Napa: Happier than Pigs in Shit

Perhaps slightly chastened after our experience in No Sur, we decided to do a little research about our next stop, Napa Valley. In doing so, we learned two very important things: there are mudbaths in Calistoga, and every other Monday, there is fried chicken on the menu at Ad Hoc in Yountville. Sold.


Mike's pink shoes went over big in wine country.

Trees, sunlight.

There were vineyards. We knew things were about to get really, really good.

And by 'good,' I mean 'smelly.' Kim, our self-described mud practictioner, gave us a little list of the ingredients, but I stopped listening after the words 'peat moss.' It was very barnyard chic. Kim came in the room every so often to put cool washcloths on our foreheads. After we washed off all the mud, we sat in a mineral water jacuzzi. Then Kim wrapped us up like giant burritos and turned out the lights. Clearly she'd been reading the blog.

Feeling refreshed and only a bit self-conscious about our level of smelliness, we ran over to Ad Hoc for an early dinner.
It was Fried Chicken Monday. Please note the awesome logo and the menu inserted into a file folder. It was on.

First course: an iceberg wedge salad. There was some fancy bacon involved. Even Emma ate a piece, which is saying something.

Then, the chicken came. To say it was perfect would be insufficient. There should have been trumpets playing. In reality, the waiters were singing along to Billy Joel, but they nicely changed the words so that 'The Longest Time' was about fried chicken. This makes it sound a lot like TGI Fridays but they were only singing to us. The chicken came with corn on the cob served in a puddle of lime butter and creamy mashed potatoes.

This took about 5 minutes. Not really, but we did eat it all.

After a small cheese course (not pictured), they brought four amazing cupcakes. Two were topped with Valrhona chocolate and filled with more of the same. One had a lemon curd filling and was covered with vanilla bean frosting. The last one was devil's food. At that point, we were in a coma.

We decided to play it safe and take home two of the cupcakes.

Kudos to you, Napa. We are fatter than ever, and now we have to see if we can fit through the Redwoods. If we can't squeeze through, it's all your fault.

Next stop, Northern California and Oregon.

love
E + M