Las Vegas

My cousins and I had a girls' trip to Las Vegas last week and I thought I would share some highlights.

We stayed at the gorgeous Palazzo Hotel.

Exterior of Palazzo

Double sinks

Tub and shower

Vanity

One of two queen beds

The Palazzo is all suites and we had two queens beds and a sitting area with an L-shaped couch, a work desk and chair and a round table with four chairs. There were also three televisions: one in the sitting area, one in front of the beds and one in the bathroom!

After checking in, we had lunch at Emeril's Table 10 restaurant in the Palazzo. My cousin Taylor and I had fried shrimp po'boys with delicious fat french fries that were crisp on the outside and delightfully creamy on the inside and my cousin Kara had the prosciutto panini.

We had tickets to O, a Cirque du Soleil show at the Ballagio on our first night, so we decided to try out Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill for dinner in neighboring Caesar's Palace. Before dinner, we walked around the Ballagio, the lobby of which has a gorgeous Dale Chihuly sculpture on the ceiling.

Breathtaking

Detail of Chihuly sculpture

Paper umbrellas suspended from the ceiling in one of the Bellagio hallways

At Mesa Grill, we started with the goat cheese "queso fundido"  with blue corn tortilla strips. I had the tiger shrimp and roasted garlic corn tamale for my main course (I tried to order something small seeing as this was my fourth, yes fourth, meal of the day). Taylor had the New Mexican spice rubbed pork tenderloin with bourbon-ancho chile sauce, sweet potato tamale and crushed pecan butter, while Kara had the coffee rubbed filet mignon with a side of the smoothest, creamiest mashed potatoes you have ever tasted.

O was amazing - I absolutely recommend checking it out if you are ever in Las Vegas.

Unfortunately we overslept breakfast the next day, so had to settle for lunch at Bouchon. (Long time BlB readers will remember MM and I went to Bouchon in Napa last summer.) They were running their "express" menu which I can't find online anywhere and consists of salads and sandwiches. We all had different sandwiches and if I am remembering correctly, I had an Italian-themed sandwich with salami, capicola, prosciutto, provolone and possibly more items. I think Taylor had a French ham and cheese with mustard sandwich and I can't remember what Kara had. (Sorry!) The french fries were spectacular: thin, crispy and intrinsically salty.

Bouchon's bar

Bouchon is in the Venetian Hotel (which is connected to the Palazzo), and after lunch we checked out the sights and walked around the Grand Canal Shoppes.

You walk by approximately 15 pools to get from the Palazzo to the Venetian.

The lobby of the Venetian

Detail of the ornate ceiling

The Grand Canal Shoppes is the neatest set up. There is an actual canal with water and gondolas and singing gondoliers!

The gondolier is singing; use your imagination.

Me, Taylor and Kara

For our second and final night, we wanted to check out the new Aria hotel and we decided on Sirio for dinner. (We had to have Italian food at least once!) Oh. My. Goodness. The food at Sirio was absolutely delicious. Taylor and Kara started with the romana in bagna cauda salad (which the waiter translated as Caesar's salad) and I started with the rucola e carciofi salad (arugula and artichoke), which was big enough for all of us to share as a starter. We all had pasta for our main course: Taylor had the agnolotti di vitello (veal stuffed pasta), Kara had the ravioli all'astice (lobster ravioli), and I had the risotto pescatora (seafood risotto), which had clams, mussels, swordfish, scallops and more. Again, the portion was so large that this risotto could have easily have fed the three of us, but I wasn't about to complain because it was delicious.

After dinner we headed back to the Venetian to see the Blue Man Group. It was certainly comical, and worth seeing, but O was more impressive.

For our last meal in Vegas, we went for breakfast at Morels in the Palazzo lobby before heading to the airport. I had the decadent banana and mascarpone stuffed french toast. It totally made up for missing breakfast the day before. Kara had the American breakfast (eggs, hash browns, toast and bacon) because (I quote) "[she's] an American." Taylor had the lox and bagels, although according to our waiter, the bagels weren't looking so good, so he substituted toast, which Taylor said worked out just fine. We topped off breakfast with a strong pot of French press coffee. (Our waiter tried desperately to get us to order cocktails, but he lost that battle.)

And just like that our 48 hour trip to Vegas was over and we were back at the airport, although not away from the dinging, musical slot machines.

Locanda Verde

Photo from Haute100.com

For my final eating indulgence in New York, Jo and I went to Locanda Verde for brunch on Sunday. I feel like a broken record, but this is another place that should be on your list of NYC restaurants. There were so many things on the menu we wanted to try, but I usually can't eat a ton for my first meal of the day.

