Happy Aloha Friday! No food in this post. Just a few pics from the Vegas Strip. I’m not big on being on the strip, too much people and too expensive. I remember the days when parking used to be free at the hotels, now they all charge minimum $20-$25 which is insane. Also, no validation even if you dine at their restaurants! Check out some pictures from the Bellagio! They say Vegas is slow now but dang, you wouldn’t know it if you were here! Enjoy.
Another visit to Vegas, another success. This is one of the meals Chan and I look forward to most. I lose out the most because we are helped by an awesome sommelier – unfortunately I don’t drink. He did try to include me by giving me a non-alcoholic drink which I enjoyed a lot! It was like a tea infused champagne. Don’t worry, I still got my mocktail! Second visit to Sparrow + Wolf, this restaurant will be a forever visit as long as Nick the sommelier works there. For my first visit, go here. Let’s get to it!
Sage Me From Myself (proofless) | $12.00
cold pressed blueberry, raspberry, pineapple, and fennel bulb
scented with sage and lemon
Delicious as always. $2 more this year but what can you do. Still good!
Peruvian Steelhead Trout | $23.00
ikura roe, koji mango, ninja radish
Nick basically takes care of us all night and orders all the food for us to pair with various drinks. I thought this was salmon but as you can see it is trout! This was good! Such interesting ingredients…
Oysters on the Half Shell | $27.00
cold pressed rhubarb, strawberry, opal basil flower
They really mix the most interesting ingredients to create one dish, and I think I would not order these dishes if I saw it myself on the menu. Good thing Nick knows what he’s doing. I haven’t had a bad dish yet!
Hearts of Palm | $21.00
spring peas, kizami wasabi, cucumber blossom
This was good, very pretty but nothing super special.
Grass Fed Beef Tartare | $22.00
confit egg yolk, grilled ciabatta
Mmm beef tartare, one of my favorites as you know. Good dish!
Steamed Clams | $26.00
green curry, peanuts, thai chili preserve
Oh this was so nice. Nice spicy curry – wish I had a big bowl of rice to sop up all the clams and sauce!
Foie Gras | $28.00
milk bread, pineapple, onion chili compote, mole blanco
Okay, this wasn’t quite as memorable since I had foie gras the day before. But the grilled pineapple added a nice acid to the rich foie gras!
BÁNH CUÔN | $20.00
ground duck, wood ear mushroom, habanero, coconut
Another great dish that I wish I had a bowl of rice for! Nice and spicy, so good!
Lumina Farms Lamb | $46.00
artichoke, saffron, matbucha, almond, vaduovan, lamb jus
I love lamb and this was good, but there was a protein that blew my socks more so below
Charred Broccolini | $16.00
green goddess, black garlic, fines herbes crumb
What a wonderful way to eat broccolini! I loved it! Yet another dish I probably wouldn’t order on my own.
Black Pepper Honey Pork Secreto | $38.00
sweet potato banana puree, peanut nuoc cham
Here’s one of the best dishes of the night! A humble pork dish but the flavors were amazing, still waiting on that bowl of rice lol
Vietnamese Coffee
maracaibo cremeux, coffee ice cream, black okinawa sugar, condensed milk espuma
Yes, we had some room for dessert at the end. Don’t worry, the three of us shared this. It was very nice, I enjoyed this deconstructed take on vietnamese coffee!
No visit to Vegas is complete without a visit to Ikea (and Trader Joe’s)!
Swedish Meatballs (ftw!)
Breakfast Plate with Pancakes
served with eggs, potatoes and bacon and swedish pancakes and lingonberry jam
Did you know they had breakfast plates? I didn’t! Their pancakes are more like crepes. The jam is also located at the ordering counter and they don’t give it to you automatically so you gotta ask! This was Chan’s breakfast, he liked it fine.
Here’s a picture of a random Chinese take-out I did while playing nurse at the hotel. Thank god we got a hotel that came with a full kitchen and washer and dryer. The kitchen came in very handy. The food was alright, do you see the top right? That’s honey walnut shrimp. It’s like sitting in a mayo soup, it was quite odd. The food was not bad, not great either.
