20th March 2012 – I woke up a little earlier than Kurt and Summer, so I polished off some of my leftovers from the Mediterranean place yesterday; they tasted just as good the second time around!!!
Viva Las Vegas!
We got ready and drove out along the Strip and to the edge of town to see the infamous Las Vegas sign; a few years ago I went to see it at night, and you had to park illegally at the side of the road and scoot across 3 lanes of drunk-driver traffic to stand on the island in the middle of the road and snap your picture. Since then, they’ve widened the island and added a bunch of parking spaces so that you can turn in and stop legally, and tourists don’t have to risk life and limb to get their ubiquitous Las Vegas photo. Now there’s a Philipino Elvis hanging out there with a pink Cadillac, waiting for tourists to tip him for photos. There were loads of people there but everyone was really well-behaved; they all took polite turns to have their pictures taken. Everyone has to do it, I guess!
From there, we drove even further out of the city and made our winding way to Red Rock Canyon. The houses and strip malls disappeared altogether. We passed a bunch of wild ‘burros’ (donkeys to the layman like me) and a couple of isolated little villages – I wonder what on earth they do for a living out there? Finally we turned a corner round a hill, and there it was – this wide, sweeping vista of bright red rocks, and a couple of ranches dotted in the vast empty space. It was quite refreshing after all the concrete and people in Vegas! We stopped at a little lookout to enjoy the view and the fresh air; there were only a couple of people there, and one of them was a guy with a serious motorbike covered in scratches, stickers and saddlebags. I like seeing motorbikes like that; it tells me that they’re actually being used as motorbikes and not just as compensation for one’s lack of youth/self-esteem/organ length! We could hear the owner talking to the man who was with him, and it turns out that he’s the features editor for some sort of motorcycle magazine; that would definitely explain the kit, and the location!
We continued our drive around the loop road, and just around the corner I could see Las Vegas creeping into Red Rock Canyon. Seeing Vegas from the air at night gives you some perspective on how the town is organised; there’s the Strip, then some lights, and then BAM! Nothingness. The lights end and the desert begins. That’s exactly what I could see as we left the canyon; there was nothing, and then there was a line of houses. It’s not like the buildings get thinner on the ground as you go further out; they just stop, kapow.
We drove along a freeway for what seemed like an eternity, and then finally made it to my cousin Kevin’s place; he lives on the west side of town, seemingly miles from anywhere. Every time I see him it’s brief, but it’s good. We had a little tour of his house (the last time I came to Vegas, he was living in an apartment somewhere else), and then headed out for dinner. His wife was, sadly, working and then at a roller derby bout; apparently she’s a kickass roller derby chick! Maybe next time I visit I’ll try to make it to see her play.
We went to a nearby Mexican restaurant called ‘Lindo Michoacan’ for dinner; our waiter, Joao (or “Joe” as the receipt has it), was one of the best waiters I’ve ever had – and that includes waiters I’ve had at expensive hotels (on the few occasions I’ve been to them)! He was right on top of everything, anticipated our needs (offering takeaway containers, bringing us extra drinks and corn chips when we ran out, etc), and even convinced us to take our salsa home to have the next morning with our eggs or fast-food breakfast! The food at the restaurant was goooooood. When we arrived, they plonked down some complimentary crunchy corn chips, salsa and refried beans – some of the nicest I’ve ever had, and it didn’t seem like they came out of a tin or anything, which was good! I pretty much stuffed myself on those and probably should’ve stopped there, but the menu was GIGANTIC and I spotted the ultimate combination of some of my favourite foods: “Camarones Abuelito Timo”, which is prawns wrapped in bacon and covered in cheese. Holy moly. It was served with rice and beans and I drooled just thinking about it. To share, we ordered some guacamole, and it was made fresh next to our table. They mixed avocado, lime juice, coriander, tomatoes, onions and jalapenos together, mashed them up, and then we immediately attacked it with our corn chips (which had thoughtfully just been topped up again!). As delicious as my main course was, I simply couldn’t finish it; thankfully, Joao had already brought our takeaway containers so I didn’t feel at all guilty!
We went back to Kevin’s place for a little while; he has eight cats (EIGHT!) but I only met one of them; the rest were hiding upstairs. Kevin ALSO has a mighty cool addition to his living room – 3 full-size vintage arcade games, complete with booth and joystick. I had a good go at Street Fighter II, but I kept getting my ass kicked by Chun Li and Cammy. Oh, the shame of it! 🙂
After hanging out for a while, we left Kevin’s place and aimed for the Strip – I had heard that the Banana Bread Pudding at BB King’s Blues Bar at The Mirage was legendary and wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately, we turned up at the The Mirage only to find that they’d closed the restaurant half an hour before they were supposed to, so I never got to try it. Booo!!! I guess it’ll have to wait til next time! After considering our dessert options out on the Strip, we ended up hot-footing it back to the Casear’s Palace Forum Shops, where we sat down at the Cheesecake Factory. God, I love those places. There was a list of about 30 different cheesecakes to choose from; I was terribly overwhelmed and torn between a small handful of real gems! In the end, I decided just to give myself a heart attack and went for the Hershey’s Chocolate Cheesecake. It’s a slice of rich, moist chocolate cake, topped by chocolate cheesecake, topped by more chocolate cake, topped by chocolate ganache, with a coating of big fat chocolate chips on the outside edge. It sounds terribly rich, but in fact it was just perfect. The cheesecake part wasn’t too firm and was quite creamy, and the cake part was brilliant. I guess with a name like ‘The Cheesecake Factory’, they have to know what they’re doing! Kurt and Summer shared a Red Velvet cheesecake and some sort of peanut butter smoothie. Their cheesecake was also incredible – layers of red velvet cake between vanilla cheesecake, topped with frosting. Deeeeeeeeee-licious!
We waddled out to the car and took a boglap along the bottom part of the Strip, which I hadn’t really seen much of on this trip; I particularly wanted to go past the New York New York casino. I’ve been there before, but seeing as I’m visiting the real New York later in my trip, I wanted to pay homage to its replica!
We eventually made it home, full and bloated, but happy, and didn’t make it to bed until about 5am. Blimey!
Thanks for stopping by,
Tara.
Born in Hong Kong and raised all over the world, I've been tootling around for 33 years now. A Spanish friend of mine once said that "the smallest pot has the finest marmalade"... I have to agree with her! I'm small but I can still make 6-foot Brazilian bodybuilders cry if the need arises. And I never need to whinge about legroom on a plane!
little tara 
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