Category: Reviews

A Tale of Two Italians

It was the best of times (because Italian food has had a twenty year Renaissance), it was the worst of times (because it’s now ubiquitous), it was the age of wisdom (Mario Batali), it was the age of foolishness (Macaroni Grill’s authenticity), it was the epoch of belief (Patron Saint Piero Selvaggio), it was the epoch of incredulity (how does Carraba’s stay in business?), it was the season of Light  (luscious Lambruscos), it was the season of Darkness (Nora’s in bankruptcy), it was the spring of hope (Due Forni/D.O.C.G.), it was the winter of despair (red sauce everywhere), we had everything before us (Italian restaurants everywhere!), we had nothing before us (Italian restaurants everywhere), we were all going direct to (hog) heaven, we were all going direct the other way (Olive Garden hell) – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities (ELV) insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. – Charles Dickens, A Tale Of Two Cities, English novelist (1812-1870)

ELV thinks that about sums it up. He would love to write that he just can’t get enough of the type of Italian food like they serve at the Pasta Shop and Bacio, but truth be told, even though he takes the good with the bad (the yin and yang of Italian eats) as the way things must be, the cuisine’s resurgence over the past twenty years has just about worn him out — even when it’s perfectly serviceable.

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SAMOSA FACTORY – Reviewed in Las Vegas Weekly

ELV note: This article appears in today’s Las Vegas Weekly. Click here to read it in its original format, or continue below for ELV’s (slightly edited, slightly more insulting to vegans) version.

ELV’S VEGAN ADVENTURE

Vegan food is usually about as interesting as the people eating it. Which means, not very. Rabid vegans may get excited about a big dish of steamed mung beans, but in my world, anyone who obsesses over what they won’t eat rates somewhere between a Wal-Mart greeter and an actuarial accountant as a dining companion. The problem, of course, is many people who forswear animal products in their diet are gripped by a certain “fear of food.” This trepidation consumes them to the point where they think the more boring some foodstuff is, the better it must be for them. If more vegans would start recognizing Indian food for its historically non-boring treatment of a pure vegetarian diet, this rift in our relationship could easily be repaired, because, happily, the Indian sub-continent has thousands of years’ experience, and hundreds of spices, to disabuse them of that notion. Even better, all of us have Samosa Factory here to deliver the goods.

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A TAIWAN DELI Breakfast

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ELV knows he’s supposed to start every day with a healthy and hearty breakfast, but ever since he was a mere sprout, he’s never been much up to the task. In his world, breakfast is good for only one thing: thinking about lunch. In this sense, he is quite European (or at least quite French, Italian or Spanish), as those eating cultures eschew, rather than chew, much food before the noon hour.

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