Cheer Up With Food

I had the pleasure of previewing an upcoming comedy-drama film, The Hundred-Foot Journey , which will be released on August 8, 2014.  This movie is about the Haji family who moves to a little town in France from India to start a new chapter in their lives by opening up a restaurant right across a Michelin -starred French restaurant owned by Madame Mallory ( Helen Mirren ).  Even before the family opens up their restaurant, their rival, Madame Mallory, stirs up the competition. The way food was brought up throughout the film was sentimental. Some of the characters in this film cook food with such passion due to the influences and memories of loved ones who were a big part of their lives.  It made me think about the fond memories I've shared with people over delicious meals. Hopefully if you watch this film it will conjure up similar feelings.  Other than feeling sentimental, you will learn a bit about Indian and French cuisine! The official trailer:

Since last September,  Nosh Las Vegas  has been hosting food tours at the Caesars Palace .  I did not know what to expect just knowing we were going to sample foods from a few restaurants at this casino.  Our guide Joel was very informative and funny.  Other than talking about the restaurants we went to, Joel gave a history lesson about Las Vegas and how it tied in with food.  Also, at these five restaurants, there was an employee or two from each one who gave us a rundown on how their establishment operates.  I don't want to delve into much of the details about this tour; you just have to go, see, and taste the food yourself! For our first stop we went to Beijing Noodle No. 9 .  They specialize in Northern Chinese cuisine -noodles are eaten more at the north and more rice is eaten at Southern China.   Pork and Shrimp Dumpling : Hand pulled noodles: Tomato and Egg with Hand Pulled Noodle , you can tell just by the first b...

Aureole Las Vegas  at the  Mandalay Bay , has recently launched an event called  #ChasingThursdays .  Every Thursday Aureole will be offering exclusive cigar pairings from  Nat Sherman , showcasing a cast of hard-to-find and wines from their " Unusual Suspects " wine list all priced at $39 per bottle, and will have menu items 20% off (except Happy Hour menu, small plates, and the $39 wine bottles... Still a good deal though for a fine dining restaurant!).  You get to enjoy all of this while listening to live jazz music and overlooking the swans at Aureole's outdoor patio. I love the aesthetics of this place: Happy Hour deals: Aureole's four-story wine tower.  The Wine Steward Angels are the ones who retrieve the wines: Some of the wines I saw while walking up and down the stairs that wrap around the wine tower: My husband here sippin on some 2007 Domaine Monte de Luz Tannat: The  tannat  is a red w...

Last month we went to  Bernard's Bistro 's second location in Henderson to try out Californian-French cuisine.  This bistro has a nice and cozy decor, which makes it very inviting. For our appetizers we tried the Ahi Tuna Tartar  (top left pic)- served with avocado, ocean seaweed, sesame wonton and ponzu sauce on an egg shell.  I especially liked the presentation of this app, it was so nicely done that I didn't want to eat it!  All the garnishes complimented the ahi well.  The second app we got was the Escargot Belle Époque (top right pic)- land snails, mushrooms and tomatoes in garlic butter sauce.  To me, the sauce wasn't too buttery and I was able to taste the escargot. The entrees we chose were the Argentinian Pan Roasted Organic Chicken Chimichuri (middle left pic)- with roasted potatoes, seasonal vegetables and pine nut chimichuri sauce; the second entree was  Bistro Prime Cheese Burger  (middle pic)- comes with caramelized onio...

Rose. Rabbit. Lie  at The Cosmopolitan is one of the most interesting places I've been to on  The Strip .  I feel like I've fallen down the rabbit hole like Alice and somehow landed at this restaurant!  Rose. Rabbit. Lie. has multiple rooms that has a bar, speakeasy (separate drink menu from the bar), and has a show called Vegas Nocturne that plays at three different times throughout the night w/ different prices per time slot.  We opted to just dine in and will watch the show at another time.  Just eating at the dining room was great experience for me and my group! The lovely dining room- I love how detailed everything was from the silverware, menu, and to the art: Rose. Rabbit. Lie. has a creative drink menu.  The drinks on the top are  Chrysanthemum and   Mark Twain .  At the bottom is  Floradora Imperial  and Vivante Water - Earth friendly water: This restaurant serves tapa style dishes, I was impres...

For me and my husband's first year wedding anniversary, we spent the day at one of my favorite hotel/casinos on the Strip , the Bellagio .  All we did was eat, drink, and be tourists all day! Yellowtail First we went to the Taste of the Town , Sushi & Sake Reception at Yellowtail .  We got to sample different kinds of drinks and Japanese foods :  There was a copious amount of sake  over  food , so it was hard to choose which were my favorites: I enjoyed from learning a lot from the people who served all these drinks because they were quite informative about each of them.  It reminded me that the science and art into making each alcoholic beverage are remarkable. Picasso For dinner we ate at French food at  Picasso  and had a lovely view of the Fountains of Bellagio : Prix fixe menu: Crème of Roasted Butternut Squash - this was a nice creamy soup to start off the meal: I chose t...