Las Vegas Food Adventures

Pistachio Rice Pilaf

Grilling season has returned and easy rice side dishes like this pilaf are a perfect accompaniment to any grilled meat, fish or poultry.

This rice pilaf is jazzed up with crunchy chopped pistachios. It may be made a few hours in advance and served hot or at room temperature, freeing the cook up to man the BBQ grill…or make a pitcher of margaritas.

The spice turmeric is used in this recipe mainly for the brilliant yellow color. Since it has very little flavor of it’s own it can be omitted if desired, however, new research has shown that turmeric may have powerful antioxidant and anti cancer properties. But we’d use it even if it wasn’t good for us; we love the vibrant color turmeric adds to many of our dishes.

Pistachio Rice Pilaf
2 teaspoons butter or olive oil
½ cup diced onion
½ cup white long-grain rice
½ cup orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
1 cup chicken broth
½ cup water
¼ cup sherry or dry white wine
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon turmeric
¼ cup coarsely chopped pistachios (plus a few whole ones for garnish)
¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
½ cup thinly sliced green onions

Sauté the onions in butter or olive oil until translucent. Add rice and orzo to the onions. Stir constantly over medium heat for about 2 minutes, then carefully add chicken broth, water and wine.

Stir in the salt and turmeric. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in the chopped pistachios, parsley and green onions and serve.

Serves 4

2012: 05/13
CATEGORY: Recipes
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Nobhill Tavern

Nobhill Tavern
We’ve had a number of outstanding meals over the years in Las Vegas but a recent meal from Nobhill Tavern may be the most memorable dining experience to date. From start to finish, every component was nothing short of perfection.

Starters of pristine fresh water oysters and a seared foie gras were flawless. The foie gras was served with a blood orange garnish and toasted brioche, but it was the skilled seasoning and searing on the outside that caused a moment of temporary blindness. It was,seriously, that good.

Not to be outdone was Scottish salmon cooked as salmon should be cooked, medium rare. Served with a light sauté of fennel, baby leeks and mussels with a tomato saffron broth, the dish was outstanding. The star of the show was the pork belly served with a heavenly truffle puree, duck fat potatoes and an apple frisee salad. The pork was prepared sous-vide until butter-tender then crisped on the outside creating two flawless textures in each succulent bite. We’ve had none better.

Chef Michael Mina is serving some of the finest food on the Las Vegas strip and has matched it with an upscale, but not stuffy ambience at Nobhill. Service was impeccable; our servers were knowledgeable, efficient and very personable, all adding to a top-notch dining experience. Not to be missed are the specialty cocktails coming from the bar. We highly recommend the orange scented Cable Car with it’s dreamy bruléed rim as a perfect starting point for a truly fine dining experience.

Dinner for two including cocktails and wine was under $200.00, a reasonable price for perfection. Reservations are highly recommended, especially for one of the comfy private booths.

Nobhill Tavern
In the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino
3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
Tel: 702-891-7337

2012: 04/21
CATEGORY: Restaurant Reviews
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Elevation Burger

Elevation Burger is the latest entry into the Vegas “premium fast-casual” burger scene that includes Smashburger, Five Guys, Fatburger, and In-N-Out. These burger chains all serve a great, pink-slime free burger made with fresh high quality ground beef. Elevation Burger takes the concept one step further by featuring 100% grass fed, certified organic beef.

The ground beef is definitely the star here; this is a darned good burger. The fries, cooked in olive oil, were also very good (not as golden crisp as In-N-Out but better than the greasy, limp fries from Five Guys). We ordered a couple of malts that, while the malt flavor was barely discernable, were still very good shakes.

Two Elevation burgers ($6 a piece), two malts ($4 a piece) and an order of fries ($2.69) came to around $23, well worth the price if organic, earth-friendly dining is your thing. A current deal on Groupon makes it a bargain.

Elevation Burger
5130 S. Fort Apache Rd (near Wal-Mart)
Las Vegas, NV 89148
(702) 331-1410

2012: 03/30
CATEGORY: Restaurant Reviews
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Mastrioni’s

Restaurant reviews for restaurants that are very good or very bad are easy (and fun) to write. It’s the restaurant that falls somewhere in the middle that makes it hard on those of us who feel compelled to write about what they eat. That said, Mastrioni’s, located in Summerlin on Hualapai is somewhere in the middle.