I had the Tre Stelle juice (pomegranate, blood orange and valencia orange) and the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with blueberries and meyer lemon curd. I have thought about these pancakes every day I have been home from NYC. They were light, fluffy, slightly creamy from the ricotta, pleasantly tart from the lemon and just the right amount of sweet from the blueberries. The next time I make homemade ricotta, I am finding a way to replicate these pancakes!!

Jo had the Wood-Fired Uova Al Forno with corona beans, mozzarella and black tuscan kale. Oh my, if you have never had corona beans, here is a good picture that shows how massive they are:

Photo from notmartha.org

Massive I tell you! Jo's dish tasted good, too, but the novelty was really the corona beans.

Then, because I just couldn't help myself, I ordered a Lemon Fennel Muffin for the train. And I happened to find a picture of it:

Photo from newyork.seriouseats.com

Seriously? This is basically two of my favorite things combined in an easily transportable item. I shall be trying to replicate these as well. So good. And such a good eating weekend in NYC. Thanks again, Jo!

Babbo

Photo from restaurantsinnyc.com

(This is the third in a series of posts that recap my weekend in NYC - to see the first two posts, click here and here.)

For dinner on Saturday night, Jo and I went to Mario Batali's Babbo. Batali is also a partner of Eataly, so you could say that Jo and I did our part to contribute to Batali's millions of dollars.

Photo from NYMag.com

This picture is perfect, because you can see exactly where we sat - the last two bar stools at the far end of the bar. Sitting at the bar was perfect; Johnny the bartender was a riot and we were seated next to a former employee of Babbo, who was knowledgeable about the dishes.

Now, most importantly, what we ate (the menu is here):

We started with Grilled Octopus, which were tender, meaty and delicious, and the Winter Vegetable Salad, which was also delicious. (Unfortunately I can't remember what was in it! Should have written it down.)

Pumpkin "Lune" from Babbonyc.com

Then we split two pastas: the Goat Cheese Tortelloni and the Pumpkin "Lune." The tortelloni were fantastic! Creamy goat cheese center, tender fresh pasta and the fennel pollen and orange were subtle, but flavorful complements. The Lune were also delicious. Our waiter shaved an amaretti cookie over the top when he served the dishes. A nice touch, but I couldn't taste the amaretti. But honestly, the pumpkin sage and butter was so delicious, that I didn't miss the amaretti. 

Jo and I also split two side dishes: Roasted Beet "Farrotto" and Babbo Greens. Oh boy, were these great. I have been wanting to try to make farro at home (Giada has a couple recipes for it), but I haven't been able to find it at my normal grocery store. After I found the recipe for the Roasted Beet Farrotto on the Babbo website, I decided a trip to Whole Foods is in the cards this weekend! The earthy beets and the nutty farro worked wonders together. And because of the beets, it was a gorgeous red color! The Babbo Greens were baby bok choy that tasted like they had been sauteed in an agrodolce (sweet and sour) sauce. They were so flavorful. 

For dessert, we split the Pistachio and Chocolate Semifreddo and it showed up with a birthday message and candle!

Apologies for the dark photo; I used my Blackberry

It was the perfect end to a delicious meal! My heartfelt thanks to Jo for a memorable birthday dinner and weekend. 

If you find yourself in NYC and are craving delicious Italian food, give Babbo a try.

Worst. Italian. Restaurant. Ever.

Friends,

I am slightly embarrassed that Marshal Mike and I went to the following restaurant, but I decided that it was so bad that you all had to know not to ever patronize this sorry excuse for a restaurant.

Apparently the translation of Ristorante Murali is "Worst Restaurant Ever." Seriously, we felt like tourists in a foreign country (no, not Italy) that stumbled upon the first restaurant near the train station (or something like that). The decoration is really cheesy and that should have set off my bullshit alarm, but unfortunately my hunger overshadowed my bullshit monitor.

First of all, the glass of Orvieto I ordered tasted like white grape juice. Now, I like white grape juice, but not for $7.50 a glass and not disguised as wine. Then the bread basket arrived:

Really? There are no words.

I love bread. I will eat all bread put in front of my face. I will not eat this bread. It was the whitest, most tasteless carbohydrate block I have ever tasted. There was clearly no salt in the bread dough and the texture was all wrong. The obligatory dish of olive oil did not help it at all.

To start we shared an arugula parmesan salad. It wasn't the best we've ever had, but it certainly wasn't the worst. Things were looking up! Except for the girls sitting next to us. One was telling the other all about her dating exploits. The last guy she went on a date with was obsessed with alien conspiracies. Apparently organized religion exists because humans need to make sense of aliens. What? Oh, and he was short and couldn't hold up a conversation unless he was talking about aliens. And she always wears 4 inch heels, so a short guy with no personality was just not going to cut it. Please stop. Now.

