Earlier this month I got together with Brad over at Creative Loafing for a little fried chicken. Check his post on it.

Shamefully, the only fried chicken of the five I’d previously tried was Carver’s. On the plus side, I had no predisposition to any of these chickees. Brad and I pretty much agreed on everything, though I could see that some people could easily feel differently based on the experience they are seeking. Chicken to go? High quality bird? Star Provisions was the clear winner; affordable too.

Star bird too small? Looking for an honest country vibe and outrageously sized breast? Carver’s it is.

Many people visit Colonnade for the sake of tradition and ambience, but damn the chicken was good. By far the hottest and crispiest and most tender; not a touch of dryness in the breast – the only time I could say that of our tour. Large portions too.

JCT was terrible. So bland and soggy, the texture of the meat was pulverized like it had sat in brine for too long, which doesn’t make sense as it was devoid of salt. It’s worth mentioning that the mac and cheese they served with it was a shameful mess of soggy noodles sitting in a unnecessary pool of warm cream. Years ago JCT was my go-to spot on that side of town – the last two years have seen an odious, unfortunate decline.

Smothered chicken – Busy Bee

Fried chicken – Busy Bee

The Colonnade

Chicken fried chicken with gravy - The Colonnade

Fried chicken - The Colonnade

JCT Springer Mountain Fried Chicken

Unfortunately, no photos from Star or Carver’s – forgot my camera!

This past weekend was the third session of what I’ll call the “educational and aspirational” meals I’ve cooked with my friend Brad. Meals where we’ve invested ourselves (and our cash) in planning a meal from a particular cookbook which require an inordinate amount of research and planning. The first time we tackled The French Laundry. Next was our dinner from most recent Le Bernardin cookbook On the Line. This time we dug into David Chang’s Momofuku, a cookbook I’ve mentioned a few times.

I’ll say this right up front; this meal was the most disappointing of the three. Not bad, mind you, but the return on time invested was not there. And this is not the first time I’ve been unhappy with results from this cookbook. I’ll admit some flaws in execution, but a good cookbook should set you up for success with its direction, and I don’t think this one does a good job of that. Some recipes don’t flow well, and I’m left making assumptions or changes that I think are necessary, but go unmentioned by the book. And while I appreciate the introduction to certain techniques, flavors, chemicals, and sustainability, some flavors just don’t work, and there is such a thing as an unnecessary “improvement”. I love this cookbook as reference, and the stories are great, but to me it’s not to be followed blindly, and I do not plan on attempting any more of the tedious or expensive recipes. That said, here’s what we ate.

The meal began with the English muffins, my second attempt. They were halved and griddled in a pool of bay leaf infused, whipped mix of rendered Benton’s bacon fat and butter. Garnished with Maldon salt and chives, they are excellent. This recipe is actually forgiving, the only difficult part is trying to make them pretty.

Next was the Riverview Farms pig’s head torchon. Brad boiled the pig’s head for a few hours, then we had a fun time digging our paws inside the pig’s face, pulling out chunks of meat and fat anywhere our fingers could go. A layer of fat is layed down, then seasoned meat, then wrapped in plastic wrap into the cylindrical torchon shape. Fried in panko, it was served with cherries and a mustard/mayo sauce. It was goooood, and porky, but again, I wasn’t happy with the instruction and think it could be improved. The texture was too dense and chewy, the fat was not quite where I wanted to be, and the book mentioned nothing about the size of the pieces needed to form the torchon. We chopped them to the size that made sense to us, but looking back it could have been a finer mix.

The “brick chicken” is a deboned chicken half, sprinkled with transglutaminase (aka “meat glue”), then wrapped onto itself to form a brick shape. Wrapped overnight, the glue causes the meat to adhere to itself, creating a single entity of white and dark meat. Pan roasted on the stove top and the oven, the chicken skin was initially crispy, but somewhat rubbery by the time I could cut and plate the dish. The skin was my fault. The chicken was tasty, with plenty of moisture lent to the white meat by it’s soulful cousin, the thigh. I think the chicken should have been brined first though.

The oyster mushroom with pistachio-dashi puree was ok, but the puree is a waste of time if you ask me. I would have been just as happy simply with a side of mixed, sautéed mushroom in butter.

I enjoyed the flavor of the cereal milk panna cotta, which was rich with the savory flavor of corn flakes, though a friend said it was “disgusting”. The hazelnut/chocolate served with it was amazing. We left out the avocado puree, as we agreed it was weird for weird’s sake, and our particular avocado was less than stellar.

