Available HERE.

We were bowled over by these really cool puzzles/3-D building blocks out of Japan.  Similar to the ever-popular Legos, these little versions are teeny weeny.  Which makes a really great challenge to build- with the detailed instructions.  And they look very cool on your desk without taking up much space.

Hey, with small things there are warnings.  Ages 8+.  Be smart.  These pieces are small and can be easily swallowed.  Got it?

Terrier. 110 pieces. 2"

Available HERE.

Speaking of space- check out the Space Shuttle.  Over 580 pieces.

Available HERE.

Shipping Second Week of February from UNICAHOME.

The 2012 Epicurean Epicenter Series at Bellagio kicks-off with exquisite Pinot Noirs from the vineyards of Pisoni, Siduri and ROAR Saturday, February 11 at 6:30 p.m. in Tuscany Kitchen.  Guests will indulge in a four-course menu designed by Sensi Executive Chef Royden Ellamar, beautifully complemented by the remarkable wines of these Californian renowned wineries.  The dinner begins with Potato Samosa served with black truffle, caviar and crème fraîche and Geoduck Sashimi with uni, green apple and grapefruit.  The meal continues with Day Boat Blackmouth Salmon Mi Cuit with hearts of palm and sea beans followed by Venison with smoked paprika, black trumpet mushroom and preserved cherry.  Ellamar also will present Pig and Pinot, an entrée featuring a suckling pig served four ways – baby chop, smoked rillettes, bacon-wrapped loin and crackling skin.  An Andante Ballad Semi-Hard Goat’s Cheese with cracked pepper, Tuthilltown Bourbon Aged Maple and fig mustard brings the extraordinary meal to a close.

Bellagio Director of Wine and Master Sommelier Jason Smith will pour a meticulously selected array of Pinot Noir wines from all three vineyards to accompany each course.  The evening will feature a variety of Santa Lucia Highlands 2010 vintages from Pisoni, Siduri and ROAR.  All three wineries are sustainable in the harvesting of the grapes during the production of each wine.

Tickets are priced at $195 per person all-inclusive and are available for purchase by calling Bellagio Concierge at 866.906.7171.

escargot loaf

“The noble Brutus hath said that Caesar was ambitious. If so, it was a grievous fault. And grievously hath Caesar answered it.” Shakespeare.

Brian Howard might be the most ambitious chef on the Strip. It seems like he’s constantly pushing the envelope, creating new dishes, and an ever changing array of specials. He certainly has talent.

house made charcuterie

But not everything works that well. He’s doing several new dishes he’s dubbed Bistronomy and he trotted them out for an assemblage of local food writers, including Yours Truly, this week. The dishes were hit and miss, although the wine pairings were mostly terrific.

thyme for bourbon

The dinner started strong, with three items shared by everyone at the table. Howard makes his own charcuterie, and the quality is first rate, smooth pate to excellent salami and porchetta. A ring shaped epi and fine house brined pickles accompanied them.

tartare in a jar

There was also the restaurant’s delicious steak tartare, presented in a glass jar with confit of egg yolk, and escargot in a rectangular brioche, more like a pain de mie, really, that I thought was a clever idea.

I’d also give high marks to the Thyme for Bourbon cocktail, although that wasn’t good enough for a colleague, who insisted on ordering the Penicillin, Comme Ca’s world famous Scotch based cocktail. I imbibed on the wine, a good Pinot Gris from Alsace, Domaine Schlumberger.

gelee

But then the dinner took a turn for the bizarre. The First Course was a Beef Stew Gelee, brown on top and green underneath, which reminded me of a Buster Brown shoe. The green part, a celery mousse, tasted all right, and I liked its celery leaf and shaved foie gras garnish, but found the colors unappetizing. An weak Beaujolais by Domaine de la Madone didn’t help matters.

