Lobster-like Bisque

As promised, here is the first of three Vegas-inspired recipes from my recent trip.  This is nearly as good as the Lobster Bisque I had at Caesar's Palace, and a whole lot cheaper. A special thanks to Tyler Florence for help on some of the particulars.

Lobster-like Bisque

Serves 4

1 - 2 cups cooked lobster meat (you can now find lobster meat frozen or canned in most supermarkets)
½ cup dry sherry or dry white wine
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
½ cup onion, diced
¼ cup celery, diced
¼ cup carrot, diced
Salt and white pepper, to taste
½ teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning, or to taste
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cups whole milk
1 cup half and half
1 cup chicken stock 

Combine the lobster meat with the sherry. Cover and refrigerate.

In a hot pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Once it stops sputtering, add the onion, celery, carrot, salt and pepper and Old Bay. Stir and let cook until the vegetables are translucent and are getting soft.

Add the tomato paste and cook for another couple of minutes. Add the flour and cook for two to three minutes, stirring all the time. While whisking, add the cold milk, half and half and stock and bring to a boil. Let boil for about 1 minute, still whisking constantly. Turn the heat down and let simmer until slightly reduced.

Then, 

Option 1: using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth.

OR 

Option 2: Strain the soup through a fine mesh strainer, pressing down on the solids.

Taste, and add more salt, pepper or Old Bay, if you think it needs it. Add the reserved lobster and sherry to the pot and simmer for just a couple of minutes, so the lobster is heated through.

Suggestions: Serve with crusty bread and maybe a little sour cream on the top. If you want to be really fancy, sprinkle on a little chopped tarragon as garnish.

I went to Las Vegas, and all I got was...broke.

Travelling back in time to Ancient Rome would have been way cheaper.

Eleven years ago, when I last visited Vegas, there were cheap rooms, free entertainment walking along the strip, and breakfast buffets that cost $3.99.  When I went to Vegas last week, there were discounted rooms in overpriced hotels who nickeled and dimed you for everything, 20-minute walks just to cross the street, and $14 breakfasts of scrambled eggs and coffee.  It's not totally fair for me to say this: I was staying at in-love-with-itself Caesar's Palace.  I suspect that, on the outskirts of The Strip, things are still more reasonable.  I have also heard that the downtown area (Fremont Street was recommended, but I never made it that far) yields some great restaurants at much better prices.  I cannot speak to this experience because I was dutifully trying to attend the convention I was supposed to be dutifully attending; all I can say is, if you stay on the strip, expect to get gouged (or at least inconvenienced if you search for alternatives).

Caesar's Palace, by the way, has given up trying to keep customers happy.  There is no uniform policy on anything--check-in time, what's included in the hotel room price, and even the hotel room price itself is all negotiable, depending on who you talk to and how good your social skills are.  I happened to have hitched my wagon to a very sociable star while I was there, but otherwise, I would have been screwed, as I possess no amount of social finesse whatsoever.

So, blah blah blah, the food was too expensive.  But I did manage to find a couple of little gems in the midst of the cigarette smoke and sad gambling people who didn't know what day of the week it was or whether it was night or day.

I think this guy made my noodles!

Beijing Noodle No. 9 

You can pay a lot to eat to eat some pretty mundane Chinese food, of you can stick to the first page of the menu and have one of their noodle dishes with homemade, hand stretched, traditional noodles.  I paid $12 for a big bowl of carb-o-riffic magic that got me through the night and allowed me to skip breakfast the next morning.

Warnings: the service is slow and bitchy.  Bitchy as hell, actually.  The restaurant is loud and all a blindingly bright white, so just go ahead and wear your sunglasses indoors.  It's not the weirdest looking thing they'll see.

payard PÂTISSERIE & BISTRO

This place is a bit more expensive but also offers a much more varied menu in terms of consistent acceptability.  Execution is fine, the bread they bring to the table is actually amazing, and the wine list is quite good.  At dinner (but be forewarned, not at lunch), the lobster bisque suffices as a fine meal, and the quiche and side salad is a satisfying, safe choice.  Portions are large.


