Author: John Curtas

Summer Dish Review – Uni in Dashi Gelee at YONAKA

 Depending on who you talk to, the season for uni (sea urchins) is either in June and March, or August, September and October.

Which means  the correct time to eat these porcupines of the sea is either when the weather is hot, or cool, or hot and about to get cool.

Confused? Well, join the club.

All we know is we like to eat these gonads (yes, you are eating the testicles of a sea urchin) whenever they’re swollen (mating season!) and when they taste of the sweet, briny sea — not of a muddy, brackish tidal pool.

We also know we love them whenever Ramir DeCastro is whipping them into shape at Yonaka.

And when he decides to encase them in a dashi gelée, and serve it with a piquant calamansi creme fraiche — accompanied by little bundles of Alaskan king crab (wrapped in uni crepes)  —  you know you have about the most ingenious little surf & surf & surf jelly plate on the planet.

About everything DeCastro does floats our boat, but these were something special…and a good measure of just how sophisticated tastes have gotten out in the ‘burbs.

YONAKA MODERN JAPANESE

http://www.yonakajapaneserestaurant.com/

Summer Dish Review – King Crab “Salad” at L’ATELIER DE JOEL ROBUCHON

You know you want it. You know you need it.

You know you gotta have it.

Oh yes you do.

One look at Joël Robuchon’s panko-crusted crab leg salad will make you think you’re in an upscale Japanese restaurant on the Ginza in Tokyo.

One bite will have you wondering Steve Benjamin and his crew can get things so perfect every time.

Perfectly crunchy; perfectly cooked; perfectly dressed and perfectly dotted with perfect dots of herbal and spice oils.

Japanese technique married to French sensibilities. (Or is it the other way around?)

No matter how you slice it, it’s perfect.

L’ATELIER DE JOËL ROBUCHON

https://www.mgmgrand.com/en/restaurants/latelier-joel-robuchon-french-restaurant.html

Summer Dish Review – The Breads of DELICES GOURMANDS

 If Delices Gourmands French Bakery was in France, it would be called a boulangerie. True, it does some pastries (and they are trés jolie), and the savories like crepes and quiches make for a mighty fine quick dejeuner, but what sets this place apart are its breads.

Each sourdough loaf, country boule or baguette has pretty much taken our breath away with its crispiness, it’s crunchiness, its crumb and its sourness.

This is real bread, the French way, which is to say the only way.

The French mastered the art of leavening bread when other cultures were still throwing sticks at each other, and there is nothing quite like tearing off a piece of a still warm loaf and luxuriating in its steam and tang. Crunch leading to soft. Sweet leading to sour.

We’ve gotten so addicted to these breads that we’ve taken to buying and eating them whole on the same day.

Which is the only proper way.

Which is to say, the French way.

DELICES GOURMANDS FRENCH BAKERY & CAFÉ

3620 West Sahara Ave.

Las Vegas, NV 89102

702.331.2526

https://www.facebook.com/Delices-Gourmands-French-Bakery-1705532989727028/