SUSHI JUMPS THE SHARK (Part Deux)
Sushi Samba in The Palazzo is practically the poster restaurant for how bastardized sushi and sashimi menus have become. Is it a Japanese restaurant? A Brazilian churrascaria? A Peruvian-fusion ceviche joint? Who knows? You certainly won’t after a meal there, and ELV couldn’t figure it out after three.
Tune in October 5th (a week from this Sunday night) at 9:00 pm PDT to the Food Network to see me and my fellow Food Network judges eat more (insert secret ingredient here) than any person should consume in a decade.
And if you’d really like to have some fun, join Robin Leach, NORM! and Channel 8’s Denise Valdez and yours truly at Marche Bacchus for a special Viewing/Dinner/Competitive Cooking Party starting at 6:00 that evening. Seating is limited, so call 702.804.8008 to reserve your chance to critique the critic critiquing (and eat and drink like a Burgundian Duke.)
Marche Bacchus Chef Jean-David Groff Daudet will be doing his own riffs on this ingredient in competition with a very prominent local chef whose identity (like the winner of the competition) we are forbidden from revealing.
Be advised: This may turn into a full contact battle of wits, so brickbats, bad puns and rotten tomatoes will be checked at the door. When the producers first sprang the “secret ingredient” on us in Kitchen Stadium, ELV must admit there was a bit of a letdown…..but the chefs — Iron Chef Michael Symon and David Adjey from Toronto — pulled off some stunning dishes.
MARCHE BACCHUS
2620 Regatta Drive #106
Las Vegas, NV 89128
702.804.8008
It may seem incongruous to some, but it’s pretty much a given that the two best Mexican restaurants In America are Topolobampo in Chicago (founded by chef/owner Rick Bayless — a guy from Oklahoma) and the Border Grill in Santa Monica (owned by a couple of gringo-white, California gals named Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken). Why more chefs/restaurateurs don’t try to duplicate the passion for authenticity found in these two places is a puzzlement to ELV, but we’re just glad someone in America has brought faithful renditions of this marvelous cuisine north of the border.
Added non-food-related bonus: Thanks to a groovy re-design by assemblageStudio, you can now enjoy all this organic, true-to-its-roots food amongst rammed earth subsoil paneling (whatever the hell that is.) ELV is no arch-i-teck, but assemblageStudio’s Eric Strain (an Official Friend of ELV) is, and if he tells us this textured decor method (?) dates to the days of the Anasazi, we believe him and assume this must be a good thing.