MA PECHE – New York Detour

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Ma Peche (“Mother Peach”) was reviewed today in the New York Times. It is the lastest in uber-hip-media-darling-David Chang‘s East-Meets-West informal restaurant empire that has taken New York by storm since 2005.

ELV ate there in May, and thought you might appreciate a few of his tasty snaps.

Chang acolytes will swoon; the rest of you might wonder what all the fuss is about.

ELV has eaten four meals in three different Chang restaurants in the past four years, and still wonders what all the fuss is about.

Nevertheless, because Chang is considered such an “important” chef (although we question how far his influence has gone/will go), ELV’s staff thought you might be interested.

SENSI Remains Sensational

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Martin Heierling does double duty these days between Sensi and Silk Road, but neither restaurant seems to suffer for it. Call it Germanic dedication, serious chops, or just plain passion; he brings a certain precision to every recipe and format he touches.

How else to explain the continued deliciousness of Sensi — a restaurant that is, by turns Italian,  Thai, a steakhouse, Japanese and Indian. Tandoori? They may do it as well as anyone around. Naan? Ditto. Tom ka kai with shrimp? Puts almost every Thai restaurant’s version in town to shame.

You can get steaks and pasta here and find nothing to complain about, but we find the Indian tandoori, raita, mint sauces, kheer (rice pudding), and tempura to be where our palate always heads.

About the only thing we’ve had that left us shaking our heads is the $28 pad Thai — a skimpy portion of a poorly executed copy of a classic dish that’s done better all over town for 1/3rd the price.

But we’ll forgive Martin this single mishap, as just about everything else in his repertoire is right on.

One of the most righteous things remains the house-made ginger ale — a refresher so bracing, it’s worth driving across town for, parking at the Bellagio, and taking a stroll to Sensi just for a sip.

Yeah, it’s that good.

SENSI

In the Bellagio Hotel and Casino

3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109-4303

702.693.7223

Happy Bastille Day!

In honor of our favorite cuisine, AND the wedding day* of Julia Mandeville and Hugh Alexander Curtas (The Official Number Two Son of ELV), we at ELV thought a little La Marseillaise** was in order:

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* They’re eloping in Taos, New Mexico as we’re writing this.

** A national anthem that kicks “The Star Spangled Banner’s” ass from here to Burgundy, if you ask us, or this guy.