@BouchonLV: High points and low points.

The first stop in Vegas was Bouchon by Thomas Keller.  Being a HUGE Rataoullie fan among many other things, I had high hopes.  Some aspects of our Sunday brunch here were fantastic, and some were just ho-hum.  Michael Chu of Cooking for Engineers recommended the brioche toast to my delight.  Brioche is one of my not-so-secret-lovers, but our brioche toast was not as texturally pleasing as it was visually pleasing.  In other words, our brioche was as hard as a rock and almost impossible to eat. 

Doesn't it *look* beautiful?

I almost broke a tooth on it. 

Raspberry jam and butter. 

I appreciated the shape of the table bread.  It was a unique way to serve rolls. 

I ordered the mussels that were in a saffron sauce.  It was quite a large serving, needless to say.  It was served with a large cone of fries. 

@Windaddict/ @HopSafari ordered what was essentially an omelet on top of puff pastry.  I don't remember getting many tastes of it as it was gone in a jiffy. 


Welcome to my view. 

I loved the mussels' serving dish.  There was a little barrier so that I could dip the bread into the saffron juice.  It was some of the most delicious dipping juice I had ever had, ever.  It was salty like the ocean, pungent with saffron, and sweet with roasted garlic.  Amazing. 

Our service was a little odd.  Not only did the servers keep bringing plates and left them to pile up on our tiny two top, there was a large noticeable piece of white fuzz in the ketchup that was served with my giant cone of fries.  It wasn't small or difficult to see.  Rather, it was like a white fuzzy eye staring at us from dark red ketchup.  I'm at a loss as to how to wait staff could have missed it, especially since I kept staring at it when they walked by as I tried to get their attention.  It was as if they deliberately pretended it wasn't there.  Perhaps none of them knew how to approach the situation, or perhaps they hoped I hadn't noticed it.  In any case, it was odd to say the least. 
The first stop in Vegas was Bouchon by Thomas Keller.  Being a HUGE Rataoullie fan among many other things, I had high hopes.  Some aspects of our Sunday brunch here were fantastic, and some were just ho-hum.  Michael Chu of Cooking for Engineers recommended the brioche toast to my delight.  Brioche is one of my not-so-secret-lovers, but our brioche toast was not as texturally pleasing as it was visually pleasing.  In other words, our brioche was as hard as a rock and almost impossible to eat. 

Doesn't it *look* beautiful?

I almost broke a tooth on it. 

Raspberry jam and butter. 

I appreciated the shape of the table bread.  It was a unique way to serve rolls. 

I ordered the mussels that were in a saffron sauce.  It was quite a large serving, needless to say.  It was served with a large cone of fries. 

@Windaddict/ @HopSafari ordered what was essentially an omelet on top of puff pastry.  I don't remember getting many tastes of it as it was gone in a jiffy. 


Welcome to my view. 

I loved the mussels' serving dish.  There was a little barrier so that I could dip the bread into the saffron juice.  It was some of the most delicious dipping juice I had ever had, ever.  It was salty like the ocean, pungent with saffron, and sweet with roasted garlic.  Amazing. 

Our service was a little odd.  Not only did the servers keep bringing plates and left them to pile up on our tiny two top, there was a large noticeable piece of white fuzz in the ketchup that was served with my giant cone of fries.  It wasn't small or difficult to see.  Rather, it was like a white fuzzy eye staring at us from dark red ketchup.  I'm at a loss as to how to wait staff could have missed it, especially since I kept staring at it when they walked by as I tried to get their attention.  It was as if they deliberately pretended it wasn't there.  Perhaps none of them knew how to approach the situation, or perhaps they hoped I hadn't noticed it.  In any case, it was odd to say the least. 

Emeril's Table 10: BAM!!!!!

