Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill, Las Vegas

Filed Under Las Vegas, Travel | 25 Comments

Siv and I are major Iron Chef fans - one of the very few TV programs we watch together.  One of the Iron chefs we really love to watch is Bobby Flay, the main reason being his love towards using bold flavors. He is not afraid to experiment with a little heat, his favorite cooking ingredients being different varieties of chili peppers! So we were looking forward to trying out Mesa Grill, the Las Vegas version of Bobby Flay’s flagship restaurant in NYC. We only got to have lunch there, so we had just three dishes to form our opinion, keep that in mind while reading the review.

We started with some drinks, I got a hefe-weizen from Germany- light, smooth and refreshing - exactly what I needed after the 5 minutes walk in the 100F sun from Bellagio to Caesar’s Palace. Siv had the Black Widow Mojito, an excellent drink. Normally I ignore the bread baskets, since that is just wasting valuable stomach space, but I couldn’t do that after the waiter told us about the jalapeno bread! It was just out of this world, I could just make a meal out of it!

We were both not all that hungry, but we decided to share an appetizer and get individual entrees. For the appetizer we got the Blue Corn Pancake with Barbecued Duck and Habanero Chile - Star Anise sauce ($13). You can see why we went for this one, since it had all of Bobby’s favorite ingredients. The waiter warned us that the Habanero sauce is really hot and be careful with it, but little did he know how much heat tolerance we have! It wasn’t overly hot at all, the duck was soft and smoky, the blue corn pancake not only looked brilliant, but had great taste and texture, and all the different sauces went so well with it, that extra kick of habanero was just wonderful!

For his entree, Siv got the Yucatan Chicken Tacos with Grilled Onions and Peanut Smoked Chile Barbecue Sauce ($15). This came with two corn tortillas. Chicken was tender and flavorful, the sauce was perfectly smoky and spicy, only complaint was the size of the dish. It was really small for an entree, but Siv was not that hungry, so he was fine.

I got the Mesa Burger ($16), even though I didn’t have the stomach for it. But how can you not taste the signature burger at the grill master’s own restaurant? I have to say I was a bit disappointed, while it was a perfectly good burger, I really expected much more from Bobby Flay! The Southwestern fries were amazing though, didn’t like the horseradish mustard dip it came with, but the fries were perfectly seasoned, I didn’t need any dips.

All in all, it was a perfectly nice lunch, but other than the blue corn duck pancake, I can’t say that any of the dishes were out of this world. It is definitely worth a visit if you are Bobby Flay fan, and you’d enjoy the bragging rights of having eaten at an Iron Chef restaurant. I am sure you won’t have a bad meal, but I wouldn’t put it in the exceptional category, based on this meal. But as I mentioned before, I can’t really put such a great chef down after trying just three dishes, I would go back there just for the pancakes next trip though! It’s also got one Michelin star, which is not easy to come by, so I am sure there are other dishes in the menu in the same rank of those pancakes!

Vir Sanghvi’s Rude Food and Thattukada Chicken

Filed Under Book Review, Chicken, India - Kerala | 37 Comments

I have been blogging for an year and a half now, and for the most part I’ve kept up a steady pace. I have blogged when I was on vacation, when I had visitors and even when I was sick. Only thing that has ever kept me away from the blogging world is work, which is the main reason for my infrequent updates and blog hopping. Now, no one can fault me for being a good employee right? Someone’s gotta pay half of that mortgage…

Anyway, while the busy schedule at work kept me away from cooking anything blog-worthy, I got time to catch up on my reading. It really helped that there is nothing great on TV these days too, all my regular shows are on summer break. Some of the books I’ve been reading are food related, so I thought I will share with you one book that was particularly entertaining.

A few months ago when I went to India, my sister gave me a book called Rude Food: The Collected Food Writings of Vir Sanghvi. It was published in 2004, but I had never even heard of it before. Vir Sanghvi is a well-known journalist and a leading television personality in India. Rude food is a compilation of articles from his weekly foodie column in Hindustan Times’ Sunday magazine. What makes this book a great read is the fact that Vir Sanghvi is not a chef, he is a foodie. He is a person who loves food almost obsessively, a fact so apparent from the way he describes the dishes and flavors. There is no way someone can fake this kind of enthusiasm! Reading this book is almost as delightful as eating a fancy meal.

