Some pretty interesting fusion formulas have been popping up in Southern Nevada restaurants during the past few years.
Heidi Knapp Rinella
Food, Restaurant critic
Email: hrinella@reviewjournal.com
Phone: (702) 383-0474
X: @HKRinella
Heidi Knapp Rinella is an award-winning journalist with more than 35 years of experience as a writer and editor at newspapers in Ohio, Florida and Nevada, and is the author of seven books. She’s been with the Review-Journal as a feature writer and food critic since October 1999.
As you might imagine, some pretty wacky stuff crosses my desk on a regular basis, but this one ranked right up there: The Daily Meal, a food and drink “lifestyle site,” named the best pie in every state. And Nevada’s is pomegranate.
It seems 2016 has barely started but already it’s flying by. Mardi Gras is coming up Tuesday, although the parades and other celebrations start well before the actual day — on Jan. 6, or Twelfth Night, the 12th day of Christmas.
They snagged me with the promise of prime rib carved tableside, but it didn’t work out that way.
We can tell Killer Shrimp’s signature dish originated in a home kitchen.
When Lori Nehls emailed Taste of the Town in search of a creamy seafood pan roast, similar to those served at the Silver Legacy, Nugget and Peppermill casinos in the Reno area, I wasn’t sure what she meant, since every pan roast I’ve had was broth-based. But readers knew just what she was talking about.
Sometimes I don’t review a restaurant for a long time after it opens and there’s no real reason; maybe a lot of restaurants opened at the same time and one just sort of fell off my radar. In the case of Lyfe Kitchen, I know exactly why.
Sometimes readers don’t report a source for someone searching for a product because it just doesn’t exist in the Las Vegas area.
Yes, Pancho’s Restaurant is pricey — at least compared to most Mexican restaurants in the valley.
The slugger’s bar and grill, which opened last week, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and features signature dishes that pay homage to the cities where Rose played major league baseball — Cincinnati Chili for the Cincinnati Reds, a classic cheese steak for the Philadelphia Phillies and poutine for the Montreal Expos.
If you really want, simply, potatoes, you can find them in the produce department of any supermarket. But if you don’t like peeling and chopping, I guess Michael Foods’ Simply Potatoes, which promise “fresh, never frozen potatoes and real ingredients” are the next best thing. And several readers have found them for Helen Arnold, who said she used to get them at Smith’s.
Soul/Southern food has been in a waxing-and-waning situation in Southern Nevada for years, with some places opening to great fanfare but a brief future, others sort of sliding in and out of the market, and even established restaurants falling by the wayside in tough economic times. Through it all, M&M Soul Food Cafe has endured.
Krakus hams are among the sought-after items that have appeared regularly in Taste of the Town over the years, with supply varying somewhat from time to time. But readers have current sources for Fran and Art Koenig.
In last week’s column we reported two sources for the coconut-custard pie being sought by Ray Ellis. But I often find that it’s actually easier, if I’m having difficulty finding a particular product, to make it myself.