So back to the food. The waitstaff brought my pizza next. I let it sit for a couple minutes in the hope that MM's gnocchi would be quick to follow. No such luck, so we decided we should try the pizza while it was still warm(ish).

 Yes, it is as bad as it looks

As MM so acutely pointed out: "Mama Celeste is in the back and she microwaved this pizza just for you." Oye. This was supposed to be pizza margherita. It was pounds of mozzarella on not that great sauce. The crust, however, was crispy and tasty. Shocking, I know. Pretty much the only redeeming quality of the entire restaurant. We kept thinking we were on one of those trick TV shows, where someone jumps out of the side of the frame exclaiming that we were actually eating frozen food from the supermarket. Aren't we shocked? No, not really.

After we each ate one piece of pizza, MM's gnocchi arrived:

Doesn't even look appetizing...

Oye again. These poor gnocchi do not deserve the name. They were gummy and heavy and had no taste. And the sauce "tasted like they opened a bottle of Ragu and dumped it over the top." (Can you tell MM loved this place, or what?) So he choked down most of the gnocchi (literally making a gagging face as he ate them). We could not get out of there fast enough. The girls next to use were still blabbing about their dating mishaps over coffee. Why you would want to stick around in that place is beyond me.

Moral of the story: if you ever find yourself in the Pentagon City area and are hungry, do not go to Ristorante Murali. Instead, call me, we live very close and I can make you something (anything) that will be better than the crap churned out at this place.

New York

I was in New York City this past weekend spending some QT with my friend, Jo. (Marshal Mike was busy playing Army, so I only saw him sporadically.) We ate at some delicious restaurants, but I didn't take a single picture! I carried my camera the whole weekend and not one picture, which means I will have to recreate our meals with words.

Friday night we had dinner at Blue Ribbon Bakery. It was really delicious. We were seated in their downstairs section (our table was just about right where the photographer stood to take this picture).

(This photo from NYMag.com)

In looking at their menu online, I think it is slightly different from the menu we saw, and I can't really remember what came with each dish. I had the Grilled Red Trout with wild mushrooms, green beans, almonds and bacon. The fish was cooked perfectly and the other components worked really well with it. Marshal Mike had the Filet Mignon with potato cake (the online menu has items that I don't think his dish had) and some delicious sauce. It was truly outstanding, and he orders filet in just about every restaurant we go to. Jo had the Red Snapper special that came with Israeli couscous and vegetables. Also delicious. 

After dinner we went across the street to Blue Ribbon Wine Bar.

I wish it was this empty when we were there! (Also from NYMag.com)

Jo and I had the most amazing cocktail called the Hummingbird (St. Germain, cava and soda) - I am looking forward to trying to recreate it. It was pretty sweet, so we considered it our dessert!

Saturday morning Jo and I went to Colicchio & Sons for brunch. We both had the ricotta and spring vegetable frittata with truffle honey and arugula because it sounded too delicious to pass up. And it sure was. I wish I had a picture of it - a gorgeous golden yellow frittata studded with green vegetables. Yum!

Saturday night we met up at the Modern at MoMA (after walking up and down the street trying to find their super-secret entrance, which isn't actually super-secret, but we had trouble finding it anyway). We sat in the bar area and decided to get a couple small plates to share. But first, the bread. In the bread basket were the most adorable mini-baguettes. A little bit bigger than your finger and oh so delicious. The perfect amount of crusty on the outside, soft and airy on the inside.

So the food. We shared an asparagus salad with arugula, almonds, goat cheese, these weird sorta fried things on top that we decided tasted a little bit like fried eggplant. I think it had some other components too, but my memory fails me. The second starter was an upside down tuna tartare with fennel, cucumber and something else. Luckily, I was able to find a picture:

(From the Amateur Gourmet blog)

The thing on top was crispy, so you had to break it like creme brulee. It was really really delicious. 

Next was Slow Poached Egg "In a Jar" with lobster, asparagus and sea urchin foam:

(Thank you again, Amateur Gourmet)

It was so creative and truly wonderful. Crunchy asparagus, perfect lobster and the egg imparted a subtle creaminess once it was broken. 

Next was grilled scallops with roasted beet jus, hazelnuts and something else I have forgotten. They were also perfect. (Can this place do no wrong?) We ended the night with a coffee caramel dome with raspberry sorbet and amaretto gelee. By this point, I don't need to tell you it was delicious. The only down side was that after we finished our savory courses, it appeared our server had ended his shift or fell into the walk-in or something. He was no where to be seen. (Some other chick brought out dessert.) It took a little wrangling to get our check, but we finally did.

All in all it was a feast of a weekend. When I got home last night I made a pretty disgusting pasta dish from Real Simple: Ravioli with grape tomatoes and wine. Sounds like it should be good. It has wine in it, how could it be bad? Well, don't waste your time with this recipe, the results will underwhelm you.