Warnings: the service is just as shitty as Beijing Noodle No. 9.  I asked if they could split the check for lunch, and I was actually told, "well, you shouldn't do that if you're not planning on paying separately" with quite a bit of attitude.  So, shitty and incredibly stupid is a more accurate way to describe the service that day.

Rao's
I occasionally buy their jarred sauce as a jump start for a quickie lasagne at home.  The prices were too steep to justify a plate of pasta and tomatoes, but their wine list was not any more expensive than the cheaper in-house restaurants, and they had some real gems.  The cheapest red on the menu, the Primitivo, was quite good--full-bodied yet fruity--and the Prosecco was just right.

Warnings: no complaints about service--they were perfectly lovely.

Flamingo Pizza

When you get sick of the terrible service and overpriced food, it's time to get some carry-out.  Be forewarned, you will have to walk out to the far lane of shuttles and taxi service and meet some sketchy dude in an unmarked, 1990 red Honda Civic and sneak it back up to your room while no one is looking, but it will be worth it.  The pasta with garlic butter and mushrooms is ridiculously simple and good.

Warnings: I think they might be getting stoned at work here.  You will wait a loooong time to get your food, and then it will not come with utensils.  Ask ahead for forks or whatever the obvious choice for eating is, because it will not be obvious to them.

Now that I've recovered from the cigarette smoke and low self-esteem I developed in these restaurants, I've come up with some pretty convincing replications of these dishes (which are all pretty basic, anyway); stay tuned in my next posts for recipes for Chinese noodles with eggs and tomato, Lobster-like bisque, and fettuccine with garlic, butter, and mushrooms.

If it doesn't squeak, is it still a cheese curd? Taking in the sights in Wisconsin's capitol city...

I recently had the good fortune of travelling to Wisconsin's capital city for some concerts in May, and I did indeed eat my proverbial heart out.  Non-Midwesterners may scoff at the idea of looking for fun and good food in Madison, but those from the Great Lakes region know it's a great college town with fresh produce stands all over in the summer, not to mention the locally made artisan cheeses and ice creams.  It's worth the drive if you're already in the Chicago or Milwaukee areas, and if you're in those areas to visit family this summer, it's a great short-term escape from Grandma's guilt trips and casseroles.

The view from Lake Mendota on UW-Madison's campus. 

Travel:
The cheapest way to get there is to fly in to Chicago at O'Hare or Midway (O'Hare is slightly closer to the Wisconsin border) and take the shuttle up to Madison.  Coach USA runs a bus with stops at both airports and the Amtrack terminal (union Station) in the heart of downtown Chicago, dropping you near two stations with multiple "L"  and Metra lines, if you decide to go that route.  They run an on-time (or early) ship and it's $58 round-trip/ $29 one-way.

[By the way, I'm not going to waste a lot of time saying nasty things about airlines in this post; I've done enough of that already.  But I would just like to warn you, in case you didn't know, that Spirit Airlines charges $35 per carry-on.  I did not know this when I booked my tickets through Priceline, and if I had, I wouldn't have thought they were the cheapest deal.  So don't forget to check baggage fee policies with the company before booking through an aggregate sight, kiddies!]

Activities:
Mostly I practiced and performed, but I can give you a few tips.  Frank Lloyd Wright spent many years in the area, so if  you're into that sort of thing, check out his handiwork near campus at the First Unitarian Church, which he built in 1951.  Monona Terrace Convention Center was not built while FLW was alive, but he did draw up the plans, and it's also where they record Michael Feldman's NPR show, Whad'Ya Know?, every Saturday.  There is a fee to be in the audience, but the free coffee and doughnuts are pretty tasty.

Monona Terrace

Olbrich Botanical Gardens are free to the public from dawn until dusk and contain the only Thai Pavilion in North America.  It is beautiful, and the gardens are really stunning (plus they're a fun way to learn what grows in this part of the country).

