Viva Las Vegas

During the week I went with my mom to Las Vegas for the first time, which I was super excited for because Las Vegas is one city known for its restaurants.  There are famous chefs out there such as Wolfgang Puck, Thomas Keller, Michael Mina, Emeril.. and that is not even half of them!  So from a foodie's point of view, Vegas is bound to be an amazing culinary experience.  I would like to share the two dining experiences, one good and one bad, that I had while I was in the Sin City.


The first dining experience, and by far the best, that I would like to share would be Mesa Grill which is  Bobby Flay's restaurant located in Caesar's Palace.  Both my mom and I decided that it would be most sensible to both order salads and then share two appetizers.  The first course that we had was sort of a play-off of a Caesar salad, which made sense considering its location.  It was a romaine salad with a tangy garlic dressing, spicy chorizo, and the largest croutons I have ever laid my eyes on.  We couldn't have chosen two better appetizers to share for our second course.  One of the two appetizers was a blue corn pancake filled with rich, savory pieces of duck and topped with a bitter micro-salad which cut the richness of the dish.  The second appetizer was a smoked chicken and black bean quasadilla topped with gooey cheese and the best sauce I have ever had.  The sauce was a smokey, spicy chile based creme fraiche sauce.  I was highly impressed with Mesa Grill and would definitely return to try other items on their menu.


Now for the worst food experience that I had in Vegas, and maybe the worst experience I have had in my life.  The Firecracker Burger from the Skybox restaurant in the Aria hotel was both horrifying and painful. A magazine from the airplane described the burger very innacurately saying that it was "spicy" and to "only approach with caution."  Both me and my mom craved this burger during out whole trip, but was not aware of just how evil that burger was.  When my mom and I ordered the Firecracker burger our waiter was baffled and could not believe that two women would even consider ordering this burger.  Not only was the burger been described as extremely hot but it was even called "unenjoyable."  Despite those warnings, my mom and I ordered one and decided we would split  it along with some fries.  When the burger came I should have known that it was going to be bad when the color of the meat was red and not brown.  I took the first bite and an instant burning exploded in not only  my mouth but down my throat.  My mom described my face as being horrified and in pain, and I had tears streaming down my face.  She took her first bite and immediately decided that she did not want to eat any more of that burger of fire.  I had thought that maybe if I drenched my burger in ketchup that it would take some of the heat out, but I was so very wrong.  Another waitress walked over to us and asked if we wanted them taken away, and we both quickly shouted "YES!" Unfortunately, we still had to pay for the Firecracker Burger along with the "normal" burger we ordered in replacement. My lesson I learned is to always listen to the waiter.  If he/she says to not order it.. LISTEN!  After returning back to my mom's house where I can research this burger, I found out that this burger was marinated with the bhut jolokia chili, which in 2007 was named the HOTTEST chili in the world by Guinness Book of World Records.


I hope to return to Vegas again many times until I have eaten at every restaurant possible.

Hello fellow readers!..

We all know that the first step to recovery is to admit to your problem.  Well, I am going to admit to mine..

I am a foodie..

I love eating, cooking, baking, smelling, looking at food.. anything that you can do with food I am in!  Ever since I can remember (way back before my days in culinary school) my dream job would be to eat food and write about it and now is the day that I am going to start writing about my food experiences that I have (good or bad).  This includes restaurant I go to or even experimenting with my own cooking.

We shall see how this plays out..