Waking up in Vegas

After the time of travelling it is time for a less busy few days as this morning I am waking up in Vegas. 

Day one in Vegas

It was 4.00 am when I woke up and for about 30 minutes I simply sat looking out of the window down to the Strip, with busy 4am Vegas going on below. There seem to be as many taxis about at this time of the morning as there were last night.

With no coffee making machine in the room my new task at 6.30 when Drew awoke was to get some clothes on and go downstairs for coffee. Yes you could get it by room service, but that is too decadent (and I imagine expensive).

On returning to the room it was time to sort through our clothes and see what we still had clean and what needed to be washed before leaving on Friday. Once we had that sorted I called the Bell Desk and they came and collected the, small, bag of washing at 7.30.

We left the hotel at 8.30 (well we left the room, it is about 1/4 of a mile from the lifts to the Strip side of the hotel. 

The core of the Strip, Las Vegas Boulevard, from the Mandalay Bay in the South to Encore in the North is only 3 miles long, yet travelling from one place to another can take a lot of time with so many things to distract you on the way.

We headed off on the first morning of our stay to a breakfast place recommended by a colleague, thanks Iz. This was called Hash House a Go Go, the Hash, of course, referring to hashed potatoes. The walk was about a mile and a half up and down the escalators which means that as a pedestrian you don't notice the traffic unless you look down.

We got to Hash House a Go Go at 9.40 am and looked at the menu. Drew had a hash of crispy potato with roasted Chicken, garlic, onions, asparagus and eggs sunny-side up. While I had a hash of crispy potatoes with chorizo, jalapeño, cheddar and tomato. They were both delicious, and for those worrying about the absence of fruit and veg in my diet note there was a slice of melon and orange on the plate and I eat them both, and indeed everything else. Wow what a set of flavours, amazing, a great start to the day all washed down by orange juice and coffee (or diet Pepsi in Drew's case).

From here we explored the Linq hotel and casino which houses the Hash House, then we moved on to the Venetian and the Palazzo, as I mentioned last night the hotels are places worth visiting in their own right. In these two linked hotels there are a Gondola ride, internal and external, St Mark's square and other images of Venice (though, thankfully, no people throwing 'soil' out of the window into the canal, which was my first experience of Venice back in the 80s!!)

After wandering through these hotels we crossed to Treasure Island and stopped for a coffee. Even though it was only 11.15 the heat was beginning to get oppressive. <<Co-Pilot's note: Stop whingeing>> 

As the morning was fast going by we split up and I walked the 1/2 mile to Las Vegas Cathedral for Mass at 12.10. Clearly the Cathedral takes my approach to air-con, it was so cold you might have wanted a cardigan. Still Mass was prayerful and reflective, though the priest began Mass noting it was the memorial day of St Louis, an English king!! I guess there were no French people in the congregation to correct him :-) 

The priest also pronounced Louis in the way the City which bears his name is pronounced here in the US, so it was St Lewis the King. Still I think it is a real pleasure to have time to go to daily Mass, as I can now and again when I am on holiday, I look forward to retirement and a time when I can go everyday. 

Mass finished at 12.40 and I then walked back to the hotel. While the easy route would have been to walk down the strip, by this hour of the day it was worth walking further but keeping cooler. So I walked down to Treasure Island, walked through there to the Tram (this is a monorail, but not to confuse it with the public monorail the inter-hotel connections are called trams) to the Mirage, walked through the Mirage to the side facing Caesar's Palace, walked through Caesar's Palace to its link with the Bellagio and then caught the tram from the Bellagio back to the Monte Carlo. I got back to the room at 1.45, Drew was already back. I must admit the heat makes Las Vegas a tiring town, time for my first siesta of the holidays!

I only slept for an hour, but it was refreshing, then it was time to post a blog and put this morning's photos on Flickr. We then discussed where to eat tonight and after a lot of discussion decided we would treat ourselves to one of the very smart restaurants in our sister hotel, the Aria. Our food costs, with the exception of Alinea in Chicago, have been below average so far this holiday, so we thought we would put that right!

The restaurant is called Sage and the executive chef is Shawn McClain, the tasting menu that we selected exemplifies his simple approach which makes use of the great abundance of the nearby Californian terroir to produce fresh, tasty and elegant food.

The amuse bouche was an oyster with Tabasco sorbet, as Drew thinks oysters taste a little of snot I was allowed two of these. The salty sliver of oyster was warmed by the chilli heat of the Tabasco, a winning combination to bring the palate to life.

Before the next course came we were offered either bread with bacon and cheese or a French style bread, Drew went for the latter, I went for both, and both were excellent.

