Mirage Casino and Resort, 3400 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, NV, United States

The other day, a friend commented that i talk a lot more about running then i do about food these days.  Well yes that is true.  The fact of the matter is i worked 28 years in kitchens.  20 of those years were 60-100 hour work weeks which left me with absolutely no time for friends, family, hobbies etc.  I lived and breathed the food business and i have done reasonably well in that field.  I also became somewhat disillusioned and burnt out in early 2000 and started to look for something to do completely away from that business as a hobby and to promote better health and i have found that in distance running.  Oddly enough the hobby of running has actually made me look more closely at how i cook and what I serve.

I havent turned my back on my true passion and vocation but I needed to focus on something else to avoid burning out further………..There is plenty happening in the food world and some very large projects looming of which i will make publicly known by summer.

For the past year I have been lazy at best at keeping up this blog.  there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day.  I have a bunch of blogs started on various topics and also a few recipes and cooking videos to post if I can get focused here in the next little while.

I’m not the biggest fan of Las Vegas, it’s really not my thing…gambling and heavy drinking….BUT…..there is the greatest concentration of great restaurants in the world.  You can dine at a celebrity chef driven restaurant every night of the week at reasonable prices.  You can take in stunning shows like La Cirque du Soleil…………

The above photos are from my recent trip to STACK restaurant in the Mirage Casino.  A beautifully designed restaurant with a very natural look using a lot of wood.  Plenty of beautiful staff who are attentive and friendly.

We ordered the Kobe beef appetizer which comes with a pre heated Rock to the table and you take the ultra thin slices of the Kobe and “grill” it on the hot rock at the table….fun and delicious.   We had to try the famous Lobster Tacos which were absolutely excellent, i had some yellow fin sashimi which with its jalapeno and ponzu was almost identical to a dish found in Nobu restaurants.   The stack of house made onion rings with an excellent tamarind heavy ketchup were fantastic!

All in all an excellent restaurant with reasonable pricing………….not a celebrity chef in sight.

We also went to the PALM steakhouse while in Vegas.  We went for “Happy Hour” and i was blown away to have any choice of the sliders, for $4.95 a plate!  regular price for 3 sliders is between 12 and 15 dollars for chicken parm, Kobe burger, or Lobster sliders………………………need less to say we had a slider fest all of which were superb.  I highly recommend the PALM at the bar between 530 and 700 weeknights!    Top quality at an amazing price!  And the Lobster meat is from Nova Scotia….Clearwater Seafoods!

Yes although Vegas isn’t “my cup of tea” it certainly has good eats!