Very good bread and excellent service weren’t enough to salvage an early Friday evening visit to this comfortable, neighborhood restaurant.

We shared an average antipasti platter that was nicely presented.
We may be jaded by the outrageously good antipasti served a few blocks away at Due Forni; this version was nothing more than supermarket lunchmeat and cheese garnished with olives, artichoke hearts and roasted pepper strips from a jar (and we had to ask for bread). Not worth the $15 price tag.

Equally overpriced was a $15 fried calamari appetizer served with a side of overly sweet marinara sauce.

The calamari was tasteless and could have been improved by a few more seconds on a paper towel to drain some of the oil from the bland coating.

Non-descript fettuccini arrived floating in an abundance of soupy Alfredo sauce.

The chicken cubes served with it were tasteless, but not offensive. Yes, fettuccini Alfredo is a neutral dish, but at $18, this version must be a major profit maker for the restaurant.

To be fair, we didn’t order any of the seafood specialties on the menu. However, at prices that match or exceed those at high-end restaurants on the Strip, we hesitated to make an investment on the unknown. It turned out to be a wise decision.

Our dinner wasn’t miserable by any means. Our server was efficient and charming. We did enjoy the bread, but outstanding Italian fare and seafood is being served all over the valley at prices that aren’t quite so outrageous. Mastrioni’s is in a great location in our own neighborhood and we’d love to call ourselves regulars should the quality & pricing ever come together.

3330 South Hualapai Way (at Desert Inn)
Las Vegas, NV 89117
(702) 367-7511

2012: 03/23
CATEGORY: Restaurant Reviews
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Taqueria Cañonita

While we adore the foie gras brulee from Sage at Aria and the black truffle soup from Restaurant Guy Savoy, we’re always pleased when we find a casual restaurant on the Strip that is also serving memorable food. We recently worked up a pre-show appetite while wandering the Venetian when the menu in front of the entrance of Taqueria Cañonita caught our eye. Chicharrones (crispy fried pork rinds) were listed as an option to the usual Mexican restaurant basket of tortilla chips. Chicharrones get our attention any time we see them on a menu; we don’t see them nearly as often as we’d like. We made a beeline to the hostess for a table. Our chicharrones ($6.00) arrived still crackling from the fryer. They were perfectly crisp, airy and nicely seasoned. Served with a creamy chile dipping sauce and a fresh tomato salsa, they were pork rind perfection.

Equally impressing was the Patzcuaro Duck Relleno a mild fried green chile stuffed with duck confit, served with a tasty red chile/orange based manchamantel sauce & Mexican crema ($12).

A superb beef enchilada ($18) big enough to serve two people was served with a red chile sauce that obviously had a lot of thought put into it, grated queso fresco, black beans and a vibrant cilantro-spiked rice.

A few other interesting menu choices (a ceviche trio, wild mushroom enchiladas, lobster & goat cheese tamales) stood out. A return trip is planned soon for the pork & walnut empanadas. Plan to hit Taqueria Cañonita during their happy hours (3-6 and 9 until closing) for $5.00 specialty drinks (loved the Black Mai Tai) and a patio table on the canal with the gondolas floating by for a pleasant break from the casino madness.

Taqueria Cañonita
3377 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Suite #2160
Las Vegas, NV 89109
Located on the Grand Canal Shoppe level
Inside the Venetian Hotel
Telephone # 702-414-3773
Fax # 702-414-3874

2012: 03/13
CATEGORY: Restaurant Reviews
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Masago Madness

Fans of sushi will be familiar with tobiko, those mild, tiny, neon colored fish eggs that pop between your teeth. Tobiko, the roe of a number of flying fish species, is often served as a garnish for specialty rolls or on it’s own. However, what is often listed as tobiko on a sushi menu in the United States is most likely masago, the roe of a more plentiful fish species found in the waters off Iceland. Unless you are a master sushi chef, the difference between tobiko and masago might be hard to detect.

