A truffled toad in a hole from Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill

This was a random stop. None of us had heard of the place and we just needed some fuel for the morning/afternoon before the rest of the day so we ended up in Sugarcane (Restaurant Row @ The Venetian, 3355 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109). It was later that I found out that it was an outpost of a James Beard award winning eatery from Miami. The food looked....international for the lack of a better word. 

Their truffled toad in the hole with Robiola cheese was not a bad eat. There's bits of jarred truffle and truffle honey involved but it still made a tasty brunch aside from the fact that the brioche was slightly burnt on the edges.

China Poblano, The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas

Whoosh....and it's off to the west coast we go.

It was getting late and we were just wandering around and chanced upon China Poblano (2nd floor The Cosmopolitan, 3708 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109, tel : +702 698 7900) by José Andrés which I had read about. I was surprised by my initial reaction of disbelief but after a while, I thought - this is America. I suppose the accurate description for the restaurant food would be American styled Chinese and Mexican done by a Spanish guy. Makes sense?

Long story short, we decided to give it a go. Both the Chinese and Mexican food are prepared in separate kitchens apparently.

I was curious about their salt air margarita and thus ended up with one while waiting. They had replaced the usual salt rim with salt foam instead. A take on the traditional which I thought was not bad. They made a pretty stiff drink.

Next up was guacamole which was prepared table side. Sans cilantro of course. The suitable adjectives would be tasty, light and refreshing.

There were some interesting tacos which we thought was worth a shot at. That above was cow tongue with salsa pasilla.

And there was an oddly named Viva China with crispy fried beef tendon and fresh oysters. This was pretty good.

Then something called Silencio - fried duck tongue and fresh lychee. This was unusual and also quite nice. I'm pretty sure this was where Chinese and Mexican collided.

To put into perspective, these upmarket tacos were as expensive as the ones from El Mero Mero and were as tasty.

We had a pozole rojo. The menu described it as a soup of guajillo chile broth with shredded pork and hominy. It wasn't as spicy as I thought it might have been. The lime made it refreshing and it came with a plate of chicharron on the side.

The lamb pot stickers (锅贴) were the only Chinese item we ordered. These were small and had quite a bit of cumin flavour in them. Not too bad.

The finishing was some churros. They were okay.

The Halal Guys at 53rd and 6th

I've read and heard quite a bit about this food cart. Since we weren't staying too far off their original location (West 53rd Street, NY 10019, tel : +347 527 1505) down at 53rd and 6th, we made out way down one night to see what the food was really about.

I got a chicken and gyro combo platter which came with spiced rice. While it was nothing that would really floor anyone, I could see why it was a popular choice. This was frills free comfort food with the prerequisite proteins and starches that made excellent eating in the cold weather here. The smell was enticing and what made these exciting were the white and hot sauces. Especially that hot sauce which meant business. My lips were burning and I actually perspired after going through three packets of that stuff.

Shake Shack at Woodbury

We were at Woodbury Common for...reasons. There's a Shake Shack (199 Niagara Lane, Central Valley, NY 10917, tel : +845 827 3140) here so this was quite the no brainer since the other options didn't look so appealing and one has to do Shake Shack at least once in NYC right? Right?

I like this on the whole a bit more than Five Guys but it's a little more than that. These beef patties were more flavourful with those crust on the edges (also maybe because it's a blend from Pat LaFrieda?). Their cheese was also saltier tastier than the ones that Five Guys uses and the peanut butter shake was more flavourful. I'm guess that's probably because the shakes here are made for their flavour rather than being flavoured vanilla shakes. BUT - definitely prefer the fries over at Five Guys.

The cereal milk soft serve from Milk Bar East Village

D recommended that we give the cereal soft serve from Milk Bar a shot since we were around the area (251 E 13th St, NY 10003, tel : +646 692 4154). It was actually pretty good. The flavour was akin to milk that you had eaten cereals with or even Magnolia's oat milk. Just lighter. 

A bacon shake from Five Guys

For some reasons, I overlooked this when we were at Five Guys so since it was in the vicinity it was convenient for us go stop by for whatever. So yeah, there was real bacon in this stuff. I could taste a bit of the bacon in the shake and there were also crunchy bacon bits as well. Not bad.