Did you know that University of Wisconsin has a big, honkin' LAKE right on campus?  For a reasonable fee, you can rent a sail boat from the boat house on campus and act all fancy.  Or you can just wander along the mostly wooded trail that rings the lake and enjoy the many Gothic-inspired buildings on the heart of campus for free.  If I had attended this school, I don't think I would have done much homework.

This is the student union building at UW-Madison!
There's a good ice cream shop in here, too. 

Eating:
This is the most important activity when visiting a town, isn't it?  It tells you so much about whether or not that town deserves to exist (the town where I reside, for instance, probably does not).

The Dane County Farmer's Market is the largest producer-only farmer's market in the US.  Wander around the charming downtown area every Wednesday and Saturday in the summer and eat your weight in fresh cheese curds and other artisanal cheeses, homemade salsas, samples of locally raised meat, and so much more.  There are food stands, too, so you can get a more balanced diet if you want.  This is actually a great place to go for lunch.

If you don't make it to a farmer's market, Brennan's Market is your next best choice. These sort of overgrown roadside stands are all over town, and they carry loads of local produce, wine, beer, and some groceries, along with a deli counter and another lifetime's worth of Wisconsin cheese (and yes, you can eat your weight in free samples here, too).  Local cheese, locally made wine, and a big loaf of crusty bread can all be purchased here and brought to any one of the several lakes in town for a perfect picnic lunch.

Lao Laan-Xang at 2098 Atwood Ave. offers beautiful Laotian food in a slightly gentrified Capitol-area neighborhood and a reasonable price.  There's a little outdoor seating, but it goes fast during Madison's short summer.

Across the street, get your dessert at Monty's Blue Plate Diner (that is seriously what we did).  They actually have a terrific-looking menu, with tons of egg dishes and healthier, often vegetarian versions of diner classics, reminiscent of Sweet Melissa's in Laramie or the Chicago Diner.  But I only went for the homemade pie, which was glorious in every way.

There is a lot more to do in this diverse, education-rich, politically active town, I'm sure.  In the short time I spent there, I was overwhelmed by how much fun I had every single day.  Madison is a great place to hang for a weekend as a 20-something, 30-something, or as a whole family.  In mid-May, the weather was near-perfect every day, and there were plenty of places to go biking and running (in fact, you can rent bikes from the city for sight-seeing).  I highly recommend a visit.

Blue C Sushi Extra Super Good!!!!!!

Blue C Sushi can be found in mediocre, overpriced shopping areas throughout suburban Seattle, and it's sickeningly lit with copious neon lights.  Open the doors and you are overwhelmed with insipid, thumping ambient trance music and your eyes will eventually be assaulted by Japanese sports shows projected onto the largest wall in the room (because a widescreen t.v. just isn't enough).  But here's why you should go: it's totally fun!  Oh, and the food is amazing!

So, Blue C is modeled after the first Japanese restaurants to work on conveyor belts in the 1950s--food comes gliding around on a long train, plated on color-coded plates.  The color of the plate tells you how much you will pay if you take it.  So, watch carefully and grad whatever you want--the host adds up the costs at the end.  Picking your food becomes a whimsical group activity, and the slower pace of eating keeps you from getting overstuffed.  Prices are also quite reasonable, particularly for Seattle.

The food itself is beautiful: lovely sushi rolls and sushi nigiri with the freshest of fish, comforting noodle dishes and innovative salads, and tasty little naughty things like mini doughnuts and cheesecake.  I loved the seared ahi tuna--it might be the best I have ever had.  And it cost me $4.25.  I had one of the most satisfying, delectable Japanese meals of my life for $22.95, and I got a good giggle out of the cheesy aesthetic.

So, Blue C Sushi, when are you branching out?  Or do I have to keep flying back to Seattle to eat well?

Groupon: sucky, or no?

I have been subscribing to Groupon now for about two months, though I generally just watch the deals pass me by; I live about an hour away from the city housing Groupon’s mad deals, so it has to be pretty interesting to be worth the drive.  I did, however, break down and purchase one for an Italian bistro in LoDo, anticipating that we might someday be in the neighborhood for another reason and could use a bite to eat. 