venison Carpaccio with Sweetbreads

A perfectly acceptable venison carpaccio with crispy sweetbreads arrived next, followed by my favorite dish that night, bacon wrapped swordfish, a moist, flavorful chunk of fish, offset by a panisse, a fritter made from garbanzo bean flour. I wish they’d do panisse as a side dish or appetizer in this restaurant. They are addictively good.

bacon wrapped swordfish

I liked both wines here. The carpaccio came with an ’08 Miura Pinot Noir from Monterey County that I wanted more of, while the swordfish got a nice French Vouvray, the ’10 Domaine Aubusieries “Cuvee Silex”.

offal stew

I ate little Offal Stew, the subsequent course. Picture a classic coq au vin with pearl onion and mushroom, but substitute tongue, tripe, Rocky Mountain oysters and sweetbreads for an old rooster. The ’09 Corbiers from Gerard Bertrand was almost compensatory.

lobster thermidor

Everyone oohed and aahed when Howard’s impossibly rich lobster Thermidor was presented, the meat in the shell in an unctuous sauce laced with Cognac, cream and cheese. And rightly so, although no one could eat more than a few bites. Cutting the richness was a Rully, the ’08 Vincent Girardin “Vieilles Vignes”, a white wine with great acidity, the perfect foil for the lobster’s elegance.

By the time the dessert came, a perfectly executed lemon tart, we had had enough. I had just enough stamina to wash it down with Jurancon, a dessert wine from the southwest of France.

I’m still in the process of deciding the relative merits of a dinner that I admired more than I liked. But I can say one thing with certainty. Chef Howard, and the restaurant’s owner, Chef David Myers, might consider concentrating on perfecting what they already do, rather than confuse the issue with a spate of new dishes no one understands.

Since its opening, Comme Ca has changed course a few times. Here’s hoping it doesn’t stray too far from the right one.

At Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. 698-7000.

Sliced Brisket; Photo by Sabin Orr

Vegas isn’t a great town for ’cue, but it’s not for lack of trying.

Mike Mills of Memphis Championship Barbecue is a hit in New York City at Blue Smoke, but his Las Vegas restaurants are erratic. The Salt Lick from Austin enjoyed a mercurial run at Red Rock Resort. The Rub BBQ from New York was often terrific during a brief stint at the Rio.

Now we’ve got Lynyrd Skynyrd BBQ & Beer, named for the iconic rock group so worshiped in the American South.

It’s housed in an open space at Excalibur, with a team of 20 women multitasking as bartenders, cocktail servers and entertainers. While you eat, they’ll do choreographed dance moves on a fixed stage, occasionally encouraging the crowd to sing along. After 10 p.m., there are live bands as well.

The ’cue here is by pit-master Keith Schmidt of Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Texas, which is famous for places such as Smitty’s, Black’s and Chisholm Trail. Texas aficionados call it their barbecue capital, a veritable tabernacle of ’cue.

Meats here are served without sauce, although a trio of them will appear on your unadorned wooden table: mustard, mild and hot. That’s fine with me. I’ve long considered barbecue sauce to be nothing more than tomato sauce, sugar and smoke, unless I run into that rare great one.

And the meats speak for themselves. Schmidt uses red oak, cooking his charges “low and slow,” the only way to true ’cue. The result is the best barbecue available in the city, unless you’re willing to trek to North Las Vegas on a day when John Mull’s Meats is catering.

Meats are sold by weight, and other than drinks, the restaurant is self-service. You’ll get a tray and slide it down a cafeteria line. Utensils are plastic and plates are paper. It’s not a great date restaurant, but for ’cue-lovers, it’ll do.

First among equals here is the barbecued sausage—grainy, fatty, finely textured and unforgettable. Schmidt uses a 100-year-old recipe that hasn’t changed for generations. One is mild and sweet. A second has a sneaky hot finish, laced with cheese and jalapeño peppers. Watch out!

There are three types of pork: smooth-textured ham, meaty chops or large, unwieldy, fall-off-the-bone tender spare ribs, the best choice.

