Sunday, December 29, 2013

A Trip Through the Chunnel

Our close friend decided to celebrate his birthday in Las Vegas and selected Gordon Ramsay's Steak in the Paris Hotel and Casino as the location for his birthday dinner.  I was skeptical having eaten at Chef Ramsay's restaurant at the London Hotel in West Hollywood as the portions were freakishly small and after having spent $200 on dinner, I still needed to take my husband through the drive-thru in order for him to have a complete meal.  But, this was not our birthday dinner so we stayed quiet about our concerns.

We walked through the casino to find the unusual entrance to the restaurant.  It reminded us of a tunnel, but no one said anything to us as we entered.  We checked in and were asked to spend a few minutes in the bar while our table was set up.  When we were called we were brought back to the inside entrance of the restaurant and at the point our hostess explained that when we entered the restaurant that we left Paris via the chunnel and were now in England.  That's actually kind neat, but maybe that should have been explained when we first arrived in England and not minutes later as an after thought.

We were escorted through the main dining room heading towards the upstairs seating when our hostess stopped us and pointed to the ceiling fixture in the center of the room.  She then explained to us that the fixture represents Chef Ramsay's hand movements.  No explanation of what movement his hand is making, just his hand movements.  Took everything inside me to not giggle as the hostess was explaining this to me with a straight face.  This was only the beginning of Chef Ramsay's displays of arrogance.

Chef Ramsay's hand movements as a ceiling fixture


We were seated upstairs and were directed to a bi-fold on the table containing the Hell's Kitchen Limited Edition Tasting Menu.  If everyone at your table orders the tasting menu for $145 per person (and its an all or nothing order) then you get to take home the accompanying autographed photo of Chef Ramsay.  Arrogance display number 2.




We were then given our menus that were engraved with the same representation of Chef Ramsay's hand movements, along with a logo of Chef Ramsay holding two knives.  Arrogance display number 3.  God forbid you forget for even a moment whose restaurant you are in.




The Wheel of Meat (my name for it, not theirs) is then brought to the table and each cut is introduced and explained.  We are also told that the meat is hand selected by Pat LaFrieda of New York and dry aged for 28 days minimum in his Himalayan salt room.

Wheel of Meat


The bread plate is then brought to the table and it was difficult to not eat each kind of tasty bread, but alas, I had to share.




I chose the English Chowder as my starter.  It was very yummy and not terribly creamy, and I loved finding the citrus pearls that popped in my mouth.

English Chowder (smoked haddock, scallops, fingerling medallions, citrus pearls)


Everyone else at the table ordered the onion soup.  I was able to have a taste of it and while it was very flavorful, I actually found it to be too sweet.  And for those who don't know, Welsh rarebit is cheese sauce on toast and has nothing to do with rabbit.

British Ale Onion Soup (Boddington's Pub Ale, caramelized onion broth, Welsh rarebit)


I have been a fan of Beef Wellington ever since I was a teenager when it was served as the main course at a wedding.  I have since even made it twice for Christmas dinner, once using a filet loin and once as individual wellingtons using filet mignons.  It is not often on restaurant menus due to its complexity, and as this menu states, the length of time required for cooking.  But I felt tonight that my dinner dates could wait the 45 minutes it would take for my Wellington to be prepared.  I actually think in the long run that the extended wait was a blessing as it gave us time to digest our soups and the bread.  While the Wellington was prettier than any version I've prepared, I was actually disappointed in the taste as I found it to be bland.  I'm not certain if any pate was coated on the meat as is traditional.  It simply tasted like meat inside puff pastry and I like my recipe better.

Roasted Beef Wellington, glazed root vegetables, potato puree, red wine demi-glace


My dish came with its sides so I allowed everyone else at the table to decide the sides and I simply had a taste of each.  Both the potatoes and the mac & cheese were yummy, but I felt bad as everyone else was so focused on their steaks that we left most of the side dishes behind.

Fingerling Potatoes (parmesan, truffle) and Mac & Cheese (blue, cheddar, parmesan, truffle)


Admittedly I never had a taste of the asparagus, which is a shame as I love asparagus.
Grilled Asparagus (chanterelle relish, asparagus spears, aged sherry)


When we were shown the Wheel of Meat the server focused a great deal of time on the American Wagyu Rib Cap as the rib cap is rarely on restaurant menus.  The rib cap is also referred to as the tastiest part of the cow.  That was all the men needed to hear as both of them ordered it as their main course.  And while I was only allocated one bite, I must agree that it was yummy.