Not pictured (bad blogger!) is the famous Ko Egg, which we had before the torchon, and I did thoroughly enjoy. Visually stunning, and slightly less delicious than that, it’s a fine egg preparation, and who doesn’t enjoy caviar? The extra potato chips were a pleasing snack too. I would recommend this dish, as it’s beautiful and elegant, a great way to start a meal. Picture from Bon Appetit below (ours more or less looked similar).

** UPDATE ** Brad sent me a photo of the egg. So the photo below is our Ko Egg dish.

More Links!

Brad’s account of the Pig’s Head in Creative Loafing.

My first attempt of the English Muffin
The Pork Belly Ssam
The Fried Chicken
Chicken Wings (best recipe in the book!)
Pork Buns

To be candid, I’ve never had true Nashville hot chicken, mostly famously vended by Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack. (Image below by Bruce Bilmes via RoadFood.com)

However, my friend Rowdy has created a Sichuan variation of fried chicken playing off the Nashville hot method, which includes an insane amount of cayenne. I’ve since attempted to replicate it in my own kitchen on multiple occasions, so I know a thing or two about chicken that tears apart one’s insides, in a good way. (One of my attempts photographed below)

After a wine/sports (they go together, right?) get-together last night, Rowdy decided on the way home that some research was in order. We called in four orders of hot chicken, each including one thigh, pickles, and white bread, for $8.

Unfortunately the person taking our order wasn’t aware they were out of all but one thigh, so they quickly got to work on some wings as a substitution. The thigh is clearly the best part on the bird, but the wings would still give us a chance to sample the burn. The photos below are the best I could do in my kitchen at 12:30AM.

Quick analysis:

Color: good, maybe go for a bit more orange-ish cayenne
Grease level: high; messy, but I rate that a positive
Heat: more heat than expected, I had persistent lip burn for thirty minutes; maybe not spicy enough for extreme hot heads, but hot enough to inspire a few dares with many I think
Chicken flavor: Tasted like chicken wings.
Seasoning: They used sugar in an attempt to balance the heat, and I think this was a big mistake. The chicken was way too sweet. In addition, the sugar added an unpleasant crunch to the otherwise spot-on texture of the chicken. 

This chicken isn’t about balance, you want an intense shot of heat, and if it’s unbalanced that’s OK. I hope the sugar is removed from the seasoning.

If they want a way to offer some balance, Rowdy likes pairings his crazy hot chicken with ice cream.

How cool would it be if they provided a single scoop of vanilla ice cream with each order and said, “you’re gonna need this”. That might make the $8 for a single chicken thigh easier to swallow.

How can you not love a place called Chicken & Beer? Even if it’s really just the subtext for the actual name of the Korean chain – BBQ Chicken. Whenever I’m driving home from Greenville (which is often), I make a point to stop in Duluth for some grub. I usually check out Chow Down and Blissful Glutton’s sites for the must-visit places and make lists of where I want to go, this being one of them.

Which reminds me, I really want to write an iPhone app that is similar to Yelp, except it’s only for viewing (no feedback) and the only content is from bloggers, allowing you to filter by blogger and search geographically. So if I’m in Duluth I could check out a map and see pin points of all the places Chow Down recommends, maybe a 1-2 sentence summary, address/phone, and a link to her full blog post to view in Safari.

The whole problem with Yelp is credibility. As I mentioned yesterday, part of following a single blogger is you can develop a level of trust between blogger and reader. I keep whole lists of restaurants that Gene (Eat Drink Man) recommends, because I generally enjoy the style of food he cooks and the type of restaurant where he dines. It’s much more valuable to me than a bunch of aggregated data from random “Elites” or people with very different tastes. One day. If anyone wants to help, let me know.

Back to the chicken, which was really good. The olive oil fried surface is as crunchy as it gets, with more than a little spice and plenty of seasoning. I dug the flavor from the oil, which they must cook at a lower temp to avoid a bitter, singed crust. Olive oil burns somewhere around 320F. It’s not perfect as the chicken was overdone and not moist enough, but I’d rather more flavor and a super great crust than have a particularly great bird on the inside (LeRoy’s). Recommended for shizzle. It’s right next door to Honey Pig in a newer strip mall. Free Wi-Fi.

I also wanted noodles so I hit up Dan Moo Ji, where I feel about as old and boring as a white guy can feel in Duluth. They’re chock full of young and good looking Korean youngsters, sucking down noodles, and watching Biebs videos on the television. And apparently writing cutesy stuff on the walls. Tee hee hee!

