Les Halles

After watching Kitchen Confidential I had to read the actual book. After reading the book I had to eat at Les Halles. The whole experience - the food and the service - was bad. Almost comically bad. Our waiter was literally completely cracked out, he could barely keep his eyes open and was having a hard time standing up. He comes up to our table, leans against a chair and mumbles the specials to us, stuttering through most of it. His eyes have that droopy look, you know when you're in class and you're really bored and tired and doing your best to stay awake. Then i watch up knock over an entire bottle of wine at another table, candle wax gets on everything and everyone's fumbling around, trying not to get red wine on their clothes. Again, the waiter looks utterly confused and out of it, like he has no idea what's going on.

The food was completely forgettable. I'm pretty sure I've had better steak at TGI Fridays. I ordered the Les Halles "classic": steak, frites and salad. The salad seemed like a complete afterthought, as if the chef was thinking, "oh crap, this dish comes with salad. Oh well, who the fuck cares, lets just drench some limp mesclun greens with dressing and serve that." The salad had no flavor whatsoever, the leaves were limp and disgusting, there was way too much dressing...the whole thing tasted like balsamic vinaigrette soup. The steak also lacked any sort of flavor or juice. I had a really hard time cutting through the steak, even though I ordered it medium. The edges of the steak were extremely tough and hard the chew. AND it was lukewarm by the time it got to our table! Nothing is worse than almost-cold steak. The fries were pretty decent, but uh, I'm pretty sure I didn't come to Les Halles to eat fries.

The decor was decent albeit a bit dingy. Looks like the place could use a good scrub down. The restaurant felt a little humid, and our neighbors must have complained about it, because our idiotic waiter pointed this huge fan in our direction, completely drying out my eye balls.

And to end the whole thing, our droopy-eyed, idiotic waiter comes up to us and mumbles, "uh, so, do you guys want to see the dessert menu or something?" We respond with a polite "no" and he shrugs his shoulders and slinks away. And he proceeded to pass out and drop dead in the middle of the restaurant. Ok the last part didn't happen.

Les Halles isn't much more than a gussied up 99/Ground Round/your local crappy steakhouse. Bourdain makes his food sound amazing in his books, too bad it's terrible in real life. AND! I also read online that he and his high school sweetheart got divorced a few years ago and he remarried some Italian woman. And they just had a baby! Tsk. Tsk.

Ramen Setagaya

So there's been a lot of hype about Ramen Setagaya being waaaay more authentic than anything you can find at Rai Rai Ken, Momofuku, Minca, or the dozens upon dozens of other Japanese noodle bars around the city. As I'm always on the quest for the best noodle bar, I had to go to Setagaya, even if it meant waiting in line for 45 minutes. Jia, Jordan and I got there at 7 on a Friday night and the line was out the door. (Note: the restaurant is tiny and not conducive for big group meals. You shouldn't go with more than three other people.) We patiently waited in line for about 25 minutes, enviously watching the eating customers pick bouncy noodles out of their bowl and slurp their broth with gusto.

We are seated at the bar facing the chefs (yes! I get to wink and wave at the solemn Japanese cooks grilling pork!) I ordered the Shio (salt broth) ramen with BBQ pork (you have the choice between ramen, ramen or more ramen...not a restaurant with too much variety.)

They're not kidding when they say salt broth...cause that shit was salty! I mean like unbelievably salty...like I had to drink 2 pints of water afterwards before I felt normal again. That said, the broth was really flavorful...i can't believe they can make water taste that good without adding even a sprinkle of msg. The pork was soft and came apart really easily, almost like shredded chicken. The grilled edges added a nice bit of crunch to the meat. The egg was perfect - the yolk wasn't too runny, but also not chalky and crumbly...soft without feeling like you're drinking raw yolk. The bland taste of the egg white was a great compliment to the salty broth.

Oh and those noodles. The noodles held up incredibly well in the broth - they didn't get at all soggy or mushy, even after 15 minutes. It had the most interesting texture...it almost didn't taste like ramen. The noodles were chewy and had a slightly elastic feeling to them, like i was pulling long rubber bands out of my bowl.

