Dollar Snacks

Place: Bamboo Buffet & Grill
Lunch: Lunch buffet, Coke

Bamboo is in the same strip mall as Cici's.  In between Cici's and Bamboo is Dollar Tree, one of those stores that sells all sort of crap for a buck.  Over the past few weeks, I've seen a sign touting them now having a frozen food section.  I keep meaning to go in and check it out, but never do.

Until today, that is.

So I go in.  The frozen section is in the back, so I pass though other dollar items.  Like cute little figurines.  Pens.  Drinking glasses.  Toys.  And snacks.

The snack selection is chips and candy, mostly.  It's even better than the selection at Walgreens, and FAR cheaper.  Maybe I should have come in here before.

Among the snacks are Burger King onion rings.  These aren't actual onion rings...it's a puff corn snack in a bag like Cheetos, only browned on the outside, shaped like onion rings, and flavored to taste like onions.  I've had them before, but have never EVER seen them in THIS market.

So yeah...I got some.

Next to them were a line of TGI Friday's-branded snacks, one of which was "mozzarella sticks".

Huh.

So yeah...I got some.

Then I browsed the freezer section, hoping they'd have some el cheapo Patio brand Mexican dinners, which I can't find anywhere anymore.

They didn't.  The dinners are mostly Banquet, the grossest food made by anybody anywhere.

But they did have Resers burritos.  In the large size, even.

So I'll be back for those later, when I can take them home and get them in the fridge.

I also snagged some taco shells.  Because...I don't know.  I just did, okay?

At the check stand, I spied caramel apple Sugar Babies.  SERIOUSLY?  HAVE to try those.

So yeah...I got some.

So...The Burger King snack was perfectly decent, just as I remember them being.

The mozarella sticks taste nothing like mozarella sticks or really anything discernable.  Kind of bland.  But not bad or gross or anything.  I wouldn't buy them again, but I'll probably finish this bag eventually.

The caramel apple Sugar Babies taste exactly how you'd think they would.

Which, as it turns out, is kind of gross.

I should go to Aldi next.

I haven't been there in years.

Bookends

Place: Wicked Spoon
Lunch: Weekend brunch buffet, Coke, water

Wicked Spoon is the house buffet at the Cosmopolitan.  It's a unique place.  The food ranks right up there with the Wynn and Bellagio buffets and includes the usual breakfast suspects, a Kung Pao chicken that had a sauce that was a near clone of PF Chang's, a fried chicken called "Wicked Chicken", a cut-to-order slab bacon (really a seasoned pork of some kind), and I can actually say I've had Ratatouille now.  I'll never have it again, but I've really tried it.  Oh...and don't even get me started on the gelato bar.  That alone may well be worth the $32.00 per person admission.

What makes it unique is lot of the food is served in little cooking pots pre-portioned.  So you typically drop about four pots on your plate.  Presentation-wise, nobody tops Wicked Spoon.  Style-wise either, really.  This is a gorgeous space.  Modern, nice accent lighting, and arty.  And it hasn't been noticed by the masses yet...you can usually get in pretty quickly, unlike the Wynn or Bellagio, where you might be in line for a couple of hours.

(Don't ask my advice on all the full-service places to eat in Las Vegas.  I'm pretty much just at the buffets or at fast food joints.  I don't know anything about the fancy sit-down joints.  What?  Stop looking at me like that.)

I'm book-ending the summer season where I began it.  It's hotter this time...it was 89 degrees when I got up this morning around 6.  It was about that last night at 10pm.  The high today is predicted to be 103.  But it's nice because the humidity level is only about 10-15 percent. 

The night heat has had an odd effect on me.  I'll be comfortable outside, then go into my hotel where the air conditioning is around 70...and I'll be freezing.  As in shivering.  Which NEVER happens to me.  And I love it.

If I were rich, I'd totally move here and become a night owl.

(Who am I kidding.  I'd miss the Midwestern winters.)

Another discovery I made while getting hotel snacks at Vons...a new fruit.  Raspberry Jewel Pluots.  Looking very much like it comes from the plum family, it's a plum-apricot hybrid of some kind.  A well ripened one is ridiculously red and ridiculously juicy inside.  It's wonderful.  I hope I can find these back home.

I think I'll wander the Miracle Mile shops after brunch.  Short of that, my weekend plans are playing pinball over at the Pinball Hall of Fame and catching up on movies.

"The Help" is a four-star movie.

Go see it.

Really.