Scarpetta @ Cosmopolitan Casino and Resort Hotel

As much as I am critical regarding the outlandish folly that which is the Strip, there are, in my opinion, a few exceptional culinary experiences that you can only get here and nowhere else; with breathtaking, majestic feats of visionary engineering, the Strip personifies man's ability to create way beyond his present environment and envision a future filled with unlimited possibilities.  And when a night on the town includes that man-made wonderland, you get magic, an 'Umami' of all the senses.

Scarpetta by Chef Scott Conant encompasses that dining experience, and out of all his venues bearing the same name, I enjoy the Vegas restaurant by far.  Although all the restaurants are elegant with great food, this restaurant takes the Vegas experience and showcases style with understated design gestures.  'Scarpetta' means little shoe in Italian, a reference to the menu's 'soulfulness'...  Guess my mind wandered to other references...like, the foot fetish variety - shrimping anyone?  No? Too far?

2013 Starbucks Las Vegas 'You Are Here' Mug

Lotus of Siam @ 953 East Sahara, Las Vegas

Alright, let's talk Thai;  I could eat Thai food everyday, for every meal, I literally cannot get enough of Thai food into my pie hole. And I would gladly move to Thailand in a heartbeat if it weren't the sauna sweatbox of tropical equator hell, where  I'd look like a tool that had taken a shower in my clothes pretty much whenever I walked outside....  not pretty.  Although, I could find a job where I'm naked all the time, but then I probably couldn't eat all that food so it's glutton's catch 22.

So as a consolation, I've been terribly fortunate to have the best Thai restaurant in the U.S. right in my own back yard, (well, ten miles away but whatever) within the first week of moving here, I had my first experience at Lotus of Siam and my world has never been the same since.  

And what a surprise that here, in this archaic mish mash of tired trashy tourist sin reeking of cheap vodka and regret, there lies a culinary palace in the most unsavory of places, but a landmark nonetheless, (and ever since it's small cameo on Top Chef, the hoards of tourists have increased tenfold, making wait times to over an hour at peak times).  In a rundown shopping center east of the Strip, Chef Saipin creates some the loveliest, humble yet sophisticated dishes that make up for the lack of ambience.

The following are my favorite dishes at Lotus, although there is so much more on the menu. I get too comfortable in my ways and I'll have to and extra effort to expand my horizons and order out of my comfort zone...

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