Since watching Anthony Bourdain eat at the French Laundry on an episode of A Cook’s Tour way back when, I’ve been dying to taste Thomas Keller’s food. I’m saving my appetite and wallet for one of his massive tasting menus at Bouchon sometime in the future, but in the meantime, I thought I’d take advantage of a more affordable way to get a taste of what he’s all about at his Bouchon Bakery in The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

Along with supplying the baked goods for Keller’s upscale Bouchon Restaurant, the Bouchon Bakery sells a variety of pastries and fancy snacks along with coffee and cappuccinos to Venetian casino patrons (which, although the Venetian is one of nicest casinos on the strip, still seems to be a bit of an odd fit).

On my first visit to the bakery I bought what was marked as a “Cheese Danish” from the Vienoisserie section. The Bouchon Bakery website says  that “Vienoiserie is the name given to a category of baking that includes croissants, milk-bread doughs, and brioche.”

The “Cheese Danish” turned out to be a slab of puff pastry that had been stuffed into a muffin tin, baked within an inch of its life while still allowing for under-baked globs in the centre and topped with an overly sweet twist of cream cheese icing. The pastry was so dry (read dry, not light and flaky) that it exploded into a shower of sharp crumbs with the first bite, leading to an embarrassing episode of sneezing and coughing in the Venetian poker room. Even with the price tag of $4.50, I still didn’t want to finish it.

On my next trip to Vegas I was feeling optimistic. Surely I had purchased a dud pastry at the end of a long wait on the shelf. This is Thomas Keller, after all, one of my food idols. So back to Bouchon Bakery I went again, determined to buy the most delicious sounding pastry in the display case. I settled on a Strawberry Croissant and asked what was in it. The gal behind the counter assured me that it was great, and made with fresh strawberries.

The Strawberry Croissant turned out to be the bottom half of a sliced croissant, once again baked to extreme dryness, so bad that the edges of the pastry were rock hard and inedible, any flakiness long since baked away. The “fresh” strawberries had been baked and had dissolved into an unpleasant pink/grey goo over the accompanying almond paste (at least I hope that’s what is was). The croissant was topped with a mediocre crumb topping that only sucked more moisture out of the gummy filling. Once again, didn’t even finish half.

My love for Thomas Keller and his food philosophies is so strong that I’ll still be waiting for the day to try his full restaurant menu at Bouchon and (dare to dream) someday at The French Laundry.

But knowing what I do about his bakery, I just might skip the bread basket.

Passed through the Mojave Desert during the hottest week on record, then the ancient inland seas of Idaho, through Oregon in the dark, then saw the sun rise over the green valley pastures of Washington, plowed through the rainy mountain tops, then across the border and ferry over the Georgia Strait back to Vancouver Island.

2,147 kilometres, 1,334 miles and a lot of hours behind the wheel… but well worth the trip!

Here’s the route by car:

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It’s away from the the rainy west coast and out to the desert for The High Tide Travel Blog this June.

We’ll be heading south to the 41st Annual World Series of Poker 2010 in Vegas in June, both as spectators and players. This year’s field of amateurs and pros should be massive and I can’t wait to see my favorite pros in person (Chris Ferguson and Doyle Brunson are at the top of my list).

Since we’ve decided to drive the 21ish hours down rather than fly, I’ll be blogging and posting pictures about the trip along the way as my husband and I go on a good ol’ fashion long haul road trip in our Civic Hybrid – Vancouver Island to Vegas, or bust.

See you on the road.

On my last trip to Las Vegas I was lucky enough to stay at the beautiful Platinum Hotel, who supply each room with a coffee maker and daily supply of coffee. I found the coffee they offered to be mediocre but hey, it was available and I was happy to drink it. I was irritated with Platinum’s Kil@wat restaurant for charging me 1/2 the price of my breakfast for a coffee (breakfast: $6, cup of coffee: $3). Little did I know just how good I had it…

This trip, coming down to Vegas to play in the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza poker tournament as well as daily tournaments in various hotels, we stayed at Bally’s – for its central location on the strip and reasonable price.

The first night I arrive at a hotel I may not unpack, but you can be damn sure I’m going to get the in-room coffee ready to brew first thing the next morning. I’m a good traveller, but come on, no one’s at their best after the first night on a hotel bed (especially this bed… but that’s another rant). I looked around my Bally’s room and realized that I’ve been very spoiled in recent trips- there was no coffee pot to be found.

I didn’t have too much of a fit, knowing there was a casino-side cafe just an elevator ride below me. I  flipped open the room service menu and saw the ‘kind help’ Bally’s offers for those who don’t want to go downstairs for their fix – for $10, you can have a carafe of coffee delivered to your room. Sadly, my husband likes his caffeine cold and carbonated (cola-style), so in the mornings I drink alone and there was no point in buying a whole carafe just for me (sigh). It’s tough putting a price on your caffeine addiction, but Vegas showed my limits with that $10 carafe.

The next morning I woke from a terrible sleep in desperate need of coffee, yanked on my clothes and stumbled down the elevator to the cafe in the casino below. GAH! I’m not a morning person at the best of times, but being assaulted with flashing lights, clanging slot machines and chain-smoking old ladies at 8 am was hard for this night owl to bear. Seasoned Vegas goers will laugh at my innocence of the morning casino routine, but hey, I’m new here… now where the hell is that casino cafe? Weaving through the dinging slots, I got in line at the cafe and squinted at the menu half asleep, looking for the latte prices. “$6.99″ …wait, what? $7 for steamed milk and a shot of espresso? It was $7 for two beers and a taco in the Mexican restaurant 50 feet away. Oh Vegas, you are cruel to those desperate for that morning hit. I immediately abandoned my fancy ‘latte’ airs and settled for a large cup of plain coffee for just under $4. Reminded my of the truck stop coffee at the top of Roger’s Pass in the Rockies, and that’s not a good thing.

I finally learned the age-old Vegas wisdom of how to get a cheap cup of coffee as our trip went on. I’d suck up my screaming desire for caffeine until I started a poker tournament, and then drink for free (aside from tipping, which was easy to do in my overwhelming appreciation of anyone who would bring me coffee). I learned that when you order a Latte in Caesar’s Palace poker room, you get a coffee with extra cream and that The Aria has the best latte on the strip, brought poker table-side with a fancy crystallized sugar swizzle stick.

And those little old ladies banging away at the slot machines at 8 am, now I understand… they’re in it for the free-flowing coffee! One Armed Bandits, I salute you.

After a long wait, Full Tilt The Canada Cup of Poker is here, starting tomorrow night on The Score channel across Canada.

In the summer of 2009, 60,000 Canadians competed in a series of regional online freerolls to win a seat in the first annual Full Tilt Canada Cup. This unique event brought together the top 21 players from across Canada to compete in a live team Texas Hold Em Poker tournament. Each team of three represented one area of Canada, players either qualifying for their province of residence or province of birth. Being worried about not only your own play, being on TV and having two other people counting on your every move made for some interesting moments and strategies from playing tight to loose to bizarre.

I was lucky enough to be a spectator at the television studio while they filmed the Canada Cup and I can tell you that it should make for some very entertaining TV. The set was spectacular and the production value was excellent. Playing in teams of three, with one chip stack and one player at the table at a time was hectic and stressful, but made for a fascinating tournament full of twists and turns. The top Canadian team then had the chance to play heads-up against one of three poker pros – Mike Matusow, Andy Bloch and Greg Mueller.

The Full Tilt Canada Cup of Poker television series is scheduled to be shown on The Score in Canada starting Thursday, April 15th and running twice a week (Fridays and Saturdays) thereafter. Tune in to see how far your province makes it.