Category: Food

(End of) Summer Dish Review – Linguine with Clams at FIAMMA

 Getting a local into the MGM to eat is harder than getting a Donald Trump supporter to read something.

But there’s a dedicated chef there – Pawan Pinisetti – who is producing a panoply of prettified plates (at Fiamma) predestined to presume prize-worthy preeminence among perspicacious and pulchritudinous pasta pacesetters.

Case in point: Pinisetti’s linguine with clams, which had us palpitant with pleasure.

Gorgeous, colorful, rich and silky, it is chock full of the little bivalves and packs more than a little amount of heat.

Maybe it’s the butter? Maybe it’s that spice? But most certainly it is all those clams that make it the best version of this dish we’ve ever had 250 miles from the nearest body of salt water.

It’s also the best looking version of this dish we’ve had, anywhere.

 FIAMMA

https://www.mgmgrand.com/en/restaurants/fiamma-italian-restaurant-bar.html#/Gallery

(End of) Summer Dish Review – Tofu at YUZU JAPANESE KITCHEN

With Summer on the wane, and  triple digit temperatures about to go the way of truth in political advertising (at least until next June), we will end our tour of our favorite summer dishes with a flourish over the next 2 days — and highlight plates of food (and restaurants) that astonished our picky palate over the past three months.

Case in point: the house-made tofu at Yuzu Japanese Kitchen. So warm and nutty and fresh, it took me straight back to Tokyo.

Yuzu is one of those places I had heard about, wasn’t in any hurry to try.

Why? Because it’s on Silverado Ranch Road in southeast Las Vegas. A neighborhood which is to tasty food what Mitchell Wilburn is to sobriety.

Everyone in town knows that getting me east of the Strip and south of Russell Road is harder than getting Donald Trump to read a teleprompter, but go there we did, and most impressed we were.

It was a quick meal on a week night, so we didn’t get to take the full measure of the place, but the sashimi platter was first rate, and this eel stew:

 …provided just the right respite from the summer heat, despite its authentic eel-i-ness.

(The Japanese believe the vitamin-rich unagi (fresh water eel) is just the thing to alleviate summer suffering. It is what you are supposed to eat on the Day of the Ox – usually around July 30 – to aid in your strength and vitality in the hot weather months.)

We missed the Day of the Ox by a couple of weeks, but the dish was so enticing in its simmered eel-rich broth, that we can’t wait to see what chef Azeuchi-san will whip up for his kaiseki menu.

As good as those were, though, what really knocked us out was his tofu. This is as far from the bland blob you’re used to as Tokyo is from Tonopah. When done right, fresh tofu achieves a subtle, malt-like nuttiness (and elusive richness) that compels bite after bite. This tofu was done right.

As I’ve written before, one of the most admirable things about the Japanese chef mindset is the dedication to getting it right. Not getting it close to right, or right enough to get by, or close enough for government work, but really, really right.

Perfection is, of course, elusive and impossible, but the Japanese think striving for it is an art (and religion) of its own.

You get the feeling when you sit down here, and take a bite of that tofu,  that Azeuchi-san is striving for it.

YUZU JAPANESE KITCHEN

http://www.yuzujapanesekitchen.com/

Hoes With Hoes! Only In Nevada

http://photos.legendsofamerica.com/img/s3/v41/p779785329-4.jpg(Secretly, she’d rather be plowing instead of getting plowed)

ELV note: File this under “Only In Nevada.” The following showed up in our in-box today, and is a head-scratcher to say the least. Because even though we have nothing against plowing the fertile fields of womanhood at Sheri’s Ranch, we think a hoedown of this sort might get distracted by the blowing of stiff winds and turgid plantings that ripely breed in the luscious fecundity of mother nature’s bosom.

Not only that, but since when did whores get into agriculture?

Read it and weep:

Sheri’s Ranch announces a joint venture with Commissioner Dan Schinhofen of Nye County

(Pahrump, Nevada / September 12, 2016) – Las Vegas’ closest legal brothel and resort, Sheri’s Ranch and Commissioner Dan Schinhofen of Nye County are working together to develop 100 acres of existing land owned by Sheri’s Ranch for a non-profit community agricultural farm over the next several years.

The initial project will include a 20-acre area of land for a vegetable garden. Mr. Schinhofen stated that “all sale proceeds or crops themselves will go to benefit the homeless people, veterans and seniors of Pahrump.”  Sheri’s Ranch is providing the land, water, security and the initial funds to insure the success of this joint project. Also, Civil Wise Engineering, located in Pahrump is donating its time and labor to provide civil engineering plans for the project.

“Commissioner Schinhofen has spent his free time arranging the equipment and volunteers to get the grading started,” said Sheri’s Ranch owner Chuck Lee, former Chicago detective. “We are pleased with the Commissioner’s plan to help the community and his pledge to continue to support this ongoing project,” Mr. Lee adds.

Future plans will consist of a 20-acre fruit tree orchard; a 10-acre fish pond for commercial sale and 50 acres for growing alfalfa.  All revenue for this project will go to support the lower income residential community of Pahrump.  Local residents and area businesses in Nye County have volunteered their time to handle all the crops, revenue and disbursement.

To support this project, “Sheri’s Ranch is currently installing a 5,000 gallon water tank for the initial phase of the project” Mr. Lee stated. “This project is a truly homegrown, community-driven endeavor that we can’t wait to see come to fruition” he added.

ABOUT SHERI’S RANCH

Located in Pahrump, Nevada, sixty miles west of Las Vegas, Sheri’s Ranch is Nevada’s first and only full-service legal sex resort. The Ranch was purchased by former Chicago homicide detective Chuck Lee in 2001 and was remodeled into a fantasyland of bungalows and specialty rooms with a variety of titillating themes. With a hotel and restaurant on the property, Lee and his exemplary staff have taken great care to maintain a resort playground with the clients’ safety, privacy, and satisfaction in mind.

The mind reels.