Postrio

I believe Wolfgang Puck to be an exceptional chef. I also believe his restaurant empire has become a little too large and unwieldy to be properly managed. On visits to a few of his outlets in Vegas and elsewhere (Wolfgang Puck Cafe and Chinois to name a couple) I have found the food to be widely inconsistent and just above average at best. But, he makes boatloads of money off of numerous sub-par outlets and the occasional gem, so I don't see a decline coming in the near future. Postrio, however, happens to be one sparkling gem in this restaurant king's crown.

Taking up its fair share of Saint Mark's Square in The Venetian, Postrio has two Italian dining options to compete with that are within 100 feet of its front desk. One of those two, Enoteca San Marco, is one of my favorite lunch spots on the strip, but if I'm there at dinner time Postrio will definitely be the place.

The menu here is fairly new. Wolfgang Puck's corporate site still lists this outpost as a "bar and grill" serving California cuisine with Mediterranean influences. They need to update their site to let people know that this place has come to play with the big boys of authentic Italian cuisine here in Las Vegas. While it does still hold on to some California influences, like a Shrimp Louis or a lobster club sandwich, the more classical Italian dishes truly shine here.

It isn't the menu that impresses me most here, or even the very accessible and good wine list, it's the execution of the dishes. Just like a significant other, a restaurant can look great on paper but not be worth the price of admission if the execution isn't there. Pastas are cooked perfectly as are meats, and flavors are bold yet balanced. The Ricotta Gnocchi with Wild Mushrooms and Truffle essence is my new favorite way to eat gnocchi, and that's saying something. My girlfriend has been talking about going back just for the Pumpkin Ravioli with butternut squash and whatever the amazing sauce was that made the whole dish that much better. But the Veal Osso Bucco takes top honors in my book. Served with root vegetables (carrots were a little undercooked, the only slight misstep from a rock solid kitchen) and an amazing rendition of a creamy polenta, the meat and the marrow were perfectly seasoned and cooked.

The menu shows seasonal changes but seems to keep around many of the basic dishes with tweaks to ingredients based on the time of year. This is another positive. And, it means if my girlfriend wants that pumpkin ravioli again she should probably get back soon. If you're smart, you'll get there ASAP too.

Turkey Free Turkey Day

Well, I did it. I didn't burn down the house, and, most importantly, my Thanksgiving meal came out close to perfectly. This is a feat because I'm usually the one eating and critiquing and not the one cooking. I have next to zero training and only cook once or twice per year. The only advantage I have over many people is how lucky I've been to experience so many great meals and flavors.

Would you like the recipes? Yeah, so would I. My recipe for success was a near complete disregard for recipes. But here's a few hints, tips, and ingredients that I found along the way yesterday.

Based on the experience I had last night, people should eat more quail. It's not cheap, but it's not horribly expensive either. At $29 for six little birds from Branded Meats and Deli here in Henderson, the fun of eating these diminutive delicacies alone is worth the tariff. The birds I got were cleaned and had just the wing and leg bones still intact. For me, and most amateurs, this is probably the best way to go. I simply rubbed the birds inside and out with butter, salt, pepper, and thyme before broiling them for about seven minutes breast up and about 3 minutes flipped over. They had great flavor and were very juicy and tender.

I'm going to put a pear demi-glace on everything I eat from now on. I know that doesn't sound like the cheapest condiment, nor the easiest to come by, but it may be the best. I used about a cup of chicken stock, three cups of pear juice, onions, salt, pepper, thyme, and a Glace de Poulet base and reduced it all down to about a cup. It was rich and had the essence of pear without being sweet.

I suppose my dad does have a good idea once in a while. His biggest contribution to the meal was the recipe for a creamy lemon-scented polenta for the birds to rest on. I nearly followed the recipe. I would be a terrible baker, but the polenta was a great flavorful addition to the plate. My homemade pomegranate vinaigrette went nicely with the arugula, shallot, pomegranate, and glazed walnut salad my dad and I came around to for my vegetable.

If you're going to sear foie gras at home, open a window or two before the liver hits the pan. Make sure the pieces are about 3/4" thick for best results. The foie was tasty but cold by the time I actually got to it, oh well.

Yes, I did make my famous homemade butternut squash soup and cranberry sauce (which I embellished with a little pear juice to great effect) as well, but we were so satisfied with the dinner as it was on the plate we didn't even get to these more traditional Thanksgiving accouterments.

