Three Nights of José Andrés - Night 1: Dinner at Jaleo Las Vegas

Mrs. A and I visited Las Vegas recently.  Before the trip, we did some research on restaurant there and were most impressed by the tapas menu at Jaleo.  So we had dinner there on our first night. 

It took us a while to find Jaleo on Level 3 of The Cosmopolitan Hotel.  I expected an enclosed restaurant with a formal entry, but it turned out to be a large informal place with no wall along its front.  On one side were tall bar tables surrounded by the bar, a huge fire pit, and an open kitchen for cold dishes.  The kitchen for hot food was hidden in the back.  On the other side were four booths adjacent to the open kitchen, and a large number of tables.  We sat at one of the booths; leg room was a bit tight, otherwise very comfortable.  We had an excellent view watching the chefs preparing cured meat dishes and salads.   

Jaleo was casual and lively.  Its décor was playful.  With pop music playing in the background, diners talking inside the restaurant, noises coming from the outside, and sound bouncing from all its hard surfaces, the noise level surprisingly did not bother us at all.  

Jaleo Las Vegas front

Jaleo Las Vegas bar area

Jaleo Las Vegas dining area

Being unfamiliar with Spanish wine, I ordered a bottle of cava – the Spanish sparkling wine.  We took our waitress’ recommendation for a Raventós i Blanc 'de Nit' Rose 2009.  It went well with our food.

We started with the seleccion de jamones - Spanish ham sampling plate - with jamon Serrano, jamon Iberico (aged 1 year), jamon Iberico de Bellota (aged 3 years), all from the producer Fremin, and pan de cristal con tomate fresco, the crispy toasted bread brushed with fresh tomato for eating jamon with.  I was surprised that Jaleo used a slicer instead of slicing the ham the traditional way by hand.  The Serrano ham was the leanest, and not as flavorful as the Iberico ham.  Mrs. A liked the jamon Iberico the best, and I preferred the jamon Iberico de Bellota, which was deeper in color as well as in flavor.  The bread was a little soggy though the garlic tomato sauce was tasty. 

From the left: jamon Serrano, jamon Iberico, jamon Iberico de Bellota, pan de cristal con tomate fresc

While I was busy eating ham and tasting the cava, the huevo frito con caviar (fried egg with caviar) arrived.  It was a beautiful ball of fried egg sitting on onion confit and topped with a heap of caviar.  The food runner immediately cut up the egg into tiny little pieces and mixed vigorously the runny yolk, soft egg whites and everything else together.  That was a good way to enjoy the dish, though I would rather do the cutting and mixing myself.  Runny egg yolk with a glob of caviar was velvety salty heaven.

Arrived next was calamares en su tinta con alcachofas y cebollitas - seared fresh squids with squid ink sauce, artichokes and pearl onions.  The small squids looked like Japanese hotaru ika and they were tasty.  The salty squid ink enhanced their flavor.  We were told later by the chef that all the guts were left inside the bodies of the squids, which is also the way Japanese eat hotaru ika.  Delicious!!

Seared fresh squids with squid ink sauce, artichokes and pearl onions

The canelones traditionales de cerdo y higado de pato con salsa béchamel (pork and foie gras canelones with béchamel sauce) was not what I expected.  I thought it would be like the Italian pasta tubes.  The version at Jaleo was moist shredded pork in a gratin dish under a sheet of small pasta squares, covered with béchamel sauce, sprinkled with cheese and browned in the oven, in the tradition of Catalan.  The smoothness and juiciness of the pork indicated the presence of some foie gras.  It was a very nice dish. 

Pork and foie gras canelones with béchamel sauce

 My dessert was ‘Gin y Tonic’, a gin and tonic sorbet with fizzy tonic ‘espuma’, lemon and aromatics.  I gather that Chef José Andrés likes gin and tonic as it shows up here and there on his menus at Jaleo and his other restaurants.  I liked gin and tonic myself too.  Mrs. A was not impressed with the ‘classic Spanish coffee’.

Gin and tonic sorbet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner, Chef Carlos Cruz Santos came out from the kitchen to greet us.  He was very friendly and spent time explaining some of the dishes to us.  He said we missed Chef José Andrés by a week; he was there making paella and having great fun with the kitchen.  We told him that we enjoyed our dinner very much.   As there were many items on the menu we wanted to try, we would be returning the following evening.  We also mentioned that our third dinner at Vegas would be at é by José Andrés, a micro-restaurant hidden inside Jaleo.  Thus three nights of José Andrés.

