By Lu
Bouchon, Thomas Keller's French Bistro at The Venetian |
Jerry, my coworker, once told me pancakes have that special sentimental value for him. I remember his face lit up as he was telling us his childhood story about his mom making pancakes way back when in the weekend and that meant it was not an ordinary day. He said if he was sick and didn't want to go to school, his mom would make pancakes or soup. If he was well enough to eat pancakes, then he would be well enough for school. It would always be a hard dilemma deciding between pancakes and school.
Jerry just celebrated his birthday this month. I asked his teammate, Scott, who traveled together with him a lot, if he took Jerry somewhere special for his birthday dinner since they had to be away from home on his special day. Scott told me Jerry had pancakes for his birthday dinner. LOL.
Don't blame me if I also love eating special breakfast food that I usually can't get or eat every morning. Protein shakes, Greek Yogurts, or Bagels get old real fast. I never refuse a brunch invitation, ever. After a long hiatus of writing, and realizing that my last post was also about brunch, I still stand behind my love for brunch and deliver you another post about the topic. I wouldn't even apologize about it.
The last several months have been hectic and it was truly a whirlwind. If you read my post from Father's Day last year, I wrote about my second Dad, Dale Cook. Click on his name if you would like to read that post. He loved my egg rolls and I dedicated that post to him and shared my egg roll recipe with all of you. He was really ill came January with lung cancer, and we lost him in May. The past several months have been tough and I couldn't get myself in the mood of writing about food.
However, knowing him, he knew how I love food and cooking. He wouldn't want me to stop writing for this blog and celebrate my love for cooking. In my eulogy for him, I gave him credit for starting me to cook. I said to everyone there that though my last name isn't "Cook", I was a Cook in a different way. I am a Cook.
The past weekend, I had a great trip with my friends to Las Vegas. I wasn't a big Vegas person, but I thought it would be fun to try all the restaurants there. You know all the big chefs have a restaurant or two over there. I wanted to try Jean Georges Steakhouse and L'Atalier of Joel Robuchon, but we ended up eating a lot of $100 Char Kwee Teow fried noodles and other Chinese dishes. We also had great sushi at The Blue Ribbon at The Cosmopolitan as we celebrated my friend, Evi's birthday. The only non Asian food we had in our whirl-wind Vegas weekend trip was brunch at Bouchon.
Thomas Keller is one of my culinary heroes and I know it doesn't need any explanation why he is. I'm still mad at Ri for not writing about her experience dining at The French Laundry last year. Thanks to a meal at Bouchon, I found the drive to write for this blog again. I couldn't possible go to a Thomas Keller's restaurant and not write about it.
I had all kinds of expectations and for the most part, I was happy. I didn't have that high of expectations though, realizing that most of the big chefs' restaurants in Vegas aren't exactly the same as their main flagship place.
Inside of Bouchon |
CK, Evi, and Nate |
Menu wasn't overly big and I found what I wanted to order almost right away.
We started with ordering Cappuccino and I couldn't wait for the baguette, butter, and jam. I always expected those goodies if I ate brunch at a French Bistro. Coffee came, but our Cappuccinos came as Lattes. Obviously our server didn't really pay that much attention to detail. However, I was feeling kind and I just let it go. CK, on the other hand, wanted a Cappuccino and demanded his to be changed. Relax, he didn't cause a fight with the restaurant this time.
Mhmh...Cherry Jam.. |
The Smoked Salmon Plate |
The delicious Croque Madame.. |
The mussels |
The Corned Beef Hash with Over-easy Eggs |
Other than that, I thought it was a great meal. I loved it and I wanted more of the cherry jam and bread. I also realized that I like Vegas now and I really would love to go back next year and try more restaurants.
If you're in Vegas, do try Bouchon. The prices were so reasonable for a Thomas Keller's restaurant. One suggestion though if you didn't want to gain weight while in Vegas trying all these delicious food - try to walk everywhere! Between the sun and the walking, you surely wouldn't pack up the pounds. You can cool off and burn some more calories at the pool!