Table 10, an Emeril Lagasse Restaurant, was another one of those highly recommended Vegas restaurants, so we decided to check it out.  Lunch was a fantastic experience that set us back about $75 for two.  It was so good that we decided to make a second visit during happy hour.  Unfortunately, happy hour was advertised as 3-7 pm on their website and Foursquare, but it was actually 3-6 pm.  They changed the hours in June, but didn't bother to change the website or Foursquare for almost six months! We didn't have in the budget to spend another $75 on drinks and a snack; so we decided to opt for other dinner plans (turned out to be the comped dinner at Wicked Spoon). 

It was quite a heavy lunch, and well worth the calories.  We started with roasted beef marrow, and oh....it was so sinful. 

The bread at Table 10 was divine.  The addition of unami laden, gelatinous, melty fat made it even more sinfully delicious. 

It isn't the prettiest food, but it sure is tasty.

We had some leftovers that I gave to my sister when we arrived back in Austin.  I got a giddy phone call about it about 10 minutes later. 

Uh-oh, what happened to all the bone marrow? 

We also had the braised beef cheeks.  I liked the dish, but the magic of the roasted beef marrow overshadowed this dish. 

I got the gumbo, which was a perfect gumbo.  However, it was overshadowed by the po'boy pictured below. 

This was the best po'boy I've ever had.  The bread was lightly crunchy, and incredible soft and fluffy on the inside.  The pork was perfectly seasoned, tender and juicy with fat.  I'd order this sandwich again, in a heartbeat.  I would have loved to try the muffaletta (served during happy hour), but alas, no happy hour for us during this Vegas trip. 

Touring the Wicked Spoon, Las Vegas

No trip to Las Vegas is a complete without a gluttonous visit to a buffet.  Yes, I said a buffet.  While there are inherently undesirable traits about buffets, we visited one nonetheless.  Not once, but twice, we visited the Wicked Spoon.  The first time was because I had read that this was one of the better buffets.  The second time was because both @Windaddict and I won a free dinner buffet.  Before we jump into the photos, I'll go through the pros and cons.

Pros:

• The cheesy carbohydrate dishes were absolutely amazing.  In particular, the cheesy grits and gnocchi were probably best I've had.  I'm fairly certain that there was a copious amount of butter and mascarpone cheese those dishes.  This statement does not include the cheese covered vegetables.
• A variety of foods including the roasted beef marrow and snow crab legs as dinner. I liked that there were were a number of different cuisines represented.
• The chao siu bao (Chinese pork bbq buns) were pretty tasty.  I think I had five of them over both buffet visits.
• The mac and cheese station at dinner was also wonderfully fantastic.  You get to choose your ad-ins and type of cheese.  They customize your mac and cheese right then.
• Visually pleasing dessert display. 
• The Cosmopolitan does not have overwhelming smell of cigarettes like many other hotels. 

Cons:

• The price of the buffet is pretty expensive compared to other buffets at $22 for a weekday brunch and $35 for dinner. Don't forget to add tax and tip.  There is plenty of overlap on brunch and dinner, so I wouldn't recommend going to both. The brunch was definitely worthy of $22, but $35 for dinner is too steep for my pocketbook.
• The snow crab legs were over salted, and many of the meat dishes were overly greasy.  Avoid the tacos.
• Serving sizes: I thought they were too big as I like tiny little bites.  While the pots were a cute presentation, they were pretty big sizes for a tasting.  I'm sure other people might think that the servings were too small. I felt guilty throwing out so much food. 
• While the desserts were pretty, some of them were just plain odd and not tasty.
• Avoid the rolls pictured below.  They were as hard as a rock.  I could probably use them as a military weapons.

Avoid the tacos.  The sweet potato hash was kind of dried out too.

Pretty desserts, but some were not as palatable as they appeared. 

Yellow jello with pine nuts and a purple macaron?  I'm not sure who came up with that idea.

Oh yes, that cheesy grit was fantastic.  The bacon was tasty.  Avoid that roll in the bottom left side.  I saw many of them left on plates.  It was not even edible. 

I didn't eat most of these, but I do appreciate the time it took to make them. 

Carrot cakes and pecan pies.  These were actually pretty good.

