jsmeeker

I bought it brand new a few months ago. I thought Bee House was a brand. It's like one of these on this page (mine is white) http://www.beehouseteapot.com/22beehouseaa.htm

Interesting. My Bee House pot meets andiesenji's description. Should I just toss it into the dishwasher next time?

This would be my choice for a "veg" in the summer. Cool. Crisp. A good combo. And then, some sort of potato dish. Possibly a potato salad of some sort. Is the meal served outdoors? If so, then I think the slaw and potato salad would give it a nice "picnick" type feel. That could be really nice.

This is what they do. Or at least, what the chef told us while at the restaurant. I didn't see the meat in the aging room. That's actually done in a separate location and not within the restuant itself. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if there was a lot of additional waste where they took a primal too far and had to toss it. That will certainly contibute to the high prices for these steaks.

What I can say is there was a pretty distinct difference between the 8 month aged steaks and the 60 day (8 weeks) aged steak. Not just flavor, but texture as well. Of course, you make a fair point that the starting point could play a big difference. If I recall correctly, they said they were pretty choosy in selecting the primals to age (or keep aging) for a really long period of time.

I'm pretty new to the world of drinking quality hot tea. Until very recently, all of my experience has been at home. In restaurants, the only tea I was ordering was iced tea. I recently returned from Las Vegas where I obviously had a large number of meals in restaurants. While there, I actually ordered tea once for myself and also observed what happened when others at the table ordered tea. What I experienced seems to indicate that tea as a beverage is done as an afterthought. Outside of the dim sum place we went to, it was always done with a pot of hot water and a teabag. Sure, it may have been a good tea bag, but it was still a tea bag. And you were on your own to actually brew it. Is there any hope out there? Any growing trend going on that hasn't made it to Las Vegas where tea service in restaurants is given a bit more thought. I suppose there are some places there doing it well, but I wasn't at them.

Food and beverage operations at large casino resorts can be pretty facinating. I'm not at all familiar with what's going on in Atlantic City, but I've been going to Las Vegas pretty regularly for the past several years. I've have dined around in all types of places out there. I've had very minimal "behind the scenes" experiences there in person, but have seen various things on TV and have read a bit of things here on eGullet forums. But one thing I do get to see out in Las Vegas is where people choose to dine when given so many choices. It's pretty interesting to say the least. Though in keeping with the Atlantic City topic, does Atlantic City have the concept of "locals" casinos the way they do in Las Vegas? I've noticed some differences in dining between the locals places in Las Vegas compared to the big resorts on the strip.

From what we were told, it's something they do regularly.

It certainly had a ham like quality to it. Not juicy like a regular steak, of course. But it wasn't bone dry or anything like that. The beef is dried in whole primal cuts, not individual cut steaks. There is a good deal of waste

just returned from Las Vegas. Bases on my experience, I will offer up my value meal suggestion. Ping Pang Pong in the Gold Coast. Went there with 8 people on Monday. Had a lot of dim sum And 8 entrees from the printed menu. Some tea. Drinks (sodas). Worked out to $25 per person, total (tax, tip included). What a steal.

I don't work in the food service industry in any capacity (not since high school and one summer in college). The closest I get is being part of the staff at eGullet society. However, I think if I were a working cook/chef, a gig at The White House would be pretty neat. But since I am not a working cook/chef, I think something like the cruise ship job would be cool. Except for me, it would be in Las Vegas.

I just returned from Las Vegas. While there, I had an opportunity to have some aged steaks. Some REALLY aged steaks. They were MUCH older than what is being talked about here in this topic. The steaks I had were aged eight months. For good measure, a steak that was a mere 60 days was served just as a way to compare. You can see my write up of that meal (complete with some photos) over in the Las Vegas dining topic. Just follow the link.. (You'll need to scroll down a bit to get past some reports on other meals I had in Las Vegas) What is the upper limit on aged beef? Reading through this topic anda few others on this subject, it seems like 30-60 days is considered to be a good amount of aging. Based on my experience this past weekend, their was a significant difference between the 8 month steaks and the 60 day steak. The 60 day steak was terrific, but the 8 month stuff was something very different. How far can this be pushed? Who else is doing this in the United States? From our conversations with the staff at Carnevino, they said they weren't aware of anyone doing anything like this. Has anyone seen anything like this in other restaurants or butcher shops?

