November 2009 Archives

After a fiasco at the White House last week involving a few people wanting to get their own Real Housewives show and somehow managing to infiltrate a White House party, it started to look like anyone could get their own reality TV show. But the same night, two of the Real Housewives of Orange County showed how to properly party and went to Las Vegas.

Gretchen Rossi and newcomer Alexis Bellino, who just replaced Jeana on the show, showed up at Lavo in the Palazzo on November 29th with their significant others. Alexis's husband Jim was partying with them (which makes sense because he never lets her leave her side) and Slade Smiley is still with Gretchen which is absolutely devastating for me personally because I was not-so-secretly hoping it wasn't going to work out.

Are you cooking skills not up to par? Did you not get invited back to dinner after last year's fiasco? Don't worry - there are plenty of options for excellent dinners in Las Vegas!

Las Vegas Weekly has put together an excellent listing of all the restaurants that not only will be open this Thursday, but what each of them has for offerings (hint: most involve turkey).

Some things are best left to professionals. The prices range from $40 to $100 per person from the classic turkey at Simon to the absurdly extravagant Aureole for bison tenderloin served with a caramelized acorn squash.

Suddenly the quesadilla I had for lunch doesn't seem nearly as impressive.

The entire point of posting this is just to have an excuse to show some pictures. But there's a battle going on about the Strippermobile! Owned by Fred Robertson of Always Rolling Ads had to park the mobile after some advertisers didn't want to fight the county on the legality of it.

The county says it's illegal because the strippers are unsecured in the back of the truck, combined with the high level of distraction that comes from girls dancing in the back of a truck on the Strip, safety is their concern.

But people seem split on the issue, some think it's indecent (the girls are covered the whole time) but safety seems to be the biggest concern. Others think it's a violation of the advertisers' 1st amendment rights.

I can see both sides of the argument, but there seems to be more going on than what we see. Saying that the dancers aren't secured isn't enough for me - school buses don't restrain the kids either. But being worried that it could result in accidents? That seems much more likely.

The end of this season of Top Chef is looming closer and closer and this episode showed it. As the caliber of chefs increases, it's almost humorous to look back at what past season chefs had to do and then see what these chefs are doing. But with Robin finally gone, it's time let to let the other chef'testants really cook.

In the opening scenes, Eli mentioned how good of friends he is with Richard Blais from two seasons ago, and Richard goes on about their friendship in a blog post this week. Meanwhile, Jenn admits that she's been off her mark lately and wants to regain focus. It reminds me a lot of Carla last season who came out of nowhere with her cooking in the last few episodes and made it to the finals.

But then it was time for the quickfire with special guest judge Gavin Kaysen, America's entry in the 2007 Bocuse d'Or competition. For those that don't know, the Bocuse d'Or is often compared to as the "food Olympics" and is a competition about French cuisine. It was created by Paul Bocuse to showcase chefs from around the world. Tom Coliccio wrote up a fascinating summary of the event since he's on the American advisory board for the event.

The Quickfire Challenge was to combine three proteins in a style similar to a ballottine (think of a turducken) in 90 minutes. Each chef grabbed their proteins and went to work in an oddly quiet kitchen.

It shouldn't come as a surprised to anyone who reads this that I love food. Between my obsession with Top Chef and my own cooking adventures, I really, really love food. But there's one part of food I can no longer take part in the same way: the buffet.

Back in high school, my friends are I used to regularly partake in the buffet. A plethora of food that was enough to satisfy the hunger of several teenage boys. But then I got my wisdom teeth out and the allure of endless food just didn't seem the same. But Las Vegas keeps bringing the food and it can be overwhelming to any newcomer.

Luckily, a guide has been written on the proper way to tackle these endless beasts. Do not attempt the following alone.

The Holidays are quickly approaching which usually means forced interaction with family members you'd rather avoid. One common manifestation of this is often Monopoly. It lets you be mean to those cousins without getting in trouble. So just laugh when they go directly to jail. But it's becoming more and more popular to have special versions of Monopoly and a new updated version of Las Vegas Monopoly recently came out. But this new edition falls short, and not just because you can't have Boba Fett as a token.

Like all special versions of Monopoly, all of the tokens, properties, chance and community chest cards have been redone with some local flavor. The newest edition of Las Vegas Monopoly is no different. But there are some issues with how the set has been redone.

First off, the playing pieces in this set do a decent job to match the iconic side of Las Vegas. Gone are the race cars and top hats, and they've been replaced with gambling and entertainment themed pieces, a stack of chips, a wad of cash, a blackjack, roulette wheel, a chapel and the essential showgirl. What seems the weirdest is that the set only comes with those six playing pieces, while regular Monopoly now comes with 9.

Las Vegas has two great uses: gambling and studying atmospheric conditions similar to Mars. Air & Space Magazine has an interesting piece about how the desert around Las Vegas is similar to that of Mars and helps researchers study some odd natural phenomenons, specifically dust devils.

The scientists don't think devils cause the global dust storms that occur frequently on Mars, but they may contribute to the day-to-day dustiness of the atmosphere; that's something the team hopes to determine. Planetary researchers are good at finding cheap ways to simulate Mars on Earth.

