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tv   Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown  CNN  April 27, 2014 5:00pm-6:01pm PDT

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one of our roles here has always been to take away excess money from people who don't know what to do with it, who can't think of a better idea about how to spend their money. in the old days the mechanism for doing that was you'd throw it on a table. put that into the context of throwing away a bottle of seven-up in a club. we're slightly more honest about it. >> you're talking crass commercialism in the very best sense of the word. this is it. is it the cultural center of the country? we may not want to think it is, but is it? >> what is the rest of the country? i don't know.
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but it's that place where they all leave and come here. ♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world ♪ ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ sha la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la la
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♪ i can go to the desert, but i am not going to get there by accident. but that's part of the whole experience of the desert is that, you know, it ain't friendly. it ain't nice. it ain't good, you know? you're out here, you know, a half a mile, it doesn't matter if you're half a mile out or you're 20 miles out. there's no reason to walk a mile further. you're already in infinite desolation. sin city was true, it was real. part of moving out here was you were never going to see your family again. that was it. i'm moving to vegas and you ain't coming to see me and i ain't coming to see you. that's the character of the city. it really was, you know, the pit of america. it wasn't that somebody came out here because i'm going to make a million bucks. it was i'm going to come out here and i'm going to survive and you all ain't going to bug me anymore back home.
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>> in vegas there's winners and losers. and god knows i've been both. in a place like this where you can lose your shirt on the unlucky turn of a card, you need a friend. and for my sins, i got roland. currently evading prosecution in just about every jurisdiction from his hometown, cleveland, to grand forks, wanted for bail jumping, usury, misuse of
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livestock, assault, grand theft auto, also the respected author of such food-related classics as "the french library cookbook" and "soul of a chef." he washed up in vegas at just the right time. vegas was always the most unlikely of dreams. the longest of long shots in the middle of the desert. a real but imaginary space that keeps expanding, creeping ever larger across the wasteland. back in the '40s, the '50s it was a small town. 100,000 became 300,000 became 500,000, then a million, then two. but it doesn't matter if it was five years ago or 50. te town has always ended like this. an abrupt cut in the desert rats on the horizon. but there are comfortable dark places, too. where a man can have a drink,
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meet like-minded sophisticatos of the open west. places like this. ♪ ♪ >> it's the good stuff. it's jameson black. >> you can do 30 of those. >> huntridge tavern, where those who have to live it, see it, the things that men do day after day, night after night, in a town where people are encouraged to do their worst, where they can drink the stain away. >> this is the side of vegas i like. >> this side. >> yeah, because people here are really cynical.
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>> really. >> they have a dim world view. even more dim than me. >> that's hard. >> you know what this whole show's about? you know there's a theme. >> no. >> this is about people who live here, you know. when all the meatheads come and go, they're still here. these people have seen every variety of horrifying human behavior. the old business model was come to vegas and behave really, really badly. >> i think it's encouraged people to be their worst. they're expected to do that. kind of makes my skin crawl. >> really? >> not here. here, i like it. i'm comfortable here. even in my -- >> right. is this an easy town to make a living or a hard town to make a living? >> depends on what you do. 25 years behind the bar, you see some -- >> if you were born and bred here -- >> i am. >> she's third generation. >> third generation. are you an optimist or a pessimist? do you think basically the human race are good people?
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>> i would say roughly half of them. >> half are going. >> half are going. >> there are probably more knuckleheads per square foot in the vegas strip than anywhere in america. >> yeah, but i'm not hanging with those people, man. there will be a few high-end meals during our adventure here. we will be sampling the other side. but there's a price. >> there's always a price with you. ♪ ♪ >> there are places in vegas where the available rooms are
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not listed on any websites. places reserved for the whales, the high rollers, the $10 million a night gamblers who arrive by private plane. ♪ >> bobby flay probably lives like this all the time. >> yeah. it could have been dark, couldn't it. could get very dark here. i honestly never thought it would have come to this. >> well, it was dunking fries 14 years ago. so. >> you made some steps up. >> you make me feel better about all of this luxury looking back at that. >> yeah. you deserve this. >> you're right. you're right. >> you deserve this. >> entering my golden years era. they don't show this in the viagra commercials. they're always running down the beach with a tennis racket. they never sit here.
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go out and kill some young people. throw another poor person in there. it's feeling cold. to victory, roman. victory in our time. you always try to comfort yourself in situations like this thinking oh, i'm sure people are really, really wealthy, they're probably really miserable. they don't know the sort of ups and downs, the happiness, the contrast, the passion that i have. we don't know, do we? >> right. >> like maybe every day is like wonderful. >> gentlemen, a little toast. >> lovely. >> foie gras. >> perfect. thank you. >> mm. delicious. >> perfect.
