Category: Food

Tacos on a Different Level

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We’ve taken our time with Desnudo Tacos.

We didn’t rush to go there when it opened back in early December, and have taken our good sweet time in taking the measure of the place.

Maybe it was our inherent anti-taco temperament, cynical street food snobbishness and predisposition to dislike endless south of the border permutations that made us more circumspect. It was those, of course, combined with our (usual) quick draw readiness to dismiss yet another trite, hipster, downmarket “joint” that promises more than it delivers.

So you might say we were lying in wait for it. Ready with sharpened keyboard(?)  to vivisect everything from the recipes to the lighting fixtures.

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The Single Greatest Bite of Food We Had in 2013

ELV note: In honor of Cathy’s comment in the previous post, our staff thought it best if we tidy up our year-end business (and start the New Year out right) by making good on our promise to highlight The Single Greatest Bite of Food We Had in 2013. And the beeg weiner is…..

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Yes, these crispy, crunchy, chewy, bittersweet, almost burnt buttons of shellacked shell without, custard-y goodness within, are the ne plus ultra of French confections and no one does them better than Restaurant Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace.

We fell in love with canelés de Bordeaux over ten years ago when we stumbled upon a pastry shop on the Right Bank of Paris (France, not Tennessee) that specialized in them. Now, anytime we see them we swoon with delight. It’s a textural thing that makes them so special — a caramelized (almost burnt) exterior giving way to an unctuous, vanilla custard center — all in the span of a tiny cake-like object about half the size of the human thumb.  Such contrast of tastes and textures in so small a package is a miracle of pastry making that only the French have mastered.

We were honored to be able to give the induction speech of Mon. Guy Savoy into the American Gaming Hall of Fame this past November, and we celebrated with nibbling on these (and more than a few of Guy’s and Mathieu Chartron’s autumnal concoctions) later that evening.

If there’s a better way to spend an eating and drinking night in Las Vegas, we can’t think of it.

And if there’s a better bite of food on the planet….we doubt it.

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