No surprise (us being us), there are going to be a couple of posts about food. Let's talk about the surprise highlight -- Spring Mountain Road.
This is sometimes called Vegas' "Chinatown", but it's inaccurate in a couple of ways. First, it's not really a "town": rather, it's a linear strip several miles long and a couple of blocks wide. Second, it's by no means just Chinese -- it's a profusion of Asian cultures sitting side-by-side. And it's not just Asian: there's a bunch of other stuff around. But the notable aspect is the Asian markets, shops, and wow, so many restaurants.
The first day Downtown, while we had a car, we decided to wander down to Spring Mountain, explore a bit, and pick something up for dinner. In the interest of safety, we were trying to only eat inside restaurants that we really cared about, and while there were some patios along Fremont Street, there wasn't anything calling out to us for dinner. So it was time to explore takeout.
A recommendation in a guidebook led us to Sushi Neko, and that proved to be a remarkable win. No, the website isn't much to look at, but the sushi menu really is that big -- more importantly, it's surprisingly great.
That section titled "Spicy Roll"? They are not kidding. We like spicy, so we got both the "Little Tease Roll" and the "Call 911 Roll", both of which were ferocious, but also complex and tasty, and that applied to all the rolls we got: they ranged from better than average to excellent. And they know how to do takeout: all sauced rolls come with the toppings on the side. (We wound up with a lot of little tubs of different toppings.)
Suffice it to say, it was good enough that we went back again the next evening for a different set of rolls, and didn't regret it. Frankly, if we ever do wind up back in Vegas in less-Covid-concerned times, we'd love to eat in the restaurant and try more of the menu, which is full of things that didn't look like they would travel as well.
That said, while the sushi was great, it was the accidental snack that really blew me away.
We spent an hour in the late afternoon wandering around Spring Mountain Road, and quickly found ourselves tired and hot. So we were looking for a cold drink when we stumbled across Sweet Mong. The online menu isn't terribly unusual, but that's because it is aimed at takeout / delivery. What doesn't show up there is the Seoul Bingsoo. I had no idea what it was, but the guy behind the counter said, "Do you like shaved ice?", and that sounded appealing in the heat.
(Subsequent research indicates that it is a favorite dessert in South Korea, but this was the first time I've encountered it.)
When it came to our table (yes, out on the patio), the result was much more interesting than I had expected. As best I could figure out, this was (from bottom to top):
- A mound of shaved, gently milky ice
- A layer of glaze that quick-froze, melting and refreezing a little of the ice below it
- Another layer of shaved ice
- Another layer of glaze
- A sprinkle of -- nuts? puffed rice? I'm not sure of all the bits, but it added lovely slight crunch
- Pieces of chewy mochi
- A mound of sweet red bean
Altogether it was fabulous -- easily four times as much as I'd been looking for in a snack, and I ate just about all of it anyway. Moderately sweet, cold, complex: it was just about the perfect dessert for a hot day.
Really, out of all the good food we had in Las Vegas (we'll get to the really fancy dinners in a later entry), that one dish was the one that left me going, "Wah -- wrong end of the country!". As far as I can tell, Sweet Mong is just that one little shop on Spring Mountain now, but it has shot to the tip-top of my list of places I want to see open in Davis Square. We've gotten past Maximum Thai and Peak Poke: fabulous shaved ice would be a fine addition to the neighborhood...
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