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>> the hadrian villa at caesars palace. a little pad they give you if your credit line runs into the eight figures. how did i get it? i told the casino that wolf blitzer was coming, that he was expected any minute. i suggested that wolf might be hungry and they sent up guy savoir. fortunately, he doesn't watch a lot of television. and i plan to live large until they figure out that wolf ain't coming. i'll deal with the fallout later. but for now, we live. >> gentlemen, this is called caviar. everything is in layers. on the bottom of the glass you're going to find a caviar vinaigrette topped with a cream of caviar, then topped with a puree of french green beans with caviar. then caviar. and finishing the dish with a caviar sabayon. >> oh, beautiful. look at that. >> it's rare that i say it's too beautiful to eat.
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>> i was just thinking that. oh, speaking of fantastically luxurious -- >> this is a specialty of mr. savoir. the artichoke soup with fresh black truffle and shavings of aged parmesan cheese. >> oh, man. that's truffle. >> mm. >> this is a combination of pheasant, white wine and duck, seared foie gras cabbage and mushrooms. please enjoy. >> wow, look at this. that is beautiful. you feel guilty eating this well? >> i do. >> you do? >> i do. >> i'm feeling guilty now but it will pass. >> i'll follow you, then. >> wow. you ever even seen anything like this? >> i don't think i've ever seen anything like this anywhere. >> yeah, me either. >> and the thing is you can see the main pool from the window
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here. you can see the hoi polloi. >> i was thinking of inviting them up to our crib. >> don't you dare do that. >> for a party. don't they deserve a good time? i don't know. maybe not. >> not going to happen. >> we're getting back to guilt. do you feel enlightened and inspired by this meal? >> what are you asking? what are you getting at here? you're trying to get at something. >> trying to make myself feel better. i'm trying to prove that i'm down with the people, man. i'm still cool. >> this guilt keeps coming back. you keep bringing up the guilt. >> you're right. i feel guilty. >> then don't do these shows. what are you doing here if you feel so guilty about it? >> i don't. i don't. i feel guilty about not feeling guilty. >> that's more to the point. now you're starting to be honest with yourself. >> right. ♪ guy: hey captain obvious, watch this!
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it's so easy to say i came out here because it's the land of opportunity. well, that's really great. if you're not here for that, why else are you here? it's the good old wreck your life scenario. that's always pretty popular. you can change your mind about wrecking your life, now what do i do. there's a lot less self-reflection about why people are here than there is about most other places. what a lost opportunity that is. >> sinatra and the mob are gone but there remains still a certain sentimental attachment to the way things used to be. there were rules then, a way that things were done, and when they weren't done, there was always the desert and a hole in the ground. also, there were lounges and rub joints and places where a man
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could get a proper plate of italian-american meatballs and spaghets. thankfully there are still such places. places like this, the bootlegger. it's a family operation. mama maria's family has been running it for 41 years. you got your veal parm, your fettuccine alfredo. your steaks and shrimps. don't forget your iceberg wedge with the blue cheese, which believe me, you want. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to the bootlegger. thank you very much. this is charlie schafer, my esteemed father. my name is laura schafer and we are your entertainment for the evening. ♪ i've got the blues ♪ i feel so lonely ♪ i give the world if i could only ♪
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♪ make him understand ♪ oh, that surely would be grand >> the bootlegger has a reputation for being a locals joint and it is but there's a lot of out of towners too, sentimental fools like me who if they don't exactly miss frank sinatra definitely miss dino and louis prima and keely smith. >> when i was 19, i got my first show on the strip and it was a small casino which is not there anymore now, it's been imploded for something newer, bigger and better. ♪ ooh ♪ baby won't you please come home ♪ >> what i do, anyway, it's part jazz, part nostalgia, but obviously i do it with a heavy dose of nostalgia because i'm recreating the whole look, not just singing the old songs. which is what makes it fun for me.