Gratis pickled radish and broth (good even on a hot day) to start.

I started with kimchi gimbap, which is reminiscent of a maki roll. They aren’t mind blowing, but it’s a nice way to get your kimchi and rice fix in bite size form. They’re cheap too.

I also ordered the cold noodles with vegetables and spicy sauce, jjolmyeon. I had not read Jen’s post since last year, and I was definitely put off for a moment when the petite waitress asked me if she could mix up my bowl.

Though I was confused as to why she thought I couldn’t mix my noodles up with my chopsticks, I said sure, and she proceeded to put on a plastic glove and dove her hand into the bowl. As she man-handled my noodles, she gazed at me and asked, “How do you know about this place?”

To which I replied, “the internet.”

“Ah”, she said, as if that made perfect sense.

Just like that my first, and best, handle noodle mixing job was over. I hope it was good for her too.

The noodles were great, super chewy and a bunch of sauce ended up on my shirt as I had difficulty snapping the strands with each bite. Appropriate spice level, I think. Plenty leftover to take home too.

After all that fried chicken and carbs I made a veggie plate for dinner. Tomatoes with chive and balsamic. Pink eye peas with pimienton and a shot of good sherry vinegar. Mandoline sliced squash quickly marinaded in chili oil. And yuzu kosho dosed cauliflower mash (sort of a play on the old horseradish mashed potatoes of twenty years ago). Katie and I were quite pleased with this impromptu and quickly produced meal. Summer vegetable season is a great one.

First up! Bone-In BBQ Food truck. A recent addition to the Columbia dining scene, I gave them a go last week. Their truck is quite nice.

Menu looks good too.

What ended up being a shredded brisket sandwich wasn’t exactly what I envisioned, but it was tasty. The focaccia was warm and fresh. Very satisfying on a rainy day.

The “ripper” (fried hot dog, ala Rutt’s Hut) was topped with plenty of the same shredded brisket and cheese. While not exactly a ripper (it hadn’t fried until it ripped apart), the large hot dog was also delicious. The uniformly thin and just out of the fryer chips were also outstanding.

Follow them on Twitter to get their location updates.

Next up, Hampton St Vineyard. They shredded their short ribs, kinda like Bone-In shredded the brisket. What’s up with that? Unfortunately my thinking is that it’s an attempt to hide the results of a dry piece of cooked meat. If shredded it it will absorb moisture and reheat better.

Ideally you want the short rib to be fork tender, but not falling apart.

I had a monster lamb shank. It was under-braised so it was way too tough. Though I was told it was one of the best menu items, I can’t recommend it.

In general I found the menu to offer an enticing array of classics, but it seemed to under deliver, one of the worst menu sins.

Apparently “broasted” chicken is all the rage in Columbia. I had never heard this term until a few weeks ago. While the naming may lead you to believe it is some combination of broiled and roasted, it is in fact indicates that the chicken is fried in a special type of pressure cooker. While adding the convenience of quick cooking, many swear by this method when seeking perfectly crispy fried chicken.

I went to Bernie’s and took him up on his offer.

3 piece dark, fries, slaw, roll, and rot-your-teeth sweet tea – $5.25. The place was jammed.

The chicken was absolutely fantastic. Crispy, hot, juicy, flavorful, all that mess. Really, really worth the visit. The sides are forgettable and aren’t worth the calories. Next time I’ll just get a 5 piece with a side of napkins.

Di Prato’s is a popular  lunch and weekend brunch spot near the University. The have a huge array of hot and cold sandwiches, plus an assortment of prepared foods they can warm up for you (meatballs, risotto balls, etc). One of their most popular items is the pimento cheese.

It is absolutely worth ordering on each and every visit. The combination of large chunks of sharp cheese with the thin shreds of milder cheese is where it’s at. The texture is spot on. And the huge portion of greasy, warm pita chips they serve with it are just what ya need with this starter that could be a meal.

“The sailor” combines sauerkraut, liverwurst, and pastrami with mustard on grilled bread. It’s a lot of sandwich to deal with, sure to satisfy a greasy sandwich craving.

I made my usual visit to Baan Sawan and chef Alex was kind enough to treat me and my fellow bar mates with some crispy chicken skins. I’ve become friends with Sam and Alex and Jennifer, and visiting them takes the sting out of work travel. In fact, I often look forward to it.

In case you can’t read this, Guy Fieri signed this posted to “Da Bad Boys of Burgers” during his trip to Flavortown (5 points – Columbia). Glad to see Guy unabashedly lives up to his stereotype.

