsa.


The imposing figure of Tate Modern against some patches of blue sky, live music and salsa dancing; St. Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge; the crowds along South Bank.


The markets by night, curry and jambalaya livens up the night air.