Rai Rai Ken vs. Setagaya? Setagaya is the clear winner. Although, I prefer Rai Rai Ken's atomosphere. Hopefully Setagaya won't be such a zoo in a few months. I think I'll be making quite a few trips back to this place in the wintertime.

Update: I don't know a fig when I see one

Ursula notified me of a grave error in my previous post, when I called a fig a passion fruit/guava/some fruit or other. The fruit adorning the deliciously creamy yogurt I had at Reservoir restaurant in Montreal was indeed a black mission fig.

It looks like a....well you all know what I think it looks like.

Montreal and Vermont Recap

I was just in Montreal for the Jazz Fest and in Grand Isle, Vermont for some R&R. It was a serious eating fest...here are some highlights:

Chez Doval
corner of Rue Marie Anne and Rue Bullion, Montreal

Chez Doval is a small neighborhood restaurant near our hotel serving amazing Portuguese food. I've been dreaming about their steaks ever since last summer, when I had it for the first time. Amar and Carrie both ordered the Portuguese steak, which is a huge chunk of grilled steak with a fried egg on top. Our waiter made the executive decision of ordering Carrie the "lady" portion of the steak.





If you can't tell, the huge white blob on top of the steak is the fried egg. The combination of the two was delicious. The meat is ridiculously tender and juicy. It felt like the pieces of meat were literally melting in my mouth. Even though the steak was cooked medium, the meat wasn't stringy or too bloody. I think it's the best steak I've ever had, anywhere.

The restaurant is an awesome neighborhood place with cute old-man waiters, what a find!



Reservoir
corner of Rue Duluth and Rue Hotel de Ville

Someone on Chowhound recommended that we go to brunch at Reservoir restaurant around the corner from our hotel, off of St. Laurent Boulevard. After pulling on the wrong door and pressing my nose up against the window like an idiotic American tourist, we got a table and ordered our food. I started with the fruit and yogurt. I've never had the fruit that was on top of the yogurt; Carrie told me it was passion fruit...or was it guava? I don't remember. Whatever it was, it was really really good. The fruit had a hint of sweetness and had a meaty texture. The yogurt was really creamy and didn't have much of a sour aftertaste. I couldn't tell if they added honey to the yogurt or if it was a special type of creamy yogurt. Look at the picture, doesn't the yogurt look like gelato?


I also ordered the scrambled egg with truffles dish. You know how I feel about mushrooms and this dish did not disappoint me. The scrambled eggs were incredibly rich and the mushrooms had a great thick, woodsy, almost smoky flavor. The eggs came with watercress in a light vinagrette and a sourdough-like bread with a soft chewy center. This meal was perfect - I need to find a place in New York that serves eggs with truffles!




Onto Vermont.
We had some pretty great meals in Vermont, notably our dinner at the Ruthcliffe lodge. I had an amazingly fresh steamed lobster, which i hacked to pieces and shoved into my mouth. I must have looked like a complete barbarian - cracking the shell with one hand, pulling out the meat with the other.

We also went back to the Vermont Pub and Brewery, located in downtown Burlington. The food is your standard pub fare - burgers, steak and cheeses, a few basic pasta dishes, breaded and fried shrimp,
breaded and fried calamari, breaded and fried fish, breaded and fried chicken...you get the point. We started with the breaded and fried shrimp and I also ordered the mushroom philly cheese steak - sauteed portobello mushrooms and onions sandwiched between a toasted roll, topped with melted cheese. After a long day of biking around Isle La Motte, it felt really good to eat some heavy, fried food. The food was pretty good - pretty familiar territory, nothing too exciting, but well made. The best part about the restaurant is the wide selection of microbrews, brewed in the basement of the restaurant. And at rock bottom prices! Amar and I were shocked that a pint of beer costly only a measly $3.00. For that much money in New York, I wouldn't be able to get a bartender to even look in my direction.

I ordered the six-beer sampler, with flavors ranging from a light and fruity to dark and bitter. The beer on the far left was very light and freshing, with what seemed liked a hint of fizz somewhere in there. The one on the far right was the heaviest of all the beers and tasted like it was brewed with coffee grounds. All the beers were excellent, I think my favorite was the Baseball Lager, #3.