Pretty decent burgers. I recommend ordering a temperature below your desired result (medium rare for medium, medium for medium well, etc.).

The bun is unfortunate, but everything else is solid. They do have a few different bun options so I’ll try that next time.

Finally, this impossible to discern photograph was a special at Mr. Friendly’s, part of a Mardi Gras themed menu. Crispy red trout with crawfish topping and a mess of sides. It was a huge portion of stuff; no one is going away hungry at Friendly’s from what I can tell. The fish was good and fresh tasting and fried.

Monday is half priced wine night where they have a few selections that are under $15 for a bottle, if you are into inappropriate grape blends and bright colored marketing. I’m being sort of cynical, there was a good bottle of dry rosé on the half price offering. I’m sure no one ordered it though because they think it’s a woman’s drink. Oops, there I go again.

There are some nice selections on the full, large wine menu too.

I took a quick vacation to California to celebrate my stout ability to swim, bike, and run for a long time. Above is a picture of your standard winery in Napa Valley, where my trip began. Oof.

I had previously spent little time in Napa, and I quickly discovered Napa really isn’t the place for me. Talking about money with oil rich Houstonians and their fake-faced wives, while drinking expensive wine that I don’t like, just doesn’t do it for me. Oh and that $200 bottle of Cab? Its price is not due to the wine’s excellence, it’s simply a matter of covering overhead. That ten million dollar tasting room with ample parking for ten limos ain’t gonna pay for itself.

Dinner was at the bar at Redd in Yountville. The bar menu was quite affordable, maybe $8-12 per dish. The crispy chicken thigh with tempura broccoli was good stuff.

Pork buns, naturally. I’d complain about creativity if the diced pieces of soft pork belly in sticky sweet hoisin weren’t so damn perfect.

Hamachi with sticky rice and edamame, a signature dish, was a nice treat from the kitchen.

The next morning I woke up at the crack of dawn and got the fudge out of there. The drive to Sonoma at dawn was refreshing and visually stunning. Just a short number of miles felt like a world away.

Hardy and I had a nice day of tasting wines, including a notable stop at Woodenhead. Dinner was at the bars of Cyrus and Scopa. I had an amazing abalone in matsutake broth at Cyrus, followed by a head-scratchingly perfect grilled calamari with white bean salad at Scopa. How was the calamari so perfectly cooked and un-chewy? How did they apply the perfect amount of char without overpowering the gentle sea creature? Could life in California get any better? All unanswerable questions.

The next day was spent at Salinia/The NPA headquarters, for a bit of work, and a lot of fun for their end of harvest party. Below is Hardy and Rowdy’s whole cluster fermented Mourvèdre. Hopefully my feet add some funky nuances.

It was pretty cool to taste wine at this stage, which was relatively close to finishing fermentation. Five brix, if that means anything to you. The down to earth peeps at Salinia believe in foot treading versus punching down the cap and mixing with a tool. Owner and grape-whisperer Kevin Kelley told me he thinks it’s more gentle, and he can feel the hot spots from the active yeasts and mix accordingly. Probably true, but I think these folks like doing things the old fashioned way, and it’s also a chance to get up close and personal with their wine.

The coup de grâce of the food we ate that day was this stunning portion of ramen cooked by Richie from Hapa Ramen. He slings over 1000 bowls of ramen a week from a food tent, which can often be found at the Ferry Building. We all went food comatose after putting down this deeply pork rich broth with 63C egg, watermelon radish, pork belly, and squash.

I really enjoyed the chance to hang with the Salinia family for so long, it was great to see them work and interact. At harvest they spend almost all of their time together, with maybe a few hours apart for some sleep. I admit it did make me feel a bit jealous of their having a work environment with such a high level of camaraderie.

To me, the dedication can be summed up by this phone photo I took at 10PM, after a full day of partying and work. Tired, full of food and booze, it was time to get back into the wine and get some work done, and they did it quickly and without a hint of complaint in their faces. The day never ends for the diligent.

I was in Florida two weekends ago for the triathlon I’ve mentioned on here from time to time, and was on a mission to find something tasty that wouldn’t be bad for me, i.e. no fried foods. In PCB, that’s a challenge. Luckily I stumbled upon Sweet Racks BBQ.

While BBQ isn’t really the ideal pre-race meal, I figured they may have some smoked chicken I could eat guilt-free. The special of the day ended up being adobo chicken with rice – score! A slow simmered chicken, the adobo didn’t use too many spices (a good thing for my current need) and the huge portion was really tender and good, especially the dark meat. I ordered a side of collards, which had undergone a gentle preparation which reminded me of the soon to be lost (heartbroken) Dynamic Dish.

