Vegas baby! 2022

Vegas trip 2022 

Back to Sin City again...

Iconic views of Vegas from Bellagio Fountain

 

Bellagio fountain

It's always fun, easy to drink too much and no lack of good food. 

Went with another couple (Dave and Jenn) who booked the Grand Hilton Vacation Club Elara and invited us on the trip. So off to Vegas again! 

Jenn and Dave in the piano bar @ Fremont

This is the room/living room/kitchen in Elara. Very trippy red tinted windows that is fun to look through, but everything starts to look green after a while outside the red zone. We have the view of Paris and Planet Hollywood on one side and Aria & Cosmopolitan on the other. 

Elara room and view from the room 

Before checking into the room, we went straight to a birria place that was on Tacos Chronicles Season 2. El Campo Birria. https://www.facebook.com/birriaelcompalv/

Great Jalisco style birria, fall-off-the bone meat that make great tacos. Good consommé too. 

Birria at El Campo and lamb tacos

After that we tried to walk around the art district and poke our heads into the different art gallery/Artists studio in the artist factory. There are a lot of places not open, maybe it's winter season and maybe it's too early.

The art district area in Vegas

I think they still have more to develop in the area esp in the day time. But it's nice to do something in Vegas that's not related to Fremont or the Strip and involve drinking. 

Some art and paintings and photos in the Art Factory

That night we went to Fremont and listened to concerts, watch the street performers and hang out at "Don't Tell Mama" piano bar and had a good time. It's the first time that i had Tokyo Tea. Twist to Long island tea with the Japanese melon liqueur.. I need to make this. 

https://www.liquor.com/recipes/tokyo-tea/

Having a good time at "Dont Tell Mama"

Street performer balancing on 1 finger in Fremont

We had pizza first at a bar call Evel Pie. Turns out it's a memorial to Evel Knievel so they shows his stunts on tv and a logo "Live hard ride fast eat pizza" lol.. But they have very good pizza including a vegan one with mushroom. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel

Had Evel Pie that is a restaurant named after evil 

The other entertaining thing about Fremont is how frequently people got stuck in the zip line. And need to be rescued. This time there's a rescuer that needs to be rescued. So a 3 person tow line =) 

Anybody else need a ride?

The next morning we went to Hoover Dam via Lake Mead.

Panoramic view of Lake Mead

The hike is quite cold.. Brrrr... 

It turns out Lake Mead is a national recreation area and has a marina. So we went there for brunch before heading for a hike to Hoover Dam from Lake Mead. 

Decent brunch, view priceless, dead bodies - didn't find any

Lake Mead is at one of the lowest point in history and it's interesting to see how low the water is. There are news of dead bodies being found as the water level keeps getting lower. 

We also think the marina has to shift every time the water gets lower. 

The hike is interesting as we go through 5 old train tunnels that used to bring building materials. 

I love the perspective of 2 train tunnels behind me

But it was certainly a good 8 mikes round trip hike that took over 3 hours. Great view of the lake too. 

Not ready to give up yet!

The hike ends at Hoover Dam and we can get a good view of the dam and the bridge. 

The view at the end

Random pics of the hike, including hat on car!

After the hike, we went to Buddy V restaurant in Venetian as we were quite impressed with the food when we did the last food tour. So wanted to try more of their normal menu 

https://www.venetianlasvegas.com/restaurants/buddy-v-ristorante.html

Great dinner at Buddy V

Bellagio has their xmas decoration up this year and it's fun and super crowded. Looks like a toys theme this year and a train running around their huge Xmas tree. 

Bellagio Xmas Decoration

The next day is World Cup Finals! Woke up early to catch the game and it's a pity that France played less stellar but Argentina certainly deserve to win the game. 

After the game we went to the Mob Museum before heading back home. 

The entrance of the museum which used to be an old post office

I was half distracted by the extra time into the soccer game so didn't take as many pictures. But the museum is interesting that it tells the story of the rise and fall of organized crime in USA with the Prohibition increasing the profits of alcohol smuggling. Subsequently they came to Vegas as casino is legal and a "cleaner" profit. 

We ate a quick lunch at Pizza Rock before heading home. 

Fun weekend in the valley with friends

Another good food and good wine weekend in the valley 

This time we got to share it with friends!

Cathy Citbit, Joe Citbit, Bill, me and Cristina at Adobe guadalupe food truck

Day 1: First stop coffee and lamb tacos

A early day to cross the border without traffic. So the first stop is a local coffee place for a caffeine boost!

Cool picture @ the front of the coffee shop

Lamb tacos still great as ever. They are doing good business as usaul and have expanded canopies for seating. 

The best lamb tacos in the valley

2nd stop Santo tomas

Then we went to Santo Tomas 

They still have a pretty tasting room and breath-taking views on the property. 

Santo Tomas

They have changed their wine to promote new wine and pursue younger palettes. Unfortunately it's not quite to my liking. And there is no more chocolate pairing as they are remaking the formula. They also remove the wine bottles signed by artists who had performed at the property.

Adobe Guadalupe food truck 

The tapas are still great and we ordered a bunch of things to share

We tried a new dish that's tongue and shrimp and potatoes. Really flavorful and will get that again. 

The croquette got Cristina's approval who is from Spain. So that's good. And the shrimp and mushroom are still good. Yum. 

Adobe Guadalupe food truck

Xecue

The name literally mean love and they have wines featuring local tribes language. We tried the tasting and Joe/Cathy give thumbs up for their desserts. Not a lot of pictures as we are all having food and wine coma. 

