Eating at Home

After a whirlwind eating week that began with Costa Brava and ended with Bouchon, D. and I needed to recover both our bellies and our wallets. Plus, I'm coming to the end of two weeks of absolute insanity at work. Deadlines are crazy and, like a line cook, I've had compound after compound come off the pipeline. With long workdays come quick meals. Many, many thanks to D. for having hot meals waiting for me when I arrive home.

One of our favorite quick meals is an utter bastardization of both French flavors and Mexican snacks. It's a quesadilla filled with Gruyeres, onions, and ham. Alsatian-inspired flavors on a tortilla. I know, somewhere, someone is laughing their ass off. However, it tastes very good.

D. also picked up a loaf of rustic country bread from Bread on Market, which was excellent dipped in Pasolivo's Meyer lemon olive oil mixed with a dollop of the black button sage honey. This works really well with any sort of citrus olive oil.

Favorite at-home dessert these past two weeks? Stout floats. Inspired by both the Stone Porter Shake at Ritual Tavern and Karl Strauss' Oatmeal Stout Float (no dessert menu on the website, but it's mentioned on the Oatmeal Stout's blurb), I decided that we should have beer with our ice cream. We picked up a few cans of Young's Double Chocolate Stout and poured it over scoops of good vanilla bean ice cream. I suggest buying good ice cream, because you'll want a strong vanilla flavor with a rich creamy background to contrast the beer. Otherwise, you're drinking bread out of a cup with bland ice cream on top.

I'm not working this weekend and I hope there will be a baking project. Also, I'll be meeting some of my fellow San Diego Chowhounds at my first Chowdown! Next week's posts look promising, so stay tuned.

An Interview: Jay Porter from The Linkery

Fellow San Diego blogger Jed Sundwall contacted me regarding his interview with Jay Porter of The Linkery fame. It's a great interview that gives a lot of insight on how The Linkery came to be.

Chatting with Jay

Check out The Linkery's blog, while you're at it.

I haven't been there in a long time, but D. and I want to visit when they move into their new space.

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.