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Vegetarian Vegas – The Wynn Buffet

13 May

To go to Las Vegas and not experience the delights of a true Vegas Buffet is just inconceivable!!!!

Growing up, Buffets and Topless fantabulous reviews were two of the things Vegas was known for. So even though today, Las Vegas has evolved into the mecca of the celebrity chef – Bobby Flay has Mesa Grill, Mario Batali has Otto, B&B and others, Wolfgang Puck, Todd English, Michael Mina, Tom Colicchio, Charlie Palmer, José Andrés, Scott Connant,  Hubert Keller, and Thomas Keller (no relation…) all have one or various posts where they showcase their delectable creations, we needed to give fair chance and airtime to the long-standing Vegas Buffet.

We did a little bit of research… and we had some time, because we had a trip scheduled for The Grand Canyon 4 days into our stay in Vegas, and the recommendation of the Tour is not to eat at any buffet prior to the trip because they WOULD NOT give us any refunds if we got food poisoning from eating at a buffet. What a vote of confidence for the buffets of the city… or the overeating habits of the average American consumer… discuss amongst yourselves.

We got various recommendations, but they were based on the amount of meat and shrimp we could eat. Unfortunately, Las Vegas has many vegetarian options, but the FullVegetarian restaurant or Vegetarian Buffet is not part of the alternatives just yet.

We wanted a SPECIAL BUFFET, somewhere where the food would be more special than any self serve/all-you-can-eat cafeteria. So we turned to one of the most special hotels we encountered on this trip – The Wynn Hotel. We LOVED the Wynn and Encore Hotels… So chic, so modern, everything decorated so whimsically and bold at the same time. We said that if the hotel décor and ambiance are that special, the food at the buffet for sure would be too.

 

Check out the décor of the place… It was stunning. We felt we were inside Wonderland and that Alice would pop up at anytime asking us the way to a Tea Party… I was feeling special already. I felt I was underdressed and needed a hat, like those at the Royal Wedding or the Kentucky Derby to fit in more appropriately.

The options were MANY… you will have to excuse the presentation here. I am not a very good platter and buffets are not conducive to the best plate presentation. It’s about what you like and how much can you pile on your plate to avoid constant trips back and forth. Here was what we had:

I had to start with SALAD… Eating salad first makes me feel, regardless of my choices afterwards, that at least I ate something raw and fresh. And there where were many Salads to choose from. You mixed and matched ingredients and topped with your favorite dressing. I think I decided on a creamy parmesan dressing. There you also see a Butternut Squash Risotto made with vegetable broth and currants, Crispy Corn and Quinoa Polenta Triangles with a Tomato Ragu on top, one of my mom’s faves as she went for seconds on this. Also some roasted potatoes… I loved the risotto and the polenta triangles.

The next stop was a bit more International in flavor… Here you see in the cup a Waldorf Salad with blue cheese, grapes and pears. Sooooo delicious… and I had 2 salads under my belt. I was being healthy, right?? Also, some grilled naan bread, hummus and cucumber/yogurt raita. The whole grain bun is to counteract the fact the naan was made of white flour… and no offense, but my hummus recipe is much better.

Continuing with the international flavors, we moved onto the Japanese and Mexican side of the Buffet. Here we had Vegetable Sushi Rolls, various vegetarian ceviches and corn tortilla chips served with red and green salsas. I picked the red salsa because it was milder and the raita was an awesome dipping sauce for the tortillas… note to self to create something that integrates Mexican and Indian flavors. I also had some vegetable spring rolls with a tangy apricot sauce, but the photo did not come out pretty at all…

I was particularly surprised with the ceviches – I only noticed them in a third go around to the buffet line… I had dismissed then as seafood ceviches until I read the labels well. One was made with jicama, shitake mushrooms and hearts of palm and the other one was made with a mixture of beans… I preferred the jicama/mushroom one because we already know how I feel about beans. But the flavors were interesting and certainly something I would entertain to make in the future at home…

Desserts… OMG!!! The only difficult thing about desserts in a non-vegetarian environment is that most of them have some sort of egg or gelatin in them. But we managed… We had strawberry and coconut sorbets, the filling of an apple cobbler and the strawberry and whipped cream filling they were using for the crepes… I just couldn’t resist myself and had to have a crepe made to order. I know, I know it was true gluttony, but I just couldn’t resist myself…

Lucky for us, in Vegas you need to walk as much as you need… because after that “jartera” you need to walk if you don’t want to fall into a food-induced coma. So for all you vegetarians or vegetarian-friendly people… if you go to Vegas and need a recommendation for a Buffet, I fully recommend the Wynn Hotel Buffet. You will not be disappointed AT ALL… I dare you to go out to dinner afterwards!!!

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Vegetarian Vegas – Otto

11 May

Yes… we were in Las Vegas and we were on a mission to eat lunch at the big name chef restaurants.

When we were hanging at one of our favorite hotels, The Venetian and went to The Shops at the Pallazo to listen to the gondoliers sing and push on their gondolas that travel all across the shoppes, we got hungry.  Las Vegas is like going to Walt Disney for adults… you walk sooooo much!!!  Which is a good thing; because you eat and drink so much you need a way to burn off the calories.

