Crazy Frequent Flyer Asians: UA38/37 Dreamliner Nonstop to LA, Vegas & Grand Canyon

[yflyer]

It was hot the week we were there...very hot..but I needed my running fix, and somehow I didn't think the gym at the Signature would cut it, so I headed outside for a run...



In the event, it was dry heat, and at 6pm the sun was not that high up in the sky, so despite it being 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit!!) on the thermometer, the run was bearable as long as you watched your pace and didn't go too fast...

I started at The Signature and headed to The Strip, and headed up sidewalk along Las Vegas Boulevard towards the north...



The sidewalks in Vegas were wide enough such that it was possible to jog at a decent pace without running into people...certainly it was easier than jogging in midtown Manhattan...



I jogged past the Bellagio...



...and then ducked indoors in order to reach the wide pedestrian bridge across to Caeser's Palace...



There were several points along the route where I had to take these overhead bridges, occasionally accessible only by cutting indoors through the resort complexes, however far from being disruptive to the run, they provided welcome breaks/breathers from the heat...a few seconds to slow to walking pace, and even enjoy a few seconds of air conditioning before resuming the run in the 40+ degree heat...

Further on, I passed the Flamingo, where Donny and Marie were playing (If you know who they are, I can probably guess your age...)



...and even further up, I jogged past the Venetian, with its copies of St Mark's Square, Bell Tower and Rialto Bridge, not to mention opera-spouting Gondoliers...

[yflyer]

Finally a glimpse of my run's endpoint: The Stratosphere Tower, still a good distance away...



You run into quite a few interesting characters in Vegas...this friendly pair of ladies offered to pose for photos (For tips...)...I had to decline, giving the excuse that I had no cash on my jogging attire, which wasn't exactly the whole truth, since I did carry my driver's license, copy of my passport, a credit card and emergency cash in my shorts' pocket...



...I continued past the Wynn Resort...



...and the Trump International...



...before finally arriving, hot, sweaty and totally exhausted, at the Stratosphere...



A satisfying 6km run...probably as far as I was prepared to go that day, given the 43 degree heat...

[yflyer]

Mrs yflyer and I both love rollercoasters, so one evening before dinner, we headed to New York, New York to check out the rollercoaster there. It was unusually cloudy that day, which made for a spectacular sunset...



The casino complex at NY, NY...



We made our way through the maze of slot machines and gaming tables to get to the arcade where the Roller Coaster was located...



The roller coaster is popular with visitors, but there wasn't much of a queue for a ride...we joined a separate queue for the front row seats in the coaster, and before long, we were strapped in for the ride...



The ride began with a steep drop followed by a 360 loop, as well as other twists and turns...this was a no compromise rollercoaster which was as thrilling as those in large theme parks.

After that bone-rattling appetizer, we headed to the Chocolate Bar at NY, NY for a pre-dinner drink...





I opted for a regular martini, while Mrs yflyer opted for a chocolate caramel martini...



My martini was up to scratch, but I took a sip of Mrs yflyer's drink, and found it delicious. Who knew vodka, Hershey's kisses chocolate, white chocolate liqueur, and cream, would go so well together?

[yflyer]

Dinner was at Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak at the MGM Grand...





Soft breadrolls to start, hot from the oven...



A classic steakhouse menu, with a range of different cuts of steak available...





There was a large wine list, as well as a good selection of different wine and liquor flights...





We decided to share a flight of red wines from Duckhorn...

[yflyer]

Our starters...

Half a dozen oysters...



...very fresh and sweet tasting...

A delicious Steak Tartar...



...and our main, a 16 oz dry aged, bone-in NY Strip, done medium rare...



This was an exceptional steak, with wonderful flavour and texture...

We had our steak with several sides: Heirloom cauliflower, and half portions of mushrooms and potato puree...



The dessert menu...



We could not resist ordering the flaming bananas foster to share...



A very enjoyable dinner. There are many top notch steakhouses in Vegas, this was the only one we tried on this trip, so we don't know if it was the best one, but I would rank Craftsteak very highly on the list of steak houses we have tried in any city.

[yflyer]

Las Vegas isn't just about The Strip. Outside of this stretch of tourist town, there are many part of Las Vegas which are not different from suburbs in any other city, and of course this is where the regular folks, not to mention many of the service staff in the casinos and resorts, live.

There is, in fact, also a Chinatown in Las Vegas...



