Clinton made an appearance at Cal last week and we figured he might go to Chez Panisse for dinner afterwards, so we went.  Just in case.  He didn’t go but the meal was still incredible.  It was my first visit to the cafe in over 3 years and it was better than I remember.

I started out with cauliflower soup with black truffle oil.  No cream.  It was so tasty and the texture was different than other soups.  Next up, I tried the La Tercera Farm puntarelle with anchovy, garlic, and egg.  Puntarelle is a type of lettuce and it’s got a pretty interesting taste and texture as well, different from other greens.  The egg was also amazing.  So much better than store bought.

I tried the grilled sardines and asparagus with fried new onions and salsa verde as well.  The sardines were so fresh and tender.  The asparagus was fried in a kind of Japanese style like tempura.  It was so light and delicious I could’ve eaten a whole plate of them.

For my main, I had the Soul Food Farm chicken leg confit with Belgian endive roasted in the wood oven with little potatoes and rosemary.  It was by far the best (and to my knowledge, the only) chicken confit I’ve ever had.  It was extremely tender and the outside was perfectly crispy.  The endive was also extraordinarily tasty and complimented the chicken perfectly.  Tired of my ridiculous adjectives?  Too bad.

Finally, for desert, we split the plate for two of almond-pistachio chocolates, Barhi dates, and candied Cara Cara orange peel.  The Barhi dates were so incredible.  I’ve never tasted anything like them.  I’m still looking for them around Berkeley because I want MORE.