Lady Cupcake | Fashion, Food, Fun! | The Sweet Life by Ange

Wolfgang Puck's SPAGO

 

Besides the gambling, extravagant hotels, and meter-long margaritas, Las Vegas is known the world over for its wide selection of amazing restaurants. Chef to the stars and food tv star himself, Wolfgang Puck, has several dining spots around sin city. The ones I can name offhand are Postrio & Riva Poolside in The Venetian, and Spago & Chinois in Caesar's Palace. I've tried each one of them, and the dishes that resonate in my mind constantly are the Lobster Club from Postrio, and the Bolognese from Spago. 

Here are a few snaps of my recent dinner at Spago in the Caesar's Palace Forum Shops.

 
Caesar's Palace Forum Shops

 
Spago

 
Spago menu

Interesting assortment of breads

 

Presentation is key; jazzed up salt, pepper, olive oil & butter dish

 

RED WINE BRAISED BEEF SHORT RIBS
Roasted Spring Vegetables, Hand Made Ricotta Gnocchi and Natural Braising Jus

GARGANELLI PASTA À LA BOLOGNAISE
Braised Beef, Roasted Double Blanched Garlic, Plum Tomatoes, Ricotta Cheese and Italian Parsley
(on a side note, thank god for Spago's online menu! such a rarity to find restaurants with online menus)

The Forum Shops at Caesars
3500 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Suite G-1
Las Vegas, Nevada 89109
P: 702-369-6300
F: 702-369-0361
 

Putting the WoW factor in food

I love how W clearly took a lot of time and effort designing their buffets and food presentations. Shying away from classic and traditional, the food at W was as theatrical and contemporary as their interiors.

Breakfast on the go buffet

KITCHEN @ W Hotel Hong Kong

Look closely at the plates and cups behind the table! Cool, Huh? The table you see here is the communal table, designed for people who want to meet fellow hotel guests.

Putting the chi in chic

Thanks to a tip from my friend Cecile, my mom chose to stay at W Hotel Hong Kong for our post-Christmas vacation. In case you were wondering, Lady Cupcake isn't just some random moniker I came up with. I do in fact make and sell cupcakes. That's why the holiday season is to put it lightly, the most stress-filled, action-packed time of the year. That's why a good vacation always hits the spot right after.

Glowing W sign (check out this post for a movie version of this)

I loved how they combined different design elements around the hotel

Citrus-infused H2O for the harassed traveller (if you're a packrat like I am then this is totally appropriate!)

How can you not love this place?

The anti-minimalist "Living Room" as they call it (I'm still lusting after those silver candelabras!)

Cute chess set guests can play with in the Living Room

Eye catching giraffe figure by the entrance

Getting up off this bed every morning was quite a chore. I'd love to sleep in for a whole day on this.

ha! evidently

Beautifully designed bathrooms

Awesome heated pool

Cruising around Notre Dame

For the love of cheese..

(I apologize in advance for again, the poor quality of these photos. These were taken with an ordinary digital camera and shot at night, so I tried to deal with the circumstances the best way I could)

I remember this place having a Raclette as one of their specialties. That's basically what called out to me.

Cheese & Cold Cuts Platter

Heated raclette

Your mouth watering yet?

Nice gooey raclette

This was addictive!

Salami ready to bathe in the melting cheese

Oozing down..

The sweeter side of Paris

Baking has always been my greatest passion. Next to fashion of course. That's why visiting pastry shops are always a treat for me. The ones in Paris, however, turned me into a wide-eyed 4 year old all over again.

No movie stirs up all my senses more than Marie Antoinette starring Kirstin Dunst. Sophia Coppola was such a genius for orchestrating such a delicious masterpiece. Laduree was where she chose to get all the edible props used in the movie.

pretty pretty packaging

Marie Antoinette  must've been such a happy woman surrounded by all these everyday. Why not let the people eat cake?

dessert + coffee break @ Laduree

I wouldn't mind eating cake, would you?

Brunch @ Laduree again. It was an addiction, okay!

flaky croissant

more Laduree goodness!

this Palmier was almost as big as my face!

If Laduree is known for their Macaron de Paris, Angelina is known the world over for their chocolat chaud

The macarons here were great as well

There are probably more pastries made per day in Paris than babies born in the world!

Spot the Palmier. My mom had one in each pastry shops just because she couldn't get enough.