Chef Carlos Cruz Santos

                                                                                               

King Crab Feast

You especially appreciate having friends when you want to have a king crab feast.  According to experienced feasters, the minimum poundage for a meaty king crab is 12 pounds, and restaurants could charge as much as $40 per pound in season (Toronto price, it's much cheaper in Vancouver).  The larger crabs cost more but they are also more meaty and you are paying for a lower shell to meat ratio.  Apart from helping you eat the crab, more importantly, friends also help you pay for it!  

King crab season is very short.  Alaskan king crab fishing lasts only a few weeks some time between October and January (depending on the year) and by the end of March, most of the crab would be gone and of course the "seasonal" price would be skyhigh.  Fishing in the Bering Sea in the middle of winter is no joke, making king crab fishing a dangerous occupation with one of the highest fatality rate in the world - something you wouldn't think of when you see the king crab sitting primly in the tank.   The latest trends are that the highest quality and biggest crabs are now sent to China to feed the nouveau riche, and that the Russians overfish - so stick with American crabs (with strict quotas); not that we would know the difference but one way to avoid eating Russian crabs is to not eat outside of the Alaskan season.

When we arrived at the restaurant tonight, the owner greeted us with the good news that there are still lots of crab and that we are "in luck".  We are definitely luckier than the mister below -

The restaurant made 5 dishes with him. 

Dish #1 - lower legs steamed with green onions and bean threads.  The bean threads soaked up all the juice - yumyum!

Dish #2 - upper legs steamed in garlic and pepper

Dish # 3 - Very meaty and tender "knuckles" fried in light batter

Dish #4 - Fried rice with crab roe

Dish #5 - Smoothest steamed eggs ever (with crab meat)

The luckiest fella of all - he is laughing all the way to the bank - owner Ringo Hui at O Mei restaurant brought in 180 crabs this season.  He charged $448 for a 12 lb. crab (this one is definitely more than 12 lbs).  You can do the math...

Can bread pudding be "elegant"?

My answer is "yes".  We had bread pudding at Sorrel in Yorkville last night.  It was "Jazz Night" with Errol Fisher crooning tuneful jazz standards in the background.  After a delicious dinner of calamari, parsnip soup, veal scaloppini and lamb sirloin, we thought we'd have dessert to stretch out the evening.  I was also curious how a restaurant like Sorrel would serve bread pudding; afterall, all the dishes were elegantly served and bread pudding was not typically an "elegant" dessert.

Bread pudding used to be known as "poor man's pudding" because of its basic stale bread ingredient and was usually a clunky and heavy-looking dessert.   I've learned that it's now turned into a rich, creamy and decadent dessert served in the finest restaurants made with all kinds of specialty breads like brioche, croissant, challah, panettone, etc.  Far from looking like the traditional chunky and plump dessert, the bread pudding at Sorrel were two "slim" triangles.  Now some, including me, would argue that biting into slim bread pudding could not possibly duplicate the rich, homey taste and sensation resulting from chomping into a thick piece of bread pudding and letting the custard spill onto your palette.  But to my surprise, the slim triangles were every bit as rich and satisfying.  I'll let you use your imagination looking at the photo and would love to hear about your experience with bread pudding...

Can bread pudding be "elegant"?

The answer is "yes".  We had bread pudding at Sorrel in Yorkville last night.  It was "Jazz Night" with Errol Fisher crooning tuneful jazz standards in the background.  After a delicious dinner of calamari, parsnip soup, veal scaloppini and lamb sirloin, we thought we'd have dessert to stretch out the evening.  I was also curious how a restaurant like Sorrel would serve bread pudding; afterall, all the dishes were elegantly served and bread pudding was not typically an "elegant" dessert.

Bread pudding used to be known as "poor man's pudding" because of its basic stale bread ingredient and was usually a clunky and heavy-looking dessert.   I've learned that it's now turned into a rich, creamy and decadent dessert served in the finest restaurants made with all kinds of specialty breads like brioche, croissant, challah, panettone, etc.  Far from looking like the traditional chunky and plump dessert, the bread pudding at Sorrel were two "slim" triangles.  Now some, including me, would argue that biting into slim bread pudding could not possibly duplicate the rich, homey taste and sensation resulting from chomping into a thick piece of bread pudding and letting the custard spill onto your palette.  But to my surprise, the slim triangles were every bit as rich and satisfying.  I'll let you use your imagination looking at the photo and would love to hear about your experience with bread pudding...