...which we drove through, on another evening, to get to another of our dinner destinations...



Our dinner venue, Sparrow+Wolf, was right smack in the middle of Chinatown.



This was an up and coming restaurant that served modern American cuisine with strong Asian influences...



The menu...



We opted for the chef's tasting menu with beverage pairing, and this began with a glass of Veuve (Incongruously served in a Moet champagne flute...which just added to the quirky, casual charm of the place...)...



Mrs yflyer also ordered a tiki cocktail, "Strength in Numbers", made with Cachaca, Orgeat, Lime, Orange and Lavender bitters...



Oysters done 3 ways...



A refreshing dish of kumato tomatoes, cucumber salad, wakame and toasted sesame...



Hamachi carpaccio...



...paired with an Albarino...

[yflyer]

Next up, plump scallops...



Maitake mushrooms and hummus...an unusual but very tasty combination of textures...



Sublime beef cheek and bone marrow dumplings...



A rich and hearty beef short rib...



...and a delicious Japanese sweet potato...



We were served a glass of Californian Petit Syrah with the meat courses, but by that point I was so lost in the flavours of the dishes placed in front of us that I must have forgotten to snap a picture of the glass...

[yflyer]

What followed was a sweet wine, a 2014 Muscat from France...



...and dessert...



Overall we found this to be imaginative, original cusine, very well executed...a very promising restaurant.

[yflyer]

At that point in our trip, we checked out of The Signature, and moved to the Westin Las Vegas, just a few blocks to the north, and also offset from The Strip by a couple of blocks...



This is one of the more staid looking buildings in Las Vegas, however the rooms here were fine, and the location, just a short walk from the Strip, was good too.

The lobby...



There was no SPG Exec Lounge at this Westin, however they did offer a complimentary whisky tasting, and dessert, at the lobby restaurant...





Our room was comfortable enough...





Combined bathtub/shower...





A perfectly decent room -- I would be quite comfortable staying in this hotel room if I was on a business trip, however for Vegas it just seemed too...normal...

In any case the location was good, and closer to the places that we were planning to visit on this later part of the trip, including the Las Vegas North Premium Outlets, where Mrs yflyer spent an inordinate amount of her time...

These brands on offer were the staples of Premium Outlets everywhere, fashion, sports, luggage, cosmetics shoes...it was just amazing that although it was 40+ degrees C outside, folks were still thronging the passageways moving from shop to shop. Of course the stores were well air-conditioned and there were mist sprays outside to keep shoppers cool...



Another reason to head to the North Premium Outlets was Shake Shack...



...which won over Mrs yflyer with the very first bite...



"When you bite into the patty, you get a mouthful of all that juicy beef flavour...it makes me feel so warm and fuzzy...I love Shake Shack burgers..."...Mrs yflyer gushed...

[yflyer]

We also spent time at the Mob Museum...



...and learnt a little more about the origins of organised crime in the USA...



...and how the history of Vegas was at least partly interwined with that of the Mob...



Actual wiretaps and recordings on display, which you could listen to...



While a lot of it was history, a sobering thought is that organised crime still exists today, on an international scale...



To be continued!

[SQfanatic]

Excellent pics of LA, I could tell you had a blast out there. Vegas pics are amazing as well. I bet you really found the dry heat a lot more comparable to that of the humid heat. Lots of friends of mine from high school tend to go to Vegas to see the Floyd/Mayweather fights (which I tend to feel left out from even if I want to visit Vegas to visit).

I usually prefer going to Vegas in the month of December/January. The climate is just like the Bay Area (same temps, in Farenheit, usually in the 50's for daytime highs and 30's for lows). As far as gambling, I am always very conservative and careful, because for some I'm sure it can be addictive money-wise. The idea of going to Vegas is always to have fun and enjoy a vacation.

[SQfanatic]

It was hot the week we were there...very hot..but I needed my running fix, and somehow I didn't think the gym at the Signature would cut it, so I headed outside for a run...

For a second, I thought it was 43 degrees Farenheit, like (maybe because I'm used to having Farenheit on my phone). The feels like in the West Coast on hot days is usually either the same, a few degrees lower, or just a degree higher. In humid places, the feels like could be as high as 20 degrees higher (with respect to Farenheit scale)

[yflyer]

Excellent pics of LA, I could tell you had a blast out there. Vegas pics are amazing as well. I bet you really found the dry heat a lot more comparable to that of the humid heat. Lots of friends of mine from high school tend to go to Vegas to see the Floyd/Mayweather fights (which I tend to feel left out from even if I want to visit Vegas to visit).