The roe is salted and processed, much like traditional caviar, but is much more affordable. If you live in a city with a large Japanese or Korean population, as we have in Las Vegas, containers of masago can be found in the seafood department alongside other sushi ingredients. While we enjoy masago with our sushi, we like it even more as an ingredient in omelets, stirred into sour cream for a baked potato topping, or my favorite, piled on top of cream cheese on a toasted bagel. A couple spoonfulls of masago folded into your everyday egg salad filling will transform it into something memorable. Warning, this stuff might be as addicting as crack, but at less than $10 for the six ounce container shown above, it’s a lot cheaper (and safer).

If you live in Las Vegas, masago is easy to find in any of the larger markets in Chinatown on Spring Mountain (we are partial to the Greenland Market). If you live outside Las Vegas, many specialty gourmet shops and fish markets also carry masago these days, thanks to the popularity of homemade sushi.

2012: 03/08
CATEGORY: Recipes
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Crispy Pork Belly

When pork belly is salted, cured, smoked and cooked it becomes the crisp bacon we know and love. When fresh, uncured pork belly is braised it becomes tender and luscious. This recipe is a little both. Pieces of fresh pork belly are marinated in fragrant Asian flavors, braised until tender then briefly deep-fried until crisp on the outside with a tender, moist interior.

Don’t be put off by the amount of fat in a piece of fresh pork belly. While it’s definitely a rich cut of meat, much of the fat cooks out during the initial braising step. The fat between the layers of meat help keep the meat moist during the braising step, try to select a piece of pork belly that has a 50/50 ratio of meat to fat in the streaking.

The final quick frying of the pork can be quite messy, but is well worth the final result. It is very important to make sure the meat is patted dry with paper towels before carefully sliding into the oil in a pan with high sides. Have a lid and a splatter shield close by and be prepared to move quickly to contain the splatters as the meat enters the hot cooking oil.

Crispy Pork Belly

1-2 lb piece of pork belly
1 cup soy sauce
½ cup light brown sugar
¼ cup sherry
8 thick slices fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, halved
6 pieces star anise
12 whole black peppercorns
Vegetable oil for frying
Green onions for garnish
Pickled ginger for garnish

Slice the pork belly into thick 2 inch pieces. Place in a shallow bowl or zip-lock bag large enough to hold the meat and the marinade.

Combine the next 7 ingredients and pour over the meat. Marinate, refrigerated for several hours or even better, overnight. Place in a saucepan and add enough water if needed to partially cover the meat. Bring to a boil and gently simmer for about 60 minutes. This can be done a day or two ahead and refrigerated in the braising liquid until ready to fry in the next step.

Remove the pork from the braising liquid and pat dry with paper towels. Make sure to pat dry very well to cut down on the splattering in the final step.

Over medium heat, heat about 2 inches of oil in a pan with high sides until hot. Have tongs, a slotted spoon, a lid and a splatter screen handy, there will be quite a bit of splattering during the first 10 seconds.

Very carefully add a few pieces of the pork to the hot oil, fry on all side until lightly browned and crisped, and be prepared to place a platter screen or lid over the pan. This will take about 1 minute. Remove from the oil and place on paper towels. Continue with the remaining meat until it has all been fried.

While still hot chop into bite sized pieces and serve over plain rice drizzled with a few drops of soy sauce and sliced green onions. Garnish with pickled ginger.

Best served right away. The meat will lose it’s crispness if refrigerated after fried.

2012: 03/04
CATEGORY: Recipes
2 comments

China MaMa

A search for Chinese soup dumplings, those plump steamed dumplings filled with savory pork broth and ground pork, brought us to China MaMa. The word on the street is this is the place to go for soup dumplings.We were not disappointed. What we found was very, very nice.

These tasty dumplings are called “Juicy Pork Steamed Dumplings” on the extensive menu and certainly delivered the taste and texture we were hoping for.

Eight hot, plump dumplings filled with ground pork and a rich pork aspic that liquifies when steamed arrived at our table along with small bowls of shredded ginger to mix with dark vinegar for dipping.

