Fatted Calf - Boudin Blanc with Chestnuts

On the evening of Thursday January the 6th 2005, the appropriate night for such things, I had an epiphany. This is what it looked like:

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Steps YOU can take to experience a similar, sudden, intuitive realization through the ordinary circumstance of eating dinner:

1) Read Meathenge and listen to him when raves about Fatted Calf products.

2) Visit the Fatted Calf website and subscribe to their news letter. They sell different things each week, the newsletter will let you know what is available.

3) If you are lucky enough to live in the Bay Area, get your arse over to Berkeley on a Tuesday or a Saturday where The Fatted Calf is featured at the Berkeley Farmer's Markets.

4)Make sure you arrive there early. Meathenge suggests by 11am at the latest. Don't be lazy, like I was, and arrive at 2pm only to find that The Fatted Calf had already sold out and shut up shop.

At the incessant urgings of Meathenge's Dr Biggles Fred and I finally made it over to The Fatted Calf in the East Bay just a couple of days before Christmas, hoping to find some saucisson sec. Unfortunately they were out of it, so we bought some other things instead

The Duck Rillette was smooth, moist, mild, fatty and creamy. Absolutely delicious spread on toast, with the fat melding into the warmed bread.


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I loved the Fatted Calf version, whilst those around me preferred the more strongly flavoured pork rillette homemade by a French friend that we were sampling at the same time. The Fatted Calf one definitely had a superior texture, but I must admit the other one had been sitting in the freezer for a very long time.

The kind Fatted Calf people, on seeing our disappointment at their not having saucisson sec, popped a complimentary Corsican sausage into our bag of purchases. It was dry, tasty and totally delicious. We started eating it when we got home. A nibble here, a little slice there, it was all gone in about a minute. We immediately kicked ourselves for not trying it whilst still at the market. If we had done so, I think we might have wound up buying the whole jarful.

And on to the Boudin Blanc which were stored in the freezer until Wednesday when they were taken out to defrost. On Thursday we opened their white paper packaging to reveal four plump fat sausages. Four seemed a lot, we weren't that hungry. Fred suggest we cook three to share and put the other one in the fridge. I was doubtful that the remaining, solitary sausage would ever get used if we left him in the fridge and decide we should cook all four. One could always be eaten cold, I remarked. "Cold?", said, Fred, "I can't eat Boudin cold". Anyway, the long and short of it was. Those meaty, handmade sausages, with soft floury pieces of chestnut were so darned good that, of course, we ate them all, right there and then. Wow! Best sausage I've had since living in the US (3 years, 344 days and counting).

Fatted Calf, you have our attention, we'll be back. You excited a fussy, charcuterie-loving Frenchman and he's been raving about you to his French friends. Good job! Good job indeed.

(Fatted Calf will be having a short vacation, (how inconsiderate, so soon after I discovered them :).No Markets for them on Tuesday, 1/11 or Saturday 1/15, but news is they will be tanned, rested and ready on Tuesday, 1/18)

How Foodies Can Help With Tsunami Relief. Tip of the Day #5

Locally, in San Francisco, Bart/Safeway/Singapore Airlines/Wells Fargo and Grant Smith have joined together to send 20 tons of water (enough to quench the thirst of 34,000 people) to Tsunami-stricken areas. Visit this website to see how you can help by making a small donation.

Fatted Calf - Boudin Blanc with Chestnuts