Last weekend we were in Las Vegas for our annual reunion with friends from San Diego. Because all of us are into wine we always dine well for 3-4 days. This trip was no exception!
There are 3 restaurants that were regular stops for us.
Rosemary’s Restaurant is off the Strip but had always provided a fabulous dinner at a reasonable price. This year was a disappointment. So much so that we might take it off our “regular” list. I ordered one of their specials, BBQ Shrimp with Blue Cheese Cole Slaw …it was so salty that I honestly could not eat it. Someone else ordered the steak and it had so much gristle that he didn’t finish his meal either.
The Palm Restaurant for lunch in Caesar’s Palace, near the Forum Shopping area and across from Spago's, is another stop for us. Ask to sit at Jim’s table. He is the best waiter and will give you honest advice on what to order. The Palm has a prix fixe lunch special for $23.00 that includes several choices for 3 entre’s. We generally order the filet mignon but all of other choices are very tasty. This time, I ordered the lobster salad; tons of lobster meat in it and very delicious. Jim recommended it for me and he was right on the mark! Make sure you leave space and order the chocolate cake for dessert. I don’t even like chocolate cake but this one is moist and very chocolatey.
We celebrated a 65th Birthday at Sage, a wonderful restaurant in the new Aria Casino. It was a fabulous meal and the service was impeccable! We all enjoyed every dish we ordered. They are known for their Foie Gras Custard Brulée. A very rich, custardy dish with the torched sugar crust. Bill ordered the Braised Veal Cheeks and they melted in his mouth! I orderd the Grilled American Wagyu Skirt Steak appetizer for my main course, with Toasted Marcona Almonds/Quail Egg/Crispy Red Onions/14-year Balsamic. It tasted as good as the description! They surprised us with extra desserts for the table. Every single one of them was outstanding! If you go to Vegas, make reservations at Sage! They have a reasonable prix fixe if you eat early…otherwise it’s an expensive restaurant.
We also ate at Charlie Palmer Steak, Las Vegas. The restaurant is in the Four Season’s Hotel. We all ordered the $48 prix fixe that includes wine! It was a 3 course rib eye steak dinner. Every steak was cooked to order, and the sides were all delicious. If you only order one side, order the potato gratin; it was my favorite! The desserts were worth saving space for here too!
We flew out on Sunday but our friends went to the Lotus of Siam Restaurant. It’s touted as the best Thai restaurant in the USA....AND it is! It too is off the Strip and doesn't look like the fabulous restaurant that everyone brags about. It is in a strip mall and looks like you might have found the wrong place. But if you have to take a cab, it’s worth the trip. They have a fabulous German wine list too!
All in all, since Bill and I don’t gamble much, the restaurants are a better bet and over the years, we have had both great meals as well as very poor meals. In fact, we ate at Alaine Ducasse’s restaurant, Mix and it was more than disappointing considering how expensive it was. While the restaurant design was gorgeous, the food was terrible! We’ve tried Alex and Daniel Boulud Brasserie at the Wynn, Bradley Ogdens, Bouchon, Of these, Alex and Daniel Boulud’s were heads above Bradley Ogden’s and Thomas Kellar’s Bouchon. While not bad, the food was pretty “ho-hum” considering their pedigrees (Ogden and Kellar).
So if you go to Vegas, give Sage and Charlie Palmer’s a try for dinner and The Palm for lunch. And, if you like Thai, go to Lotus of Siam. You too will come home 5 pounds heavier!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Fried Chicken Update
If you read my previous ravings about Thomas Kellar’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken recipe you’ll remember that I complained about wasting all the leftover buttermilk and flour mixture. Well, there is now a solution to that! Invite friends over for dinner and fry 2 chickens AND onion rings! That uses all of the flour mixture and then some and definitely uses all the buttermilk. Hooray! It still wreaks havoc in my kitchen, no matter how hard I try to be organized. I even had Jeffrey helping me this time but it still makes a mess and takes up yards of counter space. BUT, in the end, a moist, crisp chicken that everyone enjoyed and pretty easy to clean up. The Fried Onion Rings turned out to be the hit of the evening! We just processed the onion rings as if they were pieces of chicken, and used up the last of the flour and buttermilk….perfect!
