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Delights Delicatessen @ the MGM Signature, Las Vegas

Update

I’ve been a fan of Delights in previous trips, but we skipped it this time. The menu has been greatly reduced and the prices have gone up. A simple coffee is now $4, a 12-oz fountain soda filled of ice is $5, and a tiny bottle of Fiji water or Pellegrino is $6!

Food is more reasonable, but those prices are just unconscionable.

This blog post was written in 2015

Food in Las Vegas is expensive, and nowhere more so than at the hotels where captive audiences allow restaurants to charge outrageous prices without even flinching.  Even the restaurants at the hotel food courts are expensive, with a low-quality fast food meal reaching around $10.  In this context, the Delights Deli at the Signature suites is really a delight.  It has high-quality, delicious food at very reasonable prices.

I’ve eaten there several times during both my stays at the Signature.  I’ve had their sandwiches, pizza and pastas (all around $12). They come in generous portions, and they pack them well to bring to your room.  I had the cajun chicken alfredo last time, which was tasty but a bit spicy.  The pizza is traditional, Italian-sytle thin pizza. Pretty good and well priced.  They also have breakfast dishes.

They are open daily 7 am to 9 pm, and you can browse at their menu online.  However, you can only order in person.  Beware that wait to get your meal prepared can take long, even at non-peak times.  There is a nice, casual dining room if you want to eat-in.

Delights Delicatessen
at the Signature suites
145 East Harmon Avenue
Las Vegas, NV
https://www.signaturemgmgrand.com/en/restaurants/delights-delicatessen.html

Marga’s Las Vegas

Marga’s Restaurant Reviews

I cook Bissau-Guinean, Guinean, Guyanese, Grenadan, Ghizhou, Guadeloupean, Equatorial Guinean and Gujarati food – and this is what I think

Seventeen years into my International Food Project, it’s become pretty clear that I’ll be lucky if I get to the middle of the alphabet before I die.  The real problem is that I get enthusiastic for a while, do a lot of cooking, and then just get tired of it and go back to eating frozen food for months on end.  Now that my children are vegetarians-that-don’t-eat-vegetables, finding recipes that even a couple of us will like is very hard.  And if I can’t cook for my kids-that-won’t-eat-anything, it seems selfish to cook for just Mike and I.

Still, after a few months of frozen food I’m hungry for some good homecook food so I’m going back to this project.  And this means getting to date with my writing.  I cooked all these cuisines in late 2016 and early 2017.  I thought I was done with “G” cuisines, but I discovered a few new ones: Gascon, Greenlandish, Gibraltarian and Guernsey.  I also found other cuisines that come earlier in the alphabet.  That, of course, is one reason why I’ll never finish this.

Meanwhile, here are the cuisines I did finish!:

Bissau-Guinean – My journey into this Portuguese inspired West African cuisine could have gone better.

Equatorial Guinea – Try as I might, I could not avoid making yet another dish of chicken with peanut sauce.

Guinean – I made just one dish from this neighboring country, fortunately it was good!

Ghizhou – Another tough country to tackle, but I found one good recipe

Grenadan – I tried, I failed, I moved on

Guadeloupean – Don’t miss the chicken colombo!

Gujarati – I found the most delicious beef kebab dish in this mostly vegetarian cuisine

Guyanese – I loved exploring this cuisine that owes so much to India

 

Saleh Smokehouse – Review

The Everett & Jones restaurant in Hayward has become more and more erratic in their opening hours, so we are looking for a new BBQ joint to call our own.  Last week we gave Saleh Smokehouse a try.  It gets a B+, in my book.

We ordered a plate of links, another of beef, and another of beef and ribs.  Alas, instead of ribs the last plate had links and we didn’t realize it until we came home.  We’re going to have to go back and try the ribs.

I was personally happy with both the beef and the links.  The beef was tender, juicy enough and not overly fatty.  The links were coarse, gritty and homemade.  My husband wasn’t as happy with the links, however, finding them too dry and inferior to E&J’s.  He also didn’t think the BBQ sauce was as great, but I actually thought it was pretty similar to E&J’s.  He was reasonably happy with the baked beans and potato salad.

