Category Archives: Special Events

Where The Fork I’ve Ate – Las Vegas NV – Summer 2019

My first stop was Hattie B’s for Hot Chicken in the Cosmopolitan on the Las Vegas Strip.

Hattie B’s is located in the new food court…….

It’s tasty but it’s not the same as what I tried from the Nashville location………..It doesn’t sting you when you bite it……..It’s like they cooled it down and sweetened it up for the masses. Or maybe it’s just an off batch? I don’t know?

Our next stop was Eataly.

It’s an Italian Food Court with wine and more food to purchase.

We tried fish.

We tried pasta.

We came back another day and tried more pasta.

Finished up with gelato.

Some things were better than other things and we purchased some things to try latter.

The next day we went to China Town and tried Mian Sichuan Noodle.

This is suppose to be a very authentic Sichuan Noodle Restaurant. It’s not a fancy place.

But where else have you been that offers placemats with instructions on how to eat the food?

Before we order they start us off with sweetened Mung Bean Soup. It is used to cool you down from fiery mouth numbing food.

Here we started with Spicy Radishes and a sweet and sour cabbage is served as a palette cleanser. The Spicy Radishes were indeed spicy but not like water boiled spicy……That means you didn’t need a fire hydrant. They were unlike anything I ever tasted before…….with an unusual crunchy texture. I might not have known that they were radishes because I could no longer taste radish in them.

We had-

Sichuan cold spicy noodles

and

Spicy Sichuan Pork Noodles called Za Jiang. Tune in and you can read that story soon.

Our next destination was Chica in the Venetian.

It’s a Latin Restaurant of chef Lorena Garcia’s takes of Latin cuisine.

We tried spicy Peruvian ceviche.

and dinners of pacific striped sea bass

and porchetta.

We stopped by Gordon Ramsay Burger. I asked about the beef the last time I was here and they told me that they ground the beef in a main kitchen that is in the Paris Hotel/Casino.

They changed the menu since my last visit and that amazing Tandoori Chicken sandwich is no longer available……so I ordered something else. I thought an interesting choice might be the Fish and Crisps Burger because This is the fourth Gordon Ramsay Fried Fish option that I know of in Las Vegas. They all differ slightly and they all are priced differently.

The a crisp beer batter lightly coated a thick big piece of cod and it was drowning in about a 1/4 cup of yuzu-dill mayo that got topped with salt and vinegar potato crisps on a big fluffy toasted seeded bun…….

We shared plain fries called “Just Fries.”

My husband tried the Hog Burger that’s Mangalitsa Pork, Bacon, BBQ Pork, white cheddar, pickle, crisp onion and slaw burger. (he requested the slaw on the side)

Oddly this burger was dry? All the food we tried last time was amazing……Well the truth is that most busy restaurants run hot and cold……but I prefer hitting them on hot days.

Another day we went to Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill in the Caesar’s Palace. It’s a full service South West Style restaurant that’s very bright and lively inside with lots of bottles of tequila on the wall.

They started us off with a really delicious basket of assorted breads. (save room and eat the bread……the bread is worth eating)

For my main I had the Ancho Honey Glazed Salmon with black bean sauce, tomatillo and jalapeño crema over spinach (lunch $25.00 subject to change).

Gosh! It was delicious and flavorful. The salmon too! Not too spicy and not too sweet….just really good flavors!

My husband got the Grilled Mahi Mahi with green chile rice, yellow pepper mole and pineapple salsa (lunch $25.00 subject to change)

This one is delicious too! The flavors are different and stronger…..still south west. We both like the actual salmon more. I like the taste of both but my husband prefers the stronger flavors in this dish.

We go on to try the Deep Dish Banana Cream Pie.

It’s a thin praline hazelnut brittle with cream and fresh sliced bananas……..It’s ok to me. I really enjoyed the bread more and would have eaten more bread and skipped dessert…..We both really enjoyed the entrees and the bread basket at the Mesa Grill.

Then we got to try multi award winning and James Beard award winning chef Micheal Symon’s new bbq restaurant called Mabel’s in the Palm’s Hotel/Casino near the Las Vegas Strip.

