Vegas getaway

A mini trip to Vegas! Literally, we went here just to go to a room, sleep all day, and then sleep some more. Is that weird? A vacation to sleep? Considering we live behind a car lot, and a really busy street, I don’t really get to experience pure silence very often, and better yet, air conditioning on a hot day. A hotel provides all these things, and I found a great deal to stay at Caesar’s Palace, so we booked a few days here.

We got off our flight extremely early (well, extremely early, relative to me and Owen) – our flight was annoyingly scheduled for 7 in the morning or something – by the time we rolled into Payard Patisserie, we were ready for a good meal to start us off on a better foot for the rest of our mini-break.

The seating is very interesting here – the cook is in the middle, where he makes everything to order, and the patrons are all seated around him in a circular design. It’s a very different kind of setup, but I found it was fascinating watching the cook make everything, (picking up some cooking tips, hah.) Our waiter was very good, very attentive but not too bothersome. We both ordered a glass of orange juice to start.



I really liked this juice! It tasted fresh squeezed, I think Owen mentioned it was the “best fresh squeezed orange juice he’s had”. It was a really tall glass, as well…I guess in Vegas, go big or go home, right?



Owen and I decided to get two plates, and halfway through, to switch and share. He ordered the French toast with Berry compote. This was amazing, this dish managed to be rich, yet light at the same time. The berries were my favorite kinds – raspberry, blueberry and blackberry, in their own juices, were not sweetened, so it didn’t feel like a over-sugared mess we usually get for something like this. This dish was overall NOT sweet, which I actually loved! And I USUALLY hate French toast, (weird hang-up, I know.), but I liked this a lot – the bread was almost custardy in the middle, the whipped cream was really freshly whipped cream, and not just sugary junk. If there was ever a perfect French toast plate, this would be it for me.



I ordered a croque madame – a ham and swiss sandwich, toasted, topped with béchamel sauce and a sunny side up egg. The plate was rounded out with a stuffed tomato, and mixed baby greens with a vinaigrette. I only had half of this and secretly wished I could have eaten the whole thing, heh. Again, the richness was not too rich, balanced by the tartness of the vinaigrette on the greens, and the tomato, and the bechamel was not globbed on, like other places I've had this before - this was almost toasted into the sandwich already, so it was more a flavorful crunch on the outside of the bread. Excellent meal, and we will definitely be back.

We also picked up some croissants - Owen got a chocolate croissant, and I got a regular plain one. I didn't take a picture of these, but I SWEAR they were some of the best croissants I've ever eaten.

A bit later, while Owen was asleep (I had napped earlier, as I slept much less than him the night before), I went off on my own and walked around the Caesar's Palace gambling area on my own. I was pretty hungry (this was around dinnertime, and I didn't eat since around 10am at Payard), so I grabbed something at the food court. This is what I got...



A Lobster roll with fries. Uh...well, I guess I can't say that my expectations were extremely high, but the bread was extremely burnt, which was a shame because it was a nice amount of buttered brioche. The lobster itself..a cold mash of seafood tasting stuff, but lobster meat was definitely lacking. I don't know if it WAS actually lobster, but...what should I expect from a food court, right? The fries were addicting, but I made an effort to only eat a few, because I knew Owen would be hungry later that night. I also got an iced tea, which was not pictured. I got a lot of mileage out of that iced tea, as you could refill your drinks from the soft serve machine yourself, so during the whole of our stay, I would go back to refill the drink with the same cup...awesome!

After a few games of Monopoly Penny Slots (ahhh, so mindless, those slot machines), a bit of shopping (the Forum shops are MASSIVE!), I went back to check on Owen, who I think, could have slept the whole night if I hadn't had walked back in the room. At that point, it was pretty late, but I knew there was a 24 hour restaurant at Caesar's, and I had gotten a 20 dollar food coupon for the cafe, because I had signed up for their rewards club (might as well, it's free, right?)

