1 cup lentils, uncooked (7 1/2 ounces)
4 cups water
2 t. vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Add lentils, cover pot, reduce heat and simmer 40-45 minutes until lentils are tender.  Drain

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add onions and cook until browned.  Stir frequently and add small amounts of water, if necessary to avoid sticking. (The secret to the flavor of this dish is to make sure the onions are nicely browned.)

In a food processor, combine lentils, cooked onions, salt and pepper.  Process until smooth.

Transfer to a bowl and chill several hours for flavors to blend.

3/4 cup shortning
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup and 2 T flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/3 cup milk
1 t cinnamon
1 t vanilla
1 cup raisins
3 cups oats

Cream shortenting and sugar.  Beat in eggs one at a time.  Sift together flour, baking powder, salt cinnamon.  Add to creamed mixture.  Add milk. Stir in vanilla. Mix in raisins and oats.  Drop from teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake in medium hot oven 375 for 15 minutes.

Usually I can find something worth eating, but not last night.  Everything was either awfull or had no taste.  The Asian food was just plain bad.  Food was either cold or it looked like it was sitting out for the past day.  You would need a chain saw to cut the Prime Rib which would not matter since it had no taste anyway. The shrimp disappeared (although you could add the peel-and-eat variety for and extra $3.50) along with the upper end salad items. Even the damn frozen corn cobette was awfull.   The flaming desert station was unmanned.  Regular deserts were all variations of immitation whipped topping.

 The only thing I can say is STAY AWAY!  Sorry to have lead anyone there with my last post.

After glancing over the menu, right off the bat I encountered a problem.  All the appetizers looked so incredibly good, that I simply could not decide on just one.  That issue was quicly solved by ordering a sampling and skipping the main course.

I started out with Hudson Valley Foie Gras Creme Brulee served with Strawberry preserves and Fleur de Sel.  It arrived served in a demitasse cup with a spoon of preserves on the side.  The flavors were interestingly complex and perfectly paired.  After that came a Frisee salad with Duck Confit topped with Orange Vinaigrette.  Here again the chef paired the flavors perfectly.  The bitterness of the Frisee, the richness of the duck and the sweetness of the orange all came together in perfect harmony.  Third came what I was really looking forward to, the Lamb Pops, as Chef Cullen Campbell calls them.  Three herb encrusted baby lamb chops came perfectly grilled and drizzled with Demiglace alongside a small bowl of Mushroom Polenta Fondue.  You simply dip the lamb chop in the fondue and you are in heaven!

The atmosphere is very hip with attentive service.  This would be a great place to take a date or anyone who appreciates fine food.  My only regret is not having tasted some of those entrees.  After experiencing this meal, I would seriously drive from Las Vegas to Phoenix to eat here again. If you are ever in Phoenix, give this a try.

SAMPLE MENU

2 - 28oz cans petite diced tomatoes (drained) - I use Hunts
24oz V8 vegetable juice
2 - 15oz cans black beans (drained)
1 cup peeled seeded and diced cucumber
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/2 cup diced red pepper
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion
4 Tablespoons Italian salad dressing
A few dashes of Tabasco (or your favorite hot sauce) to taste

Drain the tomatoes and Black beans.  Dice the pepers and cucumber (I prefer 1/4″ dice).  Slice the green onions. In a large bowl combine all ingredients.  Cover and chill for 4 to 24 hours.  Yields about 8 servings.

Another review of The Burger Bar proclaimed “$20 for a burger???!!!  Well…after trying one I call it a bargain…melt in your mouth Kobe beef.  My boy did the grand pooba $65 burger with Kobe, Froie, and shaved truffles…worth every penny I was told.”

What have I, the self-proclaimed hamburger lover, been wasting time on that could have possibly been more important than going over there and ordering that burger? I must be mad!  If anyone else has eaten there, please let me know.  Stay tuned for another post on this after I check it out.

