Brasserie Les Halles, Washington, D.C.

This afternoon Ian and I were over at the passport office, and after we completed our business we walked across the street to have a late lunch at Brasserie Les Halles to begin our Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Cinco de Mayo is an interesting American holiday. American, you say? Cinco de Mayo is the observance of a Mexican military victory over the French army back in the 19th century. While it's technically a bank holiday in Mexico today, it isn't a holiday that Mexicans "celebrate." In Mexico, one doesn't find Cinco de Mayo parties; even in the highly Mexican parts of the U.S., the Mexican community doesn't celebrate. So why is it a big deal? Marketing. The tequila and cerveza companies "created"—quite successfully, mind you!—a holiday to sell liquor. Consequently, we media-driven Americans are the only people in the world who party and celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

Anyway, getting back to Brasserie Les Halles, we thought it would be fun to do French food on Thursday and then celebrate the Mexican victory with Mexican food on Friday. The food was absolutely delicious!

Les Halles is a Parisian style bistro nestled in between government office buildings on a plaza along Pennsylvania Avenue about half way between the White House and the Capitol. They have ample al fresco seating as well as a large interior space. We chose a quite table inside.

Ian chose the ravioles de Royan au fromage et à la crème. These were small demiluna shaped raviolis stuffed with cheese and presented in a rather French style cream sauce and garnished with a heavy layer of broiled parmesan cheese. He said it was very good.

I had the confit de canard avec pommes Salardaise, which was so good the explosion of flavors in my mouth had me craving more and more almost to the point of wanting the lick my emptied plate! I've always been a fan of duck confit—traditionally a roasted duck leg which is then fried in duck fat and sliced. Their presentation at Les Halles was quite interesting. They balanced a large crouton on its side then put a large mound of frisée (curly endive) salad in a vinegary dressing on the plate; the duck confit was then placed atop the salad with the Frenched bone resting on the crouton; the rest of the plate was then filled with wonderful, savory, hot pommes Salardaise. Pommes Salardaise are one of the great gifts of God to the French. They begin by dicing potatoes which are then seasoned, fried in duck fat, and truffled. Mmm. My mouth is watering even now.

We both had other obligations elsewhere later in the afternoon so we were unfortunately unable to stay for dessert.