For our last dinner in Vegas, we chose the Caribe Cafe in the Mirage hotel. We had walked past it the prior day and the menu looked promising. It was also low key (aka not too formal) which was desirable after a long day out at the Grand Canyon ranch.

Entree#1: Braised Boneless Beef Short Rib ($20)
Mashed Potatoes, Carrots, Pearl Onions, Red Wine Sauce

This was quite delicious! The beef was so tender… it just melted in your mouth, yummmm. I also really enjoyed the pearl onions! Everything about this dish tasted great.

Entree#2: Chicken Fried Steak ($17)
Mashed Potato, Green Beans, Country Gravy

Okay, first I have never had chicken fried steak before and really had no idea what to expect. Secondly, for the past few months, my coworkers and I have been talking about how good such a concoction should surely taste. So I decided to finally give it a go and order this entree. The mashed potato and gravy were very very good. I’m just not too sure about the actual country fried steak… it was almost comparable to meatloaf that had batter on the outside. The overall taste was good.. just not as awesome as anticipated. I will have to give this dish another try somewhere else to see if it really is just like this.

And this concludes all of my Vegas food shots! I tried to take as many as I could, but sometimes was just intimidated by whipping out my SLR at certain locations. All in all, Vegas was a great trip, full of great memories and yummy foods. (My 3lb weight gain is proof of too much eating…time to diet now!)

On our last full day in Vegas, we went on a Grand Canyon excursion which included hanging out at a ranch for a few hours. They provided us with lunch:

Roasted chicken leg, baked beans, coleslaw, corn cob and cornbread. Very basic fare, but rather appropriate for a ranch! The chicken was moist and well seasoned… corn was super sweet. The other sides were only so-so. Our British companions had no clue what the cornbread was!

While in the Mojave desert, our guide pointed out sage plants to us. Wowowowo, they were so fragrant! It was like a mixture of lemon and rosemary!

After walking the strip all morning + afternoon, we stopped at the Parasol Down lounge/bar at the Wynn Hotel for a few drinks and some downtime.

Cocktails… I don’t remember the names/ingredients of these, but they were very fruity and great tasting.

Saturday, we roamed around and wound up walking through the Fashion Show mall (looks like a huge spaceship) for a bit. On our way out, we took a peek at a creperie in the food court. I was surprised to see that they served bubble tea! Of course, I could not resist and got my favorite: taro!

And lastly, here is a pepperoni pretzel that I picked at while we were walking around the Venetian. It was pretty bland.

After eating dinner at an off-strip ramen joint (sorry, no photos of that!), we drove to the Bellagio for some dessert. At the hotel, we stumbled upon Jean Philippe Patisserie, a crowded dessert counter. The side of the store displays a magnificent chocolate fountain –purportedly the tallest choc fountain in the world– which drew massive amounts of people to crowd around the front (okay admittedly, that got real annoying)! Gelato, chocolates, crepes, cakes, and baked goods galoreeeee!

After circling the counter multiple times, I decided on the apple sensation crepes w/ a scoop of coconut gelato. These were the most amazzzzzzzzing crepes everrrrrrrrr!

Here are photos of my crepe being prepared:

The whipped cream was the only part that was just “OKAY”…. it tasted a little generic. But everything else was just melt in your mouth delicious. The light fluffy crepe, caramelized apples, toasted candied walnuts, with a touch of the coconut gelato was just heavenly. (The gelato had lots of fresh coconut shreds in it, which made it even more divine.)

This is the berry souffle that was also ordered. It was good, but not as good as mine!!! It came with a vanilla custard folded inside, which made it a tad too rich.

Here is the photo of the chocolate fountain, which ran all the way down from the ceiling:

An upclose shot of the fountain:

Address:
Jean Philippe Patisserie
Bellagio Hotel
3600 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89109
www.jpchocolates.com

Okay, one of my sweet tooth weaknesses are candied apples! When I saw the following display counter at the Venetian Hotel, my heart skipped a beat! Although my favorite is just the regular red sugar coated candy apples, I still have a soft spot for caramel ones… and who could really resist these mammoth candied apples?

I had never seen such a wide variety before!

Oh so many choices…it took awhile for me to decide…and I only captured some of the offerings, not all!

Finally settled upon the Snickerdoodle apple…

The apple, all wrapped up (and was placed in a big box, which I promptly threw out for immediate consumption!)

Me, starting off with a lick! Nom nom nom…I only got through 1/3 of the apple before re-packing it up for later. It was definitely quite a treat!