However, yesterday I found a really good drink that in a pseudo Heineken-esq way, could possible correct the missing piece in my genetic make up.  It’s called a Beer Shandy.  Apparently it’s popular in a lot of Irish pubs.

Beer Shandy
1 part beer (I used Coors Light)
1 part Sprite (or any other lemon-lime soda)

I found the recipe for this when surfing around the internet yesterday.  The author claimed that the beer cut the sweetness of the soda and the soda cut the bitterness of the beer.  It sounded just unique enough that I had to try one.  Damn….if they weren’t right!  I really liked this libation. 

I know all you malt purists out there are whispering things about me under your breath that I can’t publish in this post, but for any of you other beer haters out there, you might want to give this a try. 

To my way of thinking, ranch dressing should taste a little creamy and a lot spicy.  I can’t stand ranch that tastes mostly like buttermilk, or as Mark says, soybean oil-tasting.  Now, I’ve found a few restaurants that really get ranch right, and I’d like to share them with you.

Famous Dave’s (1951 North Rainbow) is the king of ranch.  Delicious on one of their great salads, and also superb as a french fry dip.  For a special treat, dip a fry in a little BBQ sauce, then in the ranch dressing.  It’s a delicious taste sensation!

Buon Gusto (2642 West Horizon Ridge Parkway) is the queen to Famous Dave’s king of ranch.  Theirs is so flavorful and spicy, with a generous helping of garlic (it is an Italian restaurant, after all).  Their salads are delicious on their own, and when combined with their homemade (!) dressing, you’ll have a savory treat you won’t soon forget.

Sweet Tomatoes (375 North Stephanie and other locations) has a great ranch dressing, too.  Ladled over crisp romaine, tomatoes, and hard boiled eggs, it has a spicy but not hot kick that is quite tasty.

Village Pub (4563 East Sunset and other locations) is one of our favorite standbys and never disappoints with its ranch dressing.  The house salad here is cheap but good and is served with a carrot stick that just begs to take a trip down to the ranch.

Souper Salad (4022 South Maryland Parkway and other locations) is another source for ranch done right.  Imagine my horror when they replaced it briefly with some faux-Mexican bastardization during “Fiesta Days”.  Thank goodness Fiesta Days were short-lived.  Just pray they don’t have “Dairy Farm Days,” when I’m sure the buttermilk would come out in full force.  Although so would the straight butter, which is never a bad thing….

I hope by now my devotion to ranch dressing is obvious.  Oh, did I mention Memphis Championship BBQ?  They’ve got good ranch, too.  I love to get a spud there and dip each bite into the dressing.  Anyway, you certainly won’t find another person so dedicated to ranch dressing as a concept, so won’t you help me out in my quest to discover a store-bought ranch that can compete?  I’ve already tried Kraft, Bob’s Country Dressing, and Wishbone, all to no avail.  There’s a big jug o’ dressing at Costco that looks like it has potential, but I’m leery of shelling out seven bucks for a gallon of ranch that tastes like soybean oil.  Please, if you love ranch like I love ranch, hep a sista out and clue me in to what I’m missing on those grocery shelves.

As a postscript, Mark wants me to mention one of his surprises.  At Tacone (2265 Village Walk Drive in the District) he discovered something containing cilantro that DOESN’T taste like dishwashing soap (can I get an Amen?!).  At their dip and dressing bar, try the cilantro ranch dressing.  Even if you loathe cilantro as much as we do, you’ll like this dressing.  Mark did!

I ordered the usual Buddha’s Delight and gorged myself on the crispy noodles served with sweet and sour sauce, while Mark ordered a dish called spicy eggplant. I’ve always been ambivalent about eggplant — I can eat ratatouille all day long, but eggplant by itself does nothing for me. When our orders arrived, I told myself to enjoy Mark’s love of Chinese food and ignore the bland cauliflower and broccoli in my dish. Mark took a few bites of his entree and then struck up a conversation about what the British call an aubergine. Then the truth came out! I had never tried a Japanese eggplant in my life! After describing to me a fruit (yes, it’s really a fruit) with a buttery, creamy taste, he admonished me to try a bite of his meal.? After some hemming and hawing, I gave in.

