Brasserie Les Halles of Anthony Bourdain fame

It would be unfair to say this was the first restaurant I tried in New York--I'll leave my review of lunch at Per Se for another day when I get a copy of the menu I had that is currently tucked in a box in Miami. However, Les Halles was one of the first places on my to do list that I had the privilege of visiting on one of my first nights off in New York.

Located in the Murray Hill area of Manhattan (midtown on the East Side), it is most known because of the chef that used to work there--Anthony Bourdain. He was kind of a nobody who happened to write a book called Kitchen Confidential, where he writes about the truth occurring in restaurant kitchens, and was launched into the public eye. It resulted in him landing a job on the Food Network, which he left because of its censorship. He moved on to the Travel Channel where his show No Reservations documents him traveling the world trying new foods.

Les Halles serves typical French Brasserie food--things you would find in just about any Parisian bistro. The restaurant has no flashy decor or anything of the sort. It is pretty dark inside, and has a broken in neighborhood feel with lots of wood panels and tables. The outside looks like almost any other corner place in New York. But inside the food is anything but commonplace. I saw Tony, the famous waiter, as well Carlos, Bourdain's traveling buddy, inside.

I sat at the bar and decided to have a couple of appetizers and an entree, along with some wine. First up was escargot and foie gras. Escargot is an age old French dish composed of snails cooked in garlic butter. Foie gras is fattened duck or goose liver. It is very controversial, which I'll detail another day. It can be cooked in many ways, such as pan seared, poached, or even roasted.

On the left is the escargot. I know eating snails sounds gross, but it's actually very good. They have a slightly earthy taste with a slightly chewy texture. They're great. Next to it is the foie gras. This one was pan seared to a medium temperature, served atop a small brioche toast (bread with a high butter content). Next to it are slow cooked apples cooked in calvados (apple brandy). Foie is usually served with brioche and fruit (to provide acidity to balance the fat of the duck liver). The texture and taste is extremely rich. It literally does melt and coats your mouth with duck fat, leaving you to chew on the soft apples and bread. The apples were a bit too rich and didn't provide much acid, but altogether the dish was very satisfying. The only drawback was that the foie was not deveined properly. A waterfowl's liver is composed of two lobes that are meant to be broken apart and then have small veins removed. This one had a vein not removed that was quite annoying to take out, but it didn't distract me much.

The entree was duck confit. Confit is a term that you will usually see in two ways: 1) to cook something in its own fat, or in fat, and 2) to candy something, typically fruit. Here a duck's leg is preserved in duck fat, and when called to cook, it is roasted and the skin is cooked to a crisp. The meat falls off the bone and the skin is like a nice crispy chicharron. It's very, very good. Next to it is a small salad with crispy potatoes cooked with truffle oil. Truffles are a mushroom-like food item that grow in Italy and France during the winter and summer months. Typically white ones come from Italy, and black ones from France. Their short growing season makes them very expensive (1 truffle can be $75+). They are usually eaten in shavings atop or within dishes. However, it is common to infuse olive oil with white truffles for cooking. It adds a nice aroma and taste to whatever you put it on.