Huntsmen’s Food, New York City

Posted on November 12, 2004

Huntsmen’s Food NYC
The nip was in the air as we sipped and dipped and otherwise savored our
way through New York. Crisp, on the cusp of winter weather
inspires soothing meals in warm glowing settings. My favorite “warm
feeling” restaurants in NYC where you can taste refined food from the
hunt include:

Jean Georges,
(1 Central Park West) a cornerstone of “The Donald’s” Columbus Circle
rectangle (I have always thought Trump’s towers were architectural combovers, but
what do I know)? Jean George and its more informal café, however, are
toasty exceptions. Jean-Georges Vongerichten is inspired by wild
edibles from upstate like garlic mustard, yarrow, sylvetta, burnet and
chickweed, the kinds of things one would see on a fall drive…or that
John Kerry or Elmer Fudd might step on on a hunting trip.

One of my favorite warm weather dishes is duck, not the gamey,
seasoned-with-buckshot sort, but lovingly marinated duck steaks.
Town Restaurant in the Chambers Hotel at 15W 56th St. offers some
of the best in asoothing, glowing setting. Its tasting menus are pricey,
but worth it for a special evening.

A close second can be found at Cafe Boulud on East 76th. But watch
what you choose. With cuisines ranging from Vietnamese to New
Orlean-style on one menu, it is possible to pick some pretty weird combinations.

What’s good for the diner is not good for the goose. It is about as politically
incorrect as you can get, but fois gras is big in New York. Just about every restaurant
of note has fois gras of some sort or another, including Boulud, with a wonderful
warm pate with cherries.

Many restaurants are also featuring New York wine these days.
No, not he Finger Lakes Reislings of yore, but real reds from…ta
da…Long Island. There are more than 30 wineries on Long Island. We
tried a Merlot. Not bad. It ain’t Sonoma folks, but a drinkable Two
Buck Chuck sort of plonk. Keep trying Long Island.

Eau de Chirac?
Eau de Bloomberg, they call it. Manhattan water still tastes very
good. I never order bottled water in New York City. Now the French are
trying to get people to drink Paris tap water, claiming it is just as
good as the costly stuff in the green bottle. The government is running
ads saying “why pay 100 times more”? They want to cut the cost of
plastic refuse collection.