China Poblano

My last stop on my culinary "Best Thing I Ever Ate in Las Vegas" tour was to go to China Poblano and get Jose Andres' 20 vegetable fried rice. 

Incidentally, 2 months later I would find myself a mere 3 blocks from Jose Andres' minibar in Washington D.C. and be ridiculously jealous that I didn't eat there... until I learned that they are closed for the summer and will be taking reservations come September 1 for October 1 and beyond.  Oh and they seat like 6 people a night total.  That might be a once-in-a-lifetime that never happens in my lifetime.  Still, a girl can dream...

I believe it was Johnny Iuzzini who directed me toward this place.  At least in my mind it was him.  I was heading back from Fremont Street with the girls (zip lining... WHEEE!!!!) and everyone was hitting the hay.  And I realized I was hungry.  So I decided to give it one last, all out effort to find this place.  It's in the Cosmopolitan which in Vegas terms is practically next door and in real-world terms is about 4 cities away.  So I did what any other normal, sleep deprived woman in her 30s would do.  I called them, ordered ahead, and ran.  And ran, and ran and ran and ran and ran... you get the idea.

Guess what?  It was NOT worth all that.  Nope.  If I had eaten there, it would have been fine.  It was tasty enough... and definitely had some fresh flavors.  But seriously how did I not make a note that one of the 20 vegetables in a fried rice dish would be mushrooms???  I swear I need to watch the episode again because they tell you ALL 20... AND YOU WOULD THINK I WOULD REMEMBER MUSHROOMS!!!!  Okay, so I picked them out (sorry Mom... old habits die very slow deaths it seems).  And it was fine.  But at that point, I should have just stuck close to home and gone back to RM... I know for next time.  As much as I would like to try something else another time, I believe it won't be the 20 vegetable fried rice.