Texans worship brisket and this version is impressive, layered with a ribbon of fat and so tender it puts most Jewish delis’ versions to shame. The only other beef option I exercised was a slab of prime rib. At $6.95 per quarter-pound it’s easily the most expensive item on this menu. For a respite from red meat, there is chicken and turkey as well.

Sides are sold in two sizes, small and big, in plastic containers. They serve two or four, respectively. Chunks of brisket enliven collard greens, while the delicious dirty rice is mixed with sausage instead of the more traditional liver. Someone trendy sneaked in grit fries, long sticks of fried cornmeal. Pass on the too-sweet baked beans.

If you can handle dessert, ice creams are from Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham, Texas, and they’re just fine, especially the vanilla, on a slice of the excellent house pecan pie.

I may not be a Free Bird, but I do know how to eat like one.

Lynyrd Skynyrd BBQ & Beer, in Excalibur, 597-7818. Serving 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sun-Thu, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fri-Sat; Rock ’n’ Roll Brunch served 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat-Sun. Dinner for two, $28-$47.

And then, there’s the food.

This year, Morels’ Executive Chef JL Carrera has created a four-course feast that delivers sensational flavor with every bite. In addition, Morels’ sommelier, Alexandre Brard, has identified the perfect wine pairings for each course.

“Chef and Alex worked together to identify the best flavors and pairings for each dish,” said Tom Bachner, general manager of Morels. “It resulted in one of my favorite menus with pairings yet.”

The menu offers:

AMUSE

Crab Salad on Potato Crisp

American Sturgeon Caviar

Suggested Wine Pairing: Champagne Louis de Sacy Brut Originel Verzy

Boggiato Farms Baby Iceberg

House-Dried Cherry Tomatoes, Spring Red Onion, Applewood Smoked Bacon, Blue d’ Auvergne Dressing

Suggested Wine Pairing: Riesling Trimbach Alsace France 2009

Grilled Filet Mignon with Maine Lobster Tail

Potato Puree, Sauteed Green Beans in Foie Gras Butter, Bordelaise Sauce

Suggested Wine Pairing: Archipel Verite Red Wine Sonoma County 2007

Hazlenut & Gianduja Chocolate Dome

18 kt Gold Lead, White Chocolate Shavings, Winter Berries

Suggested Wine Pairing: Chapoutier Banyuls 2006

The menu is 95 per guest, plus tax and gratuity. Wine pairings with the courses are an additional 45 per guest.

For more information or for reservations, please call 702.607.6333.

A few posts ago I wrote about the interesting Seasons Silicone Leaf Plates by Nao Tamura and how silicone is slowly and surely becoming a major player in product design and materials.  A lot of this movement is due to color possibilities and the fact that silicone is basically an inert material and has some tearing strength.  Silicone is also very inexpensive as a material.

Up until now the majority of silicone pieces on the domestic market have been related to parts of everyday products (baby bottle nipples, for example, due to ease of sterilization) and products also capitalizing on its heat-resistant qualities like tongs, trivets, oven mitts, cooking molds, etc.

Josh Owen is an American designer that we have followed for many years.  Currently teaching in the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Industrial Design program, Josh recently developed a series of bathroom accessories for the manufacturer Kontexture.

Wastebin, Brush, and Plunger. Three friends your bathroom should never be without.

The series is based primarily on the classic design of the bathroom plunger, whose sloping curves we are all rather familiar with in our lives at one point or another. Hey, it happens. Rather than being made in the more traditional rubber, the new WC line (WC referring to Water Closet) utilizes colored silicone with wooden handles (where applicable) reflecting on the original design of the plunger.  The line includes tissue box, waste bin, plunger, and toilet brush.

The use of silicone has made the product reasonably priced, from $36 to $49, and the colorways are cleverly named and really great- YK (Yves Klein) blue, Ferrari red, Dutch Orange make this line super cool- and the basics of (porcelain) white and (matte) black are also available.