The best way to drink the beers was like this: take sips from two different beers, swish it in your mouth and feel the frothy goodness slide down your throat.

Kitchen Confidential

I just finished watching the first 6 episodes of Kitchen Confidential, the short-lived show on FOX adapted from Anthony Bourdain's novel of the same name. FOX pulled the show after only four episodes, which is too bad because so far, I really like it. Most of the scenes take place in the kitchen, you get to see lots of cooking action, there's a chef with a funny British accent, the obligatory gay waiter, unnecessary cleavage shots and a dumb blonde. Now that is a recipe for a successful show. But seriously, I like Bradley Cooper and I love John Cho and the show made me laugh out loud a bunch of times.

The show stars Bradley Cooper, whom you may all know from Alias. Kitchen Confidential has featured two Alias alums, Bradley Cooper and Michael Vartan, who played a rival French chef in one of the earlier episodes. HOT. John Cho plays Teddy, the head fish guy and he's really hilarious...it's a throwback to his character in Can't Hardly Wait. DOUBLE HOT.

John Fancis Daley, the actor who plays Jim the Sous Chef is also a really funny character. Apparently, he was also in Freaks and Geeks, which I have been wanting to see. Too bad there's a "long wait" for it on Netflix.

I'm not sure why FOX didn't give it a chance, but at least you can watch all of the un-aired episodes on DVD. Get it on Netflix now.

Barefoot Contessa's Tomato Sandwich

Ina Garten's recipes are usually chock full of butter, oil and sugar. The dishes are also usually too fancy and time consuming for me (who has time to make a crab salad or angel food cake from scratch?) But I do love watching her show, if only to watch her waddle around her massive kitchen or hop into her shiny Mercedes for a quick trip to a gourmet grocery store before swinging by the beach for a fun-filled clam dig. Ugh. Bitch.

But she did make a tomato sandwich on one episode that looked simple and delicious. You're probably thinking...hmm...a few pieces of bland tomato between two slices of soggy tomato juice soaked bread...doesn't sound appealing to me. I was skeptical too, but it turned out really well. It's the garlic and basil in the mayo spread that makes the sandwich tasty. So, if it's a hot summer day and you want a light and refreshing sandwich, this is a good bet. I recommend using a firmer bread such as whole wheat or sourdough. The tomato juice will soak through white bread very quickly, and i hate soggy sandwiches! It's the worst.

To make the spread:


a few scoops of mayo
2 teaspoon of lemon juice
minced garlic (1 clove)
handful of chopped basil
pinch of salt








Spread the garlic basil mayo on the the bread, add the tomatoes and you're done. I bet this spread would go really well with some sliced turkey and avocado.

Anyway Cafe

I am seriously behind on my posts, I still haven't put up the pictures from Good and Spoleto! So before Kashmira's housewarming this past Saturday, Amar and I went to the East Village to grab some dinner. On our way to Soba Ya, we spotted a cute restaurant with some outdoor seating on 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue called Anyway Cafe. The menu sounded pretty good and the words "crepe" and "cream sauce" lured us away from the noodle restaurant. So Anyway Cafe serves a odd combination of French and Russian food and has an impressive list of infused vodkas. The decor is...actually I'm not really sure because it was so dark in the restaurant that I couldn't see much of anything.

I ordered the Wild Mushroom Pelmeni - Pelmeni is the Russian version of Italian ravioli. The raviolis came in a runny, dark sauce (call the Anyway Special Sauce). It had a sour cabbage flavor, but with a hint of tangy sweetness as well. The Pelmeni lacked flavor, the ravioli skins were extremely slimey and slid down the back of my throat. The dish came out lukewarm, so I had to ask for the dish to be reheated. A cold dish REALLY kills the dining experience.

Amar got the Chicken Crepe w/ a light herb sauce, which was decent...at least better than mine. The crepes were a bit too soggy and spongy, so by the time I managed to coax a piece of crepe onto my fork, it looked like a sad, wet noodle. The chicken tasted fine, although not particularly fresh or tender.

Overall, it was a pretty below average meal. I would go back to try the vodka martinis, which sounded pretty tasty.