Right in the Piazza San Marco replica… next to the street performer’s platform is OTTO, the Pizzeria and Enoteca from Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich.  I’ve been meaning to eat at OTTO in NYC for years and always something happens…  Once we actually got there, but they were closed in between lunch and dinner service.  So here in Vegas, I would actually have the chance to taste Mario Batali’s recipes.

This is what we ordered:

The Acetaia Vinegar Maker’s Salad… this was sort of a chef’s salad but I asked to leave out the bacon and grated eggs.  The arugula, cucumbers, onions and other veggies were really crispy and nice against the lemony vinaigrette.

 

The Fried Artichoke hearts with the whipped Burrata cheese…  This was the second time having burrata cheese, which apparently is one of the “hot” cheeses around.  Fresh Mozzarela di Buffala is passé, move over and make room for burrata.  It’s delicious and creamy and a great contrast to the fried artichoke and salad on top.  I would have had another one…

 

Penne a la Norma featuring a tomato sauce with eggplants… I’ll be honest; I was underwhelmed by the presentation and the amount of food on the plate.  I get it was a pasta plate, primi for the Italians and it was lunch, but almost $20 for the simple pasta we got was a bit pricy.  It was delicious, but it did not blow our minds away.

 

We did not have dessert here either because we unknowingly “splurged” by ordering  a bottle of sparkling water… had I known the water was going to be $10 a bottle, I would have traded for dessert certainly.

 The final veredict… Otto was good, but not great.  I am not going out of my way to recommend it to people. But, if someone invites me there again, I would love to maybe explore other things in the menu, like the Meatless Mondays menu.  We were there some other day of the week, so these alternatives were not available… just like we couldn’t order our pasta whole wheat because it is not the day of the week they serve whole wheat pasta.  Weird, no??

 

I am sure there are better Italian options in Vegas, what has been your experience??

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Vegetarian Vegas – MESA GRILL

9 May

My sister and Brother-in-law ROCK!!!!!

At the end of last year they decided to give my mom and me their time-share because they would not use it and they didn’t want it to go to waste. We debated and debated where to use it and after a huge search we settled for Las Vegas. This would be my first time in Las Vegas… Yes, I was until last month – a Vegas Virgin. I had been to Reno, NV when I was about 14 or 15 yrs old… but it has rained quite a lot since then.

I am not into gambling. We have casinos here in Puerto Rico and that’s not something that entices me. I have played a bit, I have won some too, but usually using other people’s money… but that’s an entirely different topic. The thing is… what do you do in Las Vegas if you are not a gambler and are traveling with your mom??? We both like to have a good time, but let’s face it, traveling with your mom is not exactly the equivalent of Party Central… And because we didn’t have to spend $$ on Hotel or Airfare (I told you, my sister ROCKS!!!!!), we decided to invest in 2 things – Shows and Food.

To me, the best restaurant we went to was MESA GRILL, yes, of Bobby Flay’s fame. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting all that much, but the ambiance, the service and the food were awesome. Had we had the chance, we had eaten here again…

Mesa Grill is located at the Caesar’s Palace Resort and just like most any restaurant in Las Vegas, it’s nestled in between the casino’s slot machines and game tables. We missed it the first time around we were looking for it. We went for lunch because we were into having big lunches and smaller snacks for dinner… that way we had the chance to eat at these celebrity restaurants at a fraction of the dinner prices. Besides, coordinating show times and dinner reservations was giving me stress and we opted for this arrangement.

One thing that helps us vegetarians is when eating at these restaurants, is we usually have to pick from options in the salads and appetizers menus. The restaurant guides tell you these are $$$ or $$$$ restaurants, but because you’re not ordering from the meat-heavy entrée menu, our bill was usually less than the average price the guides said.

This is what we had at Mesa Grill, and everything we ordered we split between my mom and I:

Being that we were in a fancy Bobby Flay restaurant, I wanted to order something nice to drink. Nice but non-alcoholic, it was still 2:30PM… so the server brought his recommendation. Don’t ask me what combination it was, but it was citrusy, tangy, sweet and yummy. And pretty-looking too, no??

While we waited for our salads, we received a basket filled with breads and these cornmeal muffins. Half the muffin was yellow cornmeal and half was blue cornmeal or a combination of the two. It had corn kernels in the batter, they were spectacular. I was a bit hungry so I asked for 2 more… my apologies for not writing down what was in the butter, but we did not have just plain butter with his corn muffins… Again, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!!!

 

Gala Apple Salad with Maytag Blue Cheese and Ancho Chile Vinnaigrette

I could have eaten a whole salad… and even though I am a spice wimp, I could tolerate the heat in the dressing. This was scrumptious and delectable. Big adjectives here…

 

Cremini Mushroom Quesadilla

This was so big we almost couldn’t finish it… It’s a 3 tier quesadilla, with roasted cremini mushrooms in between 2 tortillas and melted cheeses in the other middle between tortilla 2 and 3. I can’t remember what was in the Salsa Verde, but it was not cilantro heavy and it was delicious. We ordered it without the egg on top… and even without the egg, it was delicious with the crema Mexicana squirts on top… Mmmmm.