When in high school, I worked at a regional ice cream shop. We were trained in a specific technique that should have yielded a 4 ounce scoop (dip) in one motion. No piling it on required. Of course, in practice, it sometimes took more than one motion.

Monday was to be my last full day in Las Vegas. No breakfast, but instead the day started with an early lunch. Yes, Turtleboy, we did get some dim sum. But of course, you knew that because you were there with me. Inspired by Fat Guy's (Steven Shaw) Asian food tour of Las Vegas with TheDinningAdvocate (John Curtas) earlier in the year, my group of friends and I headed just off strip to Gold Coast and Ping Pang Pong. As suggested, we arrived early and sat down at a large round table bit before 11:00 AM. We were told dim sum was available right away, but the main menu was not available until 11:00 AM. That was totally fine. Send the carts over, we told our waitress. Now, here is where dining in a better Chinese places is a bit difficult for me. I like Chinnese, but I am not very knowledgeable about it as my pallet leans much more to the West than it does to the East. Yes, I should get a copy of Steven's "Asian Dining Rules" to help me out. But I still think I would struggle, largely because of language barrier. Kudos to my friend and eGullet sociery member David (Turtleboy) for helping us out a little. I didn't plan my seating position very well, so it was tough for me to see what was on the carts. David did a good job of asking for a few things hew knew, then pointing at all sorts of things. We started out with a big assortment of steamed dumplings. Everything was really good. A few more carts rolled by and we got more. And more and more. With eight people in the group, this worked out pretty well. Eventually, we decided to order stuff off the regular printed menu. Eight different dishes in total. I can't remember it all, but the dish I ordered was pretty interesting. It was called something like "Walnut Shrimp" What it was was batter fried shrimp with this somewhat sweet, thick creamy sauce on it. The walnuts wre actually sweet and candied. This was really really good. As we were chowing down on the massive amount of food layed out on the lazy susan, we saw more and more dim sum carts go by. Carts we didn't see earlier. It dawned on us that we should have totally skipped the stuff from the printed menu and done nothing but ordering from the dim sum carts. This place is the real deal. It was fantastic. Most patrons were Chinese. And local. Not a bunch of tourists from Texas and Florida and Rhode Island or wherever like you see in the Pan-asian places in the strip hotels. Since we shared everything, splitting up the bill was easy. Cost per head? $25. What a steal. To make matters better, I won't almost all of it back at a Wheel of Forutne slot in the casino before leaving. Man, I love Las Vegas! This is a definite return visit place. Next time, nothing but dim sum. And if I am lucky, a knowledgeable guide. Only pic I got. Just a huge spread of food after we worked through the main menu stuff. My excellent lunch was worked off across the street at The Palms and then at the pool back at The Mirage. As it afternoon drew to a close, the crowds at the pool started to thin out. It was time to start thinking about dinner. After showering and changing, my friend and I headed across the street into the Venetian's Canal Shops. We were off to find Enoteca San Marco, one of three Mario Batalli places in the huge Venetian/Palazzo complex. Took a while to find due to the crummy signage at that place. Walked around in a huge circle, only to realize where we were and how we could have gotten there far more quickly. Lesson learned! We walked up to the hostest stand and only waited about two minutes for them to prep a table "outside". Really, I think ALL of the seating was "outside" in the indoor plaza area of the Canal Shops. To start, I had another plate of cured meats. My experience at Carnevino was good, and they didn't disappoint here either. Pretty tasty (but no peppers). For a main, I selected a special for the day. Housemade sausages over roasted peppers and onions. Unfortunately, the sausage was a bit dry. Flavor was good, though. My friend started with some small calzones. These were actually fried and not baked. Also, filled with cheese. (ricotta, I believe). I don't typically like cheese calzones, but these were nice. For a main, he ordered Marinated Chicken Paillard. Boneless chicken thighs on top of fried eggplant with an arugula salad ontop. For dessert, I had one of their gelato sundaes. It was the "Peach". Vanilla bean and peach gelato served in a cocktail glass, garnished with fresh peach slices and a cookie. I found the gelato to be really good. Peach is one of my favorite summer flavors. Leaving the restaurant, we departed via a much more direct route. Down the escalators just behind the restaurant, taking us right near the Blue Man Group theater. From there, it was into the casino. The lure of the slots called. I plopped down infront of a quarter Wheel of Fortune machine. Played and finally hit the bonus. Spun the wheel. 1000 quarters!! Cashed out and walked away with a $231 profit! That's payback for those damn signs! Tuesday was my last day. I had a late afternoon flight. So, a few friends and I headed over to the Venetian to do one thing we have been doing regularly in Las Vegas for the past several trips. Breakfast at Bouchon. This is just something we've been doing since we started staying in Treasure Island (and now Mirage). It's very convenient, and a nice breakfast away from all the action of the casino floor. Pastries excellent as always. My scrambled eggs could have been better. But the boudin blanc served with it was great. A good way to close out my Las Vegas dining. (sorry, no pics here either)