A big eye opener for me was the fact that India’s restaurant scene has significantly evolved. My only tryst with the fine food scene in India was during my two year stay in Bangalore a decade ago. I was happy to learn that one can get pretty much everything from fresh oysters to foie gras in India these days. Now, that is a big relief, if I ever move back to India, I always thought I would miss some of the fine food I’ve grown to love. But it turns out that I had excessively underestimated the food scene in India.

Vir Sanghvi has some weird habits like transporting potatoes to India from his trips abroad since he doesn’t like the domestic variety, and an almost obscene love for truffles, he says.

“’If you like the smell of truffles, you also like sex. If, on the other hand, you think it reminds you of socks, then you’re probably lousy in bed.”

But all in all, he is a normal person who loves everything about food. There is so much information spread among the many 2-3 page articles like the history of sandwiches and the evolution of Indo-Chinese food. He tries very hard to convey that he is not a food snob, but there is plenty of namedropping going on in here about the celebrity chefs he knows and many mentions about his trip abroad on the Prime Minister’s private jet. Almost every restaurant he talks about are the five-star variety, there is nothing wrong in that, I don’t mind a little snobbery when it comes to fine food, but it is funny when he says

The original brief for Rude Food had been to demystify the whole business of fancy food and fine wine and to take all the snobbery out of going to expensive restaurants..

But he admits that

“by the time I was writing about foie gras and caviar (both included here) I realised that the column had moved away from its original intent. I hoped that the pieces would deal with foie gras, caviar and truffles without seeming pretentious, but it was clear that I had wandered far from the original brief”

Vir is very knowledgeable about the food industry, and has some great tips about what to order in restaurants, and how to deal with snooty waiters. He talks about why airline food is so bad and how Tandoori chicken came to India.   I don’t know about the authenticity of any of his claims, but it sure makes a good read. He doesn’t come across as one of those modern day experts who has learned everything they know from the Internet, but as a person who has gained knowledge from his personal experience and extensive travels and industry connections. The book is a delightful read with witty anecdotes and the right amount of sarcasm thrown in for good measure. It is a must read for all food lovers. Oh, it even has some real simple recipes that anyone can try out.

Before I leave, wanted to share this delicious Thattukada style Kozhi Porichathu from Sumitha’s Kitchen Wonders. Thattukada is Kerala’s version of a street side fast food joint. We all know that everything tastes better hot off from a stall on the street, but this homemade version comes very close to the original. Thank you Sumitha for a delicious recipe!

I followed her recipe exactly, except for the addition of curry leaves and green chilies as garnish, unfortunately I was out. Instead I marinated some sliced onions in the same spice paste for the chicken and fried them in the oil to use as the garnish- delicious! But I’d really add the curry leaves and sliced chilies next time.

This is my entry for dear Sia’s MBP- June Edition - Street Food. MBP aka Monthly Blog Patrol is the brainchild of coffee of The Spice Cafe - the idea is to cook a dish from a fellow blogger that matches the chosen theme of the month.

This is also my entry for an event I don’t want to miss. There is actually an event with Chicken as the theme hosted by Vandana Rajesh of Cooking up Something Nice. Now you all know my love for Chicken, I really wanted to send in an original Chicken recipe, but I might not get to it this month, so this borrowed one will have to do. Check out my 18 other chicken recipes here.

Michael Mina, Bellagio - Las Vegas

Filed Under Las Vegas, Travel | 31 Comments

Since this was our anniversary trip to Vegas, we were all ready to check off as many restaurants as we can from our Las Vegas wish list. Michael Mina was right up there on top of the list, as we missed the opportunity in San Francisco last year.  Michael Mina’s SF restaurant has got two Michelin stars and the Vegas restaurant has one star in addition to the countless awards and accolades his different restaurants have received. With so much fanfare, needless to say the expectation was sky high, but I am glad to report that Michael Mina got top marks from us.

Service was outstanding as expected from a top class Vegas restaurant in Bellagio. Starting with the hostess to the waiter to the sommelier, everyone was super friendly and courteous. We were half an hour late for our reservation, so we got a couple of drinks at the well-stocked bar before they could find us a table. We both went for the Mina Margarita; a namesake signature drink has to be good, right? Well, it was great and it was potent! One drink and I was in a happy place. I guess it better be great at $16 a glass!

