Tableau at the Wynn

I had vivid memories of the short rib eggs benedict at Tableau Restaurant at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas.  Sandi and I had reservations for a late lunch.  We looked at the menu which did not include eggs benedict;  partly because they were not serving lunch and not breakfast.  I asked our server who has never heard of it but offered to ask the chef.  Turns out, they do not serve it and one of the cooks who has been there a long time remembered how they once did.

We were both starving as our last meal was a bacon donut hole at 7:00 a.m.  We ended up ordering the Roasted Beet Salad with crispy marinated tofu, pistachio puree, goat cheese crema. Very refreshing appetizer which we enjoyed. Prior to this they had served a basked of sour dough bread and 2 items they called popovers. The popovers were more like muffins; a plain one and a bacon one. We preferred the ones with the bacon which was good but not as good as we expected it to be.

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For our entree, we ordered the Soft Shell Crab Sandwich with fried onion creole remoulade served on a brioche roll and seasoned fries. This we did enjoy very much. The soft shell crab was very light and crunchy. The fries were unusually good because of the ketchup. We meant to ask what was in the ketchup as it was a bit sweet and tangy at the same time.

We did not have dessert since we did not want to eat too much as we were going to see "Jersey Boys" and we didn't want to be too comfortable and full that we would end up snoring during the the performance.

We planned to have a late snack after play which will be in my next blog.

Bar Vdara

We had a loooong day; got up at 4:30 a.m. flew from LAX to Las Vegas and landed at 10:00 a.m.; after we checked in the hotel, we started walking and pretty much didn't stop till 2:00 p.m. for lunch and by 3:00 p.m. we were up and about till our show at 7:00 p.m. By 9:30 we headed back to our hotel and ended up at Bar Vdara at Vdara Hotel.

Vdara Hotel at the City Center in Las Vegas is for people who do not gamble (no casino) or hates cigarette smoke. We booked ourselves there for 2 nights. We were very pleased with our room which had a little living room with a pull out sofa bed and a kitchen; not that we were planning on cooking anything....after all we were on a mini vacation.

My friend Jody told we had to go to Bar Vdara and order Peirogis.  After seeing the show, Jersey Boys at the Paris Hotel, we headed back to our hotel close to 10:00 p.m. and ended up at the bar.  We ordered Peirogis and Tempura Vegetables. The Peirogis were pan seared. In case you haven't heard of Peirogis, they are like fried raviolis or wonton wraps with potato filling. They were served on a bed of caramelized onions and sour cream.  They were very good. I'm happy to report that Jody is still my friend worthy of her suggestion.  The Vegetable Tempura was a mixture of zucchini, green beans, sweet potatoes, asparagus, onions and avocado. These were served with a chili-pepper mayonnaise; also very good.

We ordered interesting drinks which we enjoyed.  Sandi had a Naughty Lemonade which consisted of citrus liquor, lemonade, strawberries and vodka. I ordered the Ginger Pear which had Grey Goose vodka, Caravella orangecello, pear puree and sweet & sour.

This was a relaxing end to our long day. Needless to say we both slept like logs.

Corn Flakes ala Karina

Corn Flakes is corn flakes.  To spruce it up, you could add fresh fruit or canned fruit; I prefer the canned fruits. (It's still fruit)

Several weeks ago I came across Peaches and Creme Low Fat Parfait made by Dole at the supermarket.  I thought it would make a good snack.  It just hibernated in my refrigerator.  The other day, I found some corn flakes in the pantry.  Sprinkled a little Splenda and when I reached for the milk I saw the little packets of parfait.  I emptied one on top of my cereal then mixed it in and poured the non-fat milk.

It was delicious.......I can now see myself having cereal for lunch or snack as it wasn't quite as boring as just plain cereal.  There's hope for everything!

Parisian Salad

The Parisian Salad at L'Amande Bakery is just plain wonderful.  I have had this before split in half with half a panini with a friend. Today was my first time having it by itself as my main entree.

It was like rediscovering an old friend. I was able to bond with it.  What makes it so good are the ingredients of walnuts, dried cranberries, blue cheese and caramelized apples. After you mix the whole thing, I guarantee you would have all of the ingredients with EVERY bite. They don't skimp on anything. The crunchy walnuts, the salty blue cheese and the sweet cranberries and caramelized apples all go together so well.  The salad comes with a slice of their crusty and chewy fresh baguette.

This is as healthy as I'll get.....don't mind eating healthy.  See Mom, I ate all my vegetables.

Note:  To fully enjoy this salad I suggest you mix it up and not eat it the way it is presented. It's beautiful to look at but it won't be as enjoyable. Trust me; your palate will thank you.