The chef/owner, a former cop from Chicago, opened Sweet Racks with his Filipino wife after moving to PCB about a year and a half ago. He was the sort of guy that wouldn’t take no for an answer when I told him I couldn’t eat any pork. He brought out a sweet rib in Tocino BBQ sauce, as well as a small portion of the pulled pork. They were both wonderful. The large, tender smoked rib, with wonderful bark, worked really well with the sweet, sticky, smoky, and spicy BBQ sauce.

Unlike the ribs, the pulled pork had no sauce. It was simply served in a small cup with the natural jus, as I was told there’s no reason to hide the flavor of pork as beautiful as this. I wasn’t one to argue. I was probably visibly upset when I was told they wouldn’t be open on Sunday, as I thought I had found my post-race feast.

The owner eagerly showed me his operation after I asked him a few questions. I learned where the smoky flavor came from in the BBQ sauce when I saw the ribs disintegrating in the simmering sauce, which he makes every day. Awesome.

Some of their specials include pancit, as well as lumpia – Filipino dumplings which he offers whenever the old Filipino ladies have time to come in and roll a few hundred for the hungry soldiers at the nearby Naval base.

A really special BBQ joint with a lot of soul, I loved it.

Chik-Fil-A has been testing out the new spicy nuggets in Augusta, GA. I drive through Augusta every week for work, and work road trips are when I feel most justified in eating fast food.

The flavor is the same as the spicy sandwich. I’m not really sure what they are “testing”. They are good, could be spicier, but I’d definitely order these over the regular nuggets, every time.

I’ve been told they are testing out the spicy breakfast chicken sandwich in Jacksonville.

I hit up Muss & Turner’s this past Sunday for lunch. I was joined by my hetero-life-partner, Aaron. We’ve had brunch a couple of times the last few weeks, and as this meal generally occurs after a 3-4 hour workout, I’m pretty hungry. We usually go the route of splitting a bunch of things.

This time we had the “Now Open on Sunday” fried chicken sandwich, which I believe was formerly named “Never on Sunday”. It’s a good chicken sandwich, like a Chik-Fil-A on steroids. Bigger, crunchier, juicier, and on great challah bread.

We also split the burger and a large order of fries. A large order is generally enough for four normal people.

The burger is on the same bread as the chicken sandwich, and features a large patty of really tasty Riverview grass-fed beef, cooked on their kamado grill, which lends a nice backyard-grilled flavor. I like the little kick from the the addition of roasted poblano too.

I’ve had the burger twice in the last month, and they will cook the burger exactly to order, their recommendation being medium-rare.

It’s the only restaurant in town that has served me a true medium-rare. The inside is extremely red and pleasantly mushy in parts. Aaron thought it was a bit undercooked for his tastes, but I say don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

It’s really, really good. Tom Maicon had it right, though I disagree in one area, I do like just a touch of salt, but agree that most places overdo it. If you get a nice sear on good beef, you don’t need much salt, and you don’t want to distract from the flavor of really good product.

On a related note, I had the “Farmer burger” at FLIP last Friday, which features Gum Creek grass-fed beef. They did lay off the seasoning, but I found the Riverview beef to hold the edge in overall flavor. In addition, the beef patty was packed way too tight at FLIP, resulting in a grainy and less juicy texture. The FLIP burger was $11, the M&T’s burger is $10.93. Neither comes with fries.

It’s not “cheap”, though I did get $25 off our meal because I have the M&T staff swipe my rewards card with each purchase, and for every $250 spent you get a $25 credit. It took me over two years, but that’s faster than the estimated six years it’s going to take me to get that damn free dozen bagels from Goldberg’s. Just three more dozen and those free bagels are mine.

Finally, Muss & Turner’s wine list is good, but I tend to order from their great beer list.

Miller-Union is not even a year old, but they’re a James Beard semi-finalist, Bon Appetit named them one of the ten best new restaurants in ‘merica, and Atlanta magazine decided it’s the best restaurant in the city. Not a bad first year.

When I dined there for the By the Glass column for Creative Loafing, I also had the crispy chicken dish, which was the recipe Bon Appetit chose to publish for the best new restaurant issue. The vegetables are different, but it’s pretty much the same. I don’t think the BA photo does the chicken justice. As you can see, the recipe is very simple, so this amazingly pan cooked chicken is all about technique, finesse, and experience. The lowly chicken is making a come-back.