Sammy's Roumanian

Last week Matt showed us this Jewish steakhouse over in LES called "Sammy's Roumanian." It was a very homestyle basement restaurant with pictures covering every inch of their walls. Their menus were 8.5x11 sheets of paper stapled into manila envelopes. Despite the sketchy vibe this place exhibited, Matt insisted that the food was on par with a 5-star restaurant.

We grabbed a couple of beers while waiting for our friends Dave, Chris and Mark. Looking at the minimalist menu of items, the prices were almost on par with finer appearing dining. Matt already determined we all must try the Chicken liver, and if we want steak, go with the specialty: Sammy's Roumanian Steak.

When our friends finally arrived we immediately put in an order for a bottle of Kettle One. When they served it it was encased in a brick of ice. We took turns seeing who could brave opening it. We then each put in our orders for our Steaks, along with the Chicken Liver, of course.

The Chicken Liver came in a big silver bowl with a spoon, and a plate of matza. This stuff was delicious. If you never tried liver before, this would be the best kind of stuff to start out with. Dave and Chris were instant fans.

Did I mention they also have a house musician? His name is Dani Luv, and I must admit he is extremely offensively funny. Covering various oldie hits with a Jewish twist, he continuously chats and takes jabs at the guests. Our table was cracking up during our entire stay.

The steaks finally arrived, and holy sh*t it was huge. The medium slab of skirt steak I ad ordered was literally folded over itself with melted garlic butter glazed on top. The steak itself was nice and tender, pretty much melted in my mouth. THis was probably the 3rd best steak I've had, behind Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak in Vegas and Peter Luger's in Brooklyn & Glen Cove.

I definitely would consider going back with a group of friends, it was definitely good food and good times.

Chill Saturday

It was a fairly nice day Saturday. I'm getting pretty mad at how it doesn't feel like winter at all in the beginning of February in NYC. Anyway I decided to drive up to Rockland to hang out with my friends "Doza" and Khristine. We ate and bullshitted at BonChon Chicken in Nyack then bullshitted some more at a McDonald's in the same plaza.

Khristine baked me some "cake batter bars" which were pretty good. I'm sitting here having them with coffee for breakfast as I write this. They're like a mix between cake and brownies.

Mmm Pasta

I'm by no means a chef, but I figured I may as well start trying to cook meals for myself. This pasta with meat sauce may not look like it belongs on the Food Channel, but it came out pretty good.

With just about $10-$15 in ingredients, this will last me at least a good 5 meals.

Next up: Steak. Pretty straight-forward.

Viva Las Vegas

A week ago I took a 3 day mini-vacation to Las Vegas with my best friend since kindergarten, Matt Johnson. Our last trip was during the first week of June, where I made the silly mistake of catching a flight on a Friday night straight after work, then landing at 7:00am Monday morning and going straight from the terminal back into work. Since we didn't really have enough to time to truly enjoy last time we thought to do a second take.

I'm on a plane.

The whole poker thing did not go well at all, I probably had the worst luck known to man. If you want to know, every single one of my over pairs were cracked by sets and I had a K-high flush busted by a Queen high straight flush (the 3rd best hand in all of poker). After that I stopped the poker and tried my unfortunate luck at the roulette table. That didn't pan out too well either, so let's go straight to what did make the trip: Delicious, Delicious food.

I opted not to bring my camera last minute and decided to stick with the one on my Galaxy S.

Right off the bat we took the cab from the airport straight to our hotel, MGM Grand. We were there around 11:00am, which was still technically too early to check-in. I tried to make the Asian connection, and it worked! We were in our room right away.

Starving from an early 5-6 hour flight, we decided to head down to Wolfgang Puck, which was a hit during our last time in town.

I love me some Ahi Tuna Tartare and Steak Skewers. I got some Chicken Crusted entree that tasted like deep fried butter and Matt went with the Salmon, where he found a hidden trove of bacon at the base. Salmon + Bacon is a great combo I must add.

Later that evening we ended up at Aria, which is probably our favorite casino on The Strip. My friend Angeline tipped us off to Tapas, Julian Serrano's spanish-style restaurant. We took a look at the menu and were drawn to the Mixed Paella, so we set up shop. With a huge pitcher of Sangria we started off with this excellent meat sampler appetizer. Then the Mixed Paella, with Lobster, Mussels and Chicken came out, and was quickly devoured.

The next day we had planned to grab dinner over at Samba, located in The Mirage. It is a Brazilian BBQ joint that we had also found last time we were in town. If you've never had Brazilian BBQ before, you get a nice little piece on the table with a green and red side. Green means MORE FOOD. and Red means STOP. So long as it's got the green side up, you'll have guys come up to you with skewers of sweet, delicious, meaty goodness. They'll cut you off a slice and continue on their way, until the next guy comes with a completely different choice of meat. I can't even name all the things I got, but there must have been pieces from 6 different animals on my plate when it was all said and done. Sorry PETA.

Our last meal before catching our flight back to New York was at Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak in MGM Grand. I have to say this was the best meal I've ever had. I would not shut up about the Lobster Bisque! So good! This dinner was on Matt at $140 per person. Crazy right? Crazy good.

Thanksgiving

A lot of this.

Some of this.

A nice slab of this.

Some slices of this.

A heaping of this.

A little bit of this to be safe.

Some more.

Plate #1

Beamer, my cousin's French Bulldog, was pretty psyched.