Saleh Smokehouse is located inside a mini-market in East Oakland.   In addition to barbecue they sell fried chicken and fish & chips, which we didn’t try.  We did pick up a couple of slices of homemade cakes.  I thought the German chocolate cake one was fine, but it needed more coconut flavor in the frosting.  On the plus side, it wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet.

I anticipate we’ll be back

Saleh Smokehouse
679 98th Ave
Oakland, CA
(510) 553-9191
M-Sa 8 AM – 9 PM, Su 8 AM – 7 PM

Marga’s Restaurant Reviews

Christmas Eve 2015 Menu – Better Late than Never

For memory’s sake alone, I want to record here – over a year late – my menu for Christmas Eve 2015. My bathroom sink broke in December 2014, so that year we went out to dinner, but in 2015 my parents and siblings came to visit us. It was bittersweet as my sister Gabriela had passed away the previous spring. I made a very simple meal, with all repeated favorites.

This is what I served:

First Course: Bread & chips vinegars, oils & dips

Second Course: Mixed Green Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette and Iceberg Lettuce with Thousand Islands

The mixed green salad is one of my favorites and my youngest daughter asked me to serve it against in 2016.  The lettuce with Thousand Island salad was for my oldest daughter who is very picky.

Third Course: Mushroom Soup

Another old favorite, from the Les Halles cookbook.

Fourth Course: Flamishe

This leek tart has become an obligatory course at all my Holiday dinners.

Fifth Course: Lime Sorbet in shell

I can’t recall if I made or bought the sorbet, but I halvened the limes in two and scooped out the flesh, then I froze them, filled them with lime sorbet, and put them back in the freezer.  It was a beautiful presentation.

Sixth CoursePrime Rib with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans Almondine plus Brown Rice with Coconut Curry

To make the green beans, just steam them, salt them, toss them with butter and roasted sliced almonds.  I made the coconut curry for my vegetarian daughters. I no longer recall what recipe I used, but I don’t recall her being crazy about it.

Seventh Course: Cheese Plate

I’m sure it was great, but I don’t recall what I served.

Eight Course: Chocolate Peppermint Cake with Maple Nut Ice Cream

The chocolate cake is one that my grandmother used to make and I wanted to surprise my father with it.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember it.  My grandmother also used to make maple ice cream and serve it with chopped nuts.  She had tiny bottles of maple essence she had brought from her trip to the US before I was born (I imagine, I have no idea how else she could have gotten them) and would make this special ice cream once in a big while.  This recipe uses maple syrup, however.

Christmas Eve 2016 Dinner Menu (with Recipes)

xmastableThis year, my father and my friends Lola and Iggy came over for Christmas Eve dinner.  It was a simpler affair than in other years, with only eight courses.  I decided early on that I wanted to make a cheesecake for dessert – a favorite of my friend Lola.  Alas, that means displacing the cheese course to the start of the meal.  No matter, the meal flowed perfectly and everything was great.

I was able to make most of the dishes in advance, which made for a much less stressful Christmas Eve.  This is what we had:

First course: Cheeses

I served a manchego, le Pommier Camembert and Délice de Bourgogne with sliced baguette, crackers, green apple slices, grapes, caramelized walnuts and orange marmalade.   The cheeses were from La Fromagerie in San Francisco.  Most of us preferred the délice, though my dad liked the camembert the most.  Still, these weren’t the best cheeses we’ve had.

Second course: Amuse Bouche of Polenta with Mushroom Ragout

I spent a lot of time looking for recipes of amuse bouches that I could serve in a spoon, but wasn’t satisfied with any. Finally, I decided to wing it and placed a tiny bit of store-bought polenta on each spoon and topped it with a quick, recipe-less mushroom ragout. Wow, was it delicious.  Everyone wanted more!

Third course: Mixed Green Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

This is an old favorite and was requested by my youngest daughter – who had forgotten it had blue cheese in it and didn’t like it.  This time I used Point Reyes blue instead of a milder Gorgonzola, so perhaps that was the problem.  Most of us were happy with it.

Fourth course: Coconut Butternut Squash Soup

My oldest daughter requested I make this soup.  I wanted to try a new recipe, as none of the ones I tried before were that great, and I was intrigued by using one with coconut milk.  This one proved to be a huge hit. It was absolutely delicious.  I had meant to add some pumpkin seeds for color/texture (instead of the red onions and kale the original recipe called for) but I forgot.  Nobody missed them.  Do serve this with sour cream.  It needs the added acidity to be truly great. And great it is.  I made this in advance and then added some water to reheat it.