They had two tasting menus to choose from - the Cookbook menu featuring dishes from the Michael Mina cookbook and the Seasonal tasting menu, both were 5 courses for $115 per person plus $65 for wine pairing. The regular menu is divided into two pages and two courses. First course had a nice selection of classic starters and a sashimi plate and a choice of three different Caviar service ranging from $195 up to $445! I am glad we are not caviar fans. Course two had three different Signature Trio options, where each order comes with a main ingredient like lamb, rib eye or black bass cooked three ways with three different accompaniments. The regular restaurant mandate is that if you go for the tasting menu, everyone in the table must do the same. I was not in the mood for the tasting menu, but Siv was, so we thought we would check if that is an option. Our friendly server told us they wouldn’t normally do that, but will make an exception for us. Isn’t that special?

Siv got the seasonal tasting menu with wine pairing. The recommendation for me was to get one dish from first course and another from second course and that would be sufficient. But I was warned that since Siv gets five courses, I might have to just sit and watch him for three courses. So I decided to get two starters and a main dish. My portions were considerably larger than Siv’s, but still they waited for me to finish my dish before they would serve Siv his next course, which I thought was strange and inconvenient. But it was just a minor setback in the larger scheme of things.

Now, let me get to the food part. As expected food was exceptional! The amuse bouche was a layered cucumber and avocado puree with thinly sliced Jicama on the side; very light and refreshing and cooling. I’ve never tasted raw Jicama before; I thought it was very much like pear in texture and taste.

For my first course I went for the Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras with grilled and pickled stone fruit on warm citrus bread. The foie gras was buttery soft and was well paired with tart and sweet accompaniments. This was my favorite dish of the evening.

My other starter was the Savory Black Mussel Soufflé with a Saffron-Chardonnay cream, a very innovative savory take on the classic soufflé. Unfortunately, the soufflé was really heavy; it was the wrong choice for a three course meal, especially when it was recommended that I only get two courses!  The sauce was delicious, perfectly complemented the strong mussel taste of the soufflé, but I should’ve skipped this one completely or got a lighter dish instead.

For my main course I got the Miso Glazed Black Cod with Shitake Consommé and Shrimp & Scallop Ravioli.  The black cod was perfectly cooked and the delicate flavors in this dish came together superbly.

As much as I liked my food, I was really jealous of Siv’s dishes, and really wished I had gone for the tasting menu as well. Oh well, there is a next time for everything. Each dish stood out on its own and was the right size. I only got a small bite of each, Siv loved every course, and he said the wine pairing was just perfect.

Kona Kampachi with Coconut Gelee and Vindaloo Curry.

Dayboat Scallops with English Peas, carrots and Onion Soubise.

Crispy Skin Black Bass with Maitake mushrooms, cauliflower and red wine jus. 

Boneless rack of lamb with crispy pork belly.

His dessert course was a tasting of Michael Mina signature desserts - warm chocolate cake, coconut panna cotta and mini root beer float! Since I didn’t get my own dessert, our server got me my own silverware, normal restaurants frown upon someone else sharing a tasting menu course, but obviously this was not an ordinary restaurant! They value service more than anything else I guess. I loved the coconut panna cotta, so creamy and delicious, Siv loved the chocolate cake. We were surprised to see the root beer float, something you won’t expect in such a fine dining establishment. I guess it is offered for the nostalgic value to their American clients. I actually like root beer floats, Siv thought it was disgusting

It was a memorable meal that put a pretty big dent in the wallet, but we both felt it was worth it. I highly recommend Michael Mina if you are celebrating a special occasion. This place really makes you feel special with their royal treatment and scrumptious food.

Kaalan - Yogurt Curry with Ground Coconut

Filed Under Coconut, India - Kerala, Side Dish - Gravy, Vegetarian | 43 Comments

We just got back from an extended weekend break in Las Vegas. Yes, the 10th anniversary celebration was in our favorite city in the whole world. What, you don’t think it is a romantic city? It sure is, for us at least! As much as Siv and I love each other, we have totally different hobbies and interests, except for two major ones - food and poker. Where else can you get the best of both these?

We have been to Vegas plenty of times, in fact before 2007 we used to go there about 3-4 times every year. We took a New Year resolution in 2007 to take a much needed break from poker; it was starting to feel like an addiction. This blog has been a major help in keeping me away from the tables, let’s just say that one addiction got replaced by another. After a year and a half with absolutely no poker, not even a home game, we felt that we could safely go back to playing it for fun. And that is exactly what we did this time, got our fill of the game, made some money in the process, got back home and left it right behind us.