Mr. Owen has chimed in:

“The design for the WC Line uses functionality and performance as the primary measures which define beauty; inspired by universal languages which have stood the test of time. These products exude clarity by blending utility, usability, materiality and engineering with careful attention to the concerns of space limitations often accompanying their context in the bath. Based on circular footprints, these items relate to one another naturally in many configurations, never looking out of alignment in their setting. The wooden handles are sourced locally to their production location and the full silicone rubber construction and reduced parts avoids the damage which limits the life of similar products made from other materials. All items in the line are washable and made to last.”

Yeah, and the colors are cool.

Available at UNICAHOME.

Fried Quail; Photo by Anthony Mair

The gastropub is a hot item in both London and New York, where places like The Dutch (New York Timescritic Sam Sifton’s Best New Restaurant of 2011) and April Bloomfield’s The Spotted Pig reign supreme. In those places, items the likes of chicken livers on toast and Devils on Horseback (blue-cheese stuffed, bacon-wrapped dates) are downed along with designer ales and boutique wines.

Public House, Block 16 Hospitality’s new entry at the Venetian, is our first bona fide and best example of the London-inspired genre. Owner Billy Richardson, who counts Holsteins and the Barrymore among his short list of respectable efforts, has hit one out of the park with this concept. Chef Anthony Meidenbauer has created an impressive menu of snacks, savories and large plates to go along with the pub’s more than 200 brews and imaginative wine list.

The buildout is impressive, too. The space formerly home to David Burke’s restaurant looks far more spacious than its predecessor, with a ceiling composed of giant wooden cubes, banquettes of tufted, dark brown leather and a burnished mahogany parquet floor. And tables have handsome cherry wood surfaces. It’s defiantly masculine in here, yet alluring for women. I actually heard one say, “It reminds me of that cologne, English Leather.” Hey, is that stuff even still on the market?

The fellow with the Salvador Dali mustache is official Public Housecicerone (beer sommelier) Russell Gardner. He’ll turn you on to one of the two-dozen brews he has on tap. He started my table off with Blond Chimay from Belgium, but we balked at the idea of a gluten-free beer.

Bar snacks are located smack in the middle of the menu, above the section called Butcher Block, Meidenbauer’s house-made charcuterie.

Welsh Rarebit and the House Pickles are two items not to miss. The former is more of an eccentric cheese toast with a bite, but delicious. The latter might just be the sharpest pickles I can remember, outside of torshi, the pickled vegetables you get in Persian restaurants.

We chose country paté from the Butcher Block, tasty slabs of pork paté that reminded me a little too much of luncheon meat. After that slight misstep, it was straight up, all the way.

If you take my advice, you’ll head straight to the poutine, the French-Canadian dish composed of French fries topped with cheese curds and brown gravy. In Quebec, trendy chefs have taken to topping this monstrosity with foie gras. Meidenbauer has added duck confit, a capital idea.

But what makes the dish soar are the crisp, shoestring potatoes, crusty fried cheese curds, and the surprise of a wonderful demi-glace in place of pasty gravy. It’s the best poutine I’ve ever tasted, although it would taste even better at 2 a.m. after a hockey game.

Potted farm egg comes in a casserole with lots of cheese sauce and a heap of sautéed mushrooms, the perfect complement to wedges of the crusty house-bread accompaniment.

We only tasted two large plates, a tricked-up fried quail served on two waffles with bacon-braised quail and a maple glaze (a little joke about chicken and waffles), and amazing lamb pierogi, an homage to the chef’s roots in heavily Polish western New York state.

For dessert, don’t miss the sticky toffee pudding and the outrageously rich chocolate stout layer cake. I didn’t try these Devils on Horseback, because it’s not a dish I fancy, but I hear they stand up to the best.