Fifth Course: Flamishe 

This leek tart is another old favorite requested by my oldest daughter.  It’s one of the simplest things you could ever made but also the most delicious. Once again, I made individual tarts to make it more elegant and served the cream in a creamer, so everyone could pour themselves some.  I made the filling in advance but prepared the leek tarts the day I served them.

Six Course: Lemon Sorbet

Store bought Haagen-Dazs, I’m afraid.

Seventh Course: Five Spice Short Ribs, Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Asparagus

We finally get to the main dish! My vegetarian daughters forewent the ribs, but the rest of us were very happy with them.  I made them in advance, of course.  The buttermilk mashed potatoes are my usually recipe, which I multiplied a few times.  The asparagus were simply roasted with olive oil and salt.

Eighth Course: Dulce de Leche Cheesecake

Being an Argentinian, dulce de leche cheesecake might seem like an obvious idea.  And yet it did not occur to me to make it until I finally decided that my choice of peanut butter cheesecake did not fit with the menu above.  It’s a good thing I listened to those voices, as this was probably the most delicious dessert I’ve made in a long time.  I used San Ignacio Dulce de Leche, which is a great brand, but I’m sure any other would do.  Don’t miss the glace, as the cheesecake is not nearly as good without it.

I served an expensive California sparkling wine with the first part of the meal and Clos Pegase Atlas Peak 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, which we’d bought at the winery, with the main dish.  They were both delicious.

The Recipes

Mixed Green Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

Polenta with Mushroom Ragout

Ingredients:

  • 1 small package of tubed ready-made polenta
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/4 cup whipping cream
  • 1/4 cup madeira or marsala wine
  • sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Slice about half the tube of polenta. Bake or saute it until heated through.  Place in serving plates.

Heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat in a medium saute pan.  Once the butter is melted add the shallot and cook until soft, stirring as necessary.  Add the mushrooms and continue cooking until they are soft and all the liquid evaporates.  Add the whipping cream and madeira and cook, stirring, until it reduces to a thick glace.  Sprinkle with salt and paper to taste.

Place the mushroom ragout on top of the polenta and serve.

Coconut Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:

  • 1 large butternut squash
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 green apple, peeled, cored and sliced
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 2 tsp grated ginger
  • 2 tsp curry powder
  • pinch of ground nutmeg
  • 1 can coconut milk
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • Sour cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum oil.  Cut the butternut quash in half (or quarters, if easier).  Place cut side up on the baking sheet and cover with aluminum foil.  Cook until the flesh is soft, 30 to 50 minutes.  Cool until you can handle it, then peel or scoop out the flesh onto a plate or bowl and set aside.

Heat oil in a soup pot over medium-low heat.  Add the onion and cook until golden, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes.  Add the squash, apple, broth, ginger, curry powder and nutmeg.  Bring to a boil, then reduce temperature to low, cover and simmer until the apples are soft, about 10 minutes.

Remove pot from the heat and, using an immersion blender, puree until smooth.  Alternatively, transfer solids to a food processor or blender in batches and process until pureed, then transfer back to the soup pot and mix well.

Add the coconut milk, stir and cook on low for about ten minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with sour cream.

Based on a recipe from the New York Times.

Flamishe (Leek Tart)

Five Spice Short Ribs

Ingredients:

  • 5-6 lbs English cut short ribs
  • kosher or sea salt and pepper
  • flour for dusting
  • 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. Chinese five-spice powder
  • 1 bottle dry red wine
  • 1 carrot, rinsed and cut into thirds
  • 1 parsnip, rinsed and cut into thirds
  • 1 onion, cut in wedges
  • 5 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 1/4 cup cilantro stems
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 cups beef broth

Directions:

Sprinkle salt and pepper on short ribs. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.  Dust in flour.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large Dutch oven.  Working in batches, add short ribs and brown on all sides, removing to a plate as they brown.  Pour out all but 1 tablespoon of oil from the Dutch oven and set on medium heat.  Add tomato paste and give-spice powder and cook, stirring, for one minute.  Add wine and deglace pan.  Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer, and cook until the liquid is almost completely reduced, about 10 minutes.

