Category: Chefs

Summer Dish Review – Beef with Polenta at MARCHE BACCHUS

Okay, okay, medallions of beef with polenta (topped with some luscious crème fraîche) are about as summery as December in Denmark, but that’s what Chef José Aleman sent to our table one sweltering Sunday in June.

But to our astonishment, it hit all the right notes: peppered tenderloin, cooked just right and accented with an intense demi-glaze, creamy/corny polenta, and smooth-sour cream.

Protein, dairy and starch in pitch perfect harmony.

Perhaps José saw the sassy, perfumed Volnay we were drinking that day (lightly chilled, of course, like we do with all our reds during a Vegas summer), and thought it would make for a great match. Or maybe he thought it would marry well with the off-dry Thanisch Riesling we were also sipping.

Either way he would be correct. Because nothing goes better with beef than Burgundy, but rich white wines – even slightly sweet ones – go great with it too.

But you knew that.

Or at least now you do.

MARCHE BACCHUS

http://www.marchebacchus.com/

Summer Dish Review – Sushi at YUI EDOMAE SUSHI

 It doesn’t get any better in our humble burg.

Not the fish. Not the slicing. Not the passion nor the authenticity.

It’s sushi the real way. The Japanese way. The Tokyo way.

The reason Yui Edomae Sushi is so good is because it’s not on the Strip.

It doesn’t have a phalanx of sushi chefs, nor does it serve 300 customers at night.

Any true sushi chef in Japan would be appalled at the prospect of serving 300 customers a night. (They do those kinds of numbers at the Tsukiji sushi bars, but those are more like sushi factories for tourists.)

In a true sushi bar, you have a relationship with your sushi chef. He asks you what you like (or tells you what is best), and the two of you work out your meal together – as the chef (who wants to please his customer) communicates, sometimes non-verbally, with a client who puts his trust in the chef’s talents.

True sushi eating is based upon appreciation – for the purity of the rice to the knife skills of the chef to the magnificence of the animals that gave their lives for your meal.

It is the closest thing to a zen-like experience you can have while eating.

It is not for wimps and it’s not for cowards and it’s not for cheapskates.

But once you give yourself over to the experience, you achieve a higher-state of eating consciousness than you do in any other form of sating your hunger.

It is the sushi way. It is the Japanese way. It is the way of Gen-san at Yui.

All of us would be better off if we ate this way more often.

YUI EDOMAE SUSHI

http://www.yuisushi.com/

Summer Dish Review – Squash Blossom Omelette at PUBLICUS

Apotheosis: a·poth·e·o·sis

əˌpäTHēˈōsəs/

noun

noun: apotheosis; plural noun: apotheoses

 

the highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax.

“his appearance as Hamlet was the apotheosis of his career”

the elevation of someone to divine status; deification.

In other words, what Chef Shawn Giordano does with a flat omelette at PublicUs — basting it in butter and festooning it with onion jam and squash blossoms.

It is the exaltation of the egg, if you will; the glorification of all that is fresh, silky, sensual, savory and sweet about a summer solstice or sunny sustenance.

It’s also the best goddamned egg dish we’ve had in a coon’s age.

PUBLICUS

http://www.publicuslv.com/