Fall Las Vegas Restaurant Week

Last week was Las Vegas Restaurant Week, which gave me a perfect excuse to indulge in a fancy meal for a good cause.  After perusing the long list of fixed-price menus, my friends and I settled on AquaKnox, a seafood place inside of the Venetian casino.  Honestly, it was one of the best dinners I've had in a long time!  The service was wonderful, and as locals, we were given a few special extras.

First, we were served a perfectly seared scallop as an amuse-bouche.  It came with a fruit relish and a sage garnish.  This was one of the "bonus" menu items.  Amazing!

Next, we had our appetizers.  I opted for the caprese salad.  This was a little different than a typical caprese salad, as it featured sliced peaches, burrata cheese, and avocado.  This is on their regular menu, and I would definitely order it again.  You can't really see the cheese, but it was a big delicious hunk of awesome.

We were then given another bonus treat: an oyster on the half-shell with a strawberry (and lychee?) sauce.  I would never think to pair fruit with oysters, but this was pretty good.

Then, it was time for the main event!  I opted for the trout, and I was so glad I did.  It was sooo good!  The skin was extra crispy, while the fish was perfectly moist and a little on the rare side.  It was served with a bacon ragout, potatoes and onions, and a chive butter sauce.  I inhaled the entire thing.

We were all pretty full after the main course, but we somehow continued eating.  Dessert was called a chocolate s'more, but it was unlike any s'more I've ever had.  I mean that in a good way!  Instead of the chocolate and marshmallow being sandwiched between graham crackers, it featured a thick layer of chocolate mousse on a graham cracker crust, with torched marshmallow on top.  The caramel sauce, crème Anglaise, and caramel corn pieces were nice (and delicious) garnishes.  I inhaled this, too.

And, because they apparently really love locals, we were given one last bonus: an aperitif of lavender cake and a shot of boozy liquid.  The cake bite had a wonderful French lavender flavor, and the drink tasted just like lemonade.  Both were very refreshing, and were a nice end to our meal.

Thanks for a great dinner, AquaKnox!  I don't usually like fancy restaurants, but the excellent service and food, paired with the added love for the local crowd, have made me a fan of this restaurant.  I plan on bringing my parents here the next time they're in town.  I'm looking forward to the next Restaurant Week already!

Latest Artist Obsession: Beth Hoeckel

I was looking at a sale on Fab the other night, when I stumbled upon the artwork of Beth Hoeckel.  She's a Baltimore-based artist, who makes these really amazing collages using retro images.  I used to make collages a number of years ago, and her work is really inspiring me to get back into it.

Collage by Beth Hoeckel.  Print available at Society6.

For those of you who like Future Islands, one of her collages is featured on the "Singles" album cover.  A number of her prints, as well as tote bags, clocks, throw pillows, etc., that feature her designs, are being sold through Society6.  I kinda want ALL of the prints.

Weekend Recap: Low-Key Adventures

I feel like I have overdone it with my level of social interaction over the last two months.  My painfully recent breakup (maybe I'll get more into that later) was motivation to keep myself busy and out of the house almost every night.  This usually isn't my style at all.  As a self-proclaimed introvert, I tend to need some "recharge" time every few days.  I was looking forward to staying home all weekend and just vegging out, but I started to feel guilty about my streak of hermitude.  I had already cancelled all of my potential social plans during the week (I was totally exhausted), and I ultimately decided that getting out of the house would be good for me.

Several of my friends in the area are teachers, and the new school year happened to start today.  It seemed like most of my friends wanted to end the summer with a bang, but not a big enough bang to make the impending first day of school a miserable experience.  So, some low-key plans were made, and it turned out to be a pretty nice weekend.

Friday night, a friend and I checked out a new local brewery, which happens to be near my office.  It's called Bad Beat, and it's in a business park.  It's a weird location, I know, but there also happens to be a distillery nearby, and there are plans to open another brewery sometime soon (next year?).  I ended up getting a sampler of five beers.  I think my two favorites were their Ace in the Hole, a basil-flavored pale ale, and their Gunshot, a dry Irish stout.  Not too shabby.

I went running on Saturday morning, and later tried to erase my spandex tan lines by throwing on a bikini and lounging outside for a while.  I checked out a few episodes of the bad movie podcast How Did This Get Made? while I was being lazy.  If you've never heard of the show (thanks for the recommendation, Courtney!) and you like bad movies, check it out.  I was cracking up!  I highly recommend the Sleepaway Camp episode.  I love that movie!  I'm also thinking about starting my own bad movie club soon.

