Day 1
It's been 10 days and it's cold AF in Calgary, better get back to Vegas. This trip will be mostly about the food though as I'm taking a friend (we'll call him Mike for fun) for basically his first Vegas trip. He's been once before, but just for 48 hours of pool parties and there was no eating or gambling whatsoever.
Wine, check. Super bowl prop bets, check. LFG!
Head to the airport and we are already gambling as a massive snowstorm has started the night before and there will be 50 cm of snow in a 24 hour period. I think the chance we take off this morning is about 10%, just hoping the delay won't be too long.
Grab some avocado toast for breakfast because my friend is a big Timmy Brady fan and I have to eat this just to needle him for the Super Bowl loss. It's actually quite tasty tbh.
We actually manage to board on time in the midst of this blizzard and boom we've taken off within 20 minutes of scheduled departure. Running good.
We get to LV and I bet that my bag will come off conveyor first. Boom easy $10.
We then take our first of three interesting Uber rides of the trip. As an aside, the reason I always take Uber in Vegas is because of the terrible long hauling that occurs with cab companies, so I don't want to give them any business. We get this sleazeball real estate agent who has 30K worth of shiny veneers in his mouth. He decides that the best route to Aria is to go South of the airport and then take the freeway lol. Obv it's time to give him the 1 star and complain about the longest of long hauls and get that trip refunded.
Uber driver
After checking in we head over to Cosmo to meet my friend Ed for lunch at Milos.
Estiatorio Milos (or just Milos) is a Mediterranean seafood restaurant that originated in Montreal in the 70s and now has multiple locations, one of which is at the Cosmo. It has probably the best lunch deal on the strip, which is a 3 course meal for $29 (although there are supplements for a few of the options). A few years ago it was $20 plus the year in cents. Eg. $20.12, $20.13, etc. each year. Now they've bumped it to $29, which is a steal, even with $10 for the Octopus supplement.
Assyrtiko is an indigenous grape to Greece. It has excellent acidity, Sauv Blanc will be your closest comparison. Great with food and overall just a very nice wine.
The octopus appetizer course is mandatory and absolutely outstanding. I would eat three courses of this if it were an option. Octopus can be incredibly difficult to prepare without making it tough as nails, so for this course they tenderize it by beating it in the sink (phrasing) for about half an hour, followed by a red wine vinegar braising in the oven. At this point it reaches an incredible texture and is grilled. Previously it was served with caper, red onion and parsley, but they are now serving it on a very nice fava bean puree. The downside is you get less octopus than you used to, the upside is the puree is very good.
The lobster pasta is also a supplement course, and on this day, it wasn't particularly great. Lobster was a bit on the tough side and the level of flavor/umami intensity in the pasta was a bit lacking. I would recommend you get the Dorade course instead, and it saves you the $15 supplement.
Dessert is definitely the weakest of the three courses. Fruit is the winner of these two. The yogurt is the very rich Greek variety, more like cream cheese in consistency. There are also Baklava and cake as other options.
Now that we are stuffed, it's time for a little VP. We head down to play a little 25 cent ten play and grind it out for a few hours. During this time I decide to hit a bit of the Powerhouse Poker since I've been playing this at home and having fun with it. Unfortunately the live version just gives you more hands, but not all the multipliers like online.
I threw $200 into the $1 triple play and am down to the final $9 when this happens.
I had literally turned to Ed and said, "watch me hit a royal since I don't have the max credits". Sure enough. I hit my first Royal in forever on three credits and then puke all over the machine.
Bah. I console myself by saying that if I had taken the time to put in the extra cash to play max credits, the RNG would have changed and no Royal at all. Please hit me with the shame, I deserve it lol.
Now that we've had a few hours of solid grinding in and nothing else exciting hit wise, it's time for Kabuto. Both Ed and Mike have never been before, they have no idea what kind of awesome they're in for.
Before we leave I put a whopping $200 on the lock of the century, Tampa vs. Vancouver.
