Three Nights of José Andrés - Night 2: Jaleo Las Vegas, again

Mrs. A and I returned to Jaleo the following evening for dinner.  We sat at the same booth, looked at the same menu and wine list, and felt just as excited as before.  We employed the same strategy of ordering two items at a time to avoid having too many dishes arriving at our table simultaneously.

We started with Jamon Iberico Fermin with pan con tomate and Aceitunas rellenas y aceitunas ‘Ferran Adria’.   We never got tired of Iberico ham.  The pitted green olives were stuffed with anchovy and red sweet piquillo pepper.  The five dark balls were ‘Ferran Adria’ liquid olives.  I picked one up with a spoon and put it in my mouth.  It burst on my tongue, and there was nothing but a small amount of liquid with an intense favor of a salted olive.  Both tapas went well with the cava - Huguet Gran Reserva 2007 – that we were drinking.                       

Jamon Iberico

Olives stuffed with anchovy and piquillo, and ‘Ferran Adria’ liquid olives

What came next were Esparragos blancos con limon y tomillo and Ostra ‘Gin & Tonic’.  Californian white asparagus were presented in a ‘tin can’.  The tips leaned out at one end of the can and the bottom of the stalks were cut and arranged vertically at the other end.  They were dressed with lemon, thyme, and topped with shaved idiazabal, a smoked nutty flavored sheep’s milk cheese from Basque, and lemon zest.  White asparagus could be tough, but these were tender and refreshing.         

White asparagus with lemon, thyme and Idiazabal chees

I gathered that Chef Jose Andres loves gin and tonic as it pops up here and there on the menu of his restaurants.  The shellfish in Ostra ‘Gin & Tonic’ looked like Kumamoto to me.  Each oyster had a few drops of gin and another few drops of tonic water on it, and topped with slivers of lemon zest.  The taste was very different from oysters in their natural jus or with mignonette sauce.

Oysters with lemon and Gin & Tonic

I ordered Huevo frito con caviar again.  This time I stopped the food runner from cutting up the egg for me.  It was so much more fun to break the egg myself, watched the yolk slowly oozed out, and mixed the ingredients gently so I could spoon a glob of caviar together with a lot of yolk, large pieces of egg white and some of the onion confit into my mouth.  Eating the egg that way was more satisfying to me than eating it thoroughly mixed the night before.  I loved this dish.

Huevo frito con caviar

The shrimp dish, Gambas al Ajillo, was very good too.  Half a dozen of shrimps, peeled except at the tail, were served in a small copper pan with a rich tomato sauce seasoned with garlic and red pepper.  The delicious sauce reminded us of something similar in ‘Chinese style western cooking’ of earlier period.  Our waiter suggested an order of bread, pan con nada, to mop up the sauce.        

Shrimps sautéed with garlic

Mrs. A’s Sopa de ajo was sent to the wrong table, and a new one was made for her.  The soup bowl arrived with two pieces of thin toast curl standing over a slow cooked egg (the 63 degree egg) in it, and black and regular garlic puree painted on its side.  The food runner poured the soup into the bowl tableside.  Unfortunately she poured the liquid directly onto the toast, which immediately collapsed and ruined the presentation.  That course was the only hiccup for the evening.  Unknown to us, the restaurant took it off our bill.  That was a graceful gesture.  

Garlic soup with black garlic and 63°C egg

Our last savory dish for the night was Pulpo a Feira Maestro Alfonso - boiled octopus with pee wee potatoes, pimento and olive oil.  The incredibly tender octopus required almost no chewing; so were the potatoes.

Boiled octopus with pee wee potatoes, pimento and olive oil

There were more items on the menu that we liked to try, but we had to save room for dessert.  However, we did not get to order.  Our waiter said Chef Carlos was making for us the classic Spanish flan “al Estilo tradicional de Mama Marisa” with espuma of Crema Catalana and candied orange peels, orange sections and sorbet.  The flan was rich in flavor, very creamy but a little grainy in texture, which I liked.  It was simply the best flan we have ever had.

Classic Spanish flan with ‘espuma’ of Catalan cream and oranges

During dinner I noticed that the roast pit was put into action.  A chef was roasting a suckling pig over fire.  The pig was special ordered by a large party that evening.  The manager told us that Jaleo serves cochinillo asado – roasted suckling pig - every Sunday night.  That alone is a reason for us to return in the future.  

Suckling pig (front) and Paella over fire (left in the back)

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...