#seunonalaja

The Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada

Currently in Las Vegas and I feel so blessed to be able to capture the lights and beauty around me. For a city which is basically a desert, they’ve made so much from it by strategically placing certain buildings and working on areas such as the strip and Fremont street to make it a tourist destination. I’m not one for gambling but there are so many casinos and so many people are glued to the machines.

It’s such a different city by day and it’s only after dark that people start flooding the streets. On The Strip, there are so many shows to see at every corner and so much food to eat as well. I’ve found it a bit difficult to find healthy food but I’ll save that for another post.

Back to Greasy Fast food after months!

Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, Coney Island

Before I go into the details of the Cheesy food above, I would just like to let you know that I will be heading back to school and getting into work mode soon. That means my posts will be a lot less and you will only see me in full force next Holiday. Don’t worry, I will make the most of these last few days of Summer and bombard you with lots of pictures and food!

So now for the food,

I am not really a Hot Dog or Fries person, mostly because I don’t like eating fried or fast food regularly. However, after multiple adverts about Nathan’s on the radio ( there is even one with Whoopi Goldberg!), I was curios about their so called ‘famous Hot Dogs’.

So luckily for me, I passed by Nathan’s while i was in Coney Island today and decided to satisfy my curiosity. The queue was ridiculously long, and there is also limited seating so you are most likely going to que in the sun and eat in the sun.

 I was already quite weak by the time i got my food so I was eager to dig in!

I shared a Hot Dog and the Bacon Cheese fries with my mum, just to make sure I had a taste of everything.

The Bacon Cheese fries were way too cheesy for me and if I must be honest, Johnny Rocket’s actually does it better. The Cheese had a weird aftertaste too and made the fries really soggy so I was not very happy with it.

The Hot Dog was also... just a hot Dog. There was nothing special about it, I guess on a Hot beach day anything greasy with a large bottle of Coke on the side would taste good really.

Bacon Cheese Fries - about $4.60 

Hot Dog - $4.99 ( buy two and get one free)

Verdict - I was really disappointed with the food. It was not bad but it was not as spectacular as the queue and the adverts made it seem. I probably would not go out of my way to eat it again. So on that note, Nathan’s has reminded me why I stay off fast and greasy food!

Rhapsodys (Lekki - Circle Mall)

I had heard of Rhapsodys many times before from a couple of friends, and so I expected the food and restaurant itself to be quite nice because of all the hype. So when I got in i expected some really nice decor & ambience but the restaurant decor was just okay (not the ‘Elegant decor’ they claim to have, but the bar was nice enough though), but I probably shouldn’t judge it too much because I was there during the day and the lights were not on (but still). 

The service was RIDICULOUSLY SLOW. The complimentary bread came out after like 20 minutes (and it was just four random pieces so it couldn’t have been due to baking) and the water came after 10 minutes . The food was even slower and came out nearly 30 minutes after.

This is perhaps the most disappointing experience ever, considering the hype and the fact that I thought my entry back into the ‘fine dining’ life would be a remarkable, tasty one. I will not even try to sugarcoat it because it was not fantastic at all.

I purposely did not post this yesterday on my way back from the restaurant (and just wrote this review down somewhere) because I was so irritated and I was also not in the best possible frame of mind to write for the public eye. So now that I am a bit calm I will go into the food review and try to be as nice as possible.

Starter - The bread starter was generally nice and warm, they most likely did not bake it ( thank God for that) so I was okay with it.

What did I eat? 

Southern Fried Chicken

This was a test. If you can not fry chicken and you claim to serve ‘tasty’ food you should be ashamed of yourself. I had high hopes for this and it was really disappointing. This was the driest Chicken I have ever had in my life. The skin was stretchy like rubber and it was clear that it was almost like it was over fried or microwaved. It was also not very hot and I got bony chicken too. I had to tell my friend that “we should just have gone to KFC”.

 The fries annoyed me the most. At N1500 per side this was a small, cold and tasteless portion. It lacked salt and if not for the price I wouldn’t have eaten even one fry. My friend had the Chicken Espetada and while it came on an impressive display (as you can see in the pictures, the chicken was impaled), it was a rip off because there were only three pieces of chicken and the rest were burnt chunks of pepper. The potato wedges was also a small portion for N1500.

IMPORTANT NOTE: HYGIENE

One Word : FLIES. I am very sure flies touched my food about 3 or 4 times, it was really bad and in trying to chase one away while cutting my rubber chicken, my fries fell on the table which also had another insect on it. I don’t know why they don’t have some form of zapper or at least close the door or clean well. I have not seen a fly in an INDOOR restaurant in ages so I was really upset about it.

DAMAGE: heavy damage. Southern Fried Chicken (with the choice of a side) - N5000, Water - N400, Chicken Espetada (with the choice of a side) - N5000

 (tax included in prices - only yay)

Will I go back ? 

Never, it was below mediocre and the customer service which was just okay could not save it either. The flies and the slow service upset me a lot too and my advice to you, go to KFC for real fried chicken and better portions!

On a lighter note, tune in tomorrow for an exciting foodie adventure! 

Garden to Home 

For those stay home and eat days 

When i first heard my mum say she was growing ‘Bitter Leaf’ in the garden, I thought it was a joke, seeing as she had previously tried to grow oranges and tomatoes in the garden. So i never thought the project would amount to something great. 

(For those who don’t know what Bitter Leaf is, it’s a plant that is used for cooking or medicinal purposes, and as the name suggests, it is quite bitter.       It has to be washed several times to get some of the taste out of it before it is cooked. It's commonly taken with swallow ( Eba, Amala, pounded Yam etc.) or even rice. I’ve added some pictures of the ones from my garden so you can have a look at it)

However, at 6pm today, I saw her plucking leaves from this huge plant. It was the ‘Bitter Leaf’. It had grown. I found this exciting considering the fact that i had not gone out to eat this week and had just been doing a lot of cooking at home, also it was the first time I was going to eat ‘homegrown organic food’.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of the finished product, but i will have one up as soon as possible. 

The soup my mum made with the leaves was really nice and the experience opened my eyes to the fact that I don’t always have to eat at a fancy place or go out to have a good culinary experience. 

Sometimes the best meals can come from your kitchen or in this case garden, and even if it’s not the best meal, you’re sort of proud of it cause you know it’s organic and you can tell yourself “it’s fresh, i grew it, i cooked it”.