At the Augustus Cafe, I felt like it took forever to get our food...a lot of waiting, and then everything came at once. We weren't in a hurry but it really took an abnormal amount of time to get what we ordered.



First off, onion rings. These were really tasty, actually - beer battered, thick, dusted with parmesan cheese, and two dipping sauces (red pepper aioli and ranch). Addicting, and a huge amount of them, we wanted to finish these off because we couldn't save them for later.



Whenever there's a club sandwich available on the menu, Owen will almost always order it. This was pretty standard, oddly with the addition of roast beef, but they were heavy on the bacon (awesome!). These fries were very fresh, oddly better than the other fries with the other sandwich (which came later than this one.) We saved half of this sandwich for later, which was happily devoured by us in our hotel room the next morning.



I had a hankering for french onion soup, which made this an onion heavy meal. This was mouthwatering when they set it down - melty gruyere cheese, on top of a french bread piece, with savory beef broth, and tons of carmelized onions. A huge amount of soup, again, Vegas does not skimp on quantity. I made an extra effort to finish this because there's no way to save this soup for later.



Last thing we ordered (we definitely ordered too much) was a prime rib dip sandwich, which was piled high with quality beef, a little saucer of au-jus, and fries. Oddly, these fries were not the seasoned ones, pretty much the same fries from the food court that I had had earlier. We only managed a quarter of this sandwich, and saved the rest.

We had a few other meals in Vegas but it had been places we had been to before (Bouchon, although it was a dinner instead of the brunch we usually have, I remember sharing a roasted chicken, mixed green salad and creme brulee, all delicious of course). It was a pretty successful trip, I'd say, aside from the horrible early plane flights. Of course, another trip to Vegas will be in the future, so stay tuned!


Payard Patisserie, Caesar's Palace Food Court, Augustus Cafe, all at:
Caesar's Palace
E Flamingo Rd & Las Vegas Blvd South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Bouchon is at Venetian Hotel
Spring Mountain Rd & Las Vegas Blvd South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Huntington Gardens Tea Room

Daphne and I were planning to go to Huntington Gardens (she's a member!) and I had heard of their amazing tea room. Daphne insisted we needed reservations way in advance, but I checked their website the night before and snagged a 1:45pm seating for the next day! Whoo! What luck! (by the way, the reservation system is really a crapshoot...I would have to enter a time in, and it would look up in the system if it was available, and if it wasn't, it would say, sorry, not available, but not give you other times when they DID have availability. So you'd have to just keep trying different times till you got something that was free. DIFFICULT system, guys. Although a plus for having online reservations.)

After wandering around bonsai trees, Chinese gardens, sakura blossoms and fields of greenery, we were starving by the time we got to the tea room. We were immediately seated, and our server was very nice, and mentioned the special tea of the month was a raspberry tea. We both chose that to drink. This was what was here when we were seated...

Cream, jams and marmalade, and butter for the scones. Nice that they had freshly whipped cream, and I really liked the blackberry jam that we opened in the little mini jar.

The scones...these were fresh and warm from the kitchen, nestled in a cloth napkin. Ooo, these were tasty, and of different variety. Some were cranberry, some had bits of orange, one I had was studded with chocolate chips! These were some of the best scones I've had, and I've had my share of scones. Yummy, and not too big and filling, so I didn't feel too guilty having...I think 3...um...maybe I feel guilty now. With the blackberry jam, a quick smear of whipped cream, this was a taste of heaven.

My first plate from their high tea buffet. Yes. This high tea is a buffet, any kind of sandwiches, cheeses, pastries, salads...whatever you liked, and as much as you liked. A great set up. For some reason, I usually worry about getting full during high tea, but whenever I have had high tea, I always leave way too full. I think it's the high ingestion of liquids, perhaps? Okay, I'm feeling guilty again. Let's focus on the food...this plate had water table crackers, a smoked salmon finger sandwich, and various cheeses (blue cheese, smoked gouda, muenster, from what I remember.) I loved everything on this plate, but the smoked salmon was exquisite, and the smoked gouda I remember being especially memorable.