Shang Artisan Noodle is one of the restaurants we gotta go to every time we’re in Vegas. The location in the Durango Casino and Resort is the easiest for us since it’s slower and we can gamble afterwards. Durango is probably my favorite casino right now, it’s nice and bright and doesn’t feel too smokey.
Spicy Wonton | $11.85
pork wontons with spicy soy sauce, green onion
Always a great dish. They usually take longer to make this than your noodles, just as a warning.
Shang Beef Noodles (Spicy) | $17.82
beef & chicken broth (brown), braised beef brisket, veggies, green onion
Shang Beef Noodles (Mild) | $17.82
Okay, so I wanted to make big body and order spicy like Chan and started regretting when I was ordering lol. The waitress was very nice and said she can give me the spicy sauce on the side so I can add as much as I want. That’s very nice of her!
LOOK AT THAT. I don’t know if you can tell how big and deep this bowl was but this was like quarter cup of straight chili oil. That’s crazy. I did not use that all lol. I think I will stick to mild next time.
NOODLE PULL!
Chan found Sea Salt Live Sashimi and we were all excited to try it out! Although, Chan does think this meal is what did him in. Poor thing…there was one item that neither me or his friend ate so he assumed it was that. I wonder if Chan would still go back to this restaurant, you know…I think he would! They were kind of slow the night we went, I hope they get more business so they stay open!
Assorted Banchan
Salad and Dipping Sauce (samjang?)
This salad was like…dressed with soup. It spicy and sweet dressing but there was SO much of it. Salad soup lol.
Cheese Corn
Steamed Egg
Veggie Pancake
Gosh, I gotta ask Chan what this was again. Maybe like a pumpkin soup? Super thick and starchy – super sweet. Never had this served to me mid-meal before.
LA Kalbi
So, I didn’t know how this restaurant worked but since we only got sashimi – I wanted a side dish of something meaty so we got this LA Kalbi, Was good, basic. If I knew what else the meal came with, I would have never ordered this!!
Sashimi Combo (Halibut and Assorted Sashimi)
Raw Abalone
Look at how fancy this is! This was definitely a show. It took quite a while for them to serve up both dishes but I think Chan told me they kill the live seafood and then prepare it. I guess the name of the restaurant makes sense, Live Sashimi. Haha, delicious! Both were stellar, super fresh seafood and great quality.
Rice with Assorted Tobikko
So yeah, these dishes came out way after we were almost done with our sashimi. I was super confused.
Assorted Tempura
We were dying from being so full already…
Soft Tofu Stew
This was the last dish! Man, I kind of wish this was served with the food in the beginning. I really didn’t know what was coming out so this was all crazy. So. Much. Food.
Nurungi (Scorched Rice)
I’m not a fan of this particular dish and honestly I was so full that I didn’t even touch it. Great meal, enjoyed that we had our own booth so we had some privacy. If you come here, be prepared to EAT.
Peanut Udon Noodle Salad
Meh. Just okay, not great.
Lemon Basil Pasta Salad
Not good.
Truffle Mousse Pate
Yes. A million times yes. This one is made with chicken. Since Chan was not feeling well, I ate this entire thing over the course of the trip. Yeah. I did. Ate it with some golden round crackers (think Ritz Crackers). No regrets here. Chan told me probably get this kine in Hawaii but I haven’t tried it locally yet. IT WAS GOOD AND A GOOD PRICE AND I LOVED IT.
From the last trip, no trip to Vegas is complete for us without a visit to Hell’s Kitchen. Previous post here. Yup, you gotta pay expensive parking to be on the Strip but the food is well worth it. Chan and I both ordered the prix fixe menu – I think next time we should order one prix fixe and just one entree cause it’s too much food!
Hell’s Red Infusion (Mocktail) | $12.95
apple, strawberry, rhubarb puree, simple syrup, fever-tree ginger beer
Mocktails are my treat! Got this last time and this time did not disappoint, delicious!
Steak Tartare | $26.95
piedmontese beef dijon mustard aioli, black truffle caviar, sous vide egg yolk
Another repeat dish. Not the biggest fan of these big triangle crackers haha but I guess it’s just a vehicle to get the beef to your mouth! I like raw beef, I know it’s not everyone’s thing.
Pan Seared Scallops
corn, prosciutto di parma, maitake mushrooms, citrus beurre blanc
I know it says prosciutto but it really just tastes like bacon bits on top of the scallops and I’m saying that in the best way possible. Super crunchy salty bits that off-set the soft and sweet meat of the scallops. Delicious!