My Sunday started out early with breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi in Paris. This restaurant is right up front of the hotel and has a nice patio for outdoor dining. It's right above the sidewalk along Las Vegas Blvd, and directly across from Bellagio. They have just recently started to serve breakfast there, and my friends and I had heard good things about it. We defintely wanted to check it out. Eventhough it was morning, it was still pretty warm outside. I asked for a table on the patio, but was they lead us there, I saw a four top right in the open doorway between the patio and the sunroom area just inside the patio. So, we decided to sit there. It was great. We got the feel of being in open air, but were still able to stay cool with the AC. Menu was pretty much standard brekfast fare, with a few little French twists in there like having steak frites and onion soup on the menu along with sweet and savory crepes. There was also a burger. I went with some sweet crepes with berries. It was a big serving. Several crepes with a mixed berry compote on top and served with some whipped cream. Very tasty, but I didn't come close to finishing. One friend actually ordered the burger! I didn't have any of it, but he seemed to enjoy it. I managed to try some of the fries. They were quite good. Another friend had the Bacon Chocolate waffle. The bacon was inside, but not a whole lot of it. Still, it was tasty. Fresh squeezed OJ and coffee was good too. Service was very good as well. I'd really recommend this place to anyone looking for a nice breakfast. Certainly if you are staying in Paris or anywhere mid-strip. IMHO, a better option than standing around in the buffet line or the 24 hour coffee shop. (we were seating right away at about 9:30 AM). Chocolate Bacon Waffle. I didn't get a picture of anything else, unfortunately. I stuck around Paris for a bit letting the breakfast digest while playing some craps and slots. Eventually, we started to make our way back to The Mirage. Once there, we hopped into a rental car and headed west to Red Rock just to check it out. None of us had ever been. By the time we got there, it was close to 12:30. We figured we could grab some lunch. Looking at the available options, we had the fast food court (pass), buffet (no thanks), the 'coffee shop' (ehh...) and a burger joint. Burgers are a hot trend in Las Vegas now, so we decided to see what Red Rock had to offer at LBS: A Burger Joint. What they offered up was quite good. Thick, juicy beef patty. Nicely cooked with plenty of pink in it. Topped with cheese and grilled onions, lettuce, pickles, and a house made ketchup. It was excellent. I had a side of onion rings with them. These were nice as well. A chocolate malt (which I really didn't need) rounded out the meal. This place competes well with the best burger joints on the strip (BLT Burger, Burger Bar,etc.). If you are a local and live in the area, check it out if you have not already. If you are from out of town and have a car and want to get well away from the strip and visit a very nice locals casino and like burgers, go. You won't be dissapointed. Sunday night, I had tickets to see "Love" at the Mirage (7:00 PM show). This is one of two nights where I didn't have any dinner plans or reservations made in advance. There were several people in the group that was out there that I had not spent much, if any time, seeing. After a few disucussions, we decided to just stay at Mirage after the show and have dinner at STACK. This restaurant is essentially identical to Fix over in the Bellagio. It's run by the same company. Cool modern decor with lots of wood. Menu that can please anyone. One thing The Mirage restaurants was touting was special pre-fixe menus. However, at Stack, they insisted it was an whole table or nothing sort of deal. I thought that was a bit odd, as it wasn't mentioned anywhere on the menu, on the signs infront of the restaurant, etc. Not sure if it was because of out party size or not. This bothered me a bit as some people were trying to keep costs undercontrol a bit, an a three course meal for $30 is a deal in a big strip casino hotal. Not everyone wanted to do it, so it was normal menu for the table. Thankfully, it worked out OK. Everybody was fine with it. We started off with a 5 different small plates of appetizers to share for the table. Hot rock beef, some hamachi sashimi, mini pigs in a blanket, lobster tacos, and chili cheese fries. All were pretty good. My favorite was the chilie cheese fries. For a main, I decided to take it light and easy and ordered seabass. Served with lobster risotto with a seafood broth. Fish had a very mild flavor. But it was still decent. Kind of hit the spot after all the rich food I had been having the past few days. For dessert, I had the mini jelly donut holes. These were really great. The order was large enough to share them with some of my friends. Overall, a decent meal. Not super great, but it was easy to setup. We didn't have to walk far or figure out something AFTER the show was already out. It was good to hang out with some friends I didn't see much during the trip, too. (I didn't get any photos here)