Second plate of sandwiches - from the front, a cucumber mint sandwich atop of some pasta salad, then a chicken salad sandwich, then a watercress sandwich, and way in the back, a prosciutto sandwich. I wanted to try every kind of sandwich they had, even though at this point I was starting to get a bit full, even from these little sandwiches. Everything was tasty, but I think out of this bunch, I especially liked the cucumber mint sandwich, which surprised myself. The bright flavors of the mint shone against the cucumber, and the bread was soft and delicate.

Last plate of savories. Some spinach salad, and cracker and pita, with some caviar. The salty caviar was REALLY salty, the cracker barely cut the intensity of the salt. Eating the salad helped though - the salad was pretty good. I felt bad leaving any caviar (cuz...it's caviar...I mean, I doubt this was the expensive kind but caviar sure is expensive) so I managed to eat most of it, even though I could have probably been good with a quarter of what I put on this plate. Argh, I can't waste anything...

A shot of our raspberry tea, with a bit of milk and sugar in it. Delicious and warming, I noted that this tea was at the PERFECT sipping temperature, not too hot or too cold. I was quite impressed!

Okay, the last plate. At this point I was pretty full but I HAD to get some dessert. On this plate, starting from the left going clockwise, I got: one more smoked salmon finger sandwich, a fruit tart with mandarin orange, raspberry and a blueberry, one more piece of smoked gouda, strawberry and watermelon. The fruit tart was really tasty, a perfect bite of sweet, fruit and custard. The strawberry was perfectly The strawberry was ripe, maybe not as sweet as the sweetest strawberry I've ever had but not too bad, and watermelon was good. A nice ending to a pleasant meal.

I think this high tea experience was really nice, and seeing the perfectly manicured roses outside the window was a nice touch. When I get the chance, I think I'll be making another reservation for this place!

Huntington Gardens Rose Garden Tea Room
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
(626) 405-2100

Three Square Cafe

Owen and I met up for lunch around his workplace, and we decided to try out Three Square Cafe. I had been to Three Square bakery a bunch of times (their jalapeno cheese pretzel comes to mind) but wanted to try their cafe fare. After a short wait, we were seated in their outdoor patio area. I was pretty hungry, but our waitress didn't seem to be too concerned about taking our order or being around much. Anyways, she did end up coming around (finally), and this is what we got:
Our usual Arnold Palmer order. This was really light on the lemonade, and came already mixed, which is fine. A really light flavor on this one, plus no refills made by our waitress (again, we were lucky to make our orders within, oh, 20 minutes after sitting down. And this place isn't very big...but enough about our lacking waitress)...

This is Owen's order of the mini sandwich sampler, which gives you a choice of 3 sandwiches to try. I saw it on the menu and instantly I knew he was going to order it - he loves having a meal where you can try a bunch of stuff all at the same time. The presentation of this dish is really nice, everything has its' own little container/plate. Let's focus on the sandwiches...

Starting with the sandwich on the right side - this is a shrimp grilled cheese sandwich. I like how they cut the top of the little bun so they could grill it, to give it some texture. The filling to this was tasty, the combo of shrimp and cheese was pretty good, and the bread was delicious.

The middle sandwich was the Bavarian meatloaf on pretzel roll with sweet mustard. The taste ofo the meatloaf is exactly like eating a slice of SPAM. So Owen hated it. I liked it, as I can eat Spam and not feel bad about myself (well, most of the time...) The roll was really tasty, and I enjoyed eating what Owen didn't want to eat, but at the same time, I don't know if I would choose to order this, now that I know what it tastes like.

The last mini sandwich was a Tuna salad with avocado and red onions on brioche roll. This was Owen's favorite mini sandwich, all the flavors mixed really well with every bite, and his love for avocado knows no boundaries. Maybe he should have gotten tuna for all three of his choices...

