We started off our anniversary weekend in Napa by eating our first night at Ad Hoc. It turned out to be one of the most delicious meals I have ever eaten (I'm 31. I've eaten a lot of meals). Everything was perfectly seasoned, the meal was so well balanced with sweet, salty, sour...the textures, the smells...a different drink pairing with every entree. We just keep looking at each other wondering how French Laundry the next night would ever live up to this....expectations were high. We were full and happy. A little too happy. When you eat at Ad Hoc, you are proud to be a pig.
The ONLY thing about it..was the fact that we hadn't eaten really any animal products for a couple months...We aren't against eating meat, just all the issues meat eating causes. So we did feel a little conflicted. We aren't perfect so we decided to shove our guilt around to make room for pork cooked 3 ways. Once home we were back to our meatless ways. My conscious makes me confess things I'm sure none of you really care to hear...but my blog, my mindless ramblings, so my confessional.
The menu for March 6, 2010 (they serve one 4 course meal an evening):
Endive & Arugula Salad- maldon flatbread, easter egg, icicle, watermelon radish, smoked trout w/roe, black pepper goat cheese Stuffed Pork Tenderloin- grilled scallions, savoy cabbage, burnt orange, buttered barley, crisp belly, slow cooked shoulder, steamed broccolini and white kohlrabi Achandinha Dairy Co.'s Capricious- pink lady apples, medjool dates, toasted pine nuts, marshall's farm honey Pineapple Tart- spiced caramel and cinnamon chantilly
It was as good as it sounds.
I wish I was there right now.