We stayed at the Bellagio this time; I have to say by far this is my favorite hotel in Vegas when it comes to customer service. They had no problems at all to accommodate our early check-in (8 am) and late check-out (2 pm) requests, they didn’t even act like they were doing us a favor as most other hotels do when faced with such requests. The room was fabulous, but my favorite room is still TheHotel at Mandalay Bay, with a separate living room and flat screen TV in all the rooms, including the loo!

The foodie part of the trip was great as well, we tried three Michelin rated restaurants this time, Michael Mina and Le Cirque at the Bellagio and Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace,  the reviews coming up later as soon as I download the pics and sort through. We also had lunch with Johnny Chan at the Noodles restaurant in Bellagio, obviously in town for the WSOP. Okay, I lie, we didn’t really have lunch with him, he was dining with his family on the table next to ours, but the tables were so close it was almost like being at the same table. I had forgotten my camera in the room for that meal, but even otherwise we wouldn’t have disturbed him for a picture while he was dining with his family. It really was exciting to be so close to a celebrity, ok, if you don’t follow poker you won’t have any idea what I am talking about, so I won’t digress much and get back to food.

As much as we enjoyed all the fine food, after three days of non-stop action with very little sleep, I was all ready for some comfort food. We got back home only at about 2:00 am on Tuesday morning, as usual my bad travel luck got into play and our flight was delayed by 2 hours. I had smartly taken Tuesday off, since I knew that I will really need to catch up on my sleep. Siv had to go to work early morning, poor guy, but I slept in till noon and woke up with some major craving for simple home-cooked food. With what I could find in the fridge, here is what I whipped up, Kaalan and a spicy potato fry with white rice.

Kaalan is a classic Kerala vegetarian delight, a must have dish in Sadhya, the traditional Kerala feast. Incidentally I got a request for this recipe from three different people in the past few weeks. It is a very simple recipe, and tastes heavenly with rice and a simple spicy stir fry. I normally make a moru curry without coconut which is even simpler, but I really had to post a recipe here before people start forgetting that this is indeed a food blog. So I went through the whole shebang of grinding coconut et all and I must say the effort (if you can call it that) was totally worth it.

I used cucumber in my version, since that is what I had in the fridge. You can also use plantain, yam, different types of gourds etc. or mango or pineapple for a sweet and sour version. Plantains are the best choice in my opinion.

Ingredients

• 1 large cucumber skinned and seeded and cut into large cubes
  (substitute with plantain/yam/mango/pineapple)
• 3 small Thai green chilies slit
• 1/4 tsp red chili powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• salt to taste
• 3 cups yogurt stirred well
• To Grind
• 3/4 cup grated coconut (fresh/frozen available in Indian grocery stores)
• 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
• For Seasoning
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 3 whole dry red chilies
• a few curry leaves

Method

Grind the coconut and cumin seeds with just enough water to make a really smooth paste.

Cook the vegetables with the green chilies, red chili and turmeric powders, salt and a cup of water in a large saucepan till the vegetables are tender.

Add the ground coconut paste to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook for two minutes. Stir in the yogurt and mix well. Cook on low heat till the liquid is heated through, but do not let it boil otherwise the yogurt will curdle. Remove from the heat.

In a frying pan, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. When these start to splutter, add the rest of the seasoning ingredients and fry till the chilies turn dark brown. Pour this over the curry and mix well.

This curry keeps well in the refrigerator for couple of days. Do not reheat, just bring it back to room temperature before serving with warm rice.

Blog Events

Sending this over to the event Frozen Yogurt hosted by Siri of Siri’s corner, such a bundle of energy; she manages to make me feel old and lazy.

This is also my entry for AFAM - Coconut hosted by Suganya of the beautiful food porn blog Tasty Palettes . AFAM stands for A Fruit A Month, an event started by Maheswari of Beyond the Usual. 

A Decade of Togetherness

Filed Under Random Musings | 102 Comments

Well, the day is finally here… Today is our 10th wedding anniversary. 10 years ago this would’ve seemed like a huge milestone! But back then 10 years was almost half a life time. Now it feels like it was just yesterday that we got married, at the same time the B.S. (Before Siv) memories are slowly fading away.  Strange, isn’t it?

Anyway, my feelings haven’t changed a bit since our last anniversary, so I’ll just quote my thoughts from this day last year.

Do you know the best part about getting married really young? You grow up with each other, you mature into adulthood with each other. You know every small thing about each other… You can sense what each other is thinking without having to utter a single word!