A good barometer to any restaurant is how good their burger is, so I got their Pretzel burger with Swiss cheese, caramelized onions and French fries. This was a little overwhelming - the pretzel bread is very good on its' own, but paired with a burger patty, it ends up being a bit much. The burger itself - decent, but not memorable. Fries were okay but a bit more boring than my expectations, I guess I expect more...zing, or something, when I'm getting fries with a burger at an establishment like this. The caramelized onions were a good touch though.

It's cool that dog owners get to bring their furry friends to sit outside with them on the patio, and the cool breeze from the ocean adds to the pleasant outdoor seating, but this place was a bit too trendy for me, and maybe if we had gotten better service I'd want to go back more often. As it stands now, it was good to try but I'm sticking to the bakery next door to get my pretzel bread fix.

Three Square Cafe
1121 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice CA

New Orleans Day 5 and 6 - last moments in New Orleans

Alright, last post on New Orleans, which, again, was months ago.

Owen was having quite a headache the next morning, so Patty and I decided to get some breakfast on our own. We headed to the Coffeepot again, as we promised Miss Pearl that we would return and try her bread pudding. Patty was still recovering from her flu, but she was feeling a lot better than she had been a few days ago.

It was raining pretty hard outside, which was nice (I like rain), and we scurried into the restaurant, which was bustling with the same awesome waitresses we had last time. Patty got a simple breakfast of bacon and eggs (I think), so I didn't bother taking a picture.


I got a catfish po'boy, with fries. Corey's catfish plate looked too good last time for me not to try it this time around. It was good. And fried. Like everything else I was eating in New Orleans...

I also got Owen a shrimp po'boy and bread pudding to go, which he inhaled once I got back. The bread pudding truly was something to write home about. An incredible flavor (bourbon?), infused the bread pudding, luscious cream surrounded it, it was just...perfect. Really spot on. I didn't take a picture of it because it was in a humdrum takeout container, but seriously. It was the thing to get there.

We lounged around until Brad arrived (it was supposed to be a surprise, but David accidentally spilled the beans earlier in the week) and we got dressed up to go to the most anticipated meal that we had planned for our whole New Orleans trip - we walked over to Antoine's.

Antoine's Restaurant "has the distinction of being the oldest family run restaurant in the United States", according to Wikipedia. Established in 1840, this place is a legend - it INVENTED Oysters Rockefeller, amongst some other notable dishes. I was super excited to try...
Everything is very formal here. The service was top notch. The dining room was very decorative, and it all reeked of old school bygone days. It was like eating in a piece of history!

Back to the service - our waiter had an eye on us the whole time - but was never creepy or intrusive. He would constantly refill everything we needed - bread, water, even ice, when he carried over an ice bucket and would individually place fresh ice cubs in our glasses. He had forgotten that I ordered a diet coke at one point, profusely apologized when we politely reminded him, and then RAN to the kitchen to get me the diet coke, again with more apologies. That's service. Probably some of the best service I've had. By the way, the bread was awesome - light, crispy on the outside, warm.

Patty ordered a soup - a deep rich Bisque d' Crevette - Louisana shrimp soup. This was a SUPER INTENSE soup, I tried a small bit of it. Patty could only finish about half of it.. I kinda wish I could have frozen the extra, and used it as a base to the next 20 soups I made back home. That's how strong this soup was. By the way, this was ordered instead of an alligator soup that Patty was about to order, and was advised by our waiter that this was the superior soup. Also, he let us in on a secret - the alligator soup they have was actually made out of turtle!

The highlight was ordering what Antoine's is best known for - their Oysters Rockefeller! Our waiter suggested a few other flavors, as well. Oysters Rockefeller (far right), Huitres Thermidor (far left), and Huitres Beinville (closest). Oysters Rockefeller: Oysters baked on the half shell with the original Rockfeller sauce created by Antoine's in 1889. Huitres Thermidor - Fresh Louisiana oysters baked on the half shell with a bacon and tomato sauce. Huitres Beinville - Oyster baked on the half shell with a white wine sauce seasoned withi onions, pimento and fresh peppers. I admnit, the Huitres Thermidor (the red ones) were quite tasty - I mean, everything was AWESOME, but the Thermidores were just out of this world. Even Patty was pretty impressed, and usually she's an oyster hater!

