Off the Strip Vegas Activity - Hot Air Balloon Rides

While gambling, eating, and drinking are the typical Vegas activities, there are many other off-strip activities.  For several months prior to the our trip to Vegas, I signed up for some deal sites.  Great activities I purchased included a horse back trail ride, visits to local museums, and race car driving.  Hot air balloon rides were another one of the great activities.  Ballooning isn't an easy to plan activity.  In fact, the first day that we scheduled our balloon ride was the only day that week that we were able to fly.  Tip: Make sure you plan your ballooning trip well in advance.

We took a ride with Vegas Balloon Rides, and yes, it was fun.  We had a few snags here and there due the the weather, but still fun. 

Here's our pilot rolling out the balloon. 

Filling up our balloon.  It is one BIG balloon. 

And up it goes.

This was a pretty amazing shot.  You can't tell from Doug's, our pilot, choice in attire, but it is somewhere in the 20-30's.  I couldn't wait to get close to the fire for some warmth.

This was the balloon next door to us.  Sadly, the balloon next to us did not fly.  The weather patterns were changing to rapidly that they ultimately decided to not take flight. 

Good bye, little body!  People sure look tiny from above. 

Popular backyard amenities in Vegas: golf and pools. 

We had a flag attached to our balloon to show us which way the wind was blowing.  I should have mentioned it earlier.  We were PIRATES!  ARGH!!!

And a picture of our lovely flight crew.  Cheers to a safe landing!

Las Vegas Eats: Lotus of Siam

When I asked for recommendations for off the beaten path restaurants, Lotus of Siam was one that came up.  @Windaddict and I decided to give it a try before our Zappos tour.  The menu at Lotus of Siam is pretty intense, and it can be quite difficult to choose items.  We took recommendations from some blogs, websites, and the waitstaff.  I haven't had a wide plethora of Thai food, and this Thai food is nothing like I had before.  There was a heavy use of sauces, ginger, lime juice, and onion. 

Our first dish was number 36 Yum Nuah (spicy beef salad) with onion, tomato, fresh chili mixed with lime juice on a bed of greens. 

This salad was a little too sauced for my palate, however delicious.  The ginger and onion flavor in this was pretty pronounced.  I would recommend this dish to the ginger lover in your life. 

And another shot of my view.

We also had the number 8 Koong Sarong (prawn in a blanket) - marinated prawn wrapped with bacon and wonton wraps, deep fried, served with a sweet and sour sauce.  This was probably one of my favorite dishes.  The outside was nice and crispy, yet the prawns inside were sweet and succulent.  The tails were nice and crunchy, perfect for munching.  While some people might think that shrimp tails is gross, but I find them to be crispy treats.  Mmm....extra crunchy!

Here's another shot of those crispy tasty prawns. 

The number 14 Nam Kao Tod was amazing - crispy rice mixed with minced sour sausage, green onion, fresh chili, ginger, peanuts, and lime juice.  The rice were crunchy little bits of deliciousness.  I would definitely get this dish again. 

Oh........ so yummy.  It isn't necessarily a pretty dish, but it is a tasty dish.  I thought the rice was so interesting that I didn't pay much attention to anything else on the plate. 

From the North Thai side, Nua Yang Prik Thai Onn is charbroiled beef sauteed with young peppercorn sauce.  I quite liked this dish, and I found the young peppercorns to be very interesting. 

Here's some of the young peppercorn up close.  The peppercorns have a very grassy almost herbal flavor.  These would be really fantastic in a pasta.  Too bad these aren't easy to find.  In fact, I'm not sure where to get young peppercorn. 

Fried banana and coconut served with sweet, sticky rice and topped with a coconut ice cream and peanuts was our dessert.  I'm a huge fan of coconut and bananas.  These were probably the best wrapped fried banana dessert I've had.  The shell was incredibly light, and the sticky rice added a comfort food component to the dish. 

We visited Lotus of Siam on our final day in Vegas for the lunch buffet ($10 or so).  Our a la carte lunch was about $75, and it was a fabulous experience.  The lunch buffet (photo below) is quite a bit different from a la carte meal, but quite enjoyable in its own right.  You'll be able to sample tempura vegetables, egg rolls, soups, and a variety of noodle dishes.  Whether or not you're looking for a filling lunch or a dining experience, Lotus of Siam is a great place to visit.  

@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.