KLAS TV Channel 8 (CBS) Restaurant of the Week-PAYARD BISTRO and PATISSERIE

HAPPY (belated) FOURTH OF JULY! Since hot dogs and badly-grilled burgers aren’t EatingLV.com’s thing, we thought we’d provide a patriotic history lesson with this week’s featured restaurant. We’ve chosen a French restaurant as our ROTW on our nation’s birthday because:

1) There would be no Independence Day if the French government hadn’t supplied the Continental Congress and Army with money, food, arms, clothing, ships and soldiers during the Revolutionary War;

2) The American flag is red, white, and blue as a tribute to France (and its flag) and its contribution to our independence;

3) The French gave us the Statue of Liberty;

4) Without France, there would be no: restaurants (which is a French word and a French invention), napoleons, eclairs, croque monsieur, crepes, omelettes, eggs Benedict, souffles, creme brulee, profiteroles, Roquefort, madeleines, bouillabaisse, French bread, French cheese, French fries, French wine or French pastries. Not to mention rouget barbet en ecailles de pommes de terre crousillantes or pigeon en feuillete au chou nouveau et au foie gras. Finally, and most importantly;

5) Without the French, we’d all have pasty complexions and bad teeth and still be eating flavorless food with names like toad in the hole and spotted dick.

So let’s celebrate the Fourth (and the Fourteenth – Bastille Day) in style, and give thanks to our beloved sister country that has given, and continues to give us, loads of good grub and guys who can cook it. And here’s a look at our best French bistro, presided over by the estimable Francois Payard (and his able lieutenant –
Gregory Gorreau) – two of the best chefs in America, and two guys who know how to run a top notch eatery & pastry shop.

KLAS TV Channel 8 (CBS) Restaurant of the Week-MAINLAND (in the Palazzo)

This groove-filled spaceship of awesome Asian cuisine inside the otherwise predictable Palazzo has got serious personality. And, as we know, personality goes a long way. Watch us explicate the merits of this well-worthy noodle joint on KLAS in his latest segment of Restaurant of the Week.

Click below to see the man, the gourmand, the myth….and a guy who talks too much with his hands….(with his second favorite food gal-Denise Valdez.)

KLAS TV Channel 8 (CBS) Restaurant(s) of the Week-DONG TING SPRING and YUN NAN GARDEN

Authentic, fiery, funky and fresh Chinese appeals to the average American palate about as much as a plate of lutefisk. But right next door to each other on Schiff Dr. (just south of Valley View and Spring Mountain Rd.) are two such places that are packed nightly with fellow Asian travelers who know and appreciate the real Magillicuddy in these things.

Dong Ting Spring features the cured pork and dried chili specialties of Hunan Province, along with more than a few chili-covered fresh fish dishes and hotpots that seem to pop up on every table.

Yun Nan Garden is from the region bordering Myanmar, Tibet, Vietnam and Laos, and is known for its polyglot of ethnic minorities and a cuisine that reflects influences from all of them. The food at both is not for the timid, and together they pack a one-two punch of hot and spicy goodness that took me straight back to Hong Kong.

Both are squeaky clean and modern (at least by the standards of most Chinatown places), and have young bilingual staffs that are unfailingly polite. Be prepared to feel like a fish out of water, and also be firm when they try to steer you to the round-eye friendly portion of the menu. Aficianodos of Kung Pao chicken and sweet and sour pork need not apply.

Each restaurant has English translations of dishes that for decades were only printed in Chinese characters on the walls of places in cities with large, established Chinatowns. Thus were some of the true tastes of the world’s greatest cuisine inaccessible to the adverturesome haolie….until now!

DONG TING SPRING

3950 Schiff Dr.

Las Vegas, NV 89103

702.437.7888

YUN NAN GARDEN

3934 Schiff Dr.

Las Vegas, NV 89103

702.869.8885