R&W Corn Sticks and New Photo Blog

A couple of weeks ago, Rachel and I had dinner at Rotisserie and Wine, in Napa. I thought that it was a Tyler Florence restaurant, but later found out that was partnership with Jeremy Fox, the former chef of my absolute favorite vegetarian restaurant, Ubuntu in Napa.

Perhaps it was better that we didn’t learn much about the restaurant before we went. That way, we were less biased and not over-hyped. R&W sits right along the river and sandwiched in between two other new-ish restaurants, Morimoto and Fish Story. In less than a year, these new restaurants have created a whole new look in downtown Napa. They are all fancy, but completely different from each other. And as the name suggests, R&W has rustic, yet refined country style of food as well as an original atmosphere.

I often forget to bring my camera when I’m working as a dietitian during the day. And it was one of those days. These are a few pictures I took with my iPhone, so please don’t judge my aperture and ISO.

We ordered a couple of appetizers, an entrée for each of us and shared a dessert. I liked all of them, but if I were to choose the top three, it was the corn sticks that were served before our meal; then the bacon cheese puffs that were stuffed with mornay sauce and topped with chunks of bacons, aged vella jack cheese and chives; then buttermilk panna cotta served with pineapple confit and huckleberry. I would go back there just to get these three dishes.

The corn sticks were nothing like I’ve ever had. They were similar to cornbread, but it was more soft, fluffy and muffin or cake-like texture. It was served with sea salt butter with honey - I can’t think of a better way to serve this so simply and so deliciously. I kept thinking about why it was so different from typical corn bread or corn muffin even after the next day. I had to consult Google to relieve my curiosity.

It did more. There was a recipe.., the real corn stick recipe from R&W! Apparently someone else was as impressed as I was and asked the LA Times to get the recipe from the restaurant. I had no idea that the LA Times did this either, so that was like icing on the cake (although I usually don’t like icing or frosting on a cake).

The original recipe uses a cast iron mold, but because I didn’t have one, I used my Madeleine pan. Surprisingly, it turned out just as good as I remembered. If you can’t make it to Napa, I encourage you to try making this at home. This recipe really works.

You’ve probably noticed that my posting schedule has slowed down a bit since this year. Don’t get me wrong. I still love blogging and I’m always thinking about my blog. It’s become part of my life. But as the other parts of my life gets busy, it’s really hard to keep up with weekly posts. So I’ve decided that I’ll continue posting as often as I can, but sometimes I’ll have to skip a week or two, so that I can get at least 5-6 hours of sleep every day. Then you may wonder “why is Em creating a whole new blog?” Well, this new blog “everyday em - everyday life memoirs” is a photo blog, which should take much less time than Kitchen M. Believe it or not, a typical KM post usually takes me more than a day. Right now, it is past 2am in the morning and I’m still writing...

I’ll be posting a lot more often for my photo blog ... like everyday! So if I’m being quiet here, come check out what I’m shooting or doing. I would love to get your feedback and comments. The photo blog is still not yet linked from here or my photography site, so I suggest book marking it or RSS if you like it. Hope to see you there!