A lovely new resto called AG Les Halles came highly recommended by a few of the Paris food blogs and websites that I follow. It sits next to the never-ending-construction-zone for the entrance and exhibit halls and park areas on top of this monstrous shopping center and transit hub.
So I decided to try it for lunch today. It’s on the pedestrian rue Mondétour, just across the sidewalk from another favorite spot, Pirouette. I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up!
My amuse bouche started with two tiny brioche accompanied by olive oils and a variety of herbs, Espelette and other peppers, served in a square porcelain tray containing nine little depressions. Very clever! And tasty. Also a creamy egg concoction served in a cute little egg-shaped bowl – warm salty whipped egg yolk was on the bottom, topped with some cool eggwhite foam. It came with a dried and charred leek leaf (I think) dotted with a salty fishy crème and little mounds of a sweet vegetable puree – perhaps sweet potato or carrot or some combination. Very interesting – I’ll need to play around that charred leaf thingy to see if I can duplicate it!
My first course was an asparagus soup with marinated trout, steamed asparagus, mounds of an asparagus/herb mousse, pomegranate seeds (don’t’cha love how they squirt!), herbs and edible flowers. The waiter brought the soup in a separate pitcher and poured half of it around the beautifully arranged ingredients in the bowl so it didn’t completely cover them, leaving the rest of it for me to add later. LOVED this course – I’m going to have to add it to my repertoire, perhaps using smoked trout instead of marinated trout for every more interest.
For my main course, a substantial portion of medium-rare cannette (female duckling) served with little bundles of thin slices of daikon wrapped around cooked spinach and then steamed, sweet celeriac purée (it might have contained some potato), roasted chopped macadamias, grapefruit sections, and veal stock. Outstanding!
I chose the strawberry theme for dessert. Deeeelicious intensely flavored fresh strawberries, a square rope of homemade marshmallow, fluffy shaved lime ice, cilantro oil (wow!), crème Chantilly, hazelnuts, spun sugar, tonic syrup, and almond cookie. Huge flavors without being heavy – perfect!
With my excellent coffee came two chocolate-covered toasted rice candies (featuring an audible snap-crackle-pop!), a financier and some cocoa-covered almonds.
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| Chef Geaam |
Chef Alan Geaam stopped by to chat. I thanked him for his terrific food and asked how things were going. They’ve been open for about four months, and it’s a bit out of the way, and I think that the construction disruption is continuing longer than anyone anticipated – he said that business isn’t as brisk as he would like. It’s clear that he spent a lot renovating this place, the former Autobus Imperial resto that closed a few years ago, and this guy is very talented, so I hope that things pick up soon. I told him that I would send my friends, so you’d better go!
Here's their website:
http://ag-restaurant.fr/les-halles/
My amuse bouche started with two tiny brioche accompanied by olive oils and a variety of herbs, Espelette and other peppers, served in a square porcelain tray containing nine little depressions. Very clever! And tasty. Also a creamy egg concoction served in a cute little egg-shaped bowl – warm salty whipped egg yolk was on the bottom, topped with some cool eggwhite foam. It came with a dried and charred leek leaf (I think) dotted with a salty fishy crème and little mounds of a sweet vegetable puree – perhaps sweet potato or carrot or some combination. Very interesting – I’ll need to play around that charred leaf thingy to see if I can duplicate it!
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