I just returned from a 4 night stay in fabulous Las Vegas. I had a lot of great eats and met some new friends. All of it in casino hotels, but not all of it on the Strip. I'll simply give a run down of where I had something to eat, presented in chronological order. Shortly after getting settled into The Mirage late Friday afternoon, some us in my group wanted a bite to eat before our 8:00 PM dinner reservation. Sushi sounded good, so we had some at Japonais, in the lounge, right there off the casino floor. My salmon roll was so-so. But a friend enjoyed his big plate of sushi more, especially the assorted tuna. Dinner that night was at Nob Hill Tavern at MGM Grand. We were a party of 8, and were seated a nice, large table in the back near the area where they prepped the charcuterie. I ordered steak tartare. This was prepared table side, which is always a nice touch. Nice way to start a meal. For a main course, I had their cioppino. I've never had this dish before, so I don't have much to judge it against. A bit more table side flourish here. The tomato broth/soup poured into the bowl right there. Not bad. Certainly, a dish I would try again someplace. Probably in San Francisco. Several people at the table order the braised short ribs and really enjoyed them. Dessert was a simple peach crisp. Not too sweet, but could have been a bit more peachy. (No pics of dessert) Last time I was in Las Vegas, it was just before Encore opened. We wanted to check it out, so Saturday breakfast at Society Cafe was the "excuse" to head over there. It took a bit of a time to get the party together, so by the time we were seated, the place was pretty busy. This caused service to suffer. I ordered eggs benedict. Eggs were overcooked by quite a good bit. This was pretty disappointing. I really expect much better from Wynn. This was probably the weakest meal of the trip. (No pics of breakfast) While I was contemplating the breakfast menu, I received a call from fellow eGullet member and Las Vegas food writer, blogger, and critic John Curtas (TheDiningAdvocate). We wanted to setup figure out a place to get together for lunch. Carnevino in the Palazzo was selected. Joining us for a 1:30 PM lunch was John's son and his girlfriend. Now, John's a well known guy on the Las Vegas restaurant scene. Just ask Fat Guy or David Ross. So, this meal was quite an experience for me. We certainly were well taken care of. It started with an array of appetizers. A killer plate of cured meats with assorted peppers, a plate of baked clams, a very fresh caprese, and a nice simple argula salad with goat cheese. Oh, and some fresh baked bread served with house made butter. And lardo. Lardo on bread is over the top indulgent. But really, this meal was to be all about beef. And not just any beef, but some really well aged beef. John had some special steaks waiting for him, so we went back to the kitchen to check them out. They have a lot of meat back there, but the real aging goes on in a vast warehouse elsewhere in the sprawling Venetian/Palazzo complex. The chef started to show us the meat. It all has tags with a date