As usual we go with the nigiri course and then add on a bunch of extra fish. Here's the menu today. They are out of akamutsu. Nooooo!
Aperitif sake is lime today
Jacquesson 736 DT, this is a spectacular champagne. Could get into details forever, but a grower champ made by Gaston Chiquet and extra brut with 3.5 g/L dosage. 2008 is base vintage and 88 months on lees. Decided to try this because Krug was so huge last time.
It still pairs great, but tuna is a miss with Champagne, becomes much too metallic. Ikura is still the nut pairing, as are oysters.
Bonito - Very good, top vegetable was flavorless though
Seattle Kusshi oysters, excellent.
Disclaimer* Not 100% on all the fish this time since it's been a week. I'm about 85% sure.
Itoyori (Bream)
Hirame (Fluke)
Ma aji (Jack mackerel)
Ikura (Salmon roe)
Inada (young yellowtail)
Akami (Red tuna)
Ma-saba (Japanese mackerel) - May have reversed with ma-aji
Zuke (Soy marinated tuna)
Gyoku - Much better than last week but still not the best
Hotate - Scallop, very good and better than last week
Botan-ebi (Sweet shrimp) - This week they had two shrimp, the sweet and the kuruma, both were amazing.
Kuruma prawn
The tunas I may have incorrect but we had Jabara, Kama****a, Wakaremi and Hagashi toro. All were outstanding
2010 Egon Muller Scharzhofberger Spatlese. One of the wines of the year for sure and it's only February. Peach, nectarine, golden sultana, lime zest, grapefruit, mango, mineral, great intensity, acid and length. This stuff will make you cry its so good.
Black sesame panna cotta
Cheesecake
After this we head over to TI where they have the best blackjack rules on the strip and grind some $10 double deck. It's amazing they have $10 double deck paying 3:2 while Aria is paying 6:5 on a shoe game. For $25 you can play hi limit double deck and dealer stands on soft 17. I'm not a big blackjack degen, but many friends are so I'll always take them to TI. Mike doesn't like to gamble much, but he sure has beginners luck. He proceeds to make a 20 or 21 on about 80% of his 15s and 16s while I am eating more Queen's than Lancelot in the same scenario.
We end up making a couple hundo at the blackjack and Ed needs to crash since he flies out in the morning. Mike and I walk back to Aria a few hours later and put in Mike's first live $1/2 poker session at Pho. We sit down at an amazing game full of people drinking and having a good time. I'm mostly folding or taking down pots with PF raises and C-bets, while Mike is busy crushing the game with a more unorthodox style. In the first awesome hand Mike calls a PF raise to $15 with 910cc, it folds around to the only old man nit at the table who shoves for $100. Easy call. Dealer rolls off three clubs and GG to old man and his aces.
Now Mike is sitting on about $185 when the next hand comes up. Guy in seat 5 ($700) has been in hyper spewtard mode and has been beaking Mike because he only bought in for $100. He's literally been talking **** for the last two orbits for no apparent reason as Mike hasn't said a word. Mike is in the 9 seat and opens to $15 in the CO. I call OTB ($350) with Ac10s as does the beaker in seat 5. Flop comes out with Q75 all clubs and it checks to me. I bet $25 and seat 5 raises to $120. He's been doing all kinds of crazy unorthodox **** and I am surprised when Mike then flats in the CO. Getting a good price I call as well to an off suit 8 on the turn. Seat 5 jams and Mike calls off his last $50. Assuming that one of them has a flush and 2 clubs are probably dead, I need to call $215 to win $900 with 7 outs and make a stupid fold. River is obv a club and Mike turns over AsKc to scoop.
The best part has nothing to do with the hand or strategy at all, but what happens after. Mike is still being pushed the pot when he starts looking for a rack since he's locked up a big win. He's pretty much untucking his shirt and ready to load the chips right into it when I grab him a rack. I'm laughing my ass off, but this is poetic justice since the guy had been beaking Mike for no reason the whole time.
I grab myself some delicious Earl of Sandwich and it's off to bed.
Cheers,
TF