Pig's feet!
Some years back a dear friend of mine, Cecilia Chiang; took me to the French Laundry's christmas party. After that she said since we're already in Yountville, let's visit another friend of hers' restaurant. So we went to Bistro Jeanty to see Chef Philippe Jeanty. I had his pig feet salad and until today, I'm still thinking of that and as I think I can almost still taste it!
Therefore while I was trying to figure out what I was going to put on the menu for this month, I knew I was going to put a Cynthia version of pig's feet salad. I asked many of my friends what would they think? Some said yes, some said "what?", and some said "are you sure?"
I kept thinking, part of my mission of this restaurant, is to educate my customers about good food! So the answer is yes I will put that on my menu. However what should I call it and not to scare my customers away? Hamhog salad? Pork's nuckle salad? ...etc.
The day of Feb 1(Wed) finally came. That morning I got a call from Vivian and she asked me if I read the paper yet? No I told her, and she told me to go and read the paper. What I found on the food section of SF Chronicle that day, with a big title, "Pig's feet, Chorizo & Chickpea Stew" in the recipe section.
Okay, if everyone can have pig's feet on their menu, why can't I? So I went back into the restaurant that morning, printed my Febuary menu with "Pig's feet salad" and yes it's the chef's favorite! Well I can tell you many of my open-minded friends tasted it and they like it. Even Vivain, the "no feet woman" and my favorite customer, Peter; brought a vegetarian friend who just started eating meat and had her first bite of pork that night would taste it. So please don't think it's the feet and give it a try!? If you really don't like it, okay I'll exchange it to something else for you.