on them. We were after meat that had been aging since 11/7/2008. Yup. It was 8 months aged. Chef selected one porter house and one strip steak from that bacth. Then, for good measure and as a way to compare, a strip that had been aged "only" 60 days. Back to the dining room we went to wait for it to be cooked. Out came the steaks on two carts. Sliced up table side, garnished with fleur de sel, and a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Now, it was time to really eat. The 8 month aged beef was unlike anything I had before. Texture totally different that what I am used to. Intense beef flavor. Sort of buttery. Earthy. Slightly funky blue cheese like flavor. Just amazing. The filet part of the porterhouse was the best I had ever had. I tasted like beef! Really flavorful beef. The "control" steak was fantastic too. Much closer to what I am used to for a great steak. But this was amongst the best. We were too stuffed for dessert (plus, I had a 7:00 PM dinner reso), so we reluctantly declined. This was a fantastic meal. And really an over the top LUNCH. My dining companions were great. We were all really into it (though John and I probably a bit more with all of our picture taking ) TheDiningAdvocate lived up to his name. Full of stories, good advice, and of course a love of Las Vegas dining. What's not to like? [note: this meal was comped by the restaurant] 8 month porterhouse 8 month strip Getting sliced sliced and finished, ready to eat. The spread of meat. The 60 day strip is on the right, un-sliced. Comparison shot. Top slice is 8 months. Bottom 60 days. Both are strips. Despite my indulgent lunch, I managed to make it over to Bellagio for dinner at Sensi. I had been here once before (last Summer), but for a solo lunch before heading to the airport to fly home. So, I wanted to give it a whirl for dinner. Sensi is a neat place. The kitchen is in the middle of the restaurant, and surrounded by glass walls. You see all the action. We had a large table tucked into a little alcove surround by glass walls on three sides. (you can see it in the photo at Bellagio website http://bellagio.com/restaurants/sensi.aspx ) I started off with a glass of house made ginger ale. Nice and spicy, and very refreshing. My starter was Thai Chicken & Mushroom Soup in Coconut. This was pretty good. Nice and spicy. For a main, I had the Spice Rubbed Chicken in Creamy Butter Curry Sauce I had a Blood Orange creme caramel. Light and delicious. Hit the spot on a HOT Las Vegas summer evening. (no pic of my dessert) One thing we all liked about Sensi was the presentation of the food. The rice for my main was in that little "take out" box. A friend had the same thing for the rice for his dish. Got a real kick out of it. But the real winner for presentation was one of the desserts someone ordered. That's scoops of gelato served in a bowl.. no, wait, not a bowl. It was served in a sculpture of ice, resting on a bed of crushed ice. This was really, really cool. Not sure how it happened, but I never managed to get a taste of the gelato. The report on the rest of my meals will come tomorrow.