After being lazy, I convinced myself to run some errands and do some light cleaning, but then I got hungry.  I bugged one of my friends to get ramen with me, and we headed to Chinatown.  If you've never been to Chinatown in Las Vegas, it's definitely an experience.  It's not like any other Chinatown I've ever seen.  It's basically a giant strip mall that crawls for miles down Spring Mountain road.  There are tons of restaurants that serve any kind of Asian food you can imagine, but one of my favorite spots is Ramen Sora (they don't have a website, so you get Yelp - deal with it).  I always get the spicy miso ramen with extra nori and seaweed flakes.  It's always amazing.

After eating my entire bowl of ramen (seriously, I don't even know how I fit that much food in my body), we headed to the Linq, which is the new outdoor shopping/dining area next to the Quad (used to be the Imperial Palace).  There's a lot of touristy stuff to do down there (meh), but I wanted to check out BLVD. Cocktail Company.  It's a very nicely decorated piano bar with craft cocktails.  I loved the artwork in there!  I immediately noticed a Mark Ryden painting on the wall, and was totally sold after that.  The drinks are not cheap (mine was $14), but that's Vegas for you.  The entertainment was pretty good, though.  We stayed for two different bands, who both played cover songs.  A lot of pop songs, but also some decent jams.  I really appreciated hearing No Diggity and Return of the Mack, for example.  We just stayed for one drink, then it was time to head home.

On Sunday, I had plans to get brunch at Red Velvet Cafe at Fashion Show Mall because I had an expiring Groupon.  They have a fairly big menu, and offer vegan meats and cheeses so you can "veganize" almost everything.  I am quite fond of their vegetarian taco salad, but I opted to get an orzo salad with shrimp, goat cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, and a lemon dressing.  Very tasty.  Their food is great and everything, but the main reason I go there is the vegan cake.  I am not vegan, but those vegan cakes are the best thing ever.  As their name would suggest, RVC is most well-known for their red velvet cake, but I like to try a different one every time.  This time, I got the hot fudge sundae cake.  Holy crap!  It might be my new favorite.

Hot Fudge Sundae Cake. Image source: HappyCow.

After eating all of that food, I needed to walk around for a bit.  Later on, I fell into a deep food coma.  Watching the latest season of Hemlock Grove was all I could manage to do for the rest of the day.  I'm not really into the whole Twilight/vampires/werewolves thing, but I love Hemlock Grove.  Is it bad that I have a huge lady-boner for Bill Skarsgård?  I don't care.

I was bad and didn't take any pictures of my food this weekend, which is so unlike me.  Next time...

Very First Post!

Hey, Internet!

This is my very first blog post.  Starting a blog has been something I have wanted to do for a very long time, and I finally took the plunge.  I'm looking forward to getting this thing off the ground.

Overall, I want this blog to function as a space for me to share things that interest me with the rest of the world.  I plan on also sharing some details about my life, and things will probably get a little personal, at times.  I hope this doesn't weird anyone out.  I promise to mostly focus on fun things.

Anyway, a little more about me.  I am an academic medical librarian living in Henderson, NV, which is a suburb of Las Vegas.  I've been out here for just over five years, and I'm at the point where I'd like to relocate.  I'm thinking California right now, more specifically, Los Angeles, but we'll see what happens.  I am originally from Plymouth, MI, which is about 30 minutes outside of Detroit.

I am currently in the last year of my 20s, and it's been a rough past year.  I found myself in a professional rut (hence, the idea of relocating).  I had some serious medical issues that were rather surprising.  I became unexpectedly single after a very meaningful two-year relationship.  I also fell into the deepest depression I have ever experienced.  Yes, all of this sounds terrible, but I'm trying to see the bright side of things.  Being at rock-bottom has given me an opportunity to change my life for the better.  I am currently focusing on making myself a happier person, and this blog will feature the things that make me happy.  I hope you will join me on my journey to "get my groove back."  It should be a fun ride.  I have a wide range of interests (you'll have to stay tuned), but I have some ideas of specific features I want to include here.  More details about this will follow.

Anyway, welcome to Spirited Animal!  I named the blog after my preferred style of dancing.  My best friend tells me I look like I'm "seeking my spirit animal" when I dance.  I don't really know what that means, but it makes me think of Stevie Nicks.  I don't hate it.