Yep, the gastropub may just be here to stay.

Enzo Deluliis prepares a thin-crust Margherita pizza; Photo by Checko Salgado

Forget Naples. New York is the world’s epicenter of pizza, and Di Fara’s, a small Brooklyn pizzeria, seems to be on everyone’s short list.

So it was that local businessman Albert Scalleat happened by there on a quest for the country’s best pizza on a tour that included New Haven, Conn., and other American cities.

Di Fara’s owner, Domenico DeMarco, was well known for using a mix of Romano and mozzarella cheese in his toppings, for the rosemary and oregano plants he kept in the window and for his crust, the wickedly crunchy type. “It was the best pizza I ever tasted,” Scalleat says. It took a lot of convincing to get DeMarco, to do a place here, but Scalleat persevered.

Open since December, Dom DeMarco’s Pizzeria & Bar is a brassy, bright establishment hard by a Home Depot in Summerlin, with glossy wooden tables, chandeliers framing the pizza ovens in the open kitchen and white cross beams overhead. The recipes are DeMarco’s, but the food is supervised by chef Enzo Deluliis, a native of southern Italy with a long local résumé.

There’s a lot more than pizza on the menu. The restaurant makes its own meatballs and sausage from scratch, for instance, both available as appetizers. Grandma’s meatballs use veal, pork and beef. I like them in the rich house marinara, sprinkled with cheese, but you can also have them, three to an order, inside brioche rolls brushed with egg wash.

My sausage was tasty enough, redolent of fennel seed, but on the dry side, and it was hard to tell whether this was due to overcooking or a lack of fat in the sausage mix. The best appetizer choice may actually be eggplant pizzettes, two rounds of eggplant Parmesan with a crunch that rivals the house pizza crust.

And don’t pass up a salad on the way to that pizza. Among a long list of options, one stands out: the 15th Street BLT. It’s anchored by one of my favorite greens, the underused butter lettuce, and it employs avocado, bacon, tomato and Gorgonzola cheese dressing.

The menu informs us “every Dom DeMarco pie is made with hand-crushed San Marzano tomato sauce, the finest mozzarella and Grana Padano cheeses, hand-cut basil and EVOO—extra virgin olive oil.” What it doesn’t tell you is that the pizzas here tend to be well-done, and use quite a bit of the oil to give the crust a golden sheen around the edges.

There are two varieties. One has a square, thick crust and is cooked in a cast-iron pan. The other, New York-style, has a medium-thin crust. The menu makes it clear the former isn’t Sicilian. “We’re from Naples,” says the description. In Naples, they’d call this focaccia, but so what.

Pizzas are available in two sizes: The New York comes in small and large. The Square Cut comes as half or full. These are trencherman’s portions, so beware. The smaller sizes are ideal for three, if one has a salad or appetizer.

So how do I like these pizzas? Yes, they are delicious, and there are too many toppings to list. But two that impressed me were a Quattro Formaggio (four cheeses) and the Di Fara Special, a square-cut with a lot of pepperoni. (OK, I admit, I’m a sucker for pepperoni.)

If there’s room, the house-made tiramisu, served in a glass, is interesting. Even better are the cannoli, canoe-shaped fried pastry shells filled with sweet, whipped ricotta. And you won’t need to take the “A” Train to get here.

Dom DeMarco’s, 9785 W. Charleston Blvd., 570-7000, DomDeMarcos.com. Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sun-Thu, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fri-Sat. Dinner for two, $34-$65.

Note:  President Obama ate Demarco’s on his most recent visit to Las Vegas.

Olive Oil and Vinegar have been around for millennia.  Around the Mediterranean Sea there are historical sites with the old fashioned way of getting the oil from olives- huge heavy stone wheels crushed olives in a circular trough and the resulting liquid was collected.  Talk about cold pressed!

The rondo stacking series is comprised of the main oil element, which resembles the crushing wheel, and stacked vinegar (or oil) cruets that use atomizers to get the exact amount where needed.