If David is right and it's like the other pan-Asian places, you may be dissapointed if you are expecting something really great. I am heading to Las Vegas tomorrow. And Ping Pang Pong is on the list of places to visit. I have somewhat high expecations for this place. At least, it needs to be much better than places like Red 8 at Wynn and Noodles in Bellagio.

I just had my first experience with hospital food over the past few day. Certainly NOT a planned visit. 5 meals total during my stay. 2 Breakfast, 2 lunch, 1 dinner. The first meal was breakfast on Monday AM. (I went to the ER Sunday night). The ticket said "Cardiac Diet". So, you can maybe imagine what that may be like. Eggs. Not sure if they were real. a soggy english muffin (the covers they put on there to keep the food warm ensures nothing will be crispy). Some kind of sausage. looked like it was steamed or something. No browning to be seen. Cup of canned pears (the tastiest thing on the tray), a cup of bad coffee, a carton of skim milk, and a container of corn flakes (not kelloggs). This was my least enjoyable meal. On the tray was a menu for the next meal. I managed to save that. Monday - Cardiac Lunch Parmasean Roasted Cod Steamed Red Potatoes Green Beans Light Cheesecake Iced Tea Alternate Lunch was offered by request. Grilled chicken breast instead of fish (everything else the same) not great. veggies could have used salt, but I guess since it's "cardiac diet", they don't use any or much, and your condiment/silverware pack has a "salt substitute" That stuff was weird.. "Cheesecake" really wasn't, but it wasn't too bad. I managed to snag and bring home the dinner menu for monday, too. Monday - Cardiac Dinner Mandarin Chicken Breast Almond Couscous Steamed Broccoli Dinner Roll Salad w/ diet dressing Light Strawberry Mousse Skim Milk Alternate Dinner Italian Chicken Salad Dinner Roll Light Strawberry Mousse Skim Milk this seemed to have some potential. But the couscous was weird tasting. Broccoli classic over steamed mushy broccoli. The dessert was the best thing on the tray. The best thing I had the whole time was the banana pudding served with my lunch on Tuesday. I ate all of it. And all of the salisbury steak that was there, too.

Thanks, David. We would probably not be considering rm for dinner, but would certainly consider stopping in during the day if we happened to be way down at the south end of the strip at Mandalay Bay for some reason. Right now, I'm not entireley sure if it's worth the trip down their specifically for that.

Mexican. (Just a wild guess here ) I like Bayless, he just strikes me as a one-trick pony. It sure is a trick he knows and does well. (and I really like Mexican cuisine, so I am sort of biased)

Interesting.. I guess they should update the various websites. So, the question remains, what IS available at the rm Seafood that is currently open? Is it still open during the day?

Does anyone have more detail on rm seafood? A friend of mine that is joining me in Las Vegas caught a show last night on Travel Channel that featured this restaurant (specifically, a dessert on the menu that is a blind tasting of 20 different ice creams) It got the two of us to investigate this place a bit more and we saw that there is upstairs and a downstairs. It seems that the downstairs portion is open during the day. Checking the Mandalay Bay website and the restaurant's own official site was a bit confusing. It was hard to tell exactly what menus were being offered where and when. It was also mentioned that the upstairs would re-open in May. Has that happened? I know I can just call out there and talk to someone. But was wondering if anyone here (David, maybe?) had some some good scoop on what's going on.

I enjoyed this episode because I'm a big fan of Rick Bayless. Also, I liekd the quickfire. Not too gimicky. But yeah, it does seem they may have "stacked the deck" to let chefs shine with their normal style of cuisine. Convenient to have banaleaves, tomatiilos, etc. etc. there for quickfire. All stuff Rick uses a lot. Would that stuff have been there had he not been there? And when they openend the cover to reveal the tounge to Rick, it was a given what he would do. And really, nothing wrong with that. Tacos are some of the most perfect street food that exisits, and tounge is not all that uncommon. How much of a stretch is it that people in Los Angeles haven't seen it. (OK, yeah, they were at Universal Studios theme park, so I'm sure their were lots of tourists and less natives) Still, though, I am very happy hew won. Can't wait to see what he does in the champions round. For the other chefs, I wasn't familair with them. But I liked Cindy. Neat lady.

I'm a fan. I used to keep them on hand a lot more frquently, though. Not really sure why I don't buy them as much as I used too. I would like to top them with either slices of cheddar cheese (ocassionally topped with a slice of pepperorni) or the cheddar/port wine cheese spread. Maybe I should buy a box on the way home.

sounds tasty, Katie. I just used Bourbon and peach myself. Peach Bourbon Old Fashioned muddled some fresh diced peaches in turbinado sugar and angostura bitters. Added ice, and topped up with Knob Creek bourbon. Stir to mix it all up.