Xecue

Fashion show at Wendy and Nick's art gallery

Very good picture of Wendy and Nick's property (Courtesy from Joe)

They are friends who are living in the valley. Both are artists and have a gallery on their property.

Innovative way of using their property as a runway

The fashion show is open with poetry reading, music and then 4 sets. First set is to showcase the glass necklace. 2nd for the monochromatic flow design that I really like. 3rd set has lights embedded and 4th sets has leds. 

Collage of the fashion show

This showcase the art pieces created with enamel and glass

They also got 2 pigs roasting for food in this show and yum, that's flavourful, together with Wendy's vegan pasta.

How many ways can we take pictures of the 2 pigs?

It's Cristina's birthday and she treated us to a nice coffee cake for dessert

Day 2

Alveolo

We started the day with breakfast at Alveolo. They have great pastries and fantastic main course

Giselle is a very nice hostess and we really enjoyed it. 

Yummy breakfast at Alveolo

Bread? anyone? 

 They also have a room full of goodies that's local. Shopping! 

Pijoan winery

Haven't been back since before pandemic. Their wine is still great and the place is quiet and relaxing. Arturo still looks the same and gave us a good summary of the wine. Their port is still our favorite and we stock up for the holidays. 

Pijoan wine tasting

Vintango

Enjoyed rose wine at Joann winery/shop while we chatted and shop for books and jewellery

JoAnn's Vintango ... yes, a unique little place

Vinos Plata

Tasting at Erick's winery never disappoint and we did his usual tasting. He's also bottling wine so we also tasted a bottle of white wine that's still settling. I want to preorder for them in aluminum bottles as it would be great to bring on a trip

Erick's tasting room is a container equipped with AC

El Asadero

Closing the trip, we had dinner at El Asadero and the meat platter is great. The view is scenic and quiet Sunday night. 

Beautiful meal at El Asadero

A great valley trip with some good friends and made some nice memories 

Good food, good wine and good memories

Laja @ Guadalupe valley

My Birthday dinner at Laja

Finally After 7 years of hearing about Laja, we are ready to try it. 

The front entrance of Laja

Bill and I went there for dinner for my birthday. (Thanks Bill for dinner and driving us there) 

Goofy selfie

When we first went to Vena Cava for wine tasting, we chatted with Phil the wine maker and owner from LA. And he said he first started coming down to the valley much earlier and Laja was one of the 2 restaurants at that time for fine dining. 

Laja have a vision of farm to table, fresh, French Mexican fusion that is way before it's popular in the world

Beautiful sourdough bread.. happy dance

Also, his wife owns Alveolar and we pick up her olive bread at farmers market for years. To me, it rivals any bread that I can find in Europe

What's interesting is while the valley has boomed in food and wine, Laja has never tried to become more competitive or market themselves aggressively . They are still quietly farming the gardens and making great produce and product. 

My impression of the food is well executed French technique with spicy laced as surprise notes. They didn't attempt to pair wine from the valley but more of a introduction to Mexican booze which is interesting. 

Our first course of the night is a cauliflower puree (very distinct cauliflower flavour) with radish. There are spicy jam on the side and a surprising small dollop of flavored salt. Fresh, slightly sweet and goes well with the spicy jam. It's paired with a white chardonnay from Henry that is down the road from them. I am definitely curious to visit that winery 

Cauliflower puree with cut radish, augmented with dollops of spicy jam

Our 2nd course is fresh yellow fin tuna with chunks of avocado and tomato. There's a scoop of salsa macha (mexican salsa that has nuts and sesame) that needs to be mixed in. It's an interesting way to introduce that salsa to a ceviche-sashimi dish. And surprisingly they pair it with a beer that's German pilsner that is quite good. I was surprised as I thought the 2 flavors will clash badly but they didn't.  

Yellow fin Tuna

The 3rd course is a potato puree with pulpo (squid) and chicharron. And they paired with a really smoky mezcal that is amazing but was too much for me to finish for a mid meal drink. This is a pairing that didn't quite work for me as the mezcal is a really strong flavor that didn't go as well. Plus i didn't want to be drunk before i can enjoy the other 2 courses =) 

But the dish is well executed and delicious

Pulpo with chicharron on a bed of potato puree. Served with homemade pita bread

The 4th course is the steak course which is great executed steak (but i expect no less) and they did carrots 2 ways to go with it. One is a carrot puree and another is roasted carrots. They paired it with a red wine that came from Tecate and it turns out to be his brother in law exclusive organic wine for Laja. What took me by surprise was the smoky finish of the wine that is unique (and no, it's not from the mezcal). I love the food but the wine is so different that I'm on the fence. 

Steak course paired with a smoky red

They have a palette cleaner which is frozen melon that is rubbed with spice. It's a good mild palette cleanser and the spicy rub works well with the melon. But eating with my hands and having the melon touch my face does not feel like a successful dish. I think if they had done it as a granita would be better. 

Palette cleanser of frozen melon with spicy rub

The dessert course is a Mexican flan with figs. Yum and my favorite pairing of the night with Pijoan port wine. The figs are great and the flan is well executed.

Dessert course of Flan and port wine

As it's my birthday, I got a goodie bag to go from them. It's a"breakfast for tomorrow" bag, filled with 2 tea bags, 1 english muffin, homemade jam and seasoned dates. Very thoughtful.