Specializing in discounts for local restaurants, spas, and other merchants, the company promises “one ridiculously huge coupon each day, on the best things to eat, see, do and buy in your city.”  Launched in 2008, it actually grew out of a website called The Point, a website that lets you start a campaign asking people to give money or do something as a group once a "tipping point" of people agree to participate.  

Groupon further claims that they “came up with the patent-pending idea for Groupon as an antidote to a common ailment for us city-dwellers: there's so much cool stuff to do, but the choice can be overwhelming. With so many options, sometimes the easiest thing is to go to a familiar restaurant, or just stay at home and watch a movie. As a result, we miss out on trying all the cool things our cities have to offer. By focusing on one good or service each day, Groupon makes it simple. And by leveraging The Point's framework for collective buying, Groupon is able to offer deals that make it very difficult to say no.” (Does that last part sound a little creepy or is it just me?)

It’s a nice idea to encourage people to be tourists in their own cities (I’ve had that same philosophy for years), but is it really an antidote for a Prufrockian lack of confidence in your ability to choose a restaurant, or is it just a way to ban together and be cheapskates?  (For me, it’s the “cheapskate” one.)

I got a pretty sweet deal : I paid $10 for $20 worth of food and, because it was only lunch, and because my husband and I are cheap, we only ended up paying an extra $2 out-of-pocket to complete the transaction.  The wait staff was perfectly friendly about using a Groupon and there didn’t seem to be any problems, but for some reason I felt a little slimy doing it.  I wondered if it turned out to be an OK deal for them, and felt compelled to tip rather generously on the full amount of our meals to assuage my Irish guilt that they might be getting screwed.  I mean, if a deal (in this case, $12 + tip for two generous lunches and cappuccinos in a posh Denver neighborhood) seems too good to be true, it probably is.  But I certainly wasn’t getting hurt from my end, so I wondered who was feeling the pinch. 

Sure enough, my instincts were right—Groupon seems to be a pretty bad deal, at least for restaurants.   Some initial research has already been done on the phenomenon 

and it seems that service-based industries fair better. But restaurants are suffering from poor tipping, pressure to give deeper discounts than they want to give (“very difficult to say no”—kind of menacing, isn’t it?),  and some pretty high overhead costs (food, paying servers, rent, utilities…), making it difficult for them to recoup their losses from the Groupons presented.  And if you follow along, it’s the small, local businesses that are dealing with Groupons.  Never once have I seen an Applebee’s, Wal-Mart, or other national chain use them—they don’t need the advertising.  So if Groupon hurts the business owners, it’s the neighborhood businesses, the ones we should be most interested in supporting, that are suffering. 

Participating in Groupon is sold to businesses as a great way to market your restaurant or store, and it certainly made me aware of a new watering hole I didn’t know about.  But, in my case, I am not very likely to go back because I don’t live nearby; I was willing to try it and go a little out of my way because I had this great coupon for the place.  And even if I did live nearby, there’s nothing compelling me to return and pay full price.  While our sandwiches and coffee were good, I can easily make those things at home, and for $12 each for lunch, this bistro doesn’t seem nearly as special as it did at 50% off.  I wonder how many people are in the same boat as me?  Does Groupon foster the expansion of a business’s loyal customer base, or just bring one-timers in because they love a deal?    

The early research done on this phenomenon does offer some suggestions for making Groupon work better for long-term profits, like spreading the coupon out over multiple visits, but that doesn’t sound like as good of a deal to me, and I would be less likely to bite if I had to make a longer-term commitment to using my coupon.  The beauty of Groupon, for the consumer, is that you can try something new with no strings attached, and if it sucks, you really didn’t pay that much for the experience.  But even if it was great, why go back and pay full price when you can just wait for the next Groupon to come around and send you to another new restaurant? 

Like purchasing responsibly made goods, it might be worth a few extra bucks to just say “no” to Groupons and give the businesses you care about what they need to survive.  For a compelling argument against using this company, read this first-hand testimonial from a “Mom-andPop” coffee shop in Portland.  It convinced me.