Friday, May 29, 2015

Las Vegas, NV: Timeshare cooking, Fat Choy brunching, and Vegas neon – Day 2

As the morning sun peeks through the sides of the shade, I decided to fry up some turkey bacon for a lean, protein-packed light breakfast. The blue sky above Las Vegas was pretty clear with scattered billowy clouds hanging overhead.

On Sundays, Fat Choy serves their Sunday Best all day long. The restaurant is situated inside the Eureka Casino and serves up some Asian American fusion as you will see with what we ordered. Chef Sheridan Su is a masterful chef and his flavor combinations will knock your socks off.

The Fat Benedict is English muffins topped with poached eggs, crispy pork belly, and hollandaise sauce. The hollandaise along with the pork belly make this dish shine. The hollandaise sauce is thick and sticks to all of the nooks and crannies of the English muffin with a rich yolky, buttery flavor. The pork belly is tender and just to die for! I normally get the pork belly bao but I might have to get this instead if I dine here on a Sunday. The breakfast potatoes were golden brown and the hollandaise made a perfect dip for them. Rating: 5/5

The Fat Choy Burger is my hubby’s favorite burger of all time. 99% of the time, he will order it. All of the elements – beef patty, braised short rib, bacon, fried egg, cheddar, and onion jam – are a symphony of flavors that cannot be topped. It’s one of my favorite burgers as well, but I love so many items on the Fat Choy menu that I have to be selective in my choices. I can’t eat everything at one sitting! If I could, I would. Rating: 5/5

The day looked like a good day for the pool. As the crowd started to thin out at the pool, the clouds started rolling in, heavy and dark. So we spent the rest of the afternoon, watching TV in our living room.

Since we would be going out late in the evening, I decided to make dinner at the timeshare. I started by making a strawberry, peach, and Asian chili sauce to top our last couple of fillets of salmon. I also had some black-eye peas that I sautéed with butter, garlic, bell pepper, and a chiffonade of romaine for color. The sauce turned out to be tart and sweet with a little heat. It paired nicely with the buttery, succulent salmon. The black-eyed peas dish added a nice textural change to the palate and savory balance to the overall dish.

The Neon Museum Visitors' Center Courtesy of The Neon Museum
Around 8pm, we made our way to the Neon Museum which is a few minutes north of Downtown on Las Vegas Boulevard. You can’t miss it. During the evening, the Neon Museum’s sign sparkles like old Vegas. The visitors’ center is inside the historic La Concha Motel lobby. The motel was originally constructed on Las Vegas Boulevard South next to the Riviera Hotel (also recently closed). The distinctive shell-shaped building (which you can see on GoogleMaps along with the skull piece from the old Treasure Island marquee) was designed by “Architect to the Stars”, Paul Revere Williams. During 2005 and 2006, the lobby was preserved and moved piece by piece to its current location.

Stardust Signage Courtesy of The Neon Museum
Our guided tour started at 9pm to view the signs by the glow of lights from yester year. The Boneyard houses the signs that made Las Vegas famous - from Caesars Palace and Stardust on the Strip to Binion’s Horseshoe and the Golden Nugget downtown. Our guide gave us a historical journey through the signs and told the story of how Las Vegas came to be. If the signs could talk, they would tell us much more. There was a piece of the old Flamingo neon. We have a connection to it. That is where we had our wedding. Although, the Flamingo is still there, the signage has changed since we were married. Stardust has a lot of memories as well, not personal, but seen in movies. The “International Man of Mystery” Austin Powers strutted his way through the casino and became “Richie Cunningham” when he sat at a blackjack table. Many of the signs you see may bring memories back to you as well.

As the rain started to come down, we took a leisurely drive back to the Elara. The neon from Fremont Street was all aglow and refracted as the raindrops tapped the windows. Memorial Day awaits us with the new day.

For more information:
80 E Harmon Ave
Las Vegas, NV 89109
+1.702.669.6700

595 E Sahara Ave
Las Vegas, NV 89104
+1.702.794.3464
Fat Choy on Urbanspoon


770 Las Vegas Blvd N
Las Vegas, NV 89101
+1.702.387.6366

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