Las Vegas: Bouchon revisit, Studio B buffet

Wow, 2009 was a really shitty blogging year for me. I'm sorry, y'all. We'll see how I do in 2010.

Lots of really great things happened during the holiday rush... we went to the Sam Adams Utopias dinner, had a fun Thanksgiving with friends, traveled for almost every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, traveled some more for the holidays, and came home to... wisdom teeth extraction.

Yikes. Let's just say my first brush with anesthesia was uneventful. I was having an IV jammed into my hand, grimacing as the nurses tried to distract me by asking about my hobbies. The first thing that came to mind was cooking. I was talking about cooking and baking when I looked straight ahead and ostensibly blinked. Ostensibly. I happened to be looking out a window and closed my eyes... what seemed like a blink later, I opened them and realized the clouds were different. And the IV was gone. And the surgeon and one of the nurses were gone. Just one nurse. And D. Hey D.!

My literal first post-surgery words were, "Holy crap, it's done?!?!"

I was, as D. put it, way too gabby for someone who was just anesthetized. Gabby... and loopy. I stood up way too abruptly, waved way too gaily at the office staff on my way out, and yapped for a good 10 minutes about how surreal it all was. I might have drooled a little, too.

Anyway, that was a week ago and I think I might be one of the lucky few that have had a really uneventful wisdom teeth removal. Worst of the pain on the 3rd day, swelling that dissipated easily, and the ugliest part has been the blasted antibiotics. They're wreaking havoc with my GI tract. I'll leave it at that.

Since I've been eating lots of jello, soup, porridge, and other soft and semi-soft foods, let's look back to more glorious meals.

After Thanksgiving, our friends D.B and D.D. were headed to Vegas to run in the Las Vegas Rock-n-Roll Marathon. Good friends that they are, they invited us along and hooked us up with comped rooms. We were there for roughly 36 hours, but we ate like kings.

D.B. wanted to try the buffet at the M Casino and Resort. Top Chef fans should be pretty familiar with this place. I thought the buffet was pretty awesome. For one thing, it wasn't crowded.

Gorgeous gingerbread village... speaking of, Kim and Brett made an awesome gingerbread house. Check out her slideshow of the process.

 

The picture's a little blurry, but it's oxtail soup with a 5-spice broth. It's a bold move to include something like this in a buffet, where it may or may not appeal to a lot of palates. It was well-executed, with the oxtail perfectly cooked and the vegetables very tender. The broth was a little heavy with 5-spice, but it was flavorful.

All you can eat gelato... sigh.

Round one of my dessert course. The macarons were insanely perfect. I would have paid just for a buffet of macarons. The buffet will run about $25/person and it's a large and clean buffet with a great selection of food. Booze is also free, which is very nice, but don't expect a wide selection of wine and beer.

That night, while D.B. and D.D. rested up for the marathon, D. and I went back to our usual favorite: Bouchon. What do I order after a filling lunch? Duck confit followed by a gigantic ribeye on the bone. As our server put it, "Now, that's what a lady orders!"

He was teasing, but the duck confit was all business. Rich, moist, cooked in its own fat business. Oh, duck confit... how do I love thee...

Apologies for the grainy picture, but D. and I had just bought iPhones and we went nuts using them the first couple of weeks.

I've always ordered the daily special, which has been pork on my last two visits. This time it was beef and it seemed like it was prepared in a rush. For one thing, the ribeye was a little too rare. I like rare, but this almost mooed at me. The roasted parsnips were bland and the truffle risotto was blasting with butter. Some may argue that there's no such thing as too much truffle, but yes, this was a smidge too much. Additionally, I question the decision to pair a strong truffle risotto with more... fungus. I didn't know the type, but the roasted parsnips were served alongside lightly cooked mushrooms. They were clustered, like enokitakes, but the head looked a little like a straw mushroom. It had a fairly strong taste and, along with the truffle risotto, was a little too much.

It was a great pre-holiday trip. Thanks again to D.B. and D.D. for the invite!

Studio B Buffet

12300 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Henderson, NV 89044

Bouchon

3355 Las Vegas Blvd S

Las Vegas, NV 89109

Las Vegas: Bouchon, Part Deux

D. and I went to Vegas for the weekend of New Year's Day and decided we would dine at Bouchon again. With all of the dining options in Vegas, we could have tried tons of new places, but we wanted to revisit the restaurant where we celebrated our engagement. Sentimental? Sure, but let us not forget that the food was excellent.

The ambiance was perfect, service was excellent, and the food was great. I'd have to say it wasn't as memorable as last time, but it was still incredible. We started with the beignets de brandade de morue, which were fried balls (beignets) of a puree of salt cod, salt, and milk (brandade). Each beignet was served on a little piece of tomato confit and topped with crispy fried sage. Fried fish will never be better than this.