The famous chocolat chaud. Call me obsessive but I actually have a video of this scene somewhere in my hard drive. It takes a hardcore dessert lover to appreciate such a beauty.

Mille Feuille

An accidental discovery in the streets of Paris

Sometimes variety isn't everything. Whenever I see restaurants living up to the 'quantity over quality' mantra, my mind always shoots back to Paris.

One evening while cruising around in search of a good place for dinner, my parents and I chanced upon this place. Bustling with people (mostly families and large groups of friends), we were intrigued.

What heightened our curiosity all the more was that everyone seemed to be ordering the exact same thing. Waitresses would constantly refill emptying plates with a virtually unlimited supply of what appeared to be steak and fries.

Well it was worth the risk, we thought. You should have seen the look on the waitress' face when we asked for the menu. Apparently, there was none. It was Steak Frites all the way. Boy were we in for the surprise of our lives.

So this was what the fuss was all about. Little did we know that Le Relais de l'Entrecote was (and continues to be) actually a very popular spot among locals and some in-the-know tourists.

The steak was cooked to absolute perfection. It was then smothered in this entrancing sauce I later found out they are famous for. The fries will make you weak in the knees as well. The Secret by Rhonda Bhyrne tells us that we attract our fortunes. So that would translate to this: for the love of great food, we attracted this place to ourselves?

Damn Right!

Le Relais de l'Entrecote

(multiple locations around Paris)

http://www.relaisentrecote.fr/

The Paris Markets

Really, this is proof of why French women don't get fat. With an overabundance of fresh fruit, vegetables and cheese, fast food will forever be a last resort.

Cuisine Cuisine, Hong Kong

When a restaurant's name and the word "Michelin" are in the same sentence, you are almost automatically assured of a supreme dining experience. In the case of Cuisine Cuisine, I personally think they merited their place in the Michelin guide.

Don't quote me on this, but I hear Philippe Starck designed the interiors of Cuisine Cuisine. Whatever the case, this stunning glass masterpiece + harbor view totally encapsulates the words "dining experience."

Modern Luxe Chinese interiors

Delicious vegetable dumplings

Shark's Fin soup- simple but absolutely divine

The kind staff saw I was taking photos so they staged the duck here right before slicing it

Service at Cuisine Cuisine was flawless; anticipating your needs even before you say anything.. all the while maintaining a certain level of "invisibility."

Quelling my dad's insatiable (and never ending!) craving for peking duck

The peking duck was awesome.. just a little too much for two people!

CUISINE CUISINE

IFC Mall

8 Finance Street, Central, Hong Kong

Shop 3101-07

852.2393.3933

Hip & Happening : Aqua Spirit, Hong Kong

To quote handy-dandy Luxe, 

"AQUA. Super-slick, fash, clubby fit-out with stagger-fab harbour view, variable service, and AQUA SPIRIT above."

Sitting pretty on the 29th floor of One Peking Road (TST, Kowloon), Aqua is an ultra stylish hot spot serving a fusion of primarily Italian and Japanese cuisines. Aqua Spirit, on the other hand, is the panoramic chillout zone above the restaurant that serves cocktails, a few snacks, and dessert. Leave it to this hip restaurant group to reinvent the dining experience and most notably, cocktail hour.

Hong Kong is one of my favorite cities, so I jumped at the opportunity to return for a spur-of-the-moment weekend visit with my dad. My dad is one of the primary reasons I decided to put up a blog like this. Puppy dog eyes may never persuade him to get me the Hermes scarf I've been eyeing, but when it comes to food, he's never been one to deny me of that luxury. Aqua Spirit is where we chose to unwind after dinner on our first night.

Stylish reception desk

Breathtaking harbor views

Aqua Spirit's Dessert Platter; the molten chocolate cake (toward the back), was divine. It was warm top-notch bittersweet velvety chocolate swirling its way through my mouth. Each spoonful was pleasant surge of chocolate ecstacy. Chocolate isn't normally my vice of choice, but as Greg Behrendt had his exceptions, I consider this cake to be mine. If I had to liken it to a shoe, it would be these luscious Loubs:

Contemporary-Romantic touches in various areas of the place

On the topic of dads, Happy Father's Day to my foodie partner in crime. Here's to those times we've snuck out of our hotel room to chill by the bar (only to find ourselves ordering virgin mojitos and raiding the peanut bowl- he he), and to quelling endless cravings of our ultimate favorite- Wolfgang Puck's Lobster Club. I love you!