Now, do You know the worst part about getting married really young ? You know every small thing about each other… You can sense what each other is thinking without having to utter a single word!

We have been through it all, through sickness and health, through richness and poor, we loved and cherished each other. Well, most of the times.

There has been fights, there has been tears! There has been moments of extreme intense emotions that I never knew even existed!

But the summation of the past nine ten years is just pure HAPPINESS!

Baby, I am so lucky I found you! You made me what I am! Happy Anniversary my sweetheart!

To keep up with the tradition, here is a pictorial of our journey together for those who missed it last year, and two bonus pics from the two years before the big day.

Here is our life 1996-2008.

We are not spending the anniversary together this year, Siv is out of town for work. I know how much I’ve grown these past 10 years, I’d have gone mad if this had happened some years ago. It’s not like I am less romantic now, just more practical!  Love you darling, I know you are thinking of me, and more importantly I know you will make up for this somehow

Announcing JFI July- Jihva for Tamarind

Filed Under Blog Events | 69 Comments

Jihva for Ingredients aka JFI as it is known among the food bloggers is one of the most popular food blogging events out there. JFI is the brainchild of Indira of Mahanandi, who started this event to celebrate and showcase a different natural ingredient every month. The pleasure of hosting JFI this month is all mine, thank you Indira for this opportunity!

The chosen ingredient this month is Tamarind. Tamarind is an essential ingredient in Indian cuisine and is widely used in other Asian, Latin American and Caribbean cuisines. It is also one of the main ingredients of Worcestershire sauce, a popular condiment in the Western cuisine. In other words, Tamarind is truly a universal ingredient, so I am sure there are tons of recipes out there using this very versatile fruit. The popularity of tamarind is evident from the fact that there is at least one restaurant called Tamarind something or  Something Tamarind in most cities.

Tamarind is available for purchase in most speciality food stores and Asian and Latin American grocery stores in the form of paste, pulp, juice, concentrate and even as a whole fruit form when in season. I just picked up a large box of Sweet Tamarind from Whole Foods market.  So there are no excuses like you can’t find Tamarind! Let’s get those creative juices flowing, you can make anything edible using any form of Tamarind.

Rules for participation

• Prepare a dish from any cuisine using Tamarind in any form and post it in your blog in the month of June. The deadline is July 1st. There is no limit to the number of entries you can contribute.

• Make sure your post includes a link to this announcement and to the main JFI page. Feel free to use one of these logos.

   

• Please use the entry form below to submit the details, this way none of the e-mails will get lost in spam and will also help the round up process. Please, only if you have trouble using the form, send me an e-mail with the required information. My e-mail id is maillivetoeat (@) gmail (dot) com .

• If you want me to include an image in the round up, please enter the link to the image in the form below. To get the link to the image, follow the steps below:

  –If using Internet Explorer, right click on the image and select Properties. The link is shown in Address (URL) field, you can use your mouse to select and copy this URL and paste it in the field below.

  –If using Firefox, right click on the image and select Copy Image Location. Now you should be able to paste this using Ctrl + V in the field below.

  Please let me know if you have any questions. If you don’t enter a path to the image, I will use the first image in the post.

   

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A Hike to Remember and A Movie to Forget

Filed Under Random Musings | 36 Comments

Well, as expected, Sex and the City didn’t live up to the hype, at least for me. It had its fun moments and extremely witty one liners and most everything a woman could hope for - unbelievable clothes and shoes, lengthy fashion montages, romance and even a naked man in the shower scene; total objectification of men for a change. But all in all it didn’t entertain me as much as it could have! The plot was way too weak - even for a movie which is not meant to be anything more than an excuse for a viewing party - and it was stretched way too thin, the darn movie was almost two and a hours for heaven’s sake! And the fact that we caught the 11PM show didn’t help much either! But I have to admit that it was a fun night to be out in the town, so much fashion and glitz every where! It was the perfect girls night out! 

I got back home at 2:30 am and can you believe I actually got up early Saturday morning and went for a hike!! I sometimes surprise even myself. This time M and I went to Twin Falls, one of the most scenic trails in the area with stunning views of the Snoqualmie river. It is an easy 2.6 miles trek that goes along the Snoqualmie river for the first half mile, then away from it with two terrific viewpoints and many peek-a-boo views of the twin falls along the hike. Wish I took my camera, but the cell phone had to do this time.

That’s all folks! On the cooking front, things have been really slow lately, if I do cook anything interesting, will share it for sure.