Category Archives: Great Finds

Fabulous Fried Chicken

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We waited three years for this. And it was worth the wait.

Finally!

It took us all of three years, but on a recent Monday night, we did it. We made it up to Yountville for Ad Hoc’s fabled fried chicken night.

Since opening its doors in 2006, Ad Hoc’s simple, family-style, four-course, $49 per person set-menu has drawn raves, particularly for a few specific dishes. Sure, there’s the sous vide-cooked short ribs that are otherworldly tender. There’s the first-course salad, made with greens grown across the street at the French Laundry garden, that’s blessed with a sweet-from-the-earth flavor you’ll never forget. Then, there is the fried chicken.

When fried chicken is done by Chef Thomas Keller, you expect it to be something special. The tricky part is that it’s not always available. Indeed, the fried chicken is on the nightly menu only every other Monday. In other words, your chances of trying it are only twice a month. And when it’s available, people turn out in droves for it.

Rightly so.

I admit that I try not to give into fried chicken for the same reasons most diet-conscious women do. But when you’re married to Meat Boy, who never met anything fried he didn’t want to inhale, well, so much for counting calories. He’d been waiting a long time to try this particular chicken. He’d even taken a day off of work to do it. He’d skipped one of his night classes, too. But I’m sure his instructor will cut him some slack. It’s fried chicken, after all.

Hearts of romaine with avocado and green goddess dressing.

Dinner began with one of those amazing salads — whole hearts of romaine, strewn with shaved red onions, pickled radishes, spiced pecans and avocado wedges. It was dressed with creamy green goddess dressing.

Next, came the chicken — six pieces for just the two of us, piled high on a platter. The skin was battered with a rippling, mahogany crust. It audibly crunched as you took a bite. The flesh was so moist, juicy and tender, you barely had to chew. The chicken is brined overnight in salt, lemon, herbs, and honey. The next day, it’s dipped in buttermilk, then dredged in flour, and fried to perfection. Food & Wine magazine once featured the recipe for those who want to try recreating it at home.

We’re talking some pretty dang good chicken.

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Tantilizing Toffee

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Victoria's Toffee

The rewards of blogging are many, not the least of which is the kindness of Food Gal readers, many of whom know me only through cyberspace.

Take SteveK for instance. Steve and I have never met, though we both live in the Bay Area. His older brother happens to be a well-known broadcast journalist who belongs to a media organization of which I’m also a member. But no, I’ve never met his brother, either.

But SteveK, knowing I’m a fiend for chocolate, told me I ought to try this chocolate toffee made by a woman who used to help watch his young daughter at day-care. The woman, Victoria Stillian, used to make the toffee as gifts for friends and families. It was so addicting, they told her, that she ought to sell it. So, five years ago, Victoria and her husband, Ron Stillian, started doing just that.

Victoria’s Toffee of San Mateo is now sold at Draeger’s Markets, Piazza’s Fine Foods in San Mateo, Roberts Market, and GC’s Cafe in Menlo Park, as well as online. A 1-pound box is $24.95.

The chocolate almond toffee squares are strewn with crunchy chopped nuts. The toffee is sweet, but tempered by the slight earthiness of the chocolate. It has a nice texture — not so hard and sticky that it gets glued to your molars for life, but just right, as Goldilocks might say if she nibbled some. Read more

A New Way to Dice and Julienne

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Peter Hertzmann demonstrates a very cool new way to dice an onion.

Palo Alto cooking instructor Peter Hertzmann was kind enough to invite me to be a guest at his recent knife skills class at Sur La Table in Los Gatos. You may recognize his name from his regular comments posted on my FoodGal blog.

Admittedly, my brunoise may not be the world’s most perfect looking, but I know my way comfortably around a chopping board and chef’s knife. Even though Hertzmann is the author of “Knife Skills Illustrated: A User’s Manual” (W.W. Norton & Company), I did wonder just a tad how much new information I would pick up from the class.

The answer? A whole heck of a lot.

Just as my pilates instructor often points out to me that I have a bad habit of standing with one hip higher than the other, Hertzmann quickly noticed that I don’t always stand facing the chopping board straight on. Yes, another odd quirk, probably because I’m so used to talking to people while I cook that I naturally turn my body toward them.

Among his other tips to the class: Avoid making a banging noise when the knife blade forcibly hits the chopping board. In other words, don’t wield your knife like an axe against your vegetables. Use a quieter sawing motion instead.

But what I will forever be indebted to Hertzmann most for is showing me an ingenuous way to dice an onion and to julienne a carrot more quickly. Here’s how to do it. We’ll start with the onion first. (By the way, in the top photo, those are Hertzmann’s hands. In the next photos below, the hands belong to my husband, aka Meat Boy.)

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A Dreamy Meal of Pizza and Soft-Serve

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Pizzeria Picco's Margherita.

We came for the pizza. We stayed for the soft-serve.

After all, when no less an authority on Italian cuisine than Mario Batali declares in a national food magazine that the Margherita pie at Pizzeria Picco in Larkspur is the best in the country, well, one must high-tail it over there to try it pronto.

My hubby and I finally did (hey, it is a hike from the South Bay).

A cyclist, my hubby got a kick out of how so many of the pies are named after bikes, including the “Specialized” (Hobbs’ pepperoni, house-made sausage, tomato, mozzerella, and basil), and the “Seven” (oyster mushrooms, mozzarella, parmesan, pecorino, and oregano). Since his nickname is Meat Boy, he opted for the “Cannondale” (house-made sausage, roasted peppers, spring onion, mozzarella, and basil; $13.50). I, of course, went for the Margherita (tomato, basil, house-made mozzarella, parmesan, and De Padova extra virgin olive oil; $10.95).

Vanilla soft-serve with olive oil and sea salt. Unbelievably good!

Since the pizzeria itself is teeny-tiny and it was a beautiful, warm evening in Marin County, we sat outside at a wrought-iron table. The Pizzeria is adjacent to the larger Picco Restaurant, which has a more expansive menu. Both were started by long-time Bay Area Chef Bruce Hill.

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