Track #1 (of 5): “Vegas Unstripped” @ The Palms Casino Resort
The ultimate festival for discerning foodies. (Image: Vegas 411)
Exhilarating, dizzying, and downright delicious. That was my experience at “Vegas Unstripped,” the chef-driven culinary festival at the Palms. The memory of the many bold taste sensations that were served up continue to dance in my mind.
Guests at the annual event packed the hotel’s pool area, forming lines at all the food stations to meet the chefs and luxuriate in the “one-of-a-kind dishes that chefs design exclusively for the festival.” It was like culinary speed dating for three straight hours, and you could wash all these artful creations down with imaginative craft cocktails by the city’s star mixologists.
This Asian egg salad sando is fantastic comfort food. (Image: Vegas 411)
There was one highlight after another including, from Chef Joe Valdez at Basilico, a fabulous and surreal Italian/Korean dish—“cappelletti filled with pork bulgogi sausage and topped with Gochugaru scallions”—that may have been created on Mars. Folks also made a beeline for uber-Chef James Trees’ terrific New Zealand lamb tartare with tomato raita,” a Middle Eastern and Vietnamese mashup billed as “Za’atar Banh Khot.” The deeply satisfying egg salad sando—on milk bread with miso mayo and shrimp yuzu furikake—was designed to take everyone higher, thanks to Chef Jackson Stamper at Ada’s Food + Wine.
Coconut Panna Cotta—the sweetest treat in the west, thanks to a Chinatown Vegas chef. (Image: Vegas 411)
How could I exit without dessert? The sweet-and-smooth coconut panna cotta with “mango mousse and passion jelly fruits”—from Chef Yuku Takamizawa at Moignet in Chinatown—made me float into the night with dreams of attending next year’s event.