CUE THE CLOUDS PARTING AND THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN BREAKING FORTH WHILE ANGELS SING! The spicy eggplant was like nothing I’d ever eaten! Sensing he was in the presence of a life-altering experience, Mark turned his meal over to me, secure in the knowledge that we would be eating Chinese food much more frequently in the future.

And so began a quest to find the greatest dish of spicy eggplant in Las Vegas and beyond. Bear with me through this seeming non-sequitur: You know how when you tour model homes, you should never start with the biggest one?? It will always seem the most luxurious and any others you look at after it will pale in comparison. Well, I had unwittingly made the same mistake with spicy eggplant — I tried the best one first! But I will still bestow upon you the fruits of my labor and allow you to decide for yourself.

AND THE WINNER IS…Cook on Wok! For me, Cook on Wok does the best spicy eggplant in town. Theirs includes water chestnuts, green peppers, scallions, and Japanese eggplant chunks in a delicious garlicky brown Hoisin flavored sauce with just enough red chilies. I always order mine with extra sauce so I can enjoy it mixed with rice after the eggplant is gone.

FIRST RUNNER UP…is kind of a cheat, because it’s located in San Diego’s Gaslamp District.? On a visit to my cousin, we made reservations at Blue Ginger, thinking it was related to Ming Tsai’s restaurant in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Tsai also has a show on PBS called “Simply Ming,” and we’ve spent many a Saturday afternoon salivating over his creations.? We were disappointed to discover it was not associated with Tsai, but I was not disappointed in the spicy eggplant! Doesn’t it just figure that the runner up would be five hours away . . . oh well, we can always use a reason to visit San Diego. At any rate, the eggplant at Blue Ginger was spicier than at Cook on Wok and the sauce didn’t seem as rich, but was still flavorful. Aside from being slightly overcooked, which I think may be easy to do with the delicate Japanese eggplant, Blue Ginger served a delicious version of my latest favorite.

SECOND RUNNER UP…was a huge surprise! We trade off choosing restaurants with a friend of ours every other week or so, and one week his choice was Sunset Station’s Feast buffet. I had relegated myself to enjoying mashed potatoes and the salad bar, so I was stunned to find spicy eggplant on offer! I took a small helping, keeping my excitement in check until I tasted it, because I didn’t expect much. My first bite was an eye-opener, though, when I encountered a respectable rendition of this eggplant classic. My only complaint with this one was that the sauce was too much on the sweet side for my taste.? But it was still a welcome addition to my usual buffet repertoire.

FOURTH PLACE…was another surprise to me. I expected PF Chang’s to have perfected this dish, and they do make a delicious adaptation. So why did it land in fourth place? A lack of ingredients detracted from the experience here. I guess for an eggplant purist, PF Chang’s is Nirvana, but for me the green peppers and water chestnuts at Cook on Wok really add to the texture and overall taste. PF Chang’s variation included only eggplant and scallions.? The sauce was delicious, though, and I would recommend this dish to anyone.

FIFTH PLACE…is Pumi on Pecos Road in Green Valley. Their version included small cubes of eggplant with julienned carrots and bamboo shoots. The dish wasn’t offensive in any way, but it lacked the spicy eggplant flavor I was used to.? It had kind of a generic “chinese food” flavor to it, which was quite a letdown. I won’t order this dish again.

SIXTH PLACE…barely deserves a spot on the list. Diamond China II on Lake Mead in Summerlin was an accidental stop for dinner one night when our intended location had too long a wait. Not only was the spicy eggplant bland, the lo mein was practically flavorless, and I had ordered both anticipating delicious lunches all week. What a bummer. Run, don’t walk, away from Diamond China II.

So ends my odyssey to date, but I guarantee I will try more spicy eggplant elsewhere, and will add to the blog when I do! Now, what’s next . . . the best eggplant parmesan?