Vegas and Food

Oct 20, 2009

Harrah's Las Vegas - Penazzi 2009

las vegas

Our second time here, at Penazzi, inside Harrah's casino, Las Vegas. I was so disappointed. I'm guessing the owner/chef has changed since 2006, because the service and food was much better back in 2006. I liked this place in 2006, but not anymore.

Back in 2006, this restaurant was like an upscale restaurant, dark lighting, quiet, fine service. In July 2009, I felt like I was at Bucca di Beppo. Also difficult to get the waiter.

Menu was kinda boring. I'd like to have more gourmet desserts at the place like this, something I can't make myself. Taste of the food was just okay.

They had stuffed mushrooms on appetizer menu and I asked if they can make it with no cheese. Because the description says stuffed with crab meat and veggies. As long as they don't mix cheese and stuffing together, they can probably do it. But this guy said it's better to not make any change, so he doesn't wanna do that. That's absolutely true, they make food because they think that's the best and they don't wanna change the flavor by removing cheese or something like that. But you know what, maybe sometimes taste gets better when you substitute. Plus if this stuffing (crab and braised veggies) has enough flavor already, I can order with no cheese and it still should be no problem.

Anyway, this made everything so difficult, because almost everything on the menu has cheese in it. I didn't have so much choice to eat. So we ordered 2 appetizers, 1 soup, 2 desserts, and the total came up to $52.

CLICK HERE for pics from 2006

Not delicious bread

Fried calamari $11.99
with marinara sauce

We both agreed, our homemade calamari is much tastier than this.

Grilled chicken sausage $12.99
Grilled chicken sausage with cannellini beans and pepperoncino

It was really weird texture but the more I eat, more I want. Addictive.

Wedding soup $6.99
Traditional Italian wedding soup, mixed vegetables, chicken, baby spinach and whole egg

Tropical Pabada Experience $7.99
White chocolate mousse with touches of passion, banana and sweet mango, served with fruits and berry coulis

It's good dessert to clean up your mouth.

Chocolate Raspberry Sensation $7.99
Chocolate raspberry genoise baked inside delicate pastry served with raspberries and warm chocolate sauce

menu 2009

dessert menu 2009

Rating (food): 3 / 5
Rating (service):3 / 5
Repeat: No

Wed-Sun: 5:30pm - 10:30pm

WEBSITE

YELP

Oct 18, 2009

STONEFIRE Grill

Pasadena

Last night, we went to STONEFIRE Grill in Pasadena to get free meals. Basically, anybody who lives in the area can eat anything for free. You just had to make reservations and pay the tip.

I tried their coffee, it had no taste, like water. I didn't like the mashed potatoes, and wasn't crazy about the tri-tip, although I think this was my first time trying tri-tip, so I don't know what the taste should be. But everything else was fine.

Stonefire's BBQ chopped salad with chicken (small) $6.49
This small size salad was enough to share with 2-3 people.

Their signature salad featuring a choice of BBC chicken breast or tri-tip, with mixed greens, black beans, roasted corn, carrots, red cabbage, cilantro, tossed with tortilla strips, buttermilk ranch dressing & topped with tomato & scallions

grilled vegetables (small, I believe) $4.99
Eggplant, tomato, red bell pepper, mushroom. The eggplant was tasty.

Tri-Tip individual meals (10-12 oz.), comes with salad or mashed potato, and 2 breadsticks $12.99

Mesquite BBQ (front), and pepper garlic topped with gorgonzola butter (back)

Pepper garlic ones were softer and had more flavor, mesquite BBQ ones were more tough.

mashed potato
It was dry on top, also very salty.

bread sticks
tastes like garlic bread, a little cheese on top

salmon (sesame glaze) (1/2 lb.) $8.99
It was tasty.

Rating (food): 3 / 5
Rating (service):4 / 5
Repeat: Yes

http://www.stonefiregrill.com/SF.html

Oct 17, 2009

Dean Sin World - Monterey Park, CA

Monterey Park

Dean Sin World in Monterey Park. Very tiny place, there were only 3-4 tables and maybe up to 10 people can sit down and eat.

The lady who works here was so friendly and nice. She said absolutely everything has no MSG. Everything made from scratch. While we were here eating, customers kept coming in and out, ordering food to go, but every single customer was Chinese. They were all speaking in Chinese. Nobody spoke English. Looks like real Chinese customers loves this place. That makes me think that this is the real Chinese food you get in China.

All the prices below are including tax.

making from scratch

They were making dumplings and cakes from scratch.

Complimentary peanuts with nori seaweed and sugar or salt mixture. They said the mixture is homemade.

wonton soup $4.70
delicious

eggrolls $4.20
I loved these eggrolls. This was one of my favorites I ever ate. Inside I think was only pork, carrots and napa or something like that, very simple. It also had some clear gravy/soup thing in it that made it delicious.

Their famous steamed pork bun (10) (a.k.a. soup dumplings / Xiao Long Bao) $5.30

Unfortunately, my first 3 dumplings had NO SOUP in them, and they weren't tasty at all, BUT after the 4th dumpling, I finally got the ones with soup, and it was delicious.

We recently tried Din Tai Fung soup dumplings, which is another famous place for soup dumplings, but we prefer Dean Sin World. Because it's cheaper and has more flavor, although sometimes some of them don't have soup inside. The lady said Din Tai Fung only uses chicken stock, that's why their dumplings don't have much flavor.

egg noodles $4.70
They said 8 ingredients in it. Tofu, pork, bamboo shoots, etc.

complimentary red bean cake

This is the vinegar you use when you eat soup dumplings. They said it has to be this one. I guess this is the most common vinegar in China. After we left, we bought this at a supermarket in Monterey Park for around $1.50 or so. I think we're gonna start using this every time we make Chinese food that uses vinegar.

Rating (food): 4.3 / 5
Rating (service):5 / 5
Repeat: Yes

Dean Sin World
306 N. Garfield Ave. #2
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 571-0636

open 7 days:10am-8pm

Yelp

Oct 13, 2009

Los Angeles Chocolate Salon, October 11, 2009

event

Here's pics from Chocolate Salon in Los Angeles.

These are pics from when we first got there, it was around noon and already so many people were there.

This photo size is a bit large so it might take some time to load. Everything made with chocolate.

This pic and next one is also large, so you can see more details.

Even these shoe boxes are chocolate, and yes, you can actually eat them!

cupcakes

Chocolate + liqueur. Sweet but delicious. They actually make each one.

It's lime. delicious.

I think it was banana walnut cake

This was my favorite place.

They had blueberry, pomegranate, etc., and I tried pomegranate, but it didn't taste like pomegranate.

Bacon chocolate! It was a very new taste, it was fine. Not greasy or anything. It has popping candy in it, so after you eat, it starts popping in your mouth.

http://www.chrischocolates.com/

Marshmallow. I choose s'mores. They also had lemon and vanilla. It must be good, but I tried it after so many chocolates, I felt this marshmallow was too sweet and felt sick.

http://www.plushpuffs.com/display

http://www.sweetbeautyspa.com/
http://www.amanochocolate.com/
http://www.ococoa.com/butters.html

White one (left) was peppermint + white chocolate raspberry. I got strawberry + orange liqueur, my husband got cappuccino.

http://www.sterlingconfections.com/