Parts of the set are also available separately.

Available HERE.

The Italians have been producing double-blown glass for years, primarily for decorative functional use as oil cruets in fancy Italian restaurants or as marketing ploys for grappa  (I happen to like grappa, but I really don’t enjoy knowing that I am paying a lot for the cool bottle).  We found a very beautiful updated design of the classic oil cruet:

Available HERE.  

Another interesting design element was the use of the classic amphora shape in a series of decanters. Amphorae were used to transport wine and other liquids (and dry goods) in ancient times. The angle of the decanters allow excellent surface area for proper oxygenation; the crete decanter features an oxygenating stopper as well.

Available HERE.

A final design wasn’t necessarily ancient, just functional and beautiful.  Food preparation is becoming a very big deal. Maceration and Infusions are commonplace- and the cabrera series allow a beautiful touch to the tabletop.

Available HERE.

Limited Stock Arriving Next Week at Unicahome.  First Come, First Served.

Dragon's Hollow Merlot

Did you know that China was the world’s fifth largest producer of grapes, behind France, Italy, Spain, and the United States? Now, they are producing wines as well, such as Dragon’s Hollow, a line that bills itself as “the first premium wines produced in China.”

Dragon’s Hollow wines are beginning to surface in local Chinese restaurants. The grapes are grown in the Helan Shan Mountains, a dry region approximately 600 miles west of Beijing, close to Mongolia. I’d guess it’s only a matter of time before Mongolian wines show up, too. If they ever do, I’m ordering lamb to go with them.

Joe Muscaglione and Dave Henderson

Dave Henderson, President of China Fine Wines LLC, hosted a dinner for Chinese and American journalists to showcase these wines at the dumpling house and Szechuan restaurant China MaMa. The restaurant rolled out an enormous menu, and the food there was as good as ever.

Two-Toned Shrimp

There were four wines on the table: Chardonnay, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot, all of which originated in the above mentioned region. The Chardonnay was unoaked, and had a slightly tropical feel. I think the Riesling needs work. Of the four wines, I favor the Merlot, the brightest acidity wine in the group, a nice garnet red. The Cab is still a babe in the woods. I’d like to taste it down the road.

Chinese Beef Roll

Henderson says his wines should hit the retail shelves with a $10-$15 dollar price point. At the moment, I’d say they were more attractive as a curiosity, but if you’re in a Chinese restaurant, where wine lists have little currency, they might be more compelling.

Noodle with Green Onion and Dried Shrimp

As always, China MaMa, an offshoot of a successful California Chinese restaurant, delivered. We started with several finger foods; shao loong bao, those terrific juicy pork dumplings served in a steamer tray, green onion pancake, Szechuan beef roll, what I call the ur-wrap, and kuo tip, crunchy pot stickers.

Pork Leg

That was followed by a new dish the manager, John, referred to as “hand pulled noodle with green onion sauce”, which was mixed at the table strenuously by the staff. Then came sizzling rice soup and shrimp in two colors, prompting me to call the dinner “kwei-lo greatest hits.” I usually order jellyfish and pig’s ear in this place. I’m a minority.

Shaaloong Bao

They kept on sending out food, though, in obscene amounts. First the Double Happiness, fried flounder piled up to the ceiling with vegetable, and then the pork leg, an enormous thing drenched in primal brown.

Pot Sticker

Three-cup chicken (braised with one cup each of sugar, soy sauce and oil) arrived next with a platter of bok choy, black mushrooms and fresh bamboo marinated in a dark sauce. I didn’t stay for dessert.

Three Cup Chicken

So, the question is, do these wines have cache in a market such as this one. I don’t know the answer. I’ll leave it in the hands of the pros doing the marketing. Go to www.dragonshollow.com for more info.

China MaMa is at 3420 S. Jones Blvd. 873-1977.