Las Vegas - Raku, High Roller (Ferris Wheel) and Tableau

Las Vegas is not really my kind of city.  I don't gamble, do drugs, drink or party.  Not really, anyway.  Plus, there is so much static that often times when I touch anything metallic like doors, I get electric shocked, which I truly truly hate.  (I do love the shows though.)  So, when Lingon asked me to go to Vegas with him on his business trip, I was initially hesitant, but I had been in the middle of something super busy and stressful, and I thought, why not.

So off we went.  We stayed at the Encore Hotel, which I was a little excited about because I had heard that it was nice.  And nice it was.  Until I started discovering little awful things around the room.  Like random pieces of hair in the bed covers and the bath tub, and the unemptied trash can.  I called room service in the hope of getting a complimentary night or an upgrade or something, but all they offered was a waiver of one night of resort fee.  Well, something is better than nothing, but I still felt rather disgruntled.  Oh well.  Guess that is what happens when you are not VIP or have any kind of status.

We had gone out for dinner one evening with some friends to Raku, which was an off-strip Japanese Yakitori place.  (Seems like a lot of these very good restaurants in Las Vegas are off-strip.  And in Chinatown or something.  Heh heh love the Chinese.)  What a feast we had!  Tofu, sashimi, uni in broth with soft boiled egg, yakitori, foie gras... OK, the only reason I'm remembering this is because it is in the pictures and you can see the pictures yourself.  But the food was really good.  The boys drank quite a bit too, and I want to say for 3 boys and a girl who were completely stuffed to the brim with really amazing quality food by the time we rolled out of the restaurant, the bill, which I think was less than $300, was seriously inexpensive.  GO HERE.  Take a taxi or whatever.  So good.  Make reservations.

After rolling out of Raku as complete fatsos, we went to Raku Sweets.  Same strip mall, same restaurant.  Fatsos.  Very good innovative dessert, made in front of us as we sat at the counter.  The menu was edible, probably just sugar, not particularly tasty, and that was the most disappointing dessert.  Other than that, everything was great.  I loved watching the dessert chef create the intricate dessert in front of our eyes, ever so meticulously, everything timed to a T.  Loved the glass lighted oven in which we could see what was going on.  We definitely ordered way too much, but it was fun.  Added a picture of the sink in the bathroom since LAGangsta really loved it - I thought the bathroom itself was cool and zen, but not particularly impressed.  Again, really good food, very cool vibe, GO!

After this shenanigans, off we went to the High Roller at the Linq, which may be the tallest ferris wheel in the world.  Expensive (I think almost $50), but I love ferris wheels and this just seemed like a good opportunity.  We got all-you-can-drink tickets, which the boys took advantage of, and I just laughed and took photos.  At the apex, we got a spectacular view of the amazing hotels and the Bellagio Fountain had was dancing.  The Linq entertainment and shopping area was pretty cool, with sprinkles, among other shops and restaurants.  I don't know how they did it, but the boys ordered more food after their drunken turn in the ferris wheel at Haute Doggery.  Yup, you guessed it, hot dogs.  Lingon ordered this one with foie gras.  I think I tried it but at this point was going to throw up and also super sleepy.  Well, good times, I must say.  That was the end of our night out.

I also met up with my friend Tutu at Tableau for breakfast, which was at the Wynn.  We got donut gifts.  I got the French toast and Tutu got the duck hash and eggs, and in true us fashion we split half and half.  It was just not bad but not special.

Lingon and I also had lunch at Tableau, which was also not bad but not special.  I remember the seafood being quite fresh, maybe a crab dish?

This was also the trip we went to Lotus of Siam, which I wrote about in a separate post.  Still figuring out how I want to organize my posts.  Or maybe they will just be what they are.  (Deep.)

I did not do much else in Vegas - took a short run and found a Kid Robot store.  I love all the weird things they have in that store.

Vegas really surprised me to the upside this time.  I think it could be fun with the right bunch, and my Lingon of course.  Definitely looking forward to going back!

Austin, TX - SXSW, Other Events, and Food Escapades

It's official.  I'm the worst blogger in the world.  I probably have a gazillion things I want to write about, but I'm probably still have posts from as early as January.  :-(

Well, I'll start with my trip to Austin for SXSW, or the South by Southwest event.  My primary purpose there was to attend the tradeshow for my client, but aside from the tradeshow they also have a ton of talks, music and film events (and probably other things that I do not know about).

I took a pink eye to Austin, got my rental car at about 6am, and the first order of the day was to find some grub.  The lady concierge at a hotel recommended breakfast tacos, since we wanted to do something "Austinian" (I just made that word up), and told us that Jo's was right down the street and somewhat of an institution.  Well, I got a breakfast taco there, and turns out the thing is not even made there.  The taco itself was rather gross.