Mars, Nevada, it's all the same when it comes to science!

Image credit: NASA!

It's kind of like Post Secret with a dash of TweetSecret except it's not anonymous, but it's MGM Grand's latest promotion. Get Rewarded for Your Sins is simple:

MGM Grand takes the guilt out of sinning. Tweet a sin along with #mgmsin, and you're entered to win a free room night at MGM Grand. We'll choose one winner at random each day for 30 days. Winners will be announced here and on our Twitter page, @mgmgrand, so be sure to follow us!

The promotion has been going on a for a little while but it will be going until the end of November. The winning sins are pretty tame ranging from "I drool in my sleep!" (who doesn't?) to "Napping in the afternoon" (again, sounds like me). But the best part of the site are the Top Rated Sins, broken into two categories: forgivable and unforgivable.

Best forgivable sin? "I stole a hotel guest shuttle to drive down the strip. I even picked up a few people. Viva Las Vegas!"

Best (or maybe worst) unforgivable sin? "I peed on my best friend's head while he was trying to hit on a girl in the hot tub."

Ten episodes in and this is the first episode that really feels like the chef'testants are really in Las Vegas. Down to the final six makes it great to because all the chefs get camera time and all the dishes are shown.

Early in the morning, the chefs get in the cars and head to the Venetian. After being led to one of the many kitchens they receive a phone call from Padma requesting breakfast in bed. This is the quickfire: 30 minutes to make a breakfast to serve Padma and guest judge Nigella Lawson. I'd hate to know how long those two were in makeup before their bedhead was just right.

But after Eli broken the fourth wall by admitting that they were staggered, which makes perfect sense, the chefs were broken into pairs of two to cook and deliver. One of the things to remember about the Venetian is that it is huge. It has over 4,000 rooms. Just to get from the kitchen to Padma's room required two elevators and a lot of walking.

First up are Robin and Eli. Robin is a mess and can't figure out what she wants to make and goes off on another one of her rants about wanting to do too much. She ended up throwing together Blintz with Goat Cheese, Caramelized Pineapple and Blueberries - which doesn't sound all that bad. Eli on the other hand created what Nigella called a "great hangover breakfast" consisting of Fried Egg Reuben Benedict with Thousand Island Hollandaise Sauce, which is absolute genius. Eli's clearly showing he's got some good ideas in his head.

Next pair is Kevin and Michael. Michael loses it on Robin who left her station a mess (wasn't Robin the one yelling at Eli for making a mess a few weeks ago?), and ends up spending a good chunk of time just cleaning up. Michael made Huevos Cubana with Banana Puree, Rice, Bacon, Arugula Salad, showing once again he'll puree anything. While Kevin clearly wanted to get back to his roots after the vegetarian challenge by making Steak and Eggs with Creme Fraiche, Aged Cheddar, and Green Onion.

Last night, ESPN aired the final table from the World Series of Poker and we held off on posting it until everyone got a chance to see.

The tournament began back in July and had a rocky start, when organizers had issues with the registration process but with all that finally behind them, the final table sat down to play this weekend. The winner was Joe Cada from Shelby Township, Michigan, who used a pair of nines to win the tournament. It eliminated Darvin Moon the lumberjeck from Maryland.

Great write up is in the USA Today about Cada's journey to becoming the youngest World Series of Poker champion and how his parents weren't the most supportive of him in the beginning.

Time has also interviewed Joe Cada about playing poker professionally. It says he started playing six years ago, which was when he was only 15!

We gave you a link last week to some stunning photos from the Fetish & Fantasy ball but Clubzone has got a lot more than just the Fetish & Fantasy ball. They've got all the parties from Halloweekend including TAOllween, the Pornstar Ball and Kingpin Halloween. Each gallery's got plenty of photos to keep your busy while you're at work, so check out the the Las Vegas Nightclub Photogalleries over at ClubZone!

Image credit joepic

With the recent announcement of Garth Brooks' exclusive deal with the Wynn, some questions have risen up. Like what will happen with the stage when Garth isn't there? Well, it looks like Robin Leach has the answer like he always does. From Vegas Deluxe:

Hotel tycoon Steve Wynn has been discussing Beyonce's return to his Encore Theater at the Wynn to alternate with country singer Garth Brooks' appearances there over the next five years! Steve and Beyonce's father, Matthew Knowles, who serves as her manager, have talked about a regular series of short-run appearances modeled after Garth's contract.

Sounds plausible, especially since the deal Garth got looks pretty amazing for any performer. Besides, I doubt Wynn would buy a jet to fly twice a week. But some people are already upset about Garth Brooks upcoming concert series.

The National Association of Ticket Brokers (yes, that's real) is canceling their summer's conference in protest over the anti-scalping plans in use by Wynn. I'm in awe that the National Association of Ticket Brokers is even real.

Were you at the ball? Know someone who went? Just feel like looking at some awesome photos? Check out the photo gallery over here. It's got everything from Boba Fett, stunning girls and clowns that will haunt your dreams forever!

And there one with a person having a buzz saw on their crotch and sparks coming off it. That's also terrifying.