The first of the courses was sturgeon and caviar with fennel and cucumber and buckwheat tuiles. Drew has had an aversion for fish eggs since eating at a lovely restaurant in Spain where one or other form of fish egg appeared in every dish on the menu. Still he managed to consume the caviar which added a saltiness to the strong flesh of the sturgeon. The buckwheat tuiles offering a nice alternative texture to the soft fish and fish eggs.

Our next dish was an Oyster Beef Tartare on rye bread with horseradish and crème fraiche, the idea of raw beef mixed with raw oyster is a new combination for me, but they go beautifully together, they were served on the side of a large crisp of rye bread, so that each bite could be a combination of the tartare, the bread and either the horseradish warmth or the coolness of the crème fraiche - delightful, I could have eaten four or five plates of this if there hadn't been more delights to come.

The third dish was a Maine Day Boat Scallop with clam chowder and bacon, the performance of the scallops being delivered and then the chowder poured over was excellently done by the waiter, it really allowed the aroma of the chowder to begin to wet the palate before the flavour of the clams in the chowder and the scallops met the lips, lovely. There was a slight harsh alcohol after-taste with this dish, for perfection I would have left that out, but everyone's taste varies.

Next came the grilled foie gras with turnip and dried kumquat, again foie gras, indeed all liver, causes Drew problems with texture, so I had the pleasure of eating both of these plates. The foie gras was rich and earthy in flavour and the sharpness of the kumquat skin complemented it perfectly, it almost achieved lemony notes in the taste. The turnip, in tiny cubes were served in a light broth and gave a crunch element to this dish - another winner for me.

Following this was a real delight for me crispy Rabbit loin with salsa verde, romesco and chorizo alioli. As someone for whom rabbit was a cheap meat we eat in a stew that might last a few days as I was growing up I always thing of rabbit as the stew flavourer, rather than a lovely delicate meat in its own right. Well Chef was showing me it could indeed be a delicate meat. Made crispy with the lightest of tempura batters it was wonderful on its own, with the sharpness of the salsa verde, the pepperiness of the chorizo and garlic and the nuttiness of the romesco it showed what a versatile meat it can be, resonating differently to each of the flavours of the sauces.

The main meat dish was pieces of grilled Ribeye of beef, with amazing skill the chef had a crisp outer layer to the meat while retaining the full flavour of a lightly cooked piece of beef insider. The celeriac provided a nice traditional complement to the beef and the little ball of bone marrow wrapped in straws of lightly fried potato offered another dimension of flavour and texture. As is traditional Drew offered me his bone marrow, so I had the bonus of having two.  

So we moved on to the bit of the menu where instead of me getting extra from Drew he does so form me. The waiter produced an unexpected inter-course delight, Lemon balls (or cubes) put in a glass and then covered with strawberry foam so that the flavours combine. Drew eat both and said it was fizzy on the tongue as well as clearly combining both tastes, a real palate cleanser.

The first of the two desserts, or in Drew's case the first two of the desserts, was a huckleberry panna cotta with vanilla gel and almond essence this was fruity, nutty and lovely. Though Drew did have one complaint it was covered with blueberry spheres, that looked like some pretend roe, see the comments about his distaste for roe above.

The final dessert was a de-constructed S’Mores. S'Mores aren't things people from the UK are familiar with but they are a traditional night-time camp-fire treat popular in the United States and Canada, consisting of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of flavoured sweet cracker (Sourced from Wikipedia). The dessert was chocolate, meringue and marshmallow flavoured ice-cream with a biscuit. The chocolate was more like a nutella, but the meringue tasted crisp and not unlike the concrete we had in Alinea a week or so ago. Drew managed both of these with eminent delight. 

We finished with a cup of espresso each and then walked back to the Monte Carlo. We got to bed at 11.00 pm having spent 2 1/2 hours over the meal, a pleasure compared to the sometimes rushed feel of US dining. 

Day two in Vegas

Day two of our stay in Vegas followed the pattern of day one quite closely. I woke at 4.30, sat and watched the people and traffic down on the Strip then at 6.40 Drew woke up. At 7 I went down for a coffee while Drew had a bath. 

We again lounged for a while before leaving the room at 8.30. Today we set ourselves of visiting other hotels from the ones we visited yesterday. Drew was also convinced that he wasn't going back to Hash House for breakfast, as he was way to full.

So leaving the room we again took to walking up South Las Vegas Boulevard, this time we stayed on the right side as you walk up and walked all the way to the Fashion Show Mall. Here we walked across one of the above road cross-overs to get to the Wynn, I'd been inside here yesterday for a restroom stop on my way to church, and suggested to Drew he'd like to visit and take some photos. So we wondered around the displays here until 9.45 when we stopped at The Cafe in the Wynn for breakfast.