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♪ to call your name when you left you broke my heart ♪ >> pick one, dean martin or frank sinatra. you get to see one of them live in a small room like this. >> frank sinatra. >> i'm going with dino. >> i like dino as a person better because i never heard anybody say anything bad about him. >> whereas sinatra, you would have a hard time hearing something good. there does seem to be a soundtrack to old vegas. >> a soundtrack? >> yeah. yeah. yeah. does that help? >> who, me? or other entertainers? >> well, an affection for the classics. an expectation that while i'm here, i should hear some standards. >> i don't know if there's a certain place that people stay who are sentimental about las vegas because there are very few hotels left that were there in the old days. they've all been imploded. >> they recreated ancient rome sort of and the amalfi coast and
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paris. you would think somebody would want to recreate vegas. i'd go there. >> i'd work there. ♪ every hour ♪ every day ♪ you will hear me say ♪ oh baby, won't you please come on home ♪ ♪ baby, won't you please come home ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you very much. ♪
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>> you used to be able to go see louis prima 3:00 a.m., have breakfast, and then go out and watch an atomic bomb explode in the distance. i mean, that -- >> that sounds like a good time. >> i would like to live there. yeah. >> was it better before? is it better now? is it different? >> it's better to talk about before. people loved having their mob stories, and there's that weird romance of bad people. >> yeah. >> i don't think it actually was better. i think it was really good if you were sinatra. >> penn gillette, another cog in the entertainment machine, though at a somewhat more elevated level. of the live acts left in vegas, his might be the biggest draw. i suggested this place because rocku off the strip is where every chef i know who knows this town said i should go. the japanese modern izikaia, known as one of the best places
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to eat in vegas, casual but pricey. pricey because the ingredients, many from around the world. there is sea urchin from santa barbara. okay, that's not too far, but good. the tuna is from spain where it's best. the fresh river crab from japan. >> that was good, right? >> yeah. delicious. >> i didn't know oysters came that big. >> oh, yeah. >> isaki sashimi. isaki belly. juicy deep-fried chicken. hamachi belly. and one of my favorites, fish collar, where all the best, tastiest, moistest, meatiest bits hide their favors. penn has been living here and performing here for over 20 years. he knows. >> the thing about magic is, you cannot see it electronically. many people that come to vegas are people that see one or two live shows a year, and if you
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see one or two live shows, you might as well see something that you can only see live. >> right. >> you can never, ever see a magician any way but live. >> these days for better or worse, live acts, live performers, are being squeezed out in favor of edm, electronic dance music. it's a dj's world. and where once they used to say cocaine was god's way of telling you you had too much money, now maybe edm is. >> we get invited to all the openings of the new clubs but i simply don't understand it. i'm embarrassed that i don't understand it. >> are we just old? >> i think that might be it. >> or are we non-douchy. >> i don't know. you want to spin it the latter. i'm afraid it might be the former. >> used to be a whole spectrum of entertainers who existed almost entirely in vegas. danny gans was huge here. wayne newton. they were gods. but what's the big money draw now? this. ♪
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come, ye lords and princelings of douchedom. hear my clarion call. anointeth thyself with gel and heavenly body spray. maketh the sign of the devil horns with thine hands. let there be high-fiving and the hugging of many bros. for this is the kingdom and the power. now frolic and maketh it to rain. >> the cockpit. power. >> it is, man. it's crazy. >> just press a button and people respond. >> they do, man. >> wednesday night at the marquee. dj jason lima works for the house. tonight at marquee and at other clubs like it around vegas, somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 people are going to stop by and drop a whole boatload of cash. >> it's not just coming in here and ordering a bottle and sitting there drinking it. you're getting a full-on group experience.
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>> the new money, the new vegas, where the take at the big nightclubs is outpacing the take from gambling and slots. where everybody for the right price and with enough sparkles and the right mix can be a winner. after you finish work, how long does it take for your adrenaline to level off? >> at least an hour. >> what are your dreams like now? >> i'm not going to lie. sometimes i close my eyes and i still see the strobes. ears are ringing. still got like flashes of strobe lights. oking central park. when the guests arrive, they're greeted by my butler, larry. my helipad is being re-surfaced so tonight we travel by more humble means.
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at my country club, we play parlor games with members of the royal family. yes i am rich. that's why i drink the champagne of beers. sfuel reward card is really what makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #2: actually, getting a great car with 42 highway miles per gallon makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #1: point is there's never been a better time to buy a jetta tdi clean diesel. avo: during the first ever volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a jetta tdi. it gets 42 highway miles per gallon. and get a $1,000 fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. volkswagen has the most tdi clean diesel models of any brand. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models.
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♪ las vegas is an adult playland. and that's what we intend to be. if people want to see mickey mouse, they can go 175 miles down the road. if they want to see bugsy siegel under a rock, they stay here. >> is there a mr. vegas like elvis or wayne newton or bugsy siegel used to be? if there is, it would probably be this guy.
