On with the Vegas recap! As you may have guessed, food was a major focus on this trip. Our first night, we ate at rumjungle in Mandalay Bay, which is one of the few restaurants in Vegas that I repeatedly visit thanks to them having the greatest pineapple-coconut rice ever. My travel companions indulged in the Brazilian fire pit all-you-can-eat insanity, which meant there were spits of meat being carted to our table every 10 minutes. I chose to focus on the rice in anticipation of our next adventure...
The dessert prix-fixe menu at Payard Bistro in Caesar's Palace...that's right, three courses of dessert. It's like Chef Payard can read my mind. We spaced our dinner and dessert three hours apart, but it still wasn't quite enough. Still, we knew we must power through and show our support for a menu devoted entirely to dessert.
So what did we have? Well, each of us got to choose any three desserts off the menu, which was separated into four categories: Harmonie de Fromages et Fruits, The Orchard, Tout Chocolat, and (my favorite) Coffee, Caramel & Nuts. There were 17 choices...I was in heaven. Here's my personal menu:
Course 1: Seared Pineapple with Thyme, Tapioca & Coconut Sorbet and it's appropriate wine pairing (I mentioned heaven, yes?). Never has a piece of fruit with a scoop of sorbet been so delicious.
Course 2: Coffee Éclair, Milk Chocolate Mousse & Flaky Sablé. (Sorry about the poor photo quality, we were trying not to draw attention to the fact that we were photographing our food.) Not only was this beautiful, it was perfect. I wanted to eat it all, but was worried I wouldn't be able to fit in the final dessert.
Course 3: Devil’s Food Cake, Cardamom Pot de Crème, Chocolate Pudding & Whipped Crème Fraîche (those are fancy Rice Krispies in the bowl). This photo really doesn't do justice to how amazingly delicious this was.
Yeah, so all that was just the first night.
Our second day in Vegas we played it a bit more casual, getting in some much needed reading-by-the-pool time and then heading to the casino where I won $113 on a penny slot machine!!!!! That never happens to me...it's taken me eight trips to Vegas to finally learn that it really is better to bet the max number of lines on each spin. Or maybe I always knew that but was too scared to lose my precious pennies and nickels to bet big (you know, 60 cents vs. 5 cents). Anyway, winning is awesome.
We ended day two by seeing the Dropkick Murphys play poolside at the Hard Rock. I know I am old because all I kept thinking was what a huge liability it must be to put a punk band and a mass of drunken fans next to a pool. The men folk in our group headed off for the pit (despite me reminding them they were too old), while Rachel and I lucked upon one of the poolside beds, which we stood on and got a clear view of the entire show. Nice. I even picked up little band T-shirts for my boys, who are big fans.
Day three started with a little more reading-by-the-pool time (btw, I was reading "Service Included" by Phoebe Damrosch, which I finished on the plane and loved), then back to the Strip, where I won $121 on my favorite nickel slots, The Price is Right!! Oh, how I love Plinko. It was going to be a good day. We came up with a plan in which I would play slots to make money and my husband would sit at the bar, where at least he was only spending $10 every half hour vs. losing $100 in 10 minutes at the craps table.
And this, my friends, brings us back to Craftsteak, the perfect end to a fabulous trip. (Well, okay, I also got up at 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning and went down to play some Monopoly slots, but the image of the gourmet dinner seems like a better ending than me sitting in the empty Star Trek-themed casino in the LV Hilton on a Sunday morning.)
In the name of fiscal responsibility, I have now sworn off Las Vegas until 2010...we'll see how that goes.
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