We shared a big pan of Texas Style Brisket, Memphis dry rubbed Turkey breast, horseradish beets and macaroni and cheese.

Some things were great and some things weren’t as great………The pickles were DYN-NO-MITE! Like a crazy stinking great bread and butter pickle but better…..actually everything pickled was super crazy great! The turkey today had really terrific flavor but was served to us on the dry side today. The Texas style brisket might have been better at lunch time…..but when I got it the brisket was sort of dry and lacked much flavor but benefited from the house made sauces. The horseradish beets were pretty darn good! Macaroni and cheese didn’t have much flavor on my visit. I think they thinned down the sauce because our cup had lots of a milky liquid in the bottom.

The Splurge Night

L’ATELIER by Joel Robuchon

L’ATELIER by Joel Robuchon is located in the MGM Casino/Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. This is a high end exhibition tapas restaurant by the late most stared chef in the world, also called chef of the century Joel Robuchon.

They made some menu changes since my last visit and the three course special ($85.00 subject to change) is only offered as an early bird now from 5pm-6pm.

You get a bread basket of the most delicious baked breads and French Butter.

You get an Amuse Bouche…that for the past several years has been a foie gras shooter with parmesan foam. If you ask you will get some sort of vegetarian Amuse Bouche.

My first course was an Eggplant – Avocado Fondant with pixie sized turmeric croutons.

My husband got polenta with egg and ham….(well not just any ham…..it was that ham that was kissed by Jesus…..has black feet ……eats nothing but acorns…….and cost like $25 or $30 a Forking ounce)

For my main I had Halibut Flakes in Lemongrass foam with Robuchon Potatoes.

My husband said he had the best short rib that he has ever tasted.

We both had the tarts – Les Tartes for dessert because there is a strong possibility that this dessert plate might be the very best most detailed dessert plate in the WHOLE FORKING COUNTRY.

It’s beyond knocking it out of the park……It’s more like knocking it out of the galaxy!

They surprised us with these FORKING INSANELY Crazy Great Amazing praline madeleines.

The master is gone but the magic remains.

That was a little taste of where the Fork I’ve been…….Las Vegas

Everything is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

My Trip to Mekong Asian Plaza in Mesa AZ

Leave a reply

The Mekong Plaza is an Asian Shopping Center that is a mall with a dozen Asian restaurants, an Asian/International Grocery Super Market gift shops and more. Today we thought we’d do some exploring here and mostly tasting.

We started with a full service Vietnamese Restaurant called Com Tam Thuan Kieu.

We shared a dish that is seldom found at most Metro Phoenix Vietnamese Restaurants called Com Do Ga Roti (fried Cornish hen with tomato paste red rice). Today they were out of Cornish hen so chicken was offered.

First came out a cup of broth and chunks of very developed soft pork.

Next we moved on to the main event.

We received a generously sized plate of very moist tender delicious bbq chicken thigh made with house made bbq sauce. I picked fish sauce as the dipping sauce and it went together to make something mighty tasty. The plate also came with pickled vegetables, a fried over easy egg and tomato paste red rice. I’ve had Vietnamese red rice before and this differed as they do from home to home or restaurant to restaurant. Here the rice was on the dry side and contained very little tomato.

Below is com do ga roti from Thao Sandwiches now closed for business. You can see the texture and tomato and seasoning does differ.

Moving on next stop was suppose to be a Filipino Restaurant called Wholly Grill for Grilled Tuna with Eggplant Salad but that wasn’t on the menu today so we stopped at Heng’s Kitchen in the food court instead to share a Szechuan Spicy Boiled Fish.

Soon we are served and they are nice enough to split the rice plates for us. The fish is very tender and mild and cooked to perfection. We receive a good amount of bean sprouts and fresh chopped cilantro. There is some heat from hot chili and some Sichuan peppercorns but this is the least spicy Szechuan Spicy Boiled Fish that I’ve ever had…….I saw the chef looking at me when I ordered it……..It’s possible that he thought I looked like someone that can’t handle spicy foods and it’s a possibility that he was trying to spare me too much mouth numbing painful heat?????? I don’t know…..but that’s what I thought. This dish was still very good but super mild for the kind of dish that it is.