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former mayor oscar goodman. a man who knows allegedly and to the best of my knowledge where all the bodies are buried, some of them equally allegedly by some of his former clients. we meet over drinks at oscar's, the steakhouse that bears his name and boasts beef, booze and broads. >> you have colorful clients. who was nice and who was less fun to have -- >> the truth of the matter is, all my clients were nice to me because i kept them out of prison. >> did alleged mob guys know how to eat? >> my mother used to say two things, she said. she was the greatest lady. she said oscar's clients don't hurt anybody, they just kill each other. and she also said oscar's clients take us to the best restaurants. >> they knew where to go. >> they knew where to go. yeah. and were always treated right. they were always treated like kings and queens. >> did the feds hold it against you? i mean, you were just doing your job. >> they didn't see it that way. they thought i was a consigliere. as a matter of fact -- in order to murder somebody, they had to get my permission. that's how stupid these people
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were. >> anthony the ant bolatro, mayer lansky, these were gentlemen not unknown to mayer goodman. >> a lot of people will tell you it was a better place when the mob was running it. in many ways, that's true. >> there were rules then that mattered. you know the old saying, what happens in vegas stays in vegas. back when the mob ran things, there was a certain urgency to that suggestion. >> we saw that with princess harry. that's a perfect example. here's a guy who was here having a good time. in the old vegas, that would never have happened. there would never have been a disclosure. in today's modern age it was all over the world in moments. >> moments. >> yes. >> it says something about the town that his honor served three terms as mayor. he's an unabashed booster, entrepreneur, drinker of hard liquor and gambler and he was never shy about admitting it. >> i mean, it's unique. it's its own sort of hothouse environment. >> that's what vegas is.
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vegas is unique. but i'll tell you one thing, you go to the airport, everybody is smiling. when they come in they're smiling, they can't wait to lose their money. and when they leave they're smiling after they lost their money. i think it's very special. a special kind of place where people can take their basest instincts and just let it fly. i think that's good. i have no problem with that at all. >> when you come to vegas, you see this. the lights and smoke and mirrors, the casino floors. but who manages the machine? where do they come from? beneath the floors, behind the walls, above the winking surveillance camera lenses, a whole other world manned by thousands and thousands of waiters, maintenance people, repairmen, chefs, engineers, plumbers, and croupiers. three shifts a day they slip in and out of the casinos almost
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unseen through their own entrances but it's these people who have seen it all, seen everything, night after night. benny's been working here since caesars opened in august of 1966. he's dealt cards to everybody. >> i've dealt to diana ross, harry belafonte, sinatra. sammy davis. >> sinatra was not supposed to be particularly amiable at the table. >> sinatra was class. >> really? >> he was class. he was a gentleman. but those were the good days. but it's nice now, too. >> would you describe yourself as a degenerate gambler? >> i definitely have been. i'm trying to move past that. i have a 2-year-old at home. so i'm working on that phase. but i'll always have that gambling gear. there's no doubt about it. >> eric and erica lindgren are professional gamblers, poker players, to be precise. it's routine for them to sit
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down to a game with a bankroll of half a million dollars. tonight, slightly smaller stakes. >> hey, benny, how do you like my chances? >> good. good. >> that's a trained answer. >> instead of actual poker, we are set up with a dumbed down for the camera version of texas hold 'em. you play against the house. the odds, to say the least, are stacked against you. >> oh, here's a winner. here's a winner. two pair. he's cutting up over there. see how easy it is? you got this game down. >> uh-oh. those are famous last words. >> all right. let's put out a hundo. let's see what happens. >> all right. now we have a pair of 7s. >> i want to bet. >> okay. i have trips. that's going to be pretty hard to beat. >> you're a dead man, benny. >> i'm a dead man. >> i'll bet again. >> okay. two pair.
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pair of deuces. two pair. pair of 10s. >> oh, no. >> pair of kings. >> benny! >> full house. >> goodness, benny. >> huh? >> you got a full house. this is unbelievable. is there a cooler standing behind us? >> all right. that works for me. >> thank you very much. >> this is what we call a learning experience in my case. >> that was fun. we got away with our shirts. >> let's not do it again. >> let's never do it again. get all your favorites all day, every day. olive garden's signature favorites, just $10 all week long! including everyone's favorite fettuccine alfredo, and our classic lasagna. with sauces made from scratch in our kitchens every morning. all served with unlimited homemade soup or fresh garden salad. and your all-time favorite, warm breadsticks. signature favorites now just $10. all day, every day. at olive garden, we're all family here. discover 70 lunch combinations including our chicken parmigiana sandwich starting at $6.99.
