Congratulations Hanna and Nghieu

This post has absolutely NOTHING to do with pastries or food. But it does have to do with photos!

One of my good friends got married over this past weekend and I wanted to post some photos that I took of that day.

These are the money boxes my friend had asked me to make.
The groom's side was supposed to mimic the tux.


This one was supposed to mimic her dress.








Bowing to the parents is very traditional in the Korean wedding.


Soooo cute!!!


These are some of my favorite shots.

Congratulations to the happy couple. =)

Welcome to Las Vegas - Bouchon Bakery

This is the last of the photos from my Vegas trip a week and a half ago.

We stopped by the Bouchon Bakery before we went to Jean-Philippe. This little kiosk looking bakery was unbelievably hard to find. It was in a completely different location than where the Bouchon Restaurant was in the Venetian. We almost walked right by it.

Since we had just left the Grand Lux Cafe and were incredibly stuffed and soon were on our way to Serendipity, I wasn't quite up to spending serious cash on the items that the bakery had.

One thing that stops me when I have these opportunities to try these amazing desserts is the lack of cash. I still don't know how to balance my love of sweets with the tight flow of cash AND trying to lose weight. If anyone has any suggestions.. I'm all ears.

I did get one of their famous macarons. When I had asked the counter person what they recommended they suggested the vanilla bean macaron. It was $3.50 for one that was about half the size of my BlackBerry. A good size but $3.50??? Wow. This had BETTER be good.

Yes... it was absolutely delicious. Not too sweet.. crunchy but chewy at the same time and the perfect amount of vanilla flavor. I had to eat it on the go so no photos of me eating it but I practically inhaled it so there wasn't any time anyway.

I was watching that show on the Food Channel called The Best Thing I Ever Ate and the episode was on Guilty Pleasures. It just so happened that one of the places featured was the Bouchon Bakery. Their quiche was a featured guilty pleasure. I don't remember seeing a quiche at this Bouchon Bakery but I will definitely have to try it given another opportunity.

Welcome to Las Vegas - Jean-Philippe Cakes

Just finished watching the Oscars. A few surprises... now I have to watch all the movies that got nominated!

Here are the photos of all the cake displays from Jean-Philippe at the Bellagio in Vegas. Absolutely STUNNING!

Did I say WOW yet? WOW.

Welcome to Las Vegas - Jean-Philippe

Before I left for Vegas, Kelly (whom I work with), had recommended that I see this chocolate fountain at the Bellagio.

Chocolate fountain? What's so great about a chocolate fountain?

I was picturing something like one of those large chocolate fondue fountains. I Yelped it and saw that it was called Jean-Philippe.

Well, before I had made it to the Bellagio my friend, Jessica, and I randomly came across this patisserie as we were walking through the Aria hotel. This was one called Jean-Philippe as well. I was so confused. We didn't have time to stop and gawk so I told Jessica that we'd HAVE to come back. But because it started to rain the next day... we were limited to making one stop.

The next day we grabbed lunch at the Grand Lux Cafe and had a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity (as in the previous post). Then we made our way to the Bellagio to see this chocolate fountain.

We turned the corner and saw this..

My lens and the amount of people hovering around this thing made it hard to get a good overall shot but I'm sure you can tell it's pretty ginormous.

When you'd look up, you saw this:

There's a mirror up there too so don't get confused like I did.

Here's the plaque that was right underneath the Jean-Philippe sign:

A Guinness World Record?? Yeah... that's pretty huge.

The store wasn't all that big but they jam packed a whole lotta goodies into it.

I wanted to taste EVERYTHING but at this point I had reached my limit. I bought these to take home.

I gave the chocolate covered pretzels away and brought home what I thought were chocolate covered pretzels with nuts. But what it turned out to be was a cracker covered in the silkiest dark chocolate I've EVER tasted with toffee chunks.

I LOVE TOFFEE.

So yes, it was delicious.

There's photos of cakes they had on display. But that will, again, have to wait another post because there's A LOT.