We knew our meal would be heavy, so we ordered frisee aux lardons et oeuf poche, or a salad of frisee, bacon pieces, and a poached egg.

This was simple, but extremely flavorful. Topped with a bacon sherry vinaigrette and a slice of toasted brioche, it was a perfect combination of hearty and refreshing. I've been meaning to duplicate this at home, but haven't had a chance to. If you don't like vegetables, pieces of bacon and a dressing made of bacon fat should help them go down easily.

For entrees, we both admit to wanting to duplicate our previous experience. D. had the steak frites again, which came with an enormous pile of perfectly fried frites. I ordered the special, which was a lot like my entree from the first visit. Beautifully braised pork shank on top of chard, butternut squash puree, and fried polenta sticks.

The pork was falling off the bone and very rich, but the whole dish lacked depth. Not a lot of strong flavors outside of the meat itself. It could have been a seasoning issue.

I had a massive craving for chocolate that night, so we ordered chocolate mousse. It arrived with a side of "cats' tongues", crisp butter cookies that paired perfectly with the mousse. At $8, I thought it was really overpriced, but that became even more obvious when I realized that the recipes for the mousse and the cookies were available in the Bouchon cookbook. A month later, I made a huge bowl of the mousse for less than $8.

Overall, a good visit. We'd definitely visit again... although we might diversify from pork and beef.

Bouchon
Venetian Resort, Venezia Tower Ste 10101
3355 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109

The Buffet at the Wynn

I've enjoyed Vegas buffets my entire life. What I love most is that the standards keep getting higher and higher, with each new casino trying to out-do the previous one. When the buffets went upscale, I was willing to pay for it. Maybe I'm a sucker, but for what they're putting out nowadays, the $40 price tag is still quite decent. Plus, buffets indulge my indecisiveness and gluttony.

My current favorite is The Buffet at Wynn. Guess they couldn't come up with anything more creative for a name.

The dishes tend to run a bit on the higher-end side, with offerings such as New Zealand rack of lamb and quail. My first plate started with shrimp cocktail, which was filled with gorgeous, perfectly-poached shrimp and tart cocktail sauce. No smelly and/or scrawny shrimp from this pile. They have an Indian food area, so I picked up some basmati rice with golden raisins and almonds. The aforementioned quail is to the right. It was a bit dry, but I love quail. It has a mild gaminess that makes it a bit more musky than dark meat on a chicken. The middle was a slice of lamb tenderloin, which was quite good. I don't know where they found the corn, but it was very sweet. Can't wait until summer when we have piles of corn at the farmer's market.

To the left of the corn cob is one of the best items at the buffet. It's pastrami swordfish and it was very well-executed. The tougher sportfish was tenderized by the preparation and still retained the deep and pungent flavor typical of swordfish. Above it is grilled sole, which paled in comparison. At the top of the plate was a spicy salmon handroll (fresh, but boring), a small baguette (too tough), seaweed salad (good), and edamame (good palate cleanser).

My second plate was a little more reserved, because I was saving precious stomach space for dessert.

The rack of lamb was perfectly seasoned with a paprika rub. It was literally finger-lickin' good. The meat in the center is beef ribeye, which was a little overcooked. I don't normally eat crab legs, but they were there, so I decided to have a couple. They were ok. More shrimp cocktail, another hand roll, and more swordfish pastrami. The baguette carried over from the previous plate. The cheesy, crusty blob next to the ribeye is eggplant parmesan, which was decent.

The dessert spread at this buffet is amazing. I regret not taking a picture of the serving area.

To the far left is a caramel eclair, with smooth and almost salty caramel in the middle. Excellent! The creme brulee (front) was too runny, but tasted pretty good. The cup at the top contained green tea mousse with a crust of white chocolate. Very, very good. The mousse was light and flavorful. Key lime pie, which was tart and moist, is to the right of the mousse. The ice cream was great, with the coffee (lighter brown) being made in-house. I love coffee ice cream when it packs a hard punch and this did.

What a meal... if a Vegas buffet needs to be visited, it should be the Wynn's buffet.

Bouchon Las Vegas

D. proposes. D. discloses location of surprise trip. D. reveals that we have reservations at Bouchon.

Guess which had me squealing and jumping up and down? Let's just say it didn't involve any sparkly objects and a lot of Thomas Keller.

I might never hear the end of it, but it makes a fantastic conversation piece. The most hilarious thing is that my response surprised no one. No one. In my defense, I thought the proposal would be coming during the trip, but I'd never guess that D. would willingly make reservations at what he would consider a "frou-frou" restaurant.

