The Park Slope Gastronome #16 - West Coast Baseball Trip Day 4

Day Four finds us in Las Vegas, NV. It is 800 degrees and surprise, surprise, we are only among another 100 or so 51s' fans to brave an early afternoon game. Mitch buys a fishing cap and Marc, a visor at the team store. I believe both their purchases are festooned with the 51s' mascot, which happens to be a bald, inverse teardrop shaped alien head with big, shiny black almond shaped eyes. At the game I ate a Johnsonville Brat at the sausage factory stand (it may have been called Brat-ville) and for dessert got me shave ice, flavored with black cherry syrup. Shave ice is a frozen treat indigenous to Hawaii. It is NOT the same as a sno-cone. And no, it is not SHAVED ice, past tense. It begins with a huge bock of ice that is finely cut into flakes, rather than chips. The process produces a light, snowy product that is way more delicate than your average state fair sno cone. Somehow Jamie peer pressured himself to drink the leftover syrup from my shave ice. Did he even win a dollar for doing that?

That evening before the boys went off to Sam's Town for a night of 5 cent bets at the craps table, we feted ourselves at the MGM Grand Buffet - a lavish feast of gluttony and mediocrity. I think Mitch ate 20 snow crab legs and Marc only slices of prime rib, washed down with Cokes. We did have a wonderful waiter, whose name I didn't write down, but he was from an exotic land (according to his name tag) and he was very prompt with the beverage refills and very generous with the wet-naps. My favorite part of the meal was a grilled "baked" potato. Basically you get a portion of mashed potatoes, and the grill master adds a variety of toppings, including bacon bits (and we're not talking bac-os!), scallions and cheese. She covers it up with a metal bowl to steam it up and then plates up the oozing gooey scrumptious tuberlicious mess.