Category: Foodventures

Hundred degree weather, long walks, two a day workouts, and one meal a day. I was in Vegas for NBA Summer League and once I left that gym it was time to enjoy as much food variety as I could possibly cram into one meal. Buffets are nice, but I am enjoying this food hall craze that seems to infiltrate more and more of the urban food scene. Whether all coherent in theme or spanning as many ethnic cuisines you could think of, I can’t think of a better environment for a foodventure. “Why not both?” can’t ring any truer for this type of setting and Block 16 at the Cosmopolitan was no exception.

The location was a modern food hall with each establishment boasting a couple seats nearby and food varying from handrolls to sandwiches. My plan was to open up with lighter foods like handrolls, and then work my way to the heavier dishes.

I ordered a toro handroll and their daily special Alaskan crab. The toro was standard fare as a classic handroll, but the daily special was a little more unique. Rich tones of Japanese mayo met by clean notes of crab with hints of jalapeno. It was a solid fusion flavored roll only tempered by the fact it was thirteen dollars. A price I feel like you could find similar satisfaction at a cheaper price.

From there I had planned to visit Pok Pok Wings. It seemed to be a nice transition going from delicate, rich Japanese flavors to bolder, well rounded Southeast Asian ones. But there was a line of customers pouring in behind my time at Tekka Bar beckoning me to get a fried chicken sandwich. So Hattie B’s it was. Well at least the order was. I waited in line and, upon placing my order, retreated to Pok Pok Wings to maximize my use of time. I wasn’t on a time crunch, but I love the feeling of eating more at once. The two orders completed at nearly the same time, but my heart was set on having that sandwich first.

Overall a solid chicken sandwich. Not standout, but large and well fried with juicy chicken and a rich bun. Each component was solid. My biggest gripe would be how synonymous the flavors are. Mostly salty with some spice (I got mild) and coleslaw that was not enough to break up the pickles amplifying the salt from the chicken’s crispy batter. But most people just want a hearty chicken sandwich and this definitely delivers. This sandwich was more filling than I anticipated so I began wondering if my foodventure would get cut short as I looked wearily at the pad thai noodles waiting next to me.

This unassuming noodle dish was much better than expected. Here in the U.S., I often find Thai food abandoning the core concept of having all flavors present, but this did not make that mistake. Umami from the shrimp, fish sauce, and oils on the noodles, salt from the fish sauce, sweetness from the brown sugar, citrus from the lime, spice from the red pepper, creaminess from the crushed peanuts and eggs, with hints of green from the green onion. All well balanced flavors accented with a variety of textures as you get springiness from the noodles, crunch from the bean sprouts and peanuts, softness from the egg, and everything else in the green onion and shrimp. I can go on and on, but the point is that there are a lot of things present in a package that would lead one to think otherwise. Not perfect by any means, yet reaching beyond the pitfalls of components being too similar that I find so present in many American Thai establishments.

By this point my mind was starting to rush towards desserts. I had been eyeing some donuts on my way in, but my quest was to try as much of this food hall as possible and I didn’t feel like I earned the right to move on just yet. Although Lardo’s sandwiches had my attention, I needed something small and light to give myself the sense of accomplishment that I needed. And then in the corner I noticed China Poblano.

This was the perfect end to my savory courses as they had single orders of tacos. I settled on a taco with Yucatan-style barbecue pork seasoned by sour orange and topped with some pickled onions. Reminiscent of a carnitas taco, but much bolder given the sweet and sour nature of the dish. A relatively light and satisfying end to bring me to dessert.

Cue the Bee Cosmopolitan from The Juice Standard. One of the most refreshingly light juices I have ever had as it felt like having good water, a palete cleansing tartness, and a subtle sweetness all in one. The standout of the night despite its thirteen dollar price tag. Then again, maybe it was just the dehydration talking. The night should have ended there if not for my indomitable desire to end meals with some form of ice cream.

In theory, this was everything I wanted from my cold, meal ending treat. In practice, this was probably the worst decision of the night. Overly sweet and too literal in its interpretation for my tastes. The texture of the ice cream was decently airy, but the clawing sweetness paired with thick creaminess didn’t do much other than make me forget about the refreshing drink I had just had. I will say that it did grow on me a little as I ate it (or was it just my love milk/ice cream). Maybe it was the contrast of going from tart and refreshing to something so rich, but either way a reminder that ice cream isn’t always the answer.

Needless to say this meal filled me up. I had zero alcohol, but I felt a good food buzz going on as I stumbled my way through the busy strip to my room. Only a sweltering desert night and two miles till I earned my keep with my second workout of the day. The preparation only seemed right for the next day at Park MGM’s Eataly.

I started intermittent fasting about a year ago and, if you don’t know anything about it, it typically begins with just skipping breakfast and not eating late into the night. If you like numbers, that usually ends up being 16 hours of fasting and a 8 hour eating window (a.k.a. 16/8). Now I don’t know about you, but I never really cared for eating breakfast. I just ate it because it was traditionally viewed as a necessity to a healthy life and metabolism (its old marketing propaganda from big industries during the 20th century like many other “necessities” we hear about growing up). So 16/8 intermittent fasting just sounded like skipping breakfast and that sounds like something I should have already been doing. It was then that I found out that there are levels and, being such a huge fan of games, after a month or two I felt like it was time to go to the next level. That next level was 18/6, which eventually led to 20/4 and an occasional one meal a day. Being an active male meant that I ate around 2500-2700 calories to maintain my weight and being around 165 at 5’11 meant I didn’t really want to lose to much weight. If you do the math (well actually no math at all) that means I had to eat all those calories in 4 hours. Given that I wanted to eat relatively healthy and not eat fast food everyday, meant I had to be able to eat much more volume in a shorter period of time. So that’s what I did. It didn’t cross my mind that it meant my stomach would have to expand and that expansion led to the ability to eat more than I ever could before.

The point of this is that I decided to exercise this newfound ability when venturing out to try as much food as I could. I have a lot of fun and opinions when eating a million things at once so I figured I’d keep track of these “foodventures.”