Add the short ribs, carrot, parsnip, garlic, cilantro stems and bay leaves.  Cover with the broth.  Bring the braise to a boil over high heat.  Then cover and transfer to the oven.  Cook for 2 hours. Remove from oven, let cool, and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350F.  Remove pot from the refrigerator and remove and discard the congealed fat.  Return pot to the oven and cook, uncovered, for 40 to 60 minutes, until the meat is falling off the bone.  Gently remove the short ribs from the cooking liquid and keep warm.  Strain cooking liquid into a large bowl and discard the solids.  Return strained liquid to the cooking pot, set on the stove over medium-high heat and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half.  Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.  Return the short ribs to the liquid, and cook until the ribs are warmed through.

Based on a recipe at Epicurious.com

 

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake

Ingredients:

For the Crust

  • 50 vanilla wafers
  • 1/3 cup butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Cheesecake

  • 2 lbs cream cheese
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 4 eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 cup dulce de leche
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • pinch salt

For the Glace

  • 2/3 cup dulce de leche
  • 2 Tbsp whipping cream or milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter a springform mold. Line inside with parchment paper and butter again.

Using a food processor, crumble the vanilla wafers into a coarse powder.  Stir in the melted butter, sugar and vanilla cream. Press against the bottom of the pan and about 1/3 up the sides.  Bake in the oven for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, using an electric mixer cream together the cream cheese and the sugar.  Mix in the eggs, one at the time.  Mix in the dulce de leche, the vanila extract and the pinch of salt.  Pour onto prepared crust.

Bake in the oven until it sets, about 50 minutes.  Remove, let cool and unmold.

Prepare the glace by heating together the dulce de leche and whipping cream and whisking to combine.  Once the cheesecake is cool, spread dulce de leche sauce on the top and sides.  Note: if it cracks, you can fill the cracks with dulce de leche as well.

Eritrean, Guatemalan and Ghanaian Recipes Up

After months of inaction, I’ve uploaded the last three cuisines I’ve finished cooking:

My Eritrean menu included an Italian-inspired bread salad, a beef stew and a spongy bread.

My Ghanaian food adventure gave me a yummy meatball stew, a chicken and plantain stew and cake

The Guatemalan dishes I cooked, also a beef and a chicken stew, were better than the food I ate during my honeymoon!

Next on the agenda, Guadeloupean, Bissau-Guinean and Granadian food!

Recipes from Guam, Guanajuato and Germany Up

Ìt’s been a long time, but I’ve finally updated my website with recipes of cuisines I’ve been working on lately.  You can find them here:

Germany: Mushrooms & Horseradish Mashed Potatoes, yum!

Guam: Don’t miss the Beef & Coconut empanadas or the BBQ!

Guanajuato: The peanut mole was quite good!

 

On Vegetarianism

lisasimpsonMy 13-yo daughter wrote the following speech to give to her 8th grade English class.  While I continue to eat (guiltily) eat meat, I am extremely proud of her.

In 2014, 30,170 innocent cows were brutally murdered in slaughterhouses, for YOU to eat your steak, hamburgers, hotdogs, etc. 8,666,662 little chickens were slaughtered for your chicken nuggets. 106,876 sweet, adorable pigs were killed for your bacon. You may not care, to you animals may simply be meaningless, their only purpose being your food. But they’re not. Why are some animals okay to eat, and not others? Why would you happily eat a pig, or cow, but the thought of eating a cat or dog is terrible?

In 2014, I stopped eating meat. 6-9 months before that I had stopped eating all meat except chicken. I honestly have no clue why I thought it was alright to eat to eat chicken. But, I did stop. Why did I stop eating chicken? A Bones episode. It depicted a warehouse full of chickens, each of them given less than a foot of space to live. It depicted baby chicks getting their beaks cut off, because when they got older, they’d fight each other, from the stress of not having any room to live. I don’t know if what they showed was true, I haven’t had the heart to research it, not wanting to think about what was truly going on. It was at that moment that I decided I couldn’t stomach the idea of forcing an animal to go through that, so I could eat something, I really didn’t need. The idea of their lives having to end, for them to have to stop existing, for a hamburger or chicken nugget.