The last time I had Szechuan Spicy boiled fish it looked like this from Szechuan Cosine in Glendale.

See all the peppers…..now this was ultra spicy and mouth numbing.

Now we take a break and walk around Mekong Market. Lets see what we see.

Chestnut Kit Kats!

WOW Sake KitKats too!

Boiled corn with colorful kernels.

Faux fish.

LOTS of real fish. (near the middle is rabbit fish…..rabbit fish?……does it hop?)

Much more fish..thought the moon fish look attractive…..they shine much more than the photo shows.

Lay’s tomato and cucumber flavor chips.

Togarashi

Lay’s Spicy Hot Pot flavored potato chips that actually DO contain Szechuan pepper.

Asian gefilte fish…..who knew?

Fermented mudfish in rice……….?

Best Wild Jelly Fish Head.

Yellow Rock sugar…….I don’t know about yellow sugar??????? Makes me think of a Frank Zappa song.

A whole world of produce and herbs.

We decide we can hit one more restaurant and go to Happy Baos.

They are packed and we have to wait outside.

In reasonable time we are called in to sit at a table.

This is a tiny restaurant that is very packed with tables close together.

I don’t know if they are short on help or just very unorganized today. We’ve had ordering problems and waited abnormally long for our food while others around that came in latter had multiple plates. But this restaurant was written about in the Arizona Republic recently and might be busier than usual????? We finally get served.

Chicken Cabbage Dumplings and a Tofu Vegetable Bao.

The Bao is ok….

There is a possibility we waited so long because they rushed out a batch of dumplings for us. These dumplings seemed rushed because they lack seasoning and the cabbage they were suppose to contain.

That was my trip to Mekong Plaza in Mesa.

www.MekongPlaza.com

Every FORKING Thing is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

Hotel Valley Ho Scottsdale AZ – Chefs and Famers Market Series 2019 Saturdays 9am – 1pm July 6th + 13th FREE Admission

Leave a reply

The Hotel Valley Ho is hosting a Chefs and Farmers Market Series on Saturdays 9am – 1pm July 6th and 13th. The admission is FREE but you are suppose to register on the Hotel Valley Ho Website. www.HotelValleyHo.com

June 29th the theme was Italian and called Bada Boom

It was crowded like the first week.

There was some mighty delicious foods to sample.

Chef Greg Otero of the Hotel Valley Ho prepared Pork and Fennel Cavatelli Pasta with Parmigiano Reggiano and Chili Flake.

Chef Matthew Taylor of Mora Italian prepared Smoked Eggplant Panna Cotta with Summer Squash Conserva, Basil, La Peral (cheese)

Chef Rochelle Daniel of The Fat Ox prepared Crab Culurgiones with smoked potato leek summer corn

Sadly my photo came out blurry and this picture doesn’t do this absolutely STUNNING stuffed pasta justice.

Can’t see all the beautiful folds this pasta had.

There was a milkshake competition where you can sample and vote for your favorite.

Live music

Complimentary Rose to try

Smoked Fish Dip from Chula Seafood…..(This was really delicious!)

Noble Bread

Tito’s Handmade Vodka

Local Chocolates

From Bly Sky Farms

There was all this and much more!

My purchases

Smoked Fish Dip with house made bagel chips

July 6th will be themed Grilling and Chilling. The last of the series is called Sweet Treats July 13th.

Parking might be challenging because the lot is small and the street parking might already be taken.

That was Chefs and Famers Market Series at Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale AZ June 29th 2019.

www.HotelValleyHo.com

Hotel Valley Ho Scottsdale AZ- Chefs and Farmers Market Series Saturdays 9am-1pm June 22 – July 13 2019 FREE Admission

Leave a reply

At the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale Arizona there is a Chefs and Farmers Market Series on Saturdays June 22 – July 13 2019 from 9am-1pm. This is a FREE event but you do need to R.S.V.P. on the Hotel Valley Ho Website. Each week is a different theme. The first week was South of the Border.