Beef Wellington add Foie Gras ($22.95)
potato puree, glazed root vegetables, red wine demi-glace
We went a little bougie with the first sit-down meal and both added foie gras to our dish. Oh boy, was that rich and delicious. As you can see the beef wellington is perfectly cooked as usual. Winners dish but definitely share-able.
Sticky Toffee Pudding
speculoos ice cream
This is probably the star of the show every time and I’m not usually a big dessert person but this beautiful toffee cake…hot and ready for that scoop of speculoos ice cream to melt right into it. Man, Chan and I love this dessert but once again – for future, we should just share it. It’s a lot of food! So the scallops, beef wellington and dessert is part of the lunch prix fixe menu which is $105.95 a person. It’s pricey but a good deal if you were planning to get these dishes anyway. Yummy! Great start!
Been back from Vegas for about a week, it was nice to take a breather. I pre-scheduled 3 weeks worth of blogs and it worked out very nicely. I was super looking forward to this trip, not just for the eating and gambling – but just to get away. I’ve been working non-stop with no vacation since early November. I know that sounds like a spoiled statement but especially after my dad’s health scare, I was just deflated.
Unfortunately, poor Chan came down with food poisoning on this trip. I felt so bad for him! That’s awful enough to go through but for him to go through it during travel…awful. No worries, I played nurse and even drove out on my own in Vegas to get nourishment for us. Gotta love navigation on phones – and thankfully the places I had to go didn’t require jumping onto a freeway lol. I enjoy driving but I guess I feel more comfortable with someone if I’m driving around some place unfamiliar. Vegas is pretty good to drive around – anywhere is better than Hawaii to drive around.
Anyway! The night of our arrival, of course gotta go In-N-Out! Just a short post today.
Double-Double!
Animal Style Fries
Long John Silver’s
LOL – yup we went to Long John Silver’s. I had a hankering for some fried seafood. Namely fried fish and shrimp. This didn’t disappoint! I enjoyed it a lot! Yummy…! Too bad we don’t have this here anymore.
Marron & Tiramisu Cream Bread
Were you folks into the Culinary Class Wars craze when the show first premiered? Chan and I was, it was a great show! I am so excited for season 2. I liked Edward Lee but I was actually happy Napoli Matfia won – though I wonder how he would have fared if he had to take part in the tofu challenge. Sorry, are these spoilers? You should have watched it already!
Anyway, one of the dishes Napolia Matfia won was for his chestnut tiramisu recipe where he utilized ingredients from a convenience store. Korea is so smart, they were able to turn it around and create the dishes for sale in their stores real quick. Of course it was always sold out. I never found the tiramisu dessert but found the bread and had to try it!
How was it? Eh, just alright. It’s a very rich and dense chestnut cream in soggy bread. Not great. I wonder if I would have liked the actual tiramisu dessert if I found it. Maybe I should have just tried the cheetos ice cream (lol).
We drove up to Jirisan for some scenic pictures. It was beautiful up there, a perfectly crisp Autumn day. I just did some quick research and it’s the second highest mountain in Korea!
The trees were all different autumunal colors and it was gorgeous. Nice and chilly up top too! I don’t know how many mountain pictures you want to see so why not share the cafe we went to there!
Cafe Yodojae
It’s a cute space but not a cafe I would recommend to go to out of your way, just to pop in if you’re already in the area.
Chan’s Drink – I forgot what it is haha
Affogato!
Affogato for me because I love affogato. Did you know that the ice cream has no calories when it’s renamed a coffee drink? Don’t check on that.
Cranberry Nut Bread
I think that’s what this was. I didn’t realize it was a whole freaking loaf of bread haha. I just wanted to try their clotted cream and it sounded like it would go well with this bread. Well the workers were not so friendly and this bread was basically cold. Wish it could have been warmed up a bit because I was trying it with….
English Clotted Cream
I’ve been wanting to try this for ages and it was disappointing. I think it might have been because the bread was cold and doughy. I’m not out there dying to try clotted cream again anytime soon. If anyone likes clotted cream, please tell me how you eat it! I’ve seen it sold at Foodland Farms.