The mac and cheese station was brilliant.

The shrimp and grits wasn't all that great.  The cauliflower au gratin was just alright. 

The sushi was just alright.  The lamb meat ball was tough, though the sauce was quite nice.  Those gnocchi with goat cheese were out of this world fantastic.

Beef marrow, yes.  Snow crab, just alright. 

These little balls were also kind of hard. 

The chocolate covered strawberries were gigantic.  I took the chocolate off and ate the strawberries. 

These cones were filled with vanilla mousse, and the chocolate balls were filled with chocolate truffle.

I did eat all of it, and it was quite nice.

I'm not sure what was going on with the dessert on the right.  I tried the dessert in the middle, and it was too hard to bite through.  Sad waste of butter and sugar.

Lean Meat and Century Egg Congee - A Traditional Asian dish

Asian cuisine can be some of the most forgiving dishes.  There's rarely an exact recipe, rather rough ratios.  You can add whatever you like in whatever amounts you like.  There really aren’t any rules.  Any deviation from a recipe is called a "secret" recipe.  



The lean meat and century egg congee is a dish that is considered common cafe food.  It is just as popular in Asian countries as chips and tortillas are popular in Austin, TX.  While it isn't considered peasant food, it definitely isn't considered upscale fare.  You won't find it at any fancy or event semi-fancy restaurant, but you might find it at a dim sum restaurant.

As my mother made this particular batch, I looked online at other recipes.  And many of them were deeply involved and time consuming.  As my mother says, "Why make things so complicated?"  This version is quick and easy.  From the very start to finish, it look no longer than seven minutes.  Again, it isn't fancy.  It isn't even pretty.  But it is comfort food to a portion of the population.  

Century egg is one of those Asian foods that might be difficult to understand.  These eggs are not visually pleasing.  The flavor of can be intensely eggy and pungent. The texture can be rubbery and gelatinous.  Some other people might find these qualities unattractive, but I don't find century egg to be unpleasant or offensive.  They are usually individually wrapped and fairly inexpensive.  Most Asian grocery stores will have them.  If you're adventurous, try century eggs!
 

Adjust ingredients to your liking.  The raw ginger can be pretty harsh for those who aren't accustomed to it.  Cut back the ginger or mince into tiny pieces.  Any type of meat is suitable, however, lean pork meat is the most traditional.  

Ingredients:

4 cups cooked rice (I use the sticky kind)
1 piece of raw ginger (roughly 1/2 oz) - julienned or
4 ounces of raw minced pork.  Ground pork is also okay.  
3-4 Century eggs diced or sliced.  It doesn't matter what shape it is in.
1 pinch salt
1 pinch white pepper
1 bunch of green onions, sliced
6 cups of water or chicken broth.

In a large pot, boil the water/broth.  Add the raw meat to the water, and allow it to cook. You could add the meat to the water before it boils too.  It really makes no difference.  My mother puts the meat in nearly frozen. If you are squeamish, you might want to skim the scum off the top pot after the meat has cooked.  Add in the raw ginger, and cooked rice.  Let the rice cook for 3-5 minutes.  It should start to get soft and the liquid should become almost gelatinous.  Congee typically as the consistency of a pudding, but if you like it more like a soup, add more water.  If you like it thicker like an oatmeal, cook it longer.  My mother says that this particular dish should be fairly soup-y, but culinary freedom is in your hands.  

Once the rice is almost the consistency you want, add in the century eggs, salt, and pepper.  Garnish with green onion when serving.  Tada.....easy to make Lean Meat and Century Egg Congee. 




A shelled egg.  The color of eggs can range from light yellow, gray, and to a deep brown. 

The eggs are certainly colorful. 

Frozen minced meat ready to be chopped.

Cutting up the ginger, which happened to be frozen too.

The meat and ginger are cooking.

The soup is ready now.  If you leave it uncovered, it will thicken into a sticky mass.  You can thin it out with with water later. 

A piece of century egg.

A close up.  Easy and comforting.