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

Samuel Adams Utopias Dinner at Urban Solace

"Oh, are you media?"

D. and I glanced at each other briefly and I can sum up what was going through our heads:

Well, I guess I am, if by "media" you mean I'm going to enjoy this meal, take lots of pictures, and geek out about beer and food/beer pairings on my humble food blog.

I'm just here with my wife, who insists on photographing every. single. damn. meal. we. eat. If that pays off for me in having amazing food and beer, then yes, she's media.

D. smiled politely and I explained that I was invited via my food blog. I couldn't help but wonder if I sounded insane. After all, it's the first dinner I've attended by invitation and the first one where I didn't feel self-conscious about photographing my food, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.

It started with an email. I occasionally receive PR emails and this one jumped off the screen at me. Urban Solace. Samuel Adams. World's strongest beer. I was sold. Urban Solace is one of our favorite North Park restaurants and Sam Adams is our go-to "big name" beer. Being in San Diego and living a few blocks from 30th Street, local microbrews are always plentiful, but we know that we can rely on Sam Adams for a good beer no matter where we are.

Bert Boyce, who brews for Samuel Adams, was hosting the dinner with talks about each beer and beer/food pairings. Matt Gordon, executive chef of Urban Solace, crafted a menu that paired well with the beers. What I love about beer pairings is that stronger flavors can be showcased without the food overpowering the drink or vice versa. Star anise and fennel were two ingredients that gave the dishes a pop that was noticeable, yet not jarringly so. Since both taste like licorice, it was a nice contrast to the various caramel and malt flavors coming from the beers.

We've been eating at Urban Solace since it opened and, while I've definitely heard of him, I'd never had a chance to meet Matt before. It was great to hear him talk about his process in creating the menu and it was even better to taste it. Talk about hitting it out of the park.

Small bites were passed around on trays, starting with a lovely sassafras-marinated grilled shrimp. It was very good and I'm pretty sure garlic was part of the nice punch of flavor. It was followed by little cubes of meatloaf that I could have made a meal out of. It was a nice little cube of meat, with a little fat for moisture and topped with a five-spice-based glaze. I overheard Matt mention that they make their own five-spice mixture at Urban Solace, which is pretty cool. D., who has a special place in his heart for meatloaf, loved it.

While these delicious bites were being passed around, we were given tasting glasses of Cranberry Lambic. There are good dinner wines and I think Cranberry Lambic (pictured below, on left) is a good dinner beer. Slightly sweet, mellow with a clean finish, it's a beer that's easy to drink and pairs very neutrally with all types of food flavors. This was the only beer that wasn't discussed at the dinner, but they use a wild yeast strain to ferment the beer, although a lambic is spontaneously fermented. This isn't a beer to compare to traditional lambics... ignore the name and enjoy the sweet, slightly tart flavor with a dish that's strongly flavored.

We began our first course with the Coastal Wheat, which is brewed with lemon peel. It's their hefeweizen, but brewing with the lemon peel smooths out the sharp flavor that hefeweizens typically have.

Our first course was a lovely cornmeal ravioli stuffed with smoked chicken and leeks. It was drizzled with brown butter and topped with pine nuts and wilted frisee and fennel. The pasta was toothsome and the chicken/leek filling was good and not too smoky. What brought the dish together, flavor-wise, was the wilted fennel. It threaded many subtle flavors together and brought out the smokiness in the chicken and browned butter.

The second course was pork belly braised in Old Fezziwig Ale. As a braise, the ale gave the pork belly's richness a slightly sweet tinge. As a drink, I can't say I was a huge fan. A dark ale brewed with cinnamon, ginger, and orange peel, it was not very flavorful. With those ingredients, I was expecting a punch, but it was merely heavy with malt and mildly sweet. The broth served with the pork belly smelled of licorice notes of five-spice and fennel, with the star anise in the five-spice making the broth smell like pho. While the drink fell flat, the dish was sublime, with near-molten fat and the light dumpling standing out.

The main course featured an Estancia grass-fed flatiron drizzled with a herb pistou. It was served with braised baby carrots and roasted sweet potatoes in a Boston Lager reduction. For one thing, I know Matt does great things with sweet potatoes, because I've never met a sweet potato at Urban Solace that I didn't like. This dish was no exception. The beef was good, although a smidge too rare, which led to the flatiron being a little tough. The carrots were perfect and the herb pistou was nicely balanced, with just enough sharpness from parsley without tasting like mowed grass.

Apparently, the glass was designed by engineers at MIT who received lots of free beer in return for the perfect beer glass.

Damn, I really should switch careers.

The bottom of the glass has a laser-etched ring, which is a nucleation site and results in lots of carbonation. The wider top allows the carbonation to continue expanding, allowing the concentration of the beer's aroma to concentrate above the liquid and also builds a good foamy head. The flared lip is another agitation site, maximizing carbonation so it creates a light mouthfeel.