I don’t think it was hard to become a vegetarian, maybe it was because I hadn’t eaten cow, or pig in so long, maybe it was because I truly believed that it was just wrong and cruel to eat the carcass of a deceased animal. I think what was harder, was learning later on that there are things I didn’t know about that contain meat. Gelatin is in marshmallows and gummies, it’s made from boiling the tendons, ligaments, bones, and skin of pigs or cows. Lard is pig fat, it’s in a lot of Mexican food, being used to make quesadillas and refried beans. Truthfully, I didn’t know at the beginning, and I’m still finding out about new things that I can’t eat. If you want to count me actually becoming a vegetarian by when I stopped eating gelatin, or lard, fine by me. But I count it as when I decided it was wrong to.

I’m not trying to turn you into a vegetarian, because I know it won’t work. I think I mostly just think everyone should understand what these innocent creatures have to go through for you to eat something, many of you take for granted. And if you start to question your ways, that’s just fabulous.

Bay Area / San Leandro Restaurant Deals

I’ve written about restaurants deals in San Leandro and the Bay Area before, but new places offering deals have come around, so I thought it was time for an updated posting.  These are the deal sites I’ve found, if you know of others please let me know!

Restaurant.com

Get $25 gift certificates to local restaurants for as little as $2. Minimum purchase (usually $35-$50) required. Other restrictions. Click on link above for details.

Groupon

The original “daily deals” service.  You sign up and you get an offer for a good or service, often at a deep discount. Relatively few restaurant deals but they have the occasional one.

ValPak

These are the coupons you get in the mail. I thought it was the same site as the one above, but they have different offerings. The link goes to the deals for San Leandro, but they have them for all over (just enter your zip code).

Also check the website of the particular restaurant you want to go to. Some (pizza & Chinese joints in particular) will have coupons there or clubs that you can join for special deals.

Local Saver

Pools coupons from the sites above

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

San Leandro Talk

Candy Club Subscription Review: A half-sour experience

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Candy Club: Up to 3 lbs old-fashioned candies, $34/month
Promo: fbtreatyourself20 for $20 off your first box
I paid: $14 with promo, box value: $
To unsubscribe: call 888-598-5995, quick & easy

The Candy Club is a monthly subscription that sends you 2 to 3 pounds of old fashioned candies every month. Boxes come with 3 plastic jars of lose candy and individually wrapped candies filling up the rest of the box. The box is also supposed to include a “surprise confection”, generally a wrapped cookie or candy bar, but it was missing from my box. I didn’t notice until now, which makes me sad as it would probably have been my favorite item in the box. The candy containers look pretty cool, but they are actually made of thin, flexible plastic – so they are not really reusable.

This boxed is supposed to have a retail value of $60. To me, that seems impossible. I came up with a $16 value for this box, using online prices. Now, those values are calculated based on the purchase of much larger quantities, but even at regular candy stores, lose candy goes for $8-$12 a lb. I got 2 1/2 lbs of candy so, at the most, this box is worth $30. It was a deal at the $14 price I paid, but not much of one at the $34 cost of subsequent boxes. Fortunately, cancelling was easy. I just called the number and was unsubscribed without

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Sour Power Candy Belts in Wild Cherry, 9 oz, $2.5

These were sour, really sour. I had trouble eating even the tiny piece I tried. My children, however, enjoyed them.


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Gimbal’s Sour Gourmet Jelly Beans, 14 oz, $8.5

I also found these to be incredibly sour, though quite tasty after you were done with that. Nobody else in my family found them sour, however, showing their taste buds are gone. Enjoyable but not better than regular Jelly Belly’s.

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IMG_0178 Gimbal’s Red Licorice Scottie Dogs, 10 oz, $5

I didn’t realize these were made of licorice until I just checked what they were call to write about them. You would have fooled me, they don’t taste at all like licorice. That’s a good thing as I hate licorice. That said, these didn’t taste of much anything. Everyone at my house agreed these were not worth the calories.


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Sweet’s Cotton Candy Salt Water Taffy, ~7 oz, $2.5

These were everyone’s favorites. Really delicious taffy that really tasted like cotton candy. I may very well buy some more of these in the future.

Check out my other subscription box reviews.