 

 

Goat Cheese Queso Fundido with Blue Corn Tortillas

OMG!!! Que rico!!!! This was “to die” for… I can’t tell you what’s the other cheese, but the regular melted cheese mixed in with the tanginess of the goat cheese and the pepper rajas on top… perfection!!! A standing ovation to Mr. Bobby Flay… My mom and I were fighting over the pepper rajas… Again, we are chiles wimps, but these rajas were the perfect balance to all that creamy cheesiness. I ate ALL of it… ALL OF IT!!!

We didn’t get a chance to have dessert… I wanted to try the CHURROS, but they were out of them already at the lunch service. And the rest of the desserts were egg-heavy so we said PASS. Besides, we were full already… ordering dessert would have been gluttony.

I am seeking MESA GRILL the next time I travel to NYC… I certainly did not expect to eat as well as I did. I am always skeptical of places with lots of hype… And the server, when I mentioned I was vegetarian, went out of his way to point out what I could order and what I should stay away. During my next visit, I want to order the Chiles Rellenos filled with Roasted Eggplant and Manchego Cheese, part of the Entrée part of the Menu, and they sound especially appetizing – kind of like Mexico and Spain meeting in the middle.

I am so pleased big name chefs, like Bobby Flay, have vegetarian alternatives in their menus… for us vegetarians to enjoy the mastery of their cooking skills and flavor combinations. I wish more local chefs would take notes from these hi-profile chefs and be more open to vegetarian patrons.

Stay tuned, next we’ll be sharing our experience at Otto, from Mario Batali…

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The Boys Farmer’s Market – Delray Beach, FL

10 Jan

Close to where my sister lives in South Florida there’s a farmer’s market called The Boys. I always fund the name funny… particularly because it’s located next to The Girls Strawberry Patch store. We always drove past it, but never paid really much attention to it.

Recently, we’ve spent a lot of time at my sister’s and my brother-in-law always insisted The Boys had the best prices on produce. Even better than Publix or Winn Dixie. Being the market lovers we are, particularly when we travel (check out my market experiences in NYC, Paris and Guadalajara…) we had to go at least once.

We were certainly in for a surprise… The Boys, is indeed closer to a specialty food store than a mere farmers market. The concentrate in fresh produce, but have a great bakery, cheese/dairy shop, freshly squeezed juices, specialty items like gluten-free goodies, nuts and dried fruits section, cooked foods area, butcher and fish monger. I’ve never ventured into those latter areas; we tend to concentrate on the fresh produce, dairy/cheese case and the $1 table at the entrance, where they have bags filled with stuff and everything in the bag is just $1. Awesome…

My favorite things to always look for at The Boys are: $1 bags of apples, potatoes, limes, plum tomatoes, fresh ears of corn, sweet potatoes, etc. The fresh mozzarella, goat cheese, smoked cheddar, strawberries, blueberries, cut/peeled pineapples, mushrooms, poblano peppers, fresh leaf spinach, basil stalks, tri-color bell peppers, watercress, mesclun lettuce mix and red skinned potatoes.

I wish I had a specialized market near my home, so accessible and cost-effective, as The Boys. There used to be a time where we would visit The Boys daily to get the ingredients of what we would make that day for dinner. Just like in the ol’ times. I’ll be sharing some of the recipes I was inspired to make based on the awesome fresh produce from The Boys…

This makes me want to visit farmers markets every weekend now… let’s see if I can do that now in the New Year. Am I adding another resolution to my list??? Hope not…

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Maoz Falafel

22 Nov

While staying with my sister in Southern Florida recently I did most of the cooking for about 7-8 people on almost a daily basis…  It was fun.  It gave me the opportunity to try out a bunch of new recipes and to showcase to a new audience a few old favorites.

But every once in while we needed to BREAK AWAY!!!!!  Borrow the car and go out into the sunshine and go some credit card damage…  That’s what brought us to the Mall at Boca Raton and Maoz Falafel.

I have seen and eaten Maoz Falafels before – eaten it in Madrid during my last visit and seen them in NYC.  But I have never seen them in Florida.  It was a VERY WELCOME surprise to go to the Food Court and see Maoz as an alternative for our lunch hunger.  I learned today Maoz is a Dutch chain…

They serve $5 falafel sandwiches that you can fill with a variety of toppingsthey have.  I went for the traditional vegetable salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions in a light lemony dressing and roasted broccoli and cauliflower.  Then drizzled with copious amounts of yogurt sauce to cool off the falafel’s cumin taste – which to me can be a bit overwhelming.

 

 

Maoz has a guy in front of their storefront serving sample pieces of their falafels for everyone to try… I do not know if it’s the samples or the growing vegetarian community in Boca, but Maoz had a long line consistently during the time we were at the Food Court.  Something the traditional fast food giants could not brag about that afternoon…

I am glad to say Maoz is expanding their operations in the US… and if you have a chance to see a Maoz store in your town or in your near future travels, give them a try.  They’re delicious!!

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