Just Pictures: Four Years = Three Fantastic Meals (Part 2)

For the last two years during "anniversary weekend", we've headed up north to Napa for a meal at Ad Hoc, Thomas Keller's much cheaper restaurant in downtown Yountville.  We wanted to continue this tradition, so we made our way up again this year.  Since I couldn't enjoy any wine-tasting activities, we decided on a chill day of driving up in the morning whenever we felt like, a no frills lunch date, and whatever our hearts desire for the rest of the afternoon until dinnertime.

We discovered the Marin French Cheese Factory last year, thanks to LivingSocial deals.  We visited this factory in Petaluma with our friends on our food-filled adventure day.  They had a fabulous picnic area overlooking a cute little pond, scattered picnic tables all around, and it looked like a perfect place to spend a sunny afternoon.  I've been wanting to come back here ever since and decided that since we were heading up north anyway, we should stop here for a lunch picnic.

From top left to right, clockwise: fruit salad with plum, asian pear, apricot, and strawberries // spicy pasta salad // castelvetrano green olives // triple creme brie and pesto brie // salami // hummus // garden salad // Dorito chips // sliced french baguette.  A few items from home, a few items from Whole Foods, and cheese from the factory.

We ate, we played games, and we read our books and magazines on a sunny yet slightly breezy afternoon.  All of our worries were washed away for a few hours.

Baby boy at 28 weeks.  I think he enjoyed the relaxing time-off too!

Now on to dinner...

Drinks to start: Ginger beer from Bundaberg (light ginger ale drink... yummy!); chilled Viognier white wine (didn't get a chance to note from where and what year).

First course: Summer pole bean salad - blue lake, romano and yellow wax beans, blonde frisee, pickled radishes, chopped shallots, fingerling potatoes, with meyer lemon vinaigrette.  This salad was pretty darn delicious.  I can eat plates and plates of this!  The pickled radishes were the best thing in the dish.  This is the second time I've had something pickled from Ad Hoc and they never go wrong!!

Second course: Marinated beef skirt steak with parsley cous cous, Indian eggplant, romesco sauce, cauliflower florets, and wilted arugula.  Because of the baby, I have to eat red meat that is thoroughly cooked (no red, no bleeding) so I was a bit disappointed that the main entree this day was steak.  They were accommodating enough to provide us 2 separate steaks so the hubs doesn't have to suffer eating overcooked steak.  As I was cutting through the first slice, it was amazingly easy to slice through.  I was surprised.  Then I took a bite of the skirt steak.  Oh My God.  It was so tender, perfectly marinated, and really THE BEST medium-well steak I've ever had!  Especially since I've been pregnant!  I kept gushing about it to the hubby and finally, he decided to try a piece.  He couldn't believe it also.  When the waitress came to check up on us, I gave her high praises for this amazing piece of skirt steak.  The chef made my day!

Third course: Cowgirl creamery's wagon wheel with pepper stew and paladin toast.  I thought this course was just OK, I think I would have preferred individual slices of different cheeses like last year.  There was a younger diner sitting at the table behind us (he must be around 10 or 12 years old) and when he saw this course, he excitedly screamed, "Oh wow, grilled cheese sandwich!"  That was cute.

Fourth course: Vanilla poundcake with strawberry sorbet, rhubarb compote, candied pistachios, and chantilly cream.  I could have been happy with another scoop of the sorbet! Hmm hmm!

Behind the restaurant sits a fabulous garden and an extension of Ad Hoc, called Addendum, that serves up their famous buttermilk fried chicken and barbecue ribs.  The fried chicken alone is seriously worth a trip up, a definite MUST-VISIT spot when you are in town.  It's only open Thursday - Saturday and from 11 - 2 PM, or whenever they sell out.  I got the chance to try Addendum a few weeks ago when I was in town for my sister's bachlorette party, and that's why I can say this is a MUST-HAVE lunch!

I am amazed and in awe of Thomas Keller's gardens, the one behind Ad Hoc and the grand football-sized garden across the street from The French Laundry (pictured below) are simply fabulous.

I aspire towards having a garden like this one day... hey, a girl can dream the impossible, right?