We followed the dumplings with another winner, Sizzling Black Pepper Beef. Tender slices of beef were napped in a black pepper laced sauce and served on a bed on sautéed onions.

We also had one of the best versions of Sweet and Sour Chicken we’ve ever had. Thin pieces of boneless chicken were coated in an outstanding crunchy batter and served un-sauced with fresh (not canned) pineapple pieces and crisp vegetables. What makes this stand out was the more tart than sweet sauce that is served on the side. It was not that goopy, syrupy sweet sauce from a jar one usually finds on Chinese menus smothering oily chunks of badly breaded chicken. We loved it.

China MaMa is cooking authentic Chinese dishes in a casual neighborhood restaurant located in a corner of an older strip plaza in Chinatown. You won’t find any “combo plates”, but the huge menu is easy to read and includes a long list of interesting dishes not usually found in most of our Chinese restaurants around town. Reservations aren’t needed, but now that the word is out on the soup dumplings, that could change soon.

China Mama
Located in Chinatown
3420 S. Jones Blvd (between Spring Mountain & Desert Inn)
Las Vegas, NV 89136
(702) 873-1977

2012: 02/27
CATEGORY: Restaurant Reviews
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Andrew Zimmern and Bizarre Foods Celebrates 100th Episode in Las Vegas

Not So Bizarre

We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Andrew Zimmern on location for the filming of the 100th episode of his popular show, Bizarre Foods. You would think a man whose diet includes insects, entrails and all manner of peculiar food would come off a bit quirky. Yes, he eats that stuff sometimes, but he’s not quirky at all. This James Beard Foundation winner is engaging, gracious and one of the nicest people we’ve come across on the food scene in a long while.

When we asked Andrew what he hoped we would take away from his TV series that explores the underbelly of the world’s cuisines, he explained that food is a common denominator for the divergent global community. By understanding how different cultures obtain, prepare and consume their food he hopes we will gain an enlightened non-political acceptance for cultures unfamiliar to many of us. He also explained that a large part of his show’s demographics includes children. He’s hoping their interest in his travels will help teach tolerance and respect for unfamiliar food and the people who eat it.

He seems genuinely surprised about the success of his show, but not all is serious with this teddy bear of a man we’d love to have for a next-door neighbor. He spoke with amusement and a bit of surprise about the results from a poll of adult film entertainers. Along with Anthony Bourdain and Brit chef Heston Blumenthal he was chosen as one of the top three people they would most like to appear with in a one of their films. We aren’t surprised; the combination of good food and charming company are a globally stimulating recipe.

Andrew Zimmern’s current series “Bizarre Foods America” airs Monday nights on the Travel Channel. The episode starring the Las Vegas food scene is slated to air in July. If you are already a fan of his we highly recommend following him on Twitter. His frequent posts and photos are a real-time extension of his home life and travels.

2012: 02/19
CATEGORY: Food Events
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Three Wines Under $10 for Valentine’s Day

While we love a leisurely stroll through a Lee’s or Total Wine here in Las Vegas to pick out an interesting bottle (or three) of special occasion wine, those bottles often cost us $20 or more per bottle. But we don’t always have the time to peruse the aisles. We also love a bargain, two of the many reasons we love our neighborhood Fresh & Easy. Especially when we find a bottle of wine that costs less than $10 and tastes better than similar bottles costing $25 or more.

These wines, two classic and one just for fun, are great choices to go along with your Valentines plans. And all are less than $10 a bottle leaving plenty of cash left over for impressing your Valentine with flowers or in my case, meat.

Ombretta Chianti 2008…a classic, dry Chianti full of cherry and lots of oak. Perfect with pasta, pizza, steaks and cured meats.

Montcadi Cava…an easy to drink, semi-dry Spanish sparkling wine. We love this citrusy, refreshing wine with Thai and Chinese dishes. We drink this all summer long when we grill outside. It also makes a perfect mimosa.

Chocolate Shop…an interesting merlot/syrah blend spiked with chocolate essence. A bit on the sweet side, making it a good dessert wine. This one is guaranteed to be a fun, conversation bottle, especially for chocoholics. The fragrance is like a box of chocolate covered cherries in a glass.