To be continued... again!

Welcome to Las Vegas

I arrived from a 3 day weekend trip to Las Vegas just a few hours ago. Sounds long but it really was short. My friend, Jessica, and I left Friday afternoon from Orange County and arrived just in time for dinner.


We stayed at her friend's place in Henderson which was about 10-15 minutes away from the bright lights of Vegas. Even before we arrived Jessica enthusiastically would bring up this amazing Thanksgiving Sandwich at this place close to her friend's place. There really was no real debate.. I had to try this sandwich.

The place is called Capriotti's.

The place was very small. No place to sit but a tall bar top to stand and eat. The menu seemed a little generic looking.


The three of us were hungry so we got one 9" sandwich called a Slaw Be Joe and the 20" Bobbie a.k.a The Thanksgiving Sandwich. We ordered and waited for about 10 minutes or so. Longer than I had expected a sandwich place to take. I took a photo of Jessica and her friend/our host, Mike.

Then I saw this:
Best of Vegas? Hhmm ok maybe there was some credibility to this place afterall.. We took it back to Mike's place and unwrapped our sandwiches.

The 20" looked pretty impressive. Closer look at the Bobbie and the Slaw Be Joe...

Alright.. so it was pretty good. I don't think I've ever had a Thanksgiving Sandwich before. It had turkey, cranberry sauce, and big chunks of moist stuffing. The Slaw Be Joe had cole slaw and thick pieces of roast beef. Pretty good as well.

Jessica loves the place so much we ended up going back for lunch today before we headed back to the OC. This time I had the cheese steak.. which, sadly, I didn't take photos of. It was delicious. This is what I get for my laziness. But the funny thing is I had time to take photos of the Red Velvet Bundt cake they were selling. I had eyed them when we were in there the first night but figured it couldn't be very good.

After a second time in there.. I had to try it even if it was bad. The packaging was cute. Label of the company, Nothing Bundt Cake, was trendy.

How did it taste? As the Yelper's like to say, it was "Meh." It wasn't dry but it wasn't super moist like how I would like my red velvet cakes to be like. And the icing was SUPER sugary and almost grainy. I ate maybe half (it's maybe twice the size of a Sprinkle's Cupcake) and it's sitting in my fridge now. It had chocolate chips in it which made it strange for me. I'll probably finish it tomorrow considering my insatiable sweet tooth.

The next day Jessica and I spent all day eating and tasting. Our day started at noon so it actually wasn't the longest day but we did visit a number of places. For lunch we ate at the Grand Lux Cafe in the Venetian hotel.


When I asked Jessica (who had suggested the place) what kind of food they had here she said that it was similar to Cheesecake Factory. They had a HUGE menu.. yup.. Cheesecake Factory. I stared at the menu for a while then decided to Yelp it and see what people recommended. Before I knew it the waitress was at our table asking if we were ready. I picked the Grand Lux Burger Melt because it was the last thing I read.

I love a good burger but this would have clogged my artery had I finished the whole thing. It was juicy but really greasy. Overall, good! But next time I might go with something a bit lighter. Our next stop was Serendipity 3 at the Caesar's Place.

Maybe it's just me but the pink and orange decor was a little tacky to me. I've heard about the one in NY and that place seems more cozy and a hole in the wall kind of place. This one was ostentatious and bright... necessarily bright and pink. Don't get me wrong.. I love pink as much as the next girl but I just didn't get it.

We ordered the Frozen Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate.

You can imagine my expectations considering I've heard so much about this legendary drink. This was my first experience and it was good. Not orgasmic... but just a satisfying good. Satisfied my sweet tooth and I will definitely get it again given another opportunity. But the thing with me.. is that I can't have any expectations or it'll ruin it for me.

Jessica had a ball. =) She was texting.. taking photos.. and Facebooking all the time capturing this trip.
We also visited the Bouchon Bakery and Jean Phillipe Patisserie in the Bellagio, but I took so many photos that it calls for another blog entry altogether.

To be continued...