Mango & Tomato: las vegas

4/22/09

Vegas: Jean-Philippe

I've done quite a bit of cooking over the weekend, and made a really simple and delicious pizza at home last night. Alas, all my photographs are inside my camera. And as much as I'd love to believe that you are reading each and every single one of my words, I know that a lot of you are here for the photos (I do the same thing, no worries!).

And so instead of sharing my latest and greatest recipes with you, for now I'll share a few photos from Jean-Philippe in Belagio in Vegas.

ooh, a chocolate fountain! how tempting is it to just stick your finger under the chocolate? and look at the big chocolate egg and boat creations! and a gorgeous variety of individual desserts!

and then there was a crepe station

Lera and I got crepes with Nutella and whipped cream. They were pretty good and ginormous! We could have easily split one. Alas, they weren't nearly as good or inexpensive as the crepes I had in Paris during my February trip there three years ago with Anna and Jen....ooh the memories!

4/11/09

Vegas: Cafe Baba Reeba

Here's a quick recap of our first meal in Vegas: Happy Hour at Cafe Baba Reeba.

My plane landed early, but then we were made to sit on the ground (ok, we were inside the plane, but the plane was on the ground) for almost an hour. By the time I finally got my bags, took a shuttle to the hotel and met up with Lera and Anna we were starving! Luckily, Cafe Baba Reeba was within five minutes of our hotel and had Happy Hour specials!

We started with sangria, which came in at least 5 different flavors, and then followed up with a bunch of tapas. I thought the food was good, but my super food-picky-friends thought it was rather mediocre. But we agreed on the merits of the sangria. By the way, you can see Lera in the first photo :)

We started with complimentary bread and olive oil followed by stuffed figs wrapped in bacon. I think that was one of our favorite choices!

We then had fried calamari (yum!) and chicken skewers. I must say the portions were rather on a tiny side!

I feel that we also might have ordered a few other small plates, but my memory is not exact now.

Would I recommend this place? Sure, but don't go in with really high expectations. What are your favorite tapas?

4/9/09

Vegas: Dim Sum

Here's another long-awaited write up of where I dined while in Las Vegas.

Most of the places we ate at were directly on the strip. One of Anna's friends, however, recommended we go off the beaten path to Chang's Hong Kong Cuisine for dim sum. We took a cab there and walked on the way back (we needed the walk to work off some of the calories from our brunch!).

I love dim sum and have had great dim sum in Seattle, San Francisco, New York and DC. I was curious to see what Las Vegas had to offer. Anna's friend Jen happened to be in Vegas at the same times and joined us! There were 4 hungry girls ready to eat!

First we tried the typical shrimp and pork dumplings. Delicious!

We then ordered meat balls and greens! I love the greens they serve at dim sum, and eating them makes me feel like I'm doing something healthy :)

I've never had eggplant at dim sum restaurants, but absolutely loved it! The scallion balls were just okay.

BBQ pork buns are some of my favorite things to order while at dim sum restaurant, and these did not disappoint. Lera saved one of the buns and carried it all the way back to the hotel, where it sat in the refrigerator till the next day :) Lera also encouraged us to order taro dim sum. I was a bit skeptical, but absolutely loved it: it's like a starchier version of potato, and I love potatoes!

The meal was only $10 each! If you are in Vegas, definitely visit this restaurant.

4/3/09

Vegas: Strip Burger

Hi! Have you missed me? I've missed you! I'm back from Vegas, older, smarter and wiser (if only). Instead of posting my food reviews in a chronological order, I decided to do it randomly.

Thus, first on the list is dinner at Strip Burger, recommended by my friend Stephanie. The restaurant was 5 minutes away from our hotel, which was a real plus. Lera did not feel like eating, so it was just Anna and I (and me?) for dinner. The menu was very reasonable, and since we were planning on going salsa dancing at 11pm and it was already 9 pm, we quickly decided what to order.

[Side note: Anna and I are twins. But that doesn't mean we have the same taste. Well, in most things we do, but not in soda: Anna likes Diet Coke, I like Diet Pepsi. This time Anna was the lucky girl because the restaurant served Coke products.]

In honor of Jenny, I ordered mushroom cheddar burger - melted Wisconsin cheddar & sautéed mushrooms and a side of fried pickles. Anna ordered green chili cheeseburger - roasted green chilies, pepper jack cheese and a side of sweet potato fries.

I thought our orders would never come. But eventually the food was delivered to our table. It looked and smelled amazing! And of course we shared the food 50/50.

The burgers were perfectly cooked, juicy, and the toppings were just right! The pickles were a bit thinner than I would have preferred, but they were fried, so I did not care! The fries (in my opinion) were good, but Anna thought they lacked spice.

Overall this was a great meal! We even brought some leftover fries and pickles for Lera. And I'm sure we've burned at least 1/100th of the calories at the salsa club! :)

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