This counter is located on the bottom floor of the Venetian, near the food court.

Of all the luxury hotels in Vegas, my favorite was the Venetian. It had such a quaint romantic feel to it, especially with the gondola filled “river,” blue sky with clouds, and the pavillion where there were frequent performances by opera singers.

Pictures of pretty pastries that I saw while walking through the hotel:

I love love love looking inside pastry shops, but seldom actually purchase any of the goodies. Aside from the unwanted calories, I actually don’t have that much of a sweet tooth!

Day 2 of Vegas started off with some pizza. On our way to the Venetian, we stopped for a quick and cheap lunch at “A Slice of Pizza” on the strip. This pizzeria advertised New York style of pizzas, which I thought would be fun and interesting to compare with what I’m normally used to here.

Visually, you can definitely tell a big difference. Look at how the cheese looks all dry and curly!

The sicilian slice did not match up either… not surprisingly.

Rather than say I ate a slice of pizza, it was more like… I ate a piece of bread that just so happened to have tomato sauce and melted cheese on top.

Hehe, I’m such a NY pizza snob now!

Back from my Vegas trip… and with a few food photos to share!

For dinner on our first night, we chose Serendipity 3, right across from Caesar’s Palace. Okay, it was not exactly the most unique (considering there is a Serendipity in NYC too) eatery to have settled upon for the first meal in Sin City, but there was barely any wait time at all…. and we were famished from a long flight and then having to deal with hotel room fiascos.

First up, buffalo wings for appetizers. These were pretty yummo… crispy and spicy. It was the only highlight of the entire meal!

For an entree, I ordered the chicken pot pie, which was better than grocery store frozen pot pies, but not mouthwatering beyond that.

An up close shot of the pot pie after the crust had been broken through:

A rather yech-y salad. The dressing had no flavor at all (we think it was supposed to be “ranch”) and the marinated artichokes had a fishy taste! Most of this plate went untouched after a few bites.

Overall experience, two thumbs down! Not only because the food was subpar, but because of these other two reasons: 1) two seconds after sitting down, our waiter was breathing down our necks for food orders — hello, give us a few minutes to look at the menu even, 2) two other servers brought out our appetizer AND entrees at the same time. Apparently, they didn’t even think there was an issue, even after I told them we hadn’t even started on our appetizers and did not want the entrees to get cold. They just looked at me blankly and then asked if I wanted them to bring it back to the kitchen?! OY!

Don’t go here for food…it’s probably best just for a quick sitdown for their well known frozen hot chocolates.

Address:
Serendipity3
10161 Park Run Dr
Las Vegas, Nevada

After biking 26 miles, I was ready to devour a cow. Dinner tonight was a Bubba jalapeno flavored burger with deli cheese and whole wheat hamburger buns.

The burger was cooked on the grill, so it was moist and … that’s about it. It didn’t really carry the jalapeno flavor strongly. I would not have this burger again. (And especially also because it’s a whopping 340 calories and 29g of fat). Next time, I’d probably stick to the buffalo burger from Trader Joe’s. Much tastier and healthier!

We’re starting a tradition of grabbing a slice of pizza before a long bike ride. Carbs and cheesy goodness to get us going! So now it’s going to be a quest to try different pizzerias throughout Long Island and see which places really do uphold their reputation.

Today’s pizza foray was to Little Vincent’s in Lake Ronkonkoma. They were voted 2nd for “Best Pizza on Long Island” by Long Island Press.

(I had the smaller slice on the left!)

What made me really enjoy the pizza was the crust –it was crunchy and not too thin. It had a nice bite! The sauce was not overly sweet and there was a fair amount of cheese. Pretty good pizza. Additional thumbs up for it not being too greasy either. I’d definitely have another slice again. As for 2nd best, I’m not too sure [yet].

Little Vincent’s Pizza
324 Smithtown Blvd, Lake Ronkonkoma.
631-981-9631

(And yes, we definitely burnt off the calories after the 26 mile bike ride!)

A yummy start to a gorgeous Saturday…

Lenders Onion Bagels (220cal/2g fat/2g fiber) = 4pts
1tbsp reg. Cream Cheese (35 cal/3.5g fat/0g fiber) = 1pt
Grapes = 1pt

For WW followers, this is a filling 6pt breakfast..and no “diet” items were used. It goes to show that one can still eat healthy with ‘regular’ foods too, just make sure it’s moderate portions!

Oy yes.. this not so healthy sandwich was consumed last night for dinner. It was not my idea, but I caved because we had cycled 18 miles and burnt off a lot of calories.