Because I fried two chickens, I used my warming drawer, thinking that this would keep the chickens warm while I fried the rest of them. BIG mistake. Kellar recommends that I leave the chickens on the racks laid over a jelly roll pan and if sitting there for more than 10 minutes, put the chicken pieces into a 400º oven for a couple of minutes to re-crisp and warm them up. This is a better way because the chickens in the warming drawer ended up with a soggy/greasy bottom side.
I prepared a Sweet Pea and Avocado Vichyssoise for the first course. Along with the chicken and onion rings, I served a chopped salad, garlic French bread and sweet corn on the cob.
I also made a Peach Ice Cream for dessert from Kellar’s book…it’s an adaptation of his Cherry Ice Cream recipe, served over a mixture of raspberries, blackberries and chopped peache and topped with homemade caramel sauce. It wasn’t as “peachy” as I thought it would be but I think it’s because the peaches this year aren’t as flavorful as they’ve been in the past.
Now if you are worried about the oil, cholesterol, and calories in fried chicken, one of the guests brought an article about what to counter the fried chicken with. Grapes! Eat about a cup and a half of grapes for each piece of chicken! I sure hope that’s not an “urban myth!” I tried to find it online but all I could find was a site about reducing bad cholesterol and the upshot of that article was: Red wine contains resveratrol, a substance found in grapes which has been proven to increase good cholesterol. or this article at solveyourproblem.com: You may have read about the low rate of heart disease in France. It led researchers to believe that the French habit of drinking red wine with meals contributes to this. Apparently some of the non-alcoholic ingredients in red wine raises HDL and suppresses the body from producing LDL.
Purple grape juice works the same way. It will work like red wine to lower the fat level in your blood. The LDL lowering effect of red wine and grape juice comes from a compound that grapes produce normally to resist mold. The darker the grape juice, the better.
Grapefruit juice does the same thing and it may also help your body get rid of that nasty plaque. However, neither of these two site look like a "medical" site so I guess we will have to keep our fried chicken dinners down to once every few months! :-(
Because I fried two chickens, I used my warming drawer, thinking that this would keep the chickens warm while I fried the rest of them. BIG mistake. Kellar recommends that I leave the chickens on the racks laid over a jelly roll pan and if sitting there for more than 10 minutes, put the chicken pieces into a 400º oven for a couple of minutes to re-crisp and warm them up. This is a better way because the chickens in the warming drawer ended up with a soggy/greasy bottom side.
I prepared a Sweet Pea and Avocado Vichyssoise for the first course. Along with the chicken and onion rings, I served a chopped salad, garlic French bread and sweet corn on the cob.
I also made a Peach Ice Cream for dessert from Kellar’s book…it’s an adaptation of his Cherry Ice Cream recipe, served over a mixture of raspberries, blackberries and chopped peache and topped with homemade caramel sauce. It wasn’t as “peachy” as I thought it would be but I think it’s because the peaches this year aren’t as flavorful as they’ve been in the past. Now if you are worried about the oil, cholesterol, and calories in fried chicken, one of the guests brought an article about what to counter the fried chicken with. Grapes! Eat about a cup and a half of grapes for each piece of chicken! I sure hope that’s not an “urban myth!” I tried to find it online but all I could find was a site about reducing bad cholesterol and the upshot of that article was: Red wine contains resveratrol, a substance found in grapes which has been proven to increase good cholesterol. or this article at solveyourproblem.com: You may have read about the low rate of heart disease in France. It led researchers to believe that the French habit of drinking red wine with meals contributes to this. Apparently some of the non-alcoholic ingredients in red wine raises HDL and suppresses the body from producing LDL.
Purple grape juice works the same way. It will work like red wine to lower the fat level in your blood. The LDL lowering effect of red wine and grape juice comes from a compound that grapes produce normally to resist mold. The darker the grape juice, the better.
Grapefruit juice does the same thing and it may also help your body get rid of that nasty plaque. However, neither of these two site look like a "medical" site so I guess we will have to keep our fried chicken dinners down to once every few months! :-(
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