Wynn Las Vegas Magazine by MODERN LUXURY

Wynn - 2013 - Issue 3 - Winter

Wynn Magazine - Las Vegas

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT will bring most food lovers back. The sliders are stuffed with glazed barbecued pork and white kimchi, with a sneaky addition of crushed peanuts, and those of you familiar with Asian night markets will recognize the dish as being similar to the pork sandwiches (jia bao) you find on the street in Taiwan and Eastern China. When this was mentioned to the chef, he just smiled, and said, "Bingo." It also happens that the crispy Brussels sprouts, the vegetables partially flaked and done in a wok with toasted almonds, green onion, balsamic soy reduction, and shaved bonito, is the perfect fusion of European and Asian cooking influences. "The bonito flakes are what gives a Japanese dashi [broth] its unique flavor, and I love balsamic vinegar, which is really a European thing." It's amazing how well the two tastes work together. Let's reexamine the chef's sushi: The term is commonly misunderstood. Ask most people to define sushi, and they'll say something about raw fish. In fact, sushi is a form of rice cookery where the rice is gently cooked with rice wine vinegar and formed into various sizes and shapes to hold or be stuffed with a topping or filling. Nigiri sushi, the elegant form that uses delicate slices of raw fish as a topping, is just one form. If you shape sushi in to a cylinder, you have the hand roll, one featured form at Wazuzu. Take chef Chan's butter-poached lobster roll, a magnificent example of creativity for which the chef stuffs the sushi rice with lobster and surrounds the exterior with avocado and a cilantro aioli. "Butter poaching lobster makes it tender," says the chef. "It's really a genius way to prepare the lobster meat." Shijime tuna tataki roll, made with seared ahi, spicy tuna, tobiko (tiny flying fish caviar), chives, and a sesame soy dressing, is another one not to miss, and so is the hamachi chili, a spicy example that soars on yellowtail sashimi and 106 Serrano peppers. Vegetarians and vegans can also derive pleasure from items such as the vegan crunch roll and vegan California roll, the latter made with avocado, cucumber, asparagus, brown rice, and a seaweed wrapper. Look, Ma, we're still eating sushi. The chef hasn't radicalized favorite entrées from the original menu, but he's improved many of them. Under Wazuzu specialties, his Korean galbi short ribs now taste more of sesame than sugar, while still being served sizzling hot on a bed of grilled onions. Cantonese sea bass, the Chilean persuasion, comes with either a crispy panko crusting or a piquant soybean crust, a style common to the Taiwanese and Szechuan versions. The drunken noodles, featured on the Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate as one of host Giada De Laurentiis's favorite things she's ever eaten with chopsticks, remain a silky, sweet, and sour specialty of the house. Meanwhile, more changes are afoot and should take effect sometime before the Chinese New Year in midwinter. Chef Chan is ramping up Wazuzu's beef program and making Australian Wagyu A5 beef available at the restaurant, which he will sear to perfection in the kitchen wok. He's also adding to the dessert program with a variety of house-made sorbets in flavors such as lychee and raspberry, as well as favorites such as Thai crepes with coconut ice cream, a crème brûlée trio, and a no-guilt vegan chocolate brownie sundae, so sweet-toothed guests will be well served. And if you are lucky enough to visit during Chinese New Year, you'll nosh on a few of the chef's outstanding dim sum, shrimp-filled har gow, and pork dumpling shu mai, and usher in the Year of the Horse with some delicious surprises. n PHOTOGRAPHY BY SABIN ORR (THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE) from left: A trio of crème brûlées; a dragon slider with barbecue pork and kimchi; the menu, also embazoned with the restaurant's signature dragon. WYNN 104-107_Wynn_Dining_Food_Winter13.indd 106 12/6/13 2:37 PM

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