What's Heather Putting in her Mouth? NYC Edition

I just got back from my trip to NYC to visit Lisa, go to restaurants, and watch a shitload of Ricky Gervais produced telly episodes (see, I feel British now because of all the Gervais-watching, hence my use of telly). I didn't know the last thing was on the agenda, but I was all for it. If you haven't already, I urge you to check out An Idiot Abroad and The Ricky Gervais Show.

But on to the restaurants. The first place we ate was Kin Shop, which is owned and run by one Mr. Harold Dieterle, the first winner of Top Chef. Harold has another restaurant in NY that's been open longer called Perilla, but their menu is the kind of new-Amercian, braised rabbit and squab-type entrees that I know I should crave as an aspiring foodie, but I just don't. So I was more into the idea of Kin Shop, because it is Thai-inspired. As in, not straight-up traditional Thai, but with those same flavor profiles. And yes, I hate myself a little bit that I seriously just used the phrase "flavor profiles" in earnest. I ordered the beef tartare and the spicy duck laab salad. And I don't even like duck, but the menu put their 5-star extra-spicy designation on that dish, and that's like my bat signal. It was the stuff! Probably the best thing I put in my mouth on my trip. So spicy, and served on these lettuce leaves that you could kind of fold up and make your own wraps with. The beef tartare was served with a quail-egg yolk on top, so that was cute. The tartare itself was tasty, but it was more like cubes instead of ground meat, and I think I prefer it ground. The duck on the salad was all ground up, and Lisa and I agreed that it didn't taste like any duck we'd ever had before, in a good way. If I could pick one nit with the place, it was that there was nothing on the table to amuse my bouche before the meal. Call me hopelessly Midwestern, but I'm a gal that likes a bread basket. Or shrimp chips. Something.

The next restaurant we went to was a place called Beauty and Essex on the lower east side. This place was more "trendy" or "scene-y" or something, which I knew going in, but I wanted to see one place like that on my trip. It's also kind of American tapas, all about the small plates for the table that you're meant to share. Plus, they serve bone marrow, and I wanted to try that, because I'm disgusting. Fuck Charlie Sheen, I'm running around Manhattan eating raw beef and sucking the marrow out of bones. Who's the tiger now? And I'm here to tell you that bone marrow is...not all that great, really. I'd eat it again, but then, we've already established that I'm a disgusting tiger. I wouldn't necessarily seek it out again. It tastes like that melty fat part of a steak. It was served with toast and a savory jelly, and that helped. It's just not all that flavorful on its own. We also got this tuna sashimi with chorizo that, next to the duck salad, was probably the most delicious bite I had all week, but the portions on that dish were super-small, so it really was just a bite or two. The lobster tacos were good, but not great, and I was annoyed that there were three of them, seeing as how there were two of us. We also ordered the NY strip steak, which is again meant to be shared and comes with four different dipping sauces. It was really good, and I loved mixing the bearnaise and the chimichurri sauces. Last, but decidedly not least, was the molten chocolate bread pudding with hazelnut ice cream. I'm not the biggest dessert person, but I could not stop eating this. And that came in a huge portion that was more than enough for two, probably three people to share.

For my final fancy meal, we went to Les Halles on Park Avenue in midtown. This place kind of classifies itself as a basic, no-frills French bistro, and if you've read any of Anthony Bourdain's books, he talks about it like it's kind of a dive with decent food. It's not a dive. There was a cluster of what I'm assuming were male models drinking at the bar near our table; in fact, in terms of general attractiveness of the patrons, Les Halles had it going on over Beauty and Essex, which surprised me. I had the frisee aux lardon salad with a poached egg, which is a fancy way of saying a bacon and bleu cheese salad with an egg on top. And it's that kind of lettuce that's all, you know, frizzy-looking. Then I had the steak tartare and frites. The steak tartare was prepared tableside, which was cool in the sense that you could tell the dude if you wanted more or less of the various add-in's, but I always kind of feel like an asshole when I order things like that that draw attention to the table and make more work for the waiter. Lord knows I used to want to cut a bitch for ordering the guacamole that we used to have to prepare tableside at Ramon's Jalapeno. The steak tartare, you will be happy to learn if you are a tiger, was the best I've ever had, and there was quite a large portion of it. The fries were pretty delicious too. Lisa got an order of profiteroles for us to share (oh, and by us, I mean me, Lisa, and Ted Cancila--kicking it old school SLU theater style) for dessert, but I didn't think they were all that wonderful. Just all right for me, dawg. I guess overall Les Halles was my least favorite of the three restaurants, but it was still pretty damn good, and seriously, if you have any desire to try steak tartare, this is the place to do it.