One of the supposedly famous things was this sign saying "I love you so much" on the side of the structure, but I did not think much of it, until I saw it on the wall in the hallway of the tradeshow hall - I took a picture of that.  Anyway, maybe other things there are good, but I would pass on this breakfast taco.

The tradeshow was pretty cool.  Check out the floor - looks like a mess, but was really super cool.  I loved the NASA booth.  They had a giant inflatable rocket and a giant inflatable dome.  On top of that, they had a 3-D printer which they programmed to print an astronaut, and I got to take 2 home!!  Special thanks to Jeff, a NASA volunteer, for showing me how the printer works and giving me the astronaut!

There were concerts, bionic limb people, plant devices that told you if a plant needed water (I thought IKEA sold these stake-like things that you stuck into soil to tell you the water content, but I may have been mistaken) and a moon rock (whoa I even got to touch it!!!).

Aside from the tradeshow, which I spent 80% of my time at, there were other cool events.  McDonald's had a tent that provided free food - I went for the breakfast, and probably put on 20lbs from that.  I also attended a BBQ thing, that gave us food.  Funny all these ancillary events that I attended involved food!

So, before I lose your attention, we went to the mother of all BBQ places, Salt Lick.  There are 3 locations, and I'm not sure if they all have a similar feel, but we went to the one in Driftwood.  This place is an institution.  It's huge, with 2 dining areas.  My team got there before me, maybe around 6pm, and there was a 2 hour wait.  That's crazy, considering this place is out in the boonies, plus it probably seats like 500 people (I'm not really sure, but sure seemed like that!).  While you are waiting, there is a big outdoor space where you can BYOB and drink and buy extremely expensive popcorn.  Haha!  We tried everything - brisket, ribs, sausage, pecan pie and cobbler.  I loved it all, except the cobbler which was a big disappointment.  My boss' car window shattered, and we think it got hit by a stone from the gravel parking area, so that was a bummer for the day.  Otherwise it was a lovely experience and everyone should really give this place a try when in Austin.

Other yummy eats included Titaya's Thai Cuisine, from my Travel and Leisure Thai food list.  The restaurant was in some random strip mall.  (A lot of these yummy Thai restaurants seem to be in some random strip mall.)  I, myself and me ordered the signature wings (really yummy), what looks like pad see ew (pretty good), pork massaman curry (this was actually horrible, I think the pork was not the best) and mango sticky rice (nom).

I also had more than my fair share of fried chicken.  The first picture was at Whole Foods, after my sad experience at Jo's (mentioned above) and I wanted something to eat.  I had that with some biscuits, gravy and sausage.  A king's breakfast!  Not bad for coming out of a warming tray.  We also went to MAX's Wine Dive, and the fried chicken was not bad.  Kind of expensive though, at $17.50 before taxes and tip.  I ordered the grits here and almost threw up - I don't eat grits very often, but somehow everytime I have them they are really good despite their bad reputation, but this was one horrible grit.  The last fried chicken place we tried was Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken.  This place had seriously solid fried chicken.  The price level - 2 piece dark for $6.50 and the somewhat divey (but not actually divey and gross) feel truly resonated with me.  Cole slaw and baked beans?  YUM.  The only thing that confused me was the white bread.  Why can't you give me a biscuit?  Why white bread??  Maybe it's a thing that I don't know about.  Probably is a thing that I don't know about, but I cared not for it.  But, the bottom line is, go to Gus's.

For the team's special night out, we decided to go to Uchiko.  I had been to Uchi, the sister or brother or whatever you may call it restaurant a few years ago, recommended by some Austinian on my plane ride there, and someone at my client's wanted to go to Uchiko, so there we went.  Some of us got the omakase, and some ordered a la carte.  I thought it was not a bad Japanese meal, but really nothing special.  Nothing particularly stood out, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.  I'll give it a pass, unless you come from an area without much good sushi or you just need to satisfy that sushi craving.

Finally, and rather underwhelmingly, we visited Mai Thai in downtown Austin for... Thai!  No reason in particular, other than we were rather uninspired by other restaurant options, and this place could accommodate our large-ish party immediately.  Sadly the food was rather uninspiring too.

Wow, I can't believe I have finally finished this blog.  I was getting daunted at the buildup of things I wanted to write but was too busy to do so, so cheers to my first step!  If you made it down this entry, thanks for reading this very long post.  Austin was fun!  Great city to visit, and the vibe around SXSW is amazing where they close off 6th Street.  Also learned about Dirty 6th which is supposedly where the locals go on the other side of the freeway or something.  Travel rocks!