D., who was already indulging in the generous refills of our tasting pours, refused to let a pint go to waste. He downed it easily, but raised his eyebrows when he noticed our last three tastings were 10%, 14%, and 27% alcohol by volume, respectively.

Dessert, needless to say, was amazing. Served with Samuel Adams' double bock, which has half a pound of caramel malt per bottle, it was a perfect match. The fudgy, dense, dark chocolate porter bombe was more like a super-thick mousse with a mouthfeel that was as decadent as the flavor. Freshly whipped cream contrasted nicely with the sharpness of dark chocolate. Accompanying the cake was a homemade marshmallow coated in malted milk powder. I love homemade marshmallows, which have a fantastic texture vs. the store-bought stuff.

Some close-ups:

The double bock was buttery and the warmth of the caramel came through easily. The triple bock was very different. At first sniff, I swore up and down that I smelled balsamic vinegar. Bert was talking about how the triple bock was casked for 15 years and how, after all of that time, the ethanol was being metabolized into aldehydes. And some of that is metabolized to acetic acid, hence the balsamic essence I was picking up. Inky and slightly thick, the triple bock left a coat on the glass when swirled. Despite the similarity in names, the double and triple bocks were completely different worlds, taste-wise. As Samuel Adams made inroads into extreme brewing, they had to look for different types of yeasts that could produce and tolerate higher ethanol levels. Strains of yeast from processes such as sherry fermentation were used for the extreme brews.

After dessert, Utopias was served. 27% alcohol by volume and meant to be enjoyed like cognac. It was roughly the same inky color as the triple bock, but it had none of the murkiness nor the balsamic essence. Although it is technically a beer, there's no carbonation. It reminded me of Werther's Originals candies. Butterscotch, caramel, and toffee were the primary notes on the nose. If smells could be "warm", then Utopias had a rich, warm bouquet. It goes down the throat with a sharp bang, then mellows into the buttery flavor. Imagine taking a shot of vodka and chasing it with a Werther's.

If you're curious about extreme brewing, I'd say it's worth trying. Utopias runs a pretty penny per bottle ($150) and it might also be a little hard to find. Check out the comments on Beer Advocate, some of which discuss where the commenter drank it. Some managed to find it at a bar and others bought bottles (certain BevMo locations might carry it). The bottle, shaped like a copper brewing kettle, is a rather nifty keepsake.

On that note, dinner was over, and I was a happy camper. Many thanks to Matt and the Urban Solace staff for a great meal and to Bert and the Samuel Adams crew for all of the fun beer facts. Special thanks goes to Tina from DeVries for the invitation.

(Note: My apologies for the extreme lateness of this post, since the dinner took place right before Thanksgiving. I was swamped/out-of-town for the holidays and wasn't able to write in a timely manner.)

Quick bun nem nuong

Ah, it's over.

Again.

I feel good about it. I don't know how I did, but all I know is that I'm not going to take the Chemistry GRE again. Last year, I took it and then made some beef bourguignon to celebrate. No celebratory meal (yet) this year, but I did make the occasional good study meal. Hey, anything to procrastinate.

One of these meals was borne out of a random discovery by my mother.

Mom: I found these meatballs at Costco. They taste a lot like nem nuong (aka Vietnamese grilled pork meatballs).

Me: Really? They sell nem nuong at Costco? Are you sure?

Mom: Well, it's not exactly marketed as such, but they really do taste like them.

She proceeded to give me a package of meatballs, but she had thrown away the label. They were pretty tasty. D. went to Costco to see if he could figure out what she had purchased. He ended up returning with a package of Aidells Pineapple and Teriyaki meatballs, which are made of chicken. Turns out these were the same meatballs my mother gave us. I don't know how Aidells managed to make a kind-of-Hawaiian-kind-of-Japanese chicken meatball taste like nem nuong, but go figure.

Anyway, it's not homemade, but it's opened the doorway to a lot of quick Vietnamese meals that would normally require a little more time and effort. D. went on a weekend trip to visit his folks while I studied for the blasted GRE. Needing a study break, I decided that I would make some bun nem nuong.

The rice noodles are cooked in boiling water until al dente and rinsed with cool water. Drain the noodles completely and let air dry while the rest of the dish is prepared. Drying is important because slimy noodles don't contribute to the texture of the dish. Fresh cucumber slices, shredded lettuce, mint, and Vietnamese mint go into the bottom of the bowl. Raw mung bean sprouts are typically part of the dish, but I'm not a big fan. The meatballs are thawed and browned in a skillet, then sliced in half. I like to add some scallions and oil as garnish. Slice one small bunch of scallions. Heat about 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil (any non-flavored oil is fine) in a small saucepan until hot. Toss the scallions in and let them cook down fast. Do not brown them.

Assembly is easy. Veggies on the bottom, rice noodles next, meatballs on top of noodles, and spoon the softened scallions and oil all over. Serve with plenty of nuoc nam.