Drew decided to go sweet for breakfast today, so had a chocolate chip muffin with his coffee. I opted for a breakfast bagel and this was egg, cheese and ham in a bagel. It was very nice. 

We continued our stroll through the Wynn and in to its neighbouring property the Encore which is equally tastefully laid out.

From the Encore we walked over to the Cathedral. One of my friends and regular blog reader and flickr viewer, Robin, is a big fan of stained glass. So having seen some remarkable and unusual stained glass during my visit yesterday I'd asked Drew to come up and take photos of it.

From the Cathedral we walked further up to the run-down part of the strip, where some of the old hotels look in need of renovation. We walked as far as the SLS Casino, which I didn't recognise until researching online later is on the site of the old Sahara Hotel which I have such awful memories of from my first visit to Vegas. My sister and brother-in-law will be glad to know that the Sahara was closed in 2011 and though the space is being used all the things we hated most about it have gone. I'd not realised until today quite how far from the centre of things we were when staying out in the Sahara in 1994, a 'rat-pack' hotel of the worst kind, now buried with much of Las Vegas' history.

Drew and I stopped for a soft drink, diet coke for me and a bright orange gloop called 'Orange Fantasy Sunshine Burst' for Drew. I have no idea what E numbers go in to making it that colour, but I didn't stay around to see how hyper Drew was.

After the drink I went outside and caught the Deuce, the Strip bus, down to the lower part of the strip to walk to Mass at another church nearer the hotel. This is the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer and Mass was at 12.10, seems to be the time for Mass in this part of Vegas?

The church is plainer than the Cathedral, but had a larger congregation for Mass. Like many churches in the US there was no pedestrian entrance, I had to walk through the Car entrance, hoping kind parishioners wouldn't run me down.

The priest gave a brief homily focussing on the words of St Paul to the Thessalonians (1 Thess 2:11-12: "Another reason why we constantly thank God for you is that as soon as you heard the message that we brought you as God’s message, you accepted it for what it really is, God’s message." He focussed on how by coming to Mass today we were responding to God's message, a nice positive note for this afternoon's Mass.

I walked back to the hotel, thankfully a thundercloud had come along, so the sun was hidden and the temperature was down to 93 from the earlier highs. I got back to the hotel at 1.25 and Drew arrived back from his walk 15 minutes later. 

Yes, you have guessed it, after the heat of the morning it was time for another hours nap, which was lovely. I then got up and completed a blog post.

Tonight we had decided to look for Thai food. Seeing as I cook Thai style food four days of every seven, it has been strange to have had none at all since the beginning of the holiday. There is a high class Thai called LemonGrass a few minutes walk from the restaurant where we eat last night, but we decided we shouldn't spend all the time in our hotel or its immediate neighbour, so opted for what looked like an interesting restaurant called Sea in the Bally Hotel half-way up the Strip from here.

Sea has a Budda sitting at the end of a pool and tables set a little into the floor so which you are sitting normally the table is at pool level, little flowers waft pass during the meal.

The waiter warned us that Thai food was spicy and talked of a 1 - 5 scale where 5 was spiciest. As it turned out we would have put his five as a 2 or 3, but I guess that reflects our habits of Thai eating where finger chillies and above is where it gets spicy, not habaneros or jalapeños.

In the Thai tradition we ordered food to share; our appetisers were Village Steamed Dumplings, what I would call Kanom Jeep, they were tasty but not very spicy, and what they called Thai papaya salad and we would call Som Dam, this was very nice with the major difference from our experience being the absence of shrimp in the salad, again we would use more fresh chilli in this if making it for ourselves.

For mains Drew's choice was called queen of basil with beef, we would call it Neua Pat Grabow, though I have seen it spelt Pat Krabow too. The thai basil gives a sharpness of flavour like nothing else I know, so this went down very well.


My choice was Pat Prik Gai and apart from calling the gai chicken this was what the menu here called it. This was the dish with the most heat in it, but interestingly this was from chilli paste rather than fresh chillies which gave it a harsher flavour than would be my normal experience.

All that being said we eat every piece of the meal leaving no left-overs. This included the sticky rice, Kow Neuw, but I would have called it gluey rice given quite how sticky it was. Still we managed to break it apart to eat with our meal.

Overall the meal was a success. It was nice to eat the flavours we love so much, even if they were not quite as spicy as we prefer. We ended up content.

From the restaurant we walked through Bally's and across the walkway to the Bellagio, while I had taken a short-cut through here on my way back from Mass yesterday Drew had not been inside. He spent some time photographing the seascape which is an impressive sight in the middle of the hotel.

From the Bellagio we caught the tram back to the Monte Carlo and were in bed soon after 10pm.