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| - Scene: 02/18/11; at the Bellagio's Sensi Restaurant; Cascading waterfalls and exposed exotic stone walls with bamboo accents -- all grey and soothing and tranquil. Me and Mara G. walk in. Chef Martin Hierling, Executive Chef, just happens to be standing at the hostess stand with the hostesses. Mara G. remembered him from the Grand Opening -- SIX YEARS AGO. They strike up a brief conversation involving a lot of thoughtful agreement, whispering, nodding, and gesturing with foreheads towards me. We are seated with a full-view of half the open kitchen. Dining ensues.
Flavio, our primary server, is super nice. Super nice. We order. Me: Pacific Pear cocktail. TLC roll. Scallops. The cocktail was at once gingery, sweet with Poire William, and a tad bit tart from the sour (house made, I'm sure) and necessary to temper the Vodka. Super yum delicious. I could have easily downed 3 or 4 of those babies. Remember, my blood alcohol is dangerously low. But I didn't. I had food to eat.
We finally figured out what the guy inside the glass enclosed kitchen center was doing. He was lifting naan out of the oven. A basket of it was delivered to our table. Lighter, fluffier naan, crispier flat breads, chunky chutney, cool creamy raita, and tangier tamarind sauce have never been produced on the planet. Why oh why, bread basket, do you exist? Don't you see my waistband straining as it is? You do realize I must eat you, don't you?
My TLC roll came out. If I say "omg" again, it will definitely lose its punch. But this tempura fried roll topped with lobster and crab (get it -- TLC) is definitely worth wearing out an overworked catch phrase of the 2K11. Oh My God! This creation was so good. The splashes of sriracha mayo and creamy wasabi were the perfect accents. I hate to say it, but I love saying it: I cleaned my plate! I probably shouldn't have, with multiple courses coming, but I couldn't help it. So good!
For the next course, I was expecting my scallops. All of a sudden, here comes Flavio with soup spoons. A treat from the chef! Wow! Thai coconut shrimp soup! In a hollowed out coconut bowl displayed on inedible salt on some kind of seashell. Wow! Can I just say this soup is more delicious by leaps and bounds than any Thai coconut soup I have heretofore experienced? Sweet, yet hot from the chili oil. Chock full of shrimp and enoki mushrooms. A little cilantro to top things off. This soup was the dancing water fountain light show in my mouth. (It is quite a stretch, but I am going to have to list this soup in my "Crab Soup" list for now until I rename it to seafood soups.) Thank you Chef!
Then the scallops... These diver scallops could have doubled as hubcaps on my great grandfather's 57 Chevy. So huge! Yet so tender and flavorful; and no muscle. Gently seared scallops with sweet soy, sugar snaps, spinach, shallots, and enoki mushrooms, daikon radish, and perfectly steamed white rice (just for yucks)! :)
By now, I am stuffed to the gills. Mara G.'d ordered the tasting menu and had a dessert coming. But I was actually hoping to have time to sit back and savor the last few sips of my OR Riesling. Not.
Here comes Flavio again with an ice sculpture shaped like a balloon with three ice cream scoops inside. A lit candle is in one of the scoops -- INSIDE the ice sculpture. Wow! What a feat of engineering. I blew it out and dove into salted caramel, espresso, and Madagascar vanilla ice cream scoops! (Misty, I was thanking MY lucky stars that all of the servers in house didn't come by beating a huge marching band bass drum and blowing "new year's eve" horns singing happy birthday like they did at Farrell's Ice Cream when I was 9 or 10.)
This ice cream was creating a similar experience for my taste buds, though. I have been in love with salted caramel since my visit to Sorella in NYC (http://www.yelp.com/biz/sorella-new-york#hrid:ovqOWowSYIQh4dxm_btJeQ) and I haven't been able to make it to Georgetown Cupcake in DC on Saturdays to get one of their salted caramel happy pills. But this scoop of salted caramel ice cream (along with the other flavors) hit the SPOT! Smooth, sweet, creamy, visually appealing, sexy even. Thank you Chef Martin! Thank you. Wow!
By 2/21, when the fullness subsided a bit, I was thinking of the pacific pear and the scallops. I will definitely return. Again and again. I loved this birthday dining taste sensation experience. Wow!
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