I haven’t had bacon in a long long long time…so it tasted amazing last night. Definitely a treat! (Hopefully one I won’t repeat too often)

Ingredients: loaf of sesame bread, package of mozzarella cheese, bacon (any kind — but we used centercut tonight)

Directions
1 – cook bacon
2 – slice bread, put in toaster
3 – slice cheese thickly
4 – when bacon is done, assemble 3 strips of bacon on the bottom slice of bread, topped with a couple slices of mozzarella cheese. Microwave for a minute and a half. Place top slice of bread over. Ta da!

Today for lunch, leftover southwest white chicken chili….

Have I mentioned that I love cilantro? I loveeeeeeeeee cilantro! The more, the merrier!

This is the recipe used for the chili:

Southwestern Chicken Chili

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 onion, chopped
8 ounces mushrooms, thickly sliced
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 can (4 ounces) green chili peppers, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon red-pepper flakes (optional)
1 cup nonfat chicken broth (we used a whole can)
2 cans (15 ounces each) cannellini, navy, Great Northern or other beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 -1 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro
2 ounces part-skim Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded

Warm the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the chicken and sautee for 5 minutes, or until the pieces are browned. Remove the chicken and set aside. Add the onions to the pot and saut for several minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and garlic; cook for several minutes more. Add the chili peppers, cumin, oregano, red-pepper flakes (if using) and broth. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the chicken, beans and cilantro; stir gently to mix well. Simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Taste to adjust the seasonings, adding more red-pepper flakes, if desired. Sprinkle the Monterey Jack over each serving. Preparation time: 10 minutes. Cooking time: 45 minutes.

Yield: Serves 4; Per serving: 345 calories, 10.1 g. total fat (22 % of calories), 3.2 g. monounsaturated fat, 2.1 g. polyunsaturated fat, 2.5 g. saturated fat, 37.7 g. protein, 42 g. carbohydrate, 12.9 g. dietary fiber, 56 mg. cholesterol, 976 mg.sodium. – Source

And since I’m working the rest of the week, I started packing lunch:

Brown rice w/ assorted veggies on the side.

And baked flounder (seasoned with salt, black pepper, and a dash of cayenne pepper) to go on top of the rice/veggies. No more eating out this week since I’m back to a regular morning work schedule. Plus after eating out this entire weekend, I feel really fat :(

Random food photos from Easter…

Breakfast: crunchy peanut butter on a toasted English muffin. Yum, I seldom have PB because it’s so high in calories/fat… so this was a nice treat! :)

A mini (size of my palm) chocolate mousse cake from a bakery. Soooo so so so rich. I only ate 1/2 of it. The inside had a bit of raspberry preserve, which was yummy too. I didn’t think I would like it since I normally dislike mixing of fruit + chocolate.

Rolls being brushed with butter (my mom would gasp in horror!) before being put in the oven.

A group of us met up in Flushings last night for a dinner at a Korean BBQ buffet. It was my first time there (and only second time attempting Korean BBQ).

It definitely was a LOT of meat, but after awhile, they all tasted the same after been sitting on the grill for so long. Perhaps that was our fault for not diligently cooking and eating it fast enough, but overall I was not that impressed.

Per person, it was $25 and we were there for a little over 2 hours.

Meat on the grill:

Along with the assorted meats, there were other “filler” sides such as wings, potstickers/gyozas, noodles, rice, sushi, and kimchi. Here’s a shot of my kimchi:

After dinner, we drove down to Sago for a round of bubble tea and assorted desserts. This was my favorite part of the night because I had been craving sweets all week.

Sago has pretty poor reviews on Yelp, but it’s the only sit-down bubble tea cafe that I know of that is conveniently located near the metered parking lot in Flushing. And well, us Long Islanders have a hard time navigating through other areas!

I did notice a sign posted on the wall that apologized for the increased prices on the menu. It was $4.15 for my medium bubble tea, which is about the price of a Starbucks grande frapp … so for me, the $$ was not a biggie.

This night, I deviated from my usual taro tea and ordered the much recommended almond instead. Ehhh… I didn’t like it too much. The almond scent was just a tad too strong for me. It just smelled too medicinal.

And last but not least, mochi w/ vanilla ice cream inside. This was really good! Very creamy and delicate tasting.

Picture quality is not that great because I avoided using the flash at the restaurant.

Addresses of the eateries:

Picnic Garden
14742 Northern Blvd
Flushing, NY 11354

Sago Tea Cafe
3902 Main Street
Flushing, NY 11354