Now, to the main course. Patty, Owen and I ordered the The New York Strip steak. "A Prime New York strip with caramelized onions, mushrooms with a red wine and cracked pepper sauce". This was just...ok. The steak was cooked well, but the sauce was REALLY salty. The gravy was good with bread, enough to mellow it out. I'm not used to this kind of steak. I mean, it was high quality but it already came out pre-cut? Well maybe that's how they did it in the old days...
Patty had ordered a side of potato puffs. These also helped mellow out the intense saltiness of the gravy on our plates. These were fun and tasty, crisp and, well, puffy. They were like potato chips that wanted to be potato skins.

Brad got the Filet de Fruite au Vine Blanc - Filet of trout in a white wine, shrimp and oyster sauce then baked with a light bread crumb and cheese gratinee. I tasted a bite of this, really good, but again, very salty. Do a lot of older recipes require more salt, maybe? In the days before refridgeration, maybe more salt was a good thing, to keep things better preserved? Just a guess.


Another side - asparagus with butter. I didn't try one so I don't know what it tasted like. I'm assuming, asparagus-like!



A decadent chocolate cake slice was part of dessert- Patty ordered this because she wasn't going to partake in what we ordered for dessert - chocolate is one of her favorite things, (same as Owen.) I tasted a bit, it was good...but we were busy tackling...


...a baked alaska! I've actually never had one, so I made sure to order it here, at one of the more famous places to have it. If you don't know what it is, it's an ingenious piece of dessert. It has a ice cream center, atop cake, covered with meringue, then baked at a high temperature to brown the outsides of the meringue. The meringue insulates the ice cream, keeping it cold. Our waiter presented this to us and I was blown away by the huge size of it. He split this monstrosity into 3 portions (one for me, Owen and Brad.)

Here's my slab of it. It was really sugary, but all the vanilla flavor, it was something I enjoyed, especially the cake and ice cream part of it. Owen wasn't too jazzed by it, he admit it wasn't his bag. I think I gave up around half-way. It was just too much. Well, I had to have it at least once!

Our last morning in New Orleans, and we wanted to hit up one of the famous muffaletta shops in the Quarter - Central Market, to get one of their muffalettas to go. On a side note, the person who rang up our order was super indifferent and made it seem like we were bothering him. Wanda, the lady downstairs, noted that they are ALWAYS like this, and it was normal. Funny, really.

So here's our take, as we sat out on the gallery.

Drink Barq's. It's good. Hilarious. Owen got this, sometimes he likes a good root beer.

A bag of Zapp's chips - sour cream and onion chips. They were tasty.

And here's the sandwich, still in its' wrapping, ready to be freed...

And here's a wedge of it, sitting on top of the rest of the sandwich. This truly was a delicious muffaletta. Just thinking about it again makes me hungry for it. What made it perfect was the olive salad, for sure. It mellowed out all the saltier meats on the bottom, and the bread soaked up all the tasty olive oils perfectly. A great way to end our New Orleans trip, as the rest of it kept in our carryon bag, and I polished off the rest of it after we unpacked when we were back home.

New Orleans Day 4 - Heart clogging goodness

Out and about on our second to last day in New Orleans, we awoke to clear skies and humid weather, which I admit, as west coasters we are NOT used to. I had seen a restaurant that had outdoor seating, on one of our walks around the Quarter, and decided that might be a good place to sit down for awhile and enjoy some live music, played by a lively one man band. The restaurant's name was the Market Cafe...

No meal is complete without some hot sauce, in this case, Crystal. This is some great hot sauce, that spiced up our po'boys...