La Rive Gauche

La Rive Gauche has been around for decades.  I personally haven't been there in a long time. It is located at Malaga Cove in Palos Verdes.

Yesterday was a rainy day and it called for soup.  Sandi and I thought it would be good to have French Onion Soup and what better place to have it than a French Restaurant.

We got there at 4:15 p.m.  We looked at the menu and we were happy to see that the Onion Soup was still on the menu.  We also glanced at the desserts and when I saw Crepe Suzette, I knew we were going to be having dessert. It's a blessing we were not really hungry (as we had a big breakfast) as most of the entrees were $30.00.

They served us warm french rolls which were good.  We were the only ones at the restaurant but we still had to wait a long time for our soup.  In fact, I made a comment to Sandi that it was taking them too long to peel the onions.  The French Onion Soup finally arrived which almost looked promising; I say almost because it was not dark enough. They could have left it a bit longer on the broiler.  We had our first spoonful and we both were silent and eventually looked at each other with looks of disappointment.  The soup was so bland and tasteless.  We both kept adding salt and it was still tasteless.

The Crepe Suzette was much better than our soup; not that great but since we were both traumatized by the soup, the crepe was a welcome surprise.

I doubt we will go back to try their entrees; actually, I doubt they will be there for long because they were once very good and that was Once Upon a Time.

Stella's Serious Italian Restaurant

My husband and I took a friend of ours to this restaurant in Dana Point, down south. We were not familiar with this restaurant. We had planned to go to Salt Creek Grill but they were not open for lunch and by 12:30 p.m. we were all starving and we ended up at this quaint Italian restaurant with a nice view of the ocean.

Among the 3 of us we ordered the Pizza Bianca, Linguini Bolognese and Ravioli di Morano. Before our entrees, we were served some focaccia bread which was quite good.
The Ravioli was stuffed with cheese and the spinach was scattered on top along with the basil and finely chopped shallots in a light vodka cream sauce. The spinach was almost an after thought. Bonnie was under the impression she was ordering a spinach ravioli (stuffed with spinach).  She had me try it and I was not impressed at all. The pizza was thin crust which is how we like our pizza, with homemade mozzarella, reggiano, ricotta di bufala, garlic and olive oil. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with it. The combination of the mozzarella and ricotta just didn't do it for me. It was a bit heavy. I may be a spoiled as I know great mozzarella from Osteria Mozza or Obika. The linguini bolognese had a regular meat sauce with a couple of meatballs.  We ate it all as we were starving but it failed to wake up my palate. The food seemed to travel on a car pool lane (before transponders) just eager to get to it's destination.

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So, my comment on Stella's Serious Italian Restaurant is:  SERIOUSLY????

The Original Pantry Cafe

If you haven't been at this historical landmark restaurant, you ought to go... preferably on a weekday for a late breakfast. That way you beat the traffic from where ever you are coming from. The Original Pantry Cafe is located at 877 S. Figueroa St. in Los Angeles.  It is still currently owned by former Mayor Richard Riordan. The famous cafe opened in 1924. There are a lot of very interesting trivia on how many pounds of bacon, potatoes, etc. they consume in a year. Visit their web page at: http://www.pantrycafe.com/

Deborah, Sandi and I decided to have a late breakfast there yesterday. We got there shortly before 11:00 a.m. just in time to order breakfast. Sandi has never been there before; Deborah and I raved about their wonderful sour dough bread.  Sandi ordered the bacon and eggs we were to split and I ordered the sour dough french toast. Deborah had the sausage and eggs. They all came with the potatoes which were delicious especially with some ketchup.  My two weird friends don't like ketchup on their potatoes. The bacon was very crispy and tasty.  We all enjoyed the sour dough with butter.  Of course I had to slather some marmalade on it; again Sandi and Deborah just ate theirs plain. (What can I say?)  The french toast was fluffy but it was nothing special. We couldn't taste the "sour" in the bread.  It was a good thing to divide the 6 pieces among the three of us.

FYI, if you ever go to the Pantry Cafe, make sure you have some cash as they do not accept credit cards or you just may end up washing dishes! Don't forget to take some fresh sour dough home.

Believe it or not (for those of you who know me; I'm sure you do believe) after our breakfast, we wanted to kill 2 birds with 1 stone so Deborah drove to Cafe Dulce at Little Tokyo so we could pick up some bacon donut holes. I got a bunch to freeze with the spirulina and tapioca rolls while Sandi got some green tea donuts and some of the rolls as well.

Yesterday was a semi-good day.