For about $100, including wine from Valley Cheese and Wine, I could have easily fed four people with this spread. So if you want a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner that will knock the socks off your guests next year, this menu wouldn't be a terrible idea. Just don't expect me to cook it for you.

Thanksgiving Dinner Tweets!

Follow my Twitter account all day today for updates on how my Thanksgiving dinner is coming together. I'm cooking instead of just eating today so it's a big deal.

For those of you who don't know, here's the menu:

Roasted Quail with Seared Foie Gras and Pear Demi-Glace atop a Creamy, Lemony Polenta accompanied by Arugula dressed with a Pomegranate Vinaigrette and candied walnuts. To keep it more in line with Thanksgiving, I will make a Butternut Squash Soup, and my Homemade Cranberry Sauce is already waiting in the fridge.

So check it out if you're interested at http://twitter.com/bwdining.

I'm In The Right City

I recently accepted my first paid food writing gig. A fair amount of work for very little pay, just how everyone should start out. It made me do something interesting though. I had to figure out how many restaurants I could truly say something nice about in this town. I came up with about 37 on the strip, and 17 off of it, just off the top of my head. I italicized "something" for a reason. Of these 54 restaurants, about eleven are going to cause me trouble to come up with the proper diction to make people really believe they shouldn't be avoided completely. The truth is, those eleven restaurants aren't bad, and some even have a Michelin Star, but in this town I have to hold restaurants to a higher standard than I would in, say, Fresno.

Fresno is not the restaurant city that Las Vegas is. That probably went without saying, but just in case you didn't know. That doesn't mean Fresno is lacking establishments which garner my praise on a regular basis, just not as many or as varied as here in Vegas. There are probably five Mexican restaurants there that beat out everything here. There is one Chinese restaurant that beats out everything here. There is an Italian place that could certainly hold its own (or trash the competition in the case of Zeffirino) in the Venetian itself. Their most widely known Mediterranean place is better than ours (Paymon's), and the chefs with their names on restaurants actually work in those restaurants. That being said, I can think of only about ten places off the top of my head about which I could find something nice to say based on my Las Vegas standards.

Does that mean writing about food is easier or harder in Las Vegas than in Fresno? Stupid question. Writing about food is never hard. But, in Las Vegas the opportunity to dress down a Food Network star is just as appetizing as giving the mom and pop place down the street the recognition it so deeply deserves and needs. In Fresno there are really only mom and pops and massive chains. The massive chains don't need your praise and won't suffer from your insults, while the mom and pops live and die by local perception.

So is it easier to write about food in Las Vegas? Definitely. With a higher density of amazing places there is more praise going around, the more everyday places become easier to malign, and the bad places easier to ignore. In a place like Fresno, where restaurants seem more a necessary evil than a way of life, the bar is much lower and it is the rare restaurateur that rises above it.

I know you're thinking good food is good food no matter the city. While that's true, there are different levels. Las Vegas probably isn't even in the top tier of restaurant cities. Mostly because it is located in a desert where nothing is really grown locally for wide consumption. That is actually good for my cause too, because it gives me something to fall back on when I can't find anything else to complain about, and it keeps some of the food savvy focused on the upper echelon cities while I'm free to make myself heard on the second rung. And while Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley feed much of the world with their produce, the restaurants consuming that produce locally are widely dispassionate about its use.

By moving to a city with a plethora of dining delights but not without its culinary issues, I made my life better in more ways than one. First, I always have something to write about. Second, I never have to cook for myself. And third, someone I don't even know might actually read this.

The Reason I Know Mexican Food on The Strip Sucks

Mexican food in Las Vegas is sub-par as a whole, and a downright rip-off on the strip. I know there are some places on the strip with decent food which claim to be Mexican restaurants, but if you're paying more than ten dollars for a burrito, beans, and rice you're doing something wrong.

This isn't a blog about any particular Las Vegas restaurant though. Instead, I simply wonder why we can't get it right in this town. I just took a short jaunt to my hometown of Fresno, California and one of my lunches was at Mariscos Colima. No fancy neon signs or scantily clad female bartenders pouring too much Patron. Instead, it's two trailers, a concrete roof between them covering twenty or so tables, and good food.

While nothing in this valley can compare to that one place alone, not to mention five or six others in Fresno that are great (not just passable like the stuff here) Mexican restaurants, the "Mexican" restaurants on the strip receive all negative marks in my book for not understanding what makes that regional cuisine great.

I could go on and on with my specific gripes beyond high prices and generally bland food, but I won't bore you with that. I just don't bother with Mexican food on the Strip anymore, and that's a shame because it is one of my favorite cuisines.