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.

Park Slope Gastronome #5 - Whatever happened to Lukas Haas?

this past weekend, the psg found themselves in amish country. the plan was to partake in the amazing maize maze, a dizzying 3-D puzzle cut out in five acres of corn. sans the psg, the maze proved to be too daunting last year. after over 3 hours of walking through the stalks of dried corn, the mission was abandoned. call it beginner's luck or what have you, but we finished the maze this year in record time. unfortunately, we didn't pick up all the map pieces along the way so that disqualified us from getting on the white board of fame.

en route to the maze, we stopped at an amish food stand, where heidi was ever so excited to see her pumpkin moonpies. i had nearly the same reaction to dilly beans, which are green and yellow string beans pickled in brine. they are simply delicious. heidi also bought a package of snickerdoodles. as we sampled the cookies in the car, liz provided us with the quote of the day when commented: "these snickerdoodles sure don't taste like a snickers bar." we'd like to think she was kidding, but she was not!

after the maze and a walk around the petting zoo, we were ready for some pennsylvania dutch home cooking. that led us to dienners where heidi and i both opted for the buffet, while liz got a delicious looking blt.

i proceeded to pile the following on my plate: rotisseried chicken drumstick, piece of ham, whipped potatoes, buttered noodles, baked lima beans, beef stew, stewed tomatoes, bread filling aka stuffing, green beans, rice, broccoli, macaroni and cheese, fried shrimp, fish stick, corn and a roll. when i returned to the table, i realized i hadn't gotten any salad so i went back and got a plate of greens, carrots, potato salad, macaroni salad, beets, cucumbers, egg salad, and some apple butter for my roll. oh, i also had a small ladle of chicken corn noodle chowder. all the hot food kind of had that same mushy cooked texture, but i loved it all. everything tasted like it was made with love, especially the apple butter and soup, and a lot of butter! i wish they had bacon in their hot food section. oh, i had some vegetable soup too, but i didn't like it too much because it was a bit sweet. i didn't even have dessert but i got so stuffed.

this was a girls only trip so dan was not allowed. i brought him home a homemade whoopie pie.