Chinese New Year Eve Family Dinner in Shanghai

Our good friend Arufa was in Shanghai for Chinese New Year.  He sent me pictures of his New Year Eve dinner.  It was a feast of traditional Shanghai home cooking.  All together there were twelve dishes of fish, meat, vegetables and dumplings prepared with various cooking techniques.  They were served family style, which meant all dishes, both cold and hot, were placed on the dinner table at the same time, to be eaten in no particular order, though it was usual to eat the hot dishes, especially seafood, before they got cold.

清蒸大閘蟹 Steamed hairy crabs – Hairy crabs, an expensive delicacy and a favorite of Chinese and Japanese, come from Yangcheng Lake adjacent to Suzhou, about 100 kilometers east of Shanghai.  Japanese calls them “Shanghai crabs”.

海蜇 Jellyfish – A cold dish of crunchy jellyfish with a dipping sauce of dark soy sauce and crushed garlic.

紅燒圏子 “Hong shao” rings of pig intestines – “Hong shao”, sometimes also called “red-cooked”, is braising with soy sauce and sugar.  The finished dish takes on a red-brown color.  The pig intestines are called “rings” because of the shape of the cut pieces.

老筍 Braised “old” bamboo shoot – “Old” here refers to the lower part of bamboo shoot, as opposed to the young tender tip.  

燒蝦仁冬筍 Stir-fried river shrimps and diced bamboo shoot.

紅燒鴨子 “Hong shao” whole duck.

炸鷄翅 Deep-fried chicken wing.

Three dishes clockwise from top:   

- 紅燒帶魚 “Hong shao” beltfish – Beltfish (帶魚, 牙帯), long and narrow, is cut into pieces and braised.  The fish is known to Japanese as tachiuo (太刀魚). 
- 芹菜拌腐竹 Chinese celery and dried soy sheet (yuba) – Chinese celery has very narrow stalks.  It is more intense in aroma and flavor than the western variety.  The dried yuba was rehydrated and stir-fried with celery, and cooled down to be a cold dish.  It was seasoned with light soy sauce and sesame oil.
- 芹菜炒木魚 Stir-fried Chinese celery and squid.  

油爆蝦 “You bao” river shrimps, and餃子 homemade dumplings in the back – The key is to use fresh local river shrimps which are superb in taste and texture.  The cooking technique was “Yao bao 油爆“, rapid stir-frying in a large amount of oil at very high temperature, in this case with ginger and green scallion.  The dish was served hot at this family dinner, though it could be served either hot or cold.  The dumplings were filled with pork and chopped celery.  They were cooked two ways: boiled in water and pan fried (a.k.a. pot stickers). 

Arufa and his family gathered around the table for the feast, chatting and eating, enjoying the reunion at the festive time.  After dinner, married members gave the children “red packets” which they put under their pillows for good luck.  It was a wonderful way to bid goodbye to the old year and usher in the new one.

*   *   *

Shanghaiese like their river shrimps.  Besides the afore-mentioned “you bao”, two popular preparations are “plain stir-fried (清炒蝦仁)”, and “stir-fried with tips of longjing tea (龍井蝦仁)”.

龍井蝦仁 River shrimp with longjing tea leaves at Jin Xuan (金軒), The Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong (courtesy of Arufa).

清炒蝦仁 “plain stir-fried” river shrimp at Yi Long Court (逸龍閣), The Peninsula Shanghai (courtesy of Arufa).

As restaurant food goes, both dishes are plain looking, but don’t be fooled by the appearance.  They are incredibly delicious.  River shrimps are small, about the same size as rock shrimps from the Gulf of Mexico when shelled, each piece just big enough for one bite or two.  The small size makes them perfect for stir-frying, resulting in a crispy firm texture.  A plain stir fry is the perfect way to bring out the umami or the “savory sweet” flavor of the shrimps.  Stir-fry with longjing tea leaves adds a delicate fragrance without distracting the natural flavor of the shrimps.  These dishes are best in the area around Shanghai and environ.  It is impossible to find river shrimps of the same quality outside that area.