I usually prefer going to Vegas in the month of December/January. The climate is just like the Bay Area (same temps, in Farenheit, usually in the 50's for daytime highs and 30's for lows). As far as gambling, I am always very conservative and careful, because for some I'm sure it can be addictive money-wise. The idea of going to Vegas is always to have fun and enjoy a vacation.

Thanks, SQfanatic...would have preferred to go in a cooler month as well, but I didn't have a lot of flexibility around dates, as I was there for a business convention.

For a second, I thought it was 43 degrees Farenheit, like (maybe because I'm used to having Farenheit on my phone). The feels like in the West Coast on hot days is usually either the same, a few degrees lower, or just a degree higher. In humid places, the feels like could be as high as 20 degrees higher (with respect to Farenheit scale)

43 F = 6 C...still good for a run!

[yflyer]

Before the Las Vegas Strip (Which technically speaking, isn't in Las Vegas, being just south of Las Vegas city limits), there was downtown Las Vegas, and Fremont Street, with its abundance of casinos and bright, multi-hued neon lighting, which used to be where the action was, and where movies featuring Las Vegas were filmed.

Although these days visitors gravitate to the Las Vegas Strip, it is still worth a visit to Fremont Street, and downtown Las Vegas, just to see what the old Vegas was like.



Many landmarks, like the Union Hotel (Previously known as the Union Plaza) still exist...



...as does the neon Vegas Vic cowboy sign, but the road is now a pedestrian only zone, with an LED-lit roof.



It is now branded the Fremont Street Experience, with concerts, activities and street performers/vendors taking centrestage, alongside the old casinos.

The best time to go is in the evening, when the roof of the street covering is lit up, and when the place really comes to life.

[yflyer]

We had dinner at a restaurant close to Fremont Street: Flock & Fowl Las Vegas...



Mrs yflyer wanted to go there to check out their version of, of all things, Hainanese Chicken Rice, which was something of a signature dish for James Beard-nominated Chef and Owner Sheridan Su.

After about a week of American/Western cuisine, it was about time for some Asian/Singaporean comfort food...



There, on the menu, was F&F Classic Hainan Chicken...



How chicken rice became Chef Sheridan's signature dish makes for an interesting story. My first thought when Mrs yflyer mentioned that there was a place here that sold chicken rice, was that the chef must have been Singaporean or perhaps Malaysian, since that is where the dish came from. But that wasn't the case: Chef Sheridan was actually born and raised in California. His inspiration for chicken rice apparently came from a meal at Boon Keng Chicken Rice in Taipei, itself an outpost of Singapore's Boon Tong Kee.

The story of how he and his wife first encountered chicken rice is related in a video here. What I found surprising is that there is no mention of the fact that this is a Singaporean dish. The video interview gives Hainan as the origin, which is correct at a basic level, but not the whole story: Yes the style of cooking the chicken came from Hainan, but the way of preparing the dish, the combination of chilli, ginger and dark soy...the all important chicken rice...that is all about Singapore's version. In fact, there are some things in the video that might be heretical to fans of authentic Singapore chicken rice. But I think what we are seeing is a natural creative process, right now the dish, at its core, is recognizably Singapore-style Hainanese chicken rice...who knows what the dish will morph into as Sheridan and other top chefs work their magic...

So a fairly indirect connection to Singapore, but whatever the origin or inspiration, the proof would be in the eating...

I was also intrigued to see other Singaporean dishes on the menu, such as laksa and even kaya toast (Served, intriguingly, as an appetizer, not breakfast...and with foie gras...), although we didn't sample them on this occasion...

The bar menu looked very inviting too...



We began with drinks..."No Tajin in the Machine" and Ogden's punch...



Le Grand...



Crisp chicken wings, with salt and Szechuan pepper...



...and finally, the Hainanese chicken rice, which came with two sides of your choice...



This was actually very authentic and tasty...a thumbs up!

Could this compare with the very best you could get in Singapore? No, but we weren't expecting it to be. But it was very good, and hit all the right notes as far as the chicken, the rice and the all important condiments (chilli, ginger, dark sauce) were concerned. It hit the spot, and was probably the most authentic and tasty chicken rice in a 500km radius...

The other dishes, and cocktails were wonderful too. A restaurant I would definitely want to visit again.