Owen, wanting to try something different, got a roast beef po'boy. Po'boys here come with Ruffles chips.

And here's a close up. This was a sandwich that was really...too salty. I liked how they melted the cheese all over the meat, but it just intensified the saltiness. I can't say that New Orleans is known for their roast beef, so that's probably one of the reasons.

I was trying to go for the true New Orleans experience, and ordered a half shrimp, half oyster po'boy. This was a GREAT po'boy. I don't think I could ever get enough oysters, and in a place famous for seafood, I couldn't resist. These oysters were really really good - crisp outside, gooey oystery crud on the inside, with a simple shredded iceberg lettuce and tomato slices to liven everything up.

Here's a close up of some of the fried-ness. Yeah. That's good eating. Owen had some of the shrimp po'boy, as he is not a fan of oysters - and he was very pleased. Great little lunch spot to hang out and chill.

After more exploring around the quarter, and another nap (I don't think I slept very well at night, those naps were a blessing!) we went on the Haunted History tour, which was top notch. I suggest anyone who visits New Orleans to do that - it was great. Our tour guide was a great storyteller, and it was not at all cheesy, as I thought it was going to be. Afterwards, we asked him for a suggestion for a good take out place, as we wanted to watch Lost...yeah, we're addicted to Lost. He suggested the place right next to our meeting area - a bar called "Yo Mama's". No joke.
The menu to prove it. It is truly..Yo Mama's bar. Great sense of humor around here.

A frozen margarita, to tide Owen over while we wait for our order (which was to-go.) Even though this came from one of those icee-style machines, he said this was really good! Good ratio of alcohol to drink, and really refreshing. Makes me wish I could drink...I just sipped on a diet coke.


Here's my massive burger in its' takeout container. It's just a cheeseburger, but it was massively good. Huge, but good, and definitely hit the spot. The burger came with a baked potato, and I chose chili and chives. It was very decent.

Owen went the whole hog, and took our tour guide's advice - he got the peanut butter and bacon burger. Yes. Peanut butter. And bacon. On a burger. This is a burger that is not joking around. Thing is - I took a small bite, just to try it out - it worked! It was totally overload of intense flavor, but the peanut butter took to all the grease well, and gave it such a great flavor. It enhanced the bacon, even! It was REALLY rich and dense though - I'm amazed Owen tore through it to so quickly. His baked potato had cheese, chives and even more bacon.

Whew! My heart is still trying to recover from that day...

Coming up, more New Orleans, the final round!

New Orleans Day 3 - Lunch at Napoleon House

Patty was really feeling under the weather, after getting the full force of the flu that the rest of her family had unfortunately given to her, so we were on our own today. We had gotten a tip from Corey to go down the street to Napoleon House for some po' boys, so we trekked there. The restaurant had a nice old timey feel to it - seats next to open windows that let you look out on the passerby, a bar area with a bartender that dressed up in a vest - those little touches are always nice. Food started rolling to the table as we leisurely started to draw in our sketchbooks...
A bit of Caesar salad as a started that Owen and I shared. This was a really tasty and simple salad! The dressing was spot on - pungent and flavorful, lots of cheese, croûtons were leftover bread toasts scattered around the salad.
We ordered a half of a muffaletta sandwich to share. We didn't expect it to be SO big...but we were pleasantly surprised at how delicious this sandwich was! The bread was a bit toasty, which melted the cheese, the olive salad was good. I expected the sandwich to be too salty but it really wasn't - the olive salad offset all the saltiness. This was definitely FILLING.
The closeup, for all those interested for an inspection of the fillings.
We also ordered a po'boy - italian sausage. This was actually a good accompaniment to the muffaletta, as the tastes were so different. The bread was really good, the sausage had a good casing on it, and was covered in tomato sauce. A good hearty sandwich.

Here's a shot of the insides...looking at it again makes me want a po'boy!

It was getting a bit muggy out, but we started trekking around the french quarter....dinner to follow!