Archive for the ‘Wine’
Eat This Now – Steak Tartare at CARNEVINO
This is a steak-y, onion-y, tartare, not a spicy steak tartare.
It is a raw beef lovers dream. Big chunky prime, full of sweet, mineral-rich goodness.
If someone had told us it is best paired with a medium-bodied, slightly sweet, $20 bottle of Golden Muscat from the Alto Adige (ALL-toe AH-dee-jay), we would’ve told them to get their head examined.
Italian Smackdown – SIRIO v. CIRCO
The question needs to be asked: Which is the better Italian restaurant: Circo or Sirio?
The answer is: It depends.
If it’s top flight Italian cheeses and salumi you’re after, Sirio gets the nod. Lamb chops have you licking your chops? Then you won’t find better ones than Chef Vincenzo Scarmiglia’s Pecorino Romano crusted loin ones at Sirio.
EATALY is Awesome…and other New York Stories
The trouble with traveling to New York is, you’re usually with people who are under the impression there are things to do there other than eat and drink. – ELV
New York is the greatest restaurant city in the world. – Daniel Boulud
Everyone knows ELV hearts New York City. He’s from Connecticut, lived an hour’s drive from mid-town for five years back in the 80s, and knows the restaurant territory there almost as well as he does Las Vegas’. Amazingly, after at least a hundred trips there, he still gets a tingle whenever he’s awakened from his red-eye slumber to see the sun rising over Manhattan (“Ah, civilization!” are the words and thoughts that immediately spring to his mind.):
After checking in to the Gansevoort Hotel, smack dab in the middle of the meat-packing district, we considered polishing off our hunger at Pastis (right out our window):
ELV’s Usual Friday Libations
ELV’s had a tough week. And by “tough” he means working on his tan, enduring the heat, and dealing with all those pesky bill collectors….reason enough to crack these open* on a humid, lazy Friday, wouldn’t you agree?
* We’re kidding of course. Drinking red wine of this caliber in Vegas in August makes about as much sense as having a weenie roast on your roof at noon. Truth be told, we lose our craving for vin rouge in late May and don’t recover it until early October. Not everyone feels this way, as the above panoply of trophy wines demonstrates. They come from a collector who had them shipped to Comme Ça for a private dinner there a few weeks ago. Go figure.
What’s Wrong with this Picture?
The fellow pictured above is named Robert Smith. Boring name that. So boring in fact, ELV thinks his name been working against him when it comes to his (not yet) winning a James Beard Award for having the best wine program in the nation. ELV thinks if his name was Shirley Yamamoto or Rampun Anamanawannamoana he would’ve garnered one by now.
Williams Selyem Wine Dinner at TUSCANY KITCHEN
When Ed Selyem and Burt Williams sold their award-winning winery to John and Kathe Dyson in 1998, a shudder and a sigh went through the California wine world. Here were two of the original California garagistes — their original vintages, starting in 1981, were literally made in a two-car garage — selling out…and to a New Yorker nonetheless! Napa may have eventually developed its Harlans and Screaming Eagles into cult wine status, but a decade before they became coveted, Williams Selyem’s single vineyard pinot noirs had every California collector begging to get on its mailing list. The fact that the winery was so modest, and output so small, only added to its prestige.
Drunk Driving Dissertation
The only people who have never driven drunk, are those who don’t drink, or those who don’t drive. – ELV
ELV is taking credit for the above statement, even though the truth of it is known (and uttered at one time or another) by every judge, cop, prosecutor and defense lawyer in the land. Years ago, when we were sitting as an Alternate Municipal Court Judge in the City of Las Vegas courts, we heard many a drunk driving case. A decade before that, as a Public Defender and then a criminal defense lawyer, we represented hundreds of DUI (driving under the influence) or DWI (driving while intoxicated) cases. John A. Curtas has also driven while drunk on dozens of occasions…in at least four states he can think of. Only by the divine hand of Providence, karma, or just plain dumb luck, has he never been “pinched” for an offense.
Let’s TWIST Again, Around the Pride of Glenmorangie
Is Twist the best restaurant in town? It certainly is the most interesting on any given night. Everything about the place seems designed to make your senses pop as you partake of Chef-Proprietaire Pierre Gagnaire and Chef de Cuisine Pascal Sanchez’s extraordinary cuisine. That cuisine both soothing and challenging, familiar and cerebral — no easy feat — and it leaves everyone from seasoned gastronomes to neophyte noshers scratching their heads in wonder and patting their tummies in satisfaction.
The meal above, from the sparkling amuse bouche at the beginning to the light-as-air meringue sticks that ended it, was textbook Gagnaire — mixing oysters with cheese and pea puree in one dish, radishes with raspberries in another, then perfectly cooking a slab of pristine halibut and delicately-spiced lamb chops. We didn’t take the time to dissect every dish — having done that on more than one occasion — but, for once, just sat back and enjoyed the ride. We did, however, remember to take a few tasty snaps for you delectation.
Something it was impossible not to pay close attention to was a dinner a few nights later, featuring the international unveiling of Glenmorangie’s Pride 1981 Scotch whisky, paired with Gagnaire’s cuisine:
We were compelled to attend and riveted for two reasons: we don’t much like scotch and we really don’t like the idea of pairing it with food.
But darned if Gagnaire and Glenmorangie’s Head of Distilling Dr. Bill Lumsden didn’t make a convert out of us….sort of.
It wasn’t that the scotch wasn’t good. In fact, to this non-scotch-loving buds, it was perhaps the best we’ve ever tasted…which is a little like a sports fan saying that’s the most exciting WNBA game he’s ever seen.
We’re kidding, of course. Sort of. The Glenmorangie Lasanta, aged for twelve years in sherry casks, was our favorite. It smelled like toffee and tasted like a sherry-infused trifle, and seemed like the perfect introductory scotch for an old bourbon-drinkin’ frat boy like yours truly. Unfortunately, despite its almost, dessert wine-like finish, it, like most of the other bottles, obliterated the taste of Gagnaire’s food. We admired his attempt to match this most un-matchable of spirits with scallops in a sherry/espellette/melon-flavored beurre blanc, but the alcohol and intensity of Glenmorangie’s most un-intense, fruity scotch still overpowered the eats.
So, instead of concentrating on whether the food and spirit marriages worked, we found it more enjoyable to enjoy them both on their own terms — and on those terms, everything was splendid, indeed.
Lumsden’s unveiling of Pride 1981 was impressive, both for the national food and spirits press in attendance, and the singular, special glass we were given for the tasting. That covered glass held in the brandy-like aromas and intensified what can only be described as an ambrosial, sweet, deep, heady, apple tart perfume of the booze. It was so smooth the alcohol became superfluous, and in a blind tasting, ELV would’ve pegged it as an XO cognac. In other words, it was so good we could imagine sipping it on a regular basis as our go-to, post-prandial cordial, but at 113 proof, and $3,600 bottle, with only 1,00o bottles made, we doubt we’ll be cracking one open anytime soon.
Would ELV ever consider matching it with food? Not on your life.
Is he still dreaming about Gagnaire’s pan-seared, curry and coconut langoustines with cauliflower tips with roasted pineapple marmalade and sorbet, or his roasted, corn-fed, pistachio-stuffed chicken? Absolutely.
And did he try to steal a bottle of Chateau d’Yquem ‘01 when no one was looking? (to be fair, bottles were all over the place.) You know it.
Damn security guards.
TWIST by PIERRE GAGNAIRE
In the Mandarin Oriental Hotel
3752 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
702.590.3205
Restaurant reviews, quips, picks and pans-with some seriously salivating history-from the man who eats his way through Sin City every day.
