thecattylife

22Oct 2009

a very small catty in a very Grand Canyon

by catty ⋅ 7 Comments

The Grand Canyon. Ze Grande Canyone. You know what, if Starbucks had its way, this would be called the Venti Canyon, because yes it’s the absolute equivalent of a two litre coffee. It’s so mammoth that you don’t really believe someone’s actually drinking that, are they insane? Do they realise the number of hairs they’ll pull out from fidgeting and the carpet which will be worn thin by the constant pacing?! Clearly not. And unless you can handle your shit, don’t order it because those who can’t *coughguywhositsrightnearmecough*, coffee buzzes are so not cool to the people around you.

But anyway, vented (ah, hah, vented the venti, I am so not funny).

Now, the Grand Canyon. Without doubt the absolute highlight of my little American sojourn, and my only regret is that we weren’t able to spend more time down in the gaping big hole, contemplating life and our seriously insignifcant contribution towards this magnificent world of ours.

Law enforced by the Native Americans mandate that we (terrible folk who are destroying the natural beauty one gravel at a time) can only touch down for 30 minutes, and so we touch, we click-click-click away and we’re off. It’s that fast, but wait! This being the tour that I joined, we also had lunch inside the Grand Canyon. I mean, what’s life without food, right? High five!

20Oct 2009

big lights, big food and mini donuts: the “bigness” of eating in Las Vegas

by catty ⋅ 8 Comments

Las Vegas is, in a word, immense. Everything is larger than life, from the sprawling Strip, with one gargantuan Vegas block the size of several regular city blocks and lights that can be seen from space, to colossal resorts like Caesar’s Palace which span I don’t know like five blocks? I shit you not, you kinda walk along Las Vegas Blvd and oh, we’re still at Caesar’s Palace. Ten minutes later, oh look we’re still at Caesar’s Palace. It’s really like that.

The life is big, the food is big, the people are big (no doubt a consequence of the big food) and the Grand Canyon, well that’s just f**king mammoth, so mammoth that it deserves its own post. Las Vegans (I know, ironic because they are anything but vegans) know not of portion size, be it in relation to blocks or food. I didn’t so much mind ginormous blocks but the food. I had to re-learn how to not complete my meals, for fear that I would be rolling (and not high rolling, which would also have been ok) out of Vegas.

Anyway, after flicking through my hundreds upon hundreds of photos from Las Vegas, I came to the disturbing conclusion that I don’t want to waste time and precious real estate posting photos of all the crap we ate. I know, disturbing because (a) I said food was crap? really? me?! and (b) this real estate, it’s free.

So ok fine, you got me ~ we’ll talk a little bit about food.

18Oct 2009

love is: lazy days and green tea cupcakes

by catty ⋅ 13 Comments

Yesterday has got to be one of my all time favourite days. Somewhere between waking up yesterday morning and having dinner at Kiasu (I left the country for what, 10 days? And I totally missed Kiasu) last night, I baked some amazingly scrumptilicious green tea cupcakes. In case you didn’t know, green tea is a crazy obsession of mine, not so much the actual tea itself (but I do drink it), but green tea flavoured sweet anythangs.

Green tea ice cream*, green tea nougat, green tea crème brûlée, green tea cake, green tea fudge, green tea buns, green tea mochi ice cream balls (OMG the new-ness of this discovery still sends shivers down my spine!) and delectable green tea soufflé, which I’ve only ever had once at Toko three years ago, and have never stopped thinking about it (they’ve since removed it from their menu, biatches).

So imagine my absolute fifth-grader squeals of delight when I found a recipe for green tea cupcakes in my Hummingbird Bakery cookbook!

Gawd this book is my bible.

16Oct 2009

pan-Asian dining @ Wazuzu: one meal, five countries, all from the heart of Vegas

by catty ⋅ 3 Comments

I’m trying to write a blog post about the food in Vegas. The excess of food in Vegas, I should say, but it’s been hard going because every time I look at my photos, just like that, like magic, my muffin top pops out above the waist of my far-too-skinny 7 for all Mankind jeans, and at the same time, I’m salivating over all the food we ate. That’s a double whammy if you haven’t already worked it out. Muffin top’s gone wild, and I’m still hungry. So you see, it’s hazardous for me to write about Vegas right now.

But I do have to write about Vegas (because I can be a little obsessive compulsive and everything needs to be chronological), so I’m gonna focus on the one healthy meal we had ~ healthy as in Asian, as opposed to mammoth burgers and such devilish temptations as white chocolate brioche french toast.

Asian we wanted, and boy did we get. Pan-Asian, to be precise, not fusion, but traditional fanfare from the vast reaches of the far east, brought together by Chinese-Thai chef Jet Tila, who heads up the kitchen of Wazuzu in The Strip’s newest resort hotel, the Wynn Encore.

14Oct 2009

i left my heart in san francisco (or i may have lost it in the clam chowder bread bowl)

by catty ⋅ 8 Comments

San Francisco. Our first port of call on what was to be ten days of leisure, pleasure and lots and lots of eating. Well, not so much in SF but Vegas? Holy crap I actually had to teach myself how not to finish every single meal, but that is another story and thankfully another post, because having just stepped off the 10 hour return flight today, I can barely manage to log onto netbank to check my funds balance (or maybe I just don’t want to) let alone even think about Vegas right now. The sheer enormity of the place gives me heart palpitations, so we’re just not gonna go there today ok? We’re just sticking to nice, safe San Fran.

San Francisco was always going to be a winner, with or without the gastronomous delights. And this is because a very special friend of mine from university, who I haven’t seen for almost ten years, lives there and in this time she’s gone and gotten married, had two kids and two dogs (ok so she didn’t have the dogs but you know what I mean) and I hadn’t met any of them! Not cool. So here I was in San Fran to see Anh and the crew, and like I said, had I not eaten for the whole three days (pffft, like that’s ever gonna happen), SF would still have been sweet.

But good golly, surprise surprise I did eat. I mean, why else would I be writing about San Fran in a food blog? Duh.

08Oct 2009

The House of Prime Rib: a carnivore’s sweet sweet heaven

by catty ⋅ 12 Comments

Hello everyone! Did you miss me? I definitely missed you, or well I missed you in particular, my dear bloggie. So much so that here I am, all the way from The Bellagio in Vegas, sitting by my wall high window as the famous fountain light-show plays below me to Bach, to Christmas music and occasionally to some rock ‘n roll.

Oh, just to keep you up to date so far we’ve spent 3 days in San Francisco, drove for 9 hours through the Mojave Dessert and arrived in Vegas on Tuesday night. Vegas, baby, is holy-crap-amazing. But more about that later.

I’ve been absolutely itching to find five minutes of peace to blog since Monday night, after having an incredible meal in San Fran. And this post, this very special post, is all about my life altering meal at The House of Prime Rib.

I realise that I throw the phrase “life altering” around a little too much. Boy who called wolf, I know, because not everything can be life altering right? Right. But this is life altering ok, because here we go: the steak here, or more correctly the prime rib, absolutely canes any steak I’ve ever had. It blows Hawksmoor clear out of the stratosphere and Gaucho? I’m sorry, what? Gaucho does not even come close. It is that good.

And this, my friends, is life altering because from now on, imma be complaining a hell of a lot more about steak in London. Such is the power of The House of Prime Rib that I think your life might also be altered. Mute me now.

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