Oh FOOD!

Ok so here's my food eats from yesterday!! I ended up getting home pretty late because, obvs, it was Samanda Tuesday! Almost every Tuesday, my old roomie and I get together and do pizza and movies! It's always a super blasty blast!! Well anyway ... no breakfast because I just don't do breakfast unless it's planned or like, after 11am :)

Lunch was amazing! I had 2 grilled cheese, fries, an egg salad sandwich, 4 pieces of garlic bread, a sweet potato and mac and cheese. Although the fries were a little cold by the time I got to them, the grilled cheese made up for them! THEY WERE THE BEST GRILLED CHEESE I'VE EVER HAD! It was all delicious of course!

Well, since it was super dead, I was sent home a little early... by two hours! Our company does these things called a"Dine Around" which is where a new restaurant in the casino opens it's services to the hotel agents so that way we can taste the cuisine and be more knowledgeable about the food and restaurant itself. It was seriously entertaining! It's a restaurant called Bar Americain (pronounced Bar American) and it's one of Bobby Flay's many places. It was amazing and the Dine Around was very informative about not only the food, but the restaurant itself! Anyway... moving on!

The first appetizer course was a TOWER (literally, as you can see) of a "raw bar" which is just seafood; oysters, clams, crab legs, etc. Followed by Tuna Tar Tar (which wasn't bad but had a terrible after taste!) and followed by the Native American Taco which was friend bread with BBQ duck and cranberry red chillie in it. It was pretty delicious!

Then came the Entrees and sides! Forgive my lack of pictures... I was just overwhelmed!

As far as sides went, got 4. We ended up being spoiled with Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnuts and Pomegranates. I've never tried brussel sprouts before but they were pretty good the way they were cooked. I thought they were going to be mushy but they had a crisp to them! I don't think I'd eat them again but they were good for what they were! Our second side was Sweet Potato Gratin.... mmmmmmmm! I can't even describe how delicious this was! It pretty much melted in your mouth and was creamy but still had the consistency of a sweet potato! YUM! Our 3rd side was Cauliflower and Goat Cheese Gratin. It was good! I had a little bit and wanted more, but I'm glad I had it in moderation. Our last side was Brooklyn Hash Browns! WOWZA! So good! I couldn't get enough! I would have very happy just eating the Hash Browns and Sweet Potato Gratin all night!

Now for the Entrees!

First brought out was the Buttermilk Fried Chicken with Honey, Pink Peppercorns, Lime, and a Black Pepper Biscuit. It was AMAZING! The sweet and spicy mixed together was tres magnifique!

Then came the Duck with Dirty Wild Rice, Pecans and Bourbon... DELISH! Except for the fact that the dirty wild rice was "confit" (yes, spelled correctly) which means marinated in it's own fat... uhm what?! But it was still amazing!

Next came the Porterhouse Lamb Chops with Mustard BBQ Sauce and Corn and Collard Greens Tart. It was cooked medium rare... so delicious! They were pretty awesome! Minus the fact that like, 1/3 or the lamb chop was bone... uhm, I'm pretty sure if I paid for that, I'd be very upset!

The pièce de résistance! HANGER STEAK! It was cooked rare... exactly how I like it! It was SO flavorful and it was served with this special steak sauce. It was almost sweet and spicy at the same time. It brought out the flavor in the steak, oh so much! It was also served with a side of onion... but the onion was like, a blossom almost and there was an onion spread in the middle of the blossom for the steak. It was great, however, I couldn't eat it with every bite.

Then there were the seafood dishes... ew. I didn't try either of them because I just couldn't handle it! Hahaha! But the dishes, if you were into seafood, were good! There was Florida Style Red Snapper and Fulton Fish Market Cioppino with Sour Dough Toast.

So finally! Came dessert! WOWWWW! These desserts were some of the best desserts I've ever tasted. I'll save the best for last!

First there was the German's Chocolate Cake. It's a chocolate cake made with a guy named German's chocolate! NOT German, as in chocolate from Germany, Chocolate cake! It had this Coconut Whipped Cream on it and it was pretty decadent but not really as chocolaty as I was hoping!

Next, there was a Granny Smith Apple Tart with HOMEMADE Maple Walnut Ice Cream! I'm not a huge fan of apple pie or cooked, mushy fruits, but this was pretty good! They make all their ice cream on site so for it being made right there... it was the best ice cream I've ever had!

Then there was a Pistachio Creme Brulee. I put a little tiny bit on my plate because it looked disgusting! It had a brown top to it (the brulee part) and it was green (the pistachio part). I'm not a fan of pistachio but this was SO GOOD! I definitely wanted more after my little bite! Alas, it had all been eaten.

After that, there was the Bourbon Praline Profiterole with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. This was my second favorite dessert! It was like fried ice cream wrapped around regular ice cream but was so exquisite!

LASTLY! There was the Sweet Potato Pie! OH MY GOSH! It was this beautiful little pie with a homemade graham cracker crust and homemade cinnamon ice cream! Wow! It was SO DELICIOUS! I never would have ordered it off of the menu only because Sweet Potato Pie does not sound that good. I'd figured it'd be more of a dinner side. But I cannot wait to go back and get another one!

All of this food was absolutely amazing! There was nothing bland about it! The only things I didn't like about this Dine Around were that I had to share! The portions didn't really seem big enough for 12 people. Ah, but who are we talking about here? Everyone else left full... I just have a humongo stomach. I would definitely recommend this restaurant to my guests and even friends! Of course, my friends would for sure have to save a pretty penny because everything was pretty pricey.

I did continue on to eat that night but that's going to be the second post of the afternoon!