American Wagyu Rib Cap (beef marbling score of 9 or higher)

We did not order dessert that night as there was birthday cake waiting for us back at the hotel.  That said, we all left with our tummies filled to the brim - the complete opposite of my last Chef Ramsay experience.  I would strongly recommend Gordon Ramsay's Steak not only to any Celebrity Chef Foodie, but also to anyone who wants to enjoy a good steak while in Vegas.  It was a great experience and I'm proud to say that I was again able to withhold my giggling at the ceiling fixture when we were leaving the restaurant.

Alma

Bon Appetit Magazine named Alma the best new restaurant of the year in August.  Makes you wonder how they define year as they obviously don't use the Gregorian calendar.  But of course, once that happened, I had to make a reservation.  I decided that our dating anniversary, known by my husband as our "unniversary", would be the proper occasion for such a celebrated restaurant.

After riding the Metro we walked through some seedy parts of downtown Los Angeles before coming upon the "blink and you missed it" restaurant.  It doesn't look like much from the outside, and its sparsely decorated on the inside.  We were seated in our clear lucite chairs near the wine bar where there is shelving featuring cookbooks from presumably some of the chef's favorite chefs.

The menu is simple and looks like its printed on a small pad of yellow lined paper.  Drinks are limited to water, beer, wine, or seasonal soda.  No iced tea.  Our server expalins that the menu is broken into three sections: tiny, small, and medium and then advises us how many of each we should get.  She also tells us that the dishes will come out as prepared, so it'll be a surprise as to the order.  We decide to order two from each of the three sections.

My husband decided to try the seasonal soda as neither of us had ever had yam soda before.  We're not certain if the soda is made in house, or from a craft soda factory, as it was served already in the glass.  Upon first glance it looked like a mixed Thai iced tea with foam on top.  It was actually quite tasty, but I stuck to my water.

spiced yam soda


First dish served was the Seafood and Tofu Beignet.  Usually when I think of a beignet they are light and airy, but these were dense.  They were surprisingly spicy, but that's because we did not realize that yuzu kosho is a type of Japanese seasoning: a paste made from chili peppers, yuzu peel and salt, which is then allowed to ferment.  I just thought it was some sort of yuzu juice sauce.  All in all it was an interesting dish, but I'm not certain I would ever order it again.  Beneath each beignet was a small drop of citrus aioli, which was so small you barely even knew it was there and yet it was needed to enhance the dish.

seaweed & tofu beignet, yuzu kosho, lime



Next up was the housemade bread which tonight was rye and ale bread.  Being Jewish I have my own expectations of what a rye bread should taste like and this was nothing like it.  This was a hearty loaf that was complemented by the cultured butter, and the rye and ale complimented each other nicely.

housemade bread with cultured butter


Now, as you know, I love crab, so when we saw a crab dish it was automatically ordered.  What I appreciated about this dish was its simplicity.  This dish was about the crab and simple unadulterated taste of crab.  The citrus added the perfect touch of acid and brought out the flavor of crab. While not appealing to look at, the avocado smear was tasty.

dungeness crab, smoked avocado, citrus, fennel


The tartare looked nothing like a traditional beef tartare.  It was a deconstructed tartare made with rib eye and barely cooked egg yolk droplets.  All in all it was very tasty, but it was missing one key element: toast.  Tartare is traditionally served with some sort of food delivery system like toast, but this tartare could only be eaten with a fork which made it difficult to incorporate the egg.

beef tartare, tangerine, maitake, Flower Avenue egg


My main course was the Brussels sprouts.  It was surprisingly more filling than one would suspect.  The mushroom mousse smear tasted like a pate. It was obviously made with red wine and was a tad too salty.

mushroom, brussel sprout, apple, miso


My husband's main course was unsurprisingly the 60 day dry aged rib eye which should have been served with one more slice of beef.  We were never quite certain what the green smear was as it didn't really have much flavor at all.  The server recommended that we order it medium rare, and that was definitely the right call.  While enjoyable, we both felt that the alfalfa sprouts were an odd accompaniment for the steak.

dry-aged rib eye, carrot, wild mushroom, grass


Having never had sunchoke before, we had to have the sunchoke split for dessert which had like six elements to the dish.  The candied sunchokes were just eh.  The applewood ice cream was good. The marshmallow whose specific ingredients I can't recall was yummy, as was the hay ash meringue.  The whipped cream was surprising as it had little to no sugar.  I could have eaten the meringue and the ice cream just as its own dish and been quite happy.

sunchoke split

Alma is falling under two current trends in the culinary world: small plates and dishes that spotlight the food.  Each dish you could truly make out the main dish as it was never overdressed with any other flavors.  That said, I love flavorful food.  I'm glad I got to experience Alma, but to me it was just okay and not worth the walk through the scary neighborhood.