Apparently, it was Anthony Bourdain who changed his mind. During the Las Vegas episode of No Reservations, Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman visit Bouchon and order steak frites. D., noting that one of his favorite dishes were on the menu, decided that it was an acceptable location.

We both loved it. It's an amazing restaurant and, while I know Keller doesn't cook there, it lives up to his and his restaurants' reputation. It certainly wasn't frou-frou at all, with a relaxed atmosphere, a warm and friendly staff, and absolutely no pretension. Del Mar's Market could definitely take a page out of Bouchon's book. You can have a upscale restaurant with fabulous food and still behave warmly (not to mention without judgment) at your guests.

Our server was witty and knowledgable. I suspect Bouchon has seen its fair share of food geeks, because they were completely comfortable with photography in the restaurant. I was especially reassured by the guy at our next table, who was photographing his dinner with a Nikon digital SLR. The menus were printed on parchment paper and it didn't look like they would reuse them often, so I asked if I could keep one. Our server didn't even blink. He said people ask all the time and, since they don't reuse them at all (oy, that's not very environmentally conscious), I was more than welcome to do so. Yay!

He suggested that D. try the James Bond, a martini-esque drink of gin and vodka with a twist of yuzu. Again, I love yuzu and it's many uses. I ordered a syrah from Paso Robles (Update: The asst. GM at Bouchon replied to my inquiry and it's a '05 Clos Mimi, petite rousse... they did err on one thing, though, the winery is in Santa Maria, CA, not Paso Robles, CA), which was decent. Mellow and sweet, it was a little on the bland side, but it was good for this dinner because it took a backseat to the amazing dishes.

The meal began with an epi baguette (epi is the central flower in a wheat stalk, hence the name of the baguette's shape). I need to bake my next loaf like this.

The appetizers were nothing less than fabulous. D. ordered one of the specials, a slice of lightly crisped pork belly in a bed of flageolet beans and topped with fruit (apples, oranges, dried apricots). D. said the fruit sounded like an odd choice, but it meshed perfectly with the pork and beans. The pork was nice and fatty.

I ordered the pâté de campagne, which was pretty memorable. The pate was smooth and rich, with the sharp watercress and spicy mustard being great accompaniments. There were little cornichons, which are basically gherkins. These are baby gherkins (pickling cucumber) lightly pickled. As with all baby vegetables, the flavor is sweeter. I normally dislike pickles, but this was really good.

D. ordered his steak frites, which he enjoyed. The meat was excellent and the fries were very good. The steak was topped with a little slab of maitre d'hotel butter. Recipes vary, but it's basically a compound butter with parsley, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Picture's a bit blurry b/c I didn't get close enough with my camera on the macro setting.

My entree was incredible. Unbelievable. I could write sonnets. On the menu, it's plats de cotes de porc. It's slow-cooked pork shortribs on a bed of red wine-braised cabbage and a side of yellow corn polenta.

The pork was fork-tender, outrageously moist, and fatty enough to bring a delectable depth of flavor. I loved it so much that I'm now obsessed with buying the Bouchon cookbook so I can make it at home. Since the dish was dark and the lighting dim, the camera had a hard time focusing, so the picture is also blurry. I should have focused on an area with hard lines, like the edge of the plate, then keep the focus and turn the lens on the meat itself.

I couldn't let a blurry picture be the only remnant of that incredible meal, so I decided to take an shot of it half-consumed.

The little blob on the left is a spoonful of the polenta. The polenta itself was creamy and perfect texture-wise, but it was too buttery and bland overall. Corn isn't in season, hence the lack of sweetness expected from a corn-based dish. The cabbage, on the other hand, was obscenely delicious. It had the sweet and musky flavors of the wine and the tartness of the cabbage.

What amazed us was that we finished the meal absolutely stuffed. We were expecting the plates to be somewhat small and adequately filling, but the portion sizes were larger than we thought.

Nevertheless, we couldn't leave without dessert. D. picked another item from the specials menu, a Valrhona chocolate cake topped with Bavarian pastry cream and fresh strawberry sorbet. On the side were roasted bananas. The sorbet was my favorite part of this dish... it was light, sweet, and very fresh, which contrasted nicely with the dark chocolate cake.

My dessert, also from the specials, were chocolate bouchons (bouchon means cap or cork in French... the cakes are shaped like corks) topped with homemade ice cream. Left to right: mint chocolate chip, vanilla, and hazelnut. I loved the bouchons, which were a little better than D.'s cake. They were like crisp brownie bites with a moist cake center. The tops literally crunched like a cookie. The ice creams were also very good. Strong vanilla bean, smoky hazelnut (this was the best one), and a sharp and herb-y (not artificially flavored) mint chip.

Now, if only we could have food like this at our wedding, then I'd be a happy camper.