Undercover Gourmet

A quick stop in downtown Las Vegas and a picture in front of the Pawn Stars Gold and Silver Pawn Shop brings us back to the strip for sorbet and lunch. A scoop each of berry and exotic sorbet in a waffle cone at Jean Philippe at Aria was a nice break from the scorching heat, then off to Aqaunox at the Venetian. The cold seafood platter good, but not as good, freshness wise, as our first visit a couple years ago. The $79 platter had 6 oysters on the half shell, shrimp ceviche, and 2 each of clams, mussels, jumbo shrimp, crab claws, and lobster. Condiments include 3 sauces; shrimp, shallot and peppercorn, creamy mustard.

Enoteca San Marco by Mario Batalli also in the Venetian was our late lunch/early dinner. Appetizers of gnocco fritto (fried dough with shredded Parmesan and chili flakes), and mozzarella and anchovy in carrozza was delicious. The second appetizer was a stuffed toast, deep fried and served with shaved fennel salad. For our first course we shared rigatoni with pork belly, swiss chard and cacio, a sheep’s milk from Italy. The pasta was cooked perfectly to al dente, and the pork and swiss chard combined for an incredible and flavorful sauce. This dish brought familiar flavors of the Chinese version braised pork belly with sour cabbage (mui choi kau yok).

Rigatoni with Pork Belly

Gnocco Fritto and Mozzarella and Anchovy in Carrozza

 

One more meal to top off the day. A late dinner/snack at Society in Encore took place around 9:00pm. We shared tuna tacos with chipotle mayo and avocado cream, and a sirloin burger with swiss cheese. The tacos were an interesting blend of raw tuna tossed in chipotle mayo served in miniature hard corn shells. The burger was really good, juicy and cooked to medium as requested. Mini donut ”bites” served with chocolate and caramel dipping sauce presented in a take-away paper bag closed off the evening.

 

Fish Tacos

 

Sirloin Burger wtih Swiss

Mini Donut “Bites”

A somewhat early start to another full day of driving. A filling French toast plus continental breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn we stayed at gave us energy to start the 10 hour drive.

Wendy’s for lunch, somewhere in Utah, of boneless spicy chipotle wings, which was swimming in sauce, and a bacon and blue burger holds us over for the remaining 4 hour drive into the dessert.

We arrive at Encore just in time for dinner, and nothing satisfies better after 2 days of long driving than all-you-can-eat buffet. The buffet at the Wynn is still my favorite buffet on the strip (Bellagio was the former). For $34.95 per person, you can indulge yourself with gourmet salads, pastas, pizza, hot meat dishes, carved prime rib, East Indian cuisine, Chinese food, king crab, sushi, and my favorite, dessert. With several cakes to choose from, ice cream with toppings, creme brulee, candied apple, bananas foster, live crepe station and much more, the dessert portion at The Wynn Buffet is definitely a winner.

A beautiful selection of desserts at the Wynn buffet

This is day 1 of an exciting 14 day road trip. In the past I’ve always kept a food log of where I’ve been and what I’ve eaten (even if its mediocre), so I might as well share it with everyone. Pictures may be minimal (or until I return home to a real computer), and the paragraph’s may be short as Rogers is charging me $30 for only 10MB of travel data to use on my Blackberry. Regardless, I hope you enjoy!

9:30am, we headed out of Edmonton on our way to out first of many destinations – Las Vegas. A brief stop at McDonalds to fuel up on coffee (which they now have stamp cards for – buy 4 get 1 free), sausage egg McMuffin and an Oreo crumble muffin. 5 hours later, half a bag of Old Dutch chips and several slices of pizza later, we reached the port of entry into Montana.

9:30pm, we arrive in Idaho Falls. Our plan to drive straight to Las Vegas was cut short by drowsiness and a bit of tunnel vision. After a brief scramble for accommodation, we had a late night dinner at Famous Dave’s Bar-b-que. The bbq back ribs with beef brisket came with a decent side of corn and jalapeno mac and cheese, spicy green beans, corn bread, and corn on the cob. The ribs had a nice spicy kick which increased with every bite, and the brisket was fairly tender. 5 different bbq sauces were available on the table: rich n’ sassy (their house special); Texas pit (my favorite – it had a hint of chipotle); Devil’s spit (as the name suggests – spicy); sweet n’ zesty; Georgia mustard.

Famous Dave's BBQ - Pulled Pork and Ribs