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who would have thought masterthree cheese lasagna would go with chocolate cake and ceviche? the same guy who thought that small caps and bond funds would go with a merging markets. it's a masterpiece. thanks. clearly you are type e. you made it phil. welcome home. now what's our strategy with the fondue? diversifying your portfolio? e*trade gives you the tools and resources to get it right. are you type e*?
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it's easy to find people that will help you untangle a mess, but someone's got to be the one who created the mess in the first place that calls for untangling. where's our metaphor here? easy to tangle. but untangle a mess. this is going to be so much fun. >> anthony bondi is an artist and a born and bred las vegas native. after many adventures and i'm guessing some misadventures as well, he chose to live here. >> to what degree am i complicit in the worst of our city by making art that glorifies the city? i don't profit directly from what those people do but of course i do because i live in the city and as that money rolls all around us. but how do we live with it? it's not why and where the
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people come from who do the grotesque things people do here. it's how do we live here complicit in it. that's the big issue, is to be able to be self-reflective about the place. or you have to just go and stay high all the time, which is a shame, you know, which is another popular way of dealing with living here. >> is vegas a friendly town? >> yeah, always friendly because that's our job. >> but i mean to itself. to -- you're a local. >> no. >> no. >> not a bit. this town has never had any respect whatsoever for the people who just happen to live here. in the old days, we were co-conspirators in those days. we weren't citizens. the new authorities, the new power is exactly as anonymous as the old power. no phone number, no access. not a chance. >> there has been for some years an art community in vegas.
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you know, like art, that makes your life, all our lives better and makes us think. granted, vegas is a town designed to make you not think. to separate you from your money in as pleasurable a way as possible. so pleasurable that even after you limp out of town leaking from your ass with nothing in your pockets you want to come back and do it again. reflection, not so good. >> as a resident, what are the general rules of survival? >> don't cry about being broke. if i'm broke, more than likely it's because i threw away my money and too bad for me because i didn't get lucky. >> don't gripe about being broke. okay. what's another one? >> well, it's the smile. that is absolutely a local characteristic. >> this is a service industry town. >> one of our roles here has always been to take away excess money from people who don't know what to do with it and who can't think of a better idea about how to spend their money. we'll always take it. >> is that worse than before?
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>> the wrong is there are people with that kind of income who could put it to so many thrilling uses and can think of nothing so crass and boring than to wave the money in the air and throw it away. how loathsome. but within us, within those of us who live here is that challenge. and this has always been. here we are. ♪ >> you are sitting in lotus of siam, best thai restaurant in vegas by far. one of the best thai restaurants in america. >> jet tila has been here before. an l.a. guy, he came out here to do four years as executive chef at encore, a wynn casino on the strip. he's a reigning authority on thai food but really, everybody who loves thai food knows about this place. >> what you should order here should only be northern.
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you go to the back of the menu, it says northern specialties. if you come here and eat chicken with cashew nuts and drunken noodles, someone should punch you in the face. it's one of those restaurants. >> sipend shutama is the owner and chef. now get this. and it's important. you don't do pad thai here. you do what they are uniquely superb at, which is specifically the food of northern thailand. ♪ >> num krik. >> oh, yeah, yeah, of course, love it. >> literal translation, chili dip. it's really more of like a composed room temperature salad. nam kau tob is a puffed crispy rice salad with preserved pork sausage. >> that's good. >> jackfruit salad. >> jackfruit salad. >> this is hung lei pork curry braised down with garlic and ginger.
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>> this pork is amazing. >> isn't that great? and that's northern love. >> right. >> very important dish. >> oh, that looks really pretty. >> this is kau soi. this is the food my grandma made. >> that's perfection, man. >> what i love about vegas asian food is on one street you have the best sichuan food, the best cantonese food, you drive down the street and you get the best thai food. it's a funky awesome asian -- >> how did that happen? >> gambling. >> but i mean, were there high rollers who would come into town and they need -- >> a dude with a $10 million credit line at wynn is going to go eat a $10 chinese meal because this is the closest thing he has to home food. i'm going to go eat asian food. i'm going to come back and drop 5 million more bucks and then go home. security solution to keep your information safe & secure.
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this is what avant garde cooking is. people think that we want to do things in a way because we want to be cool. no. we do it because really, we believe we are increasing the value of the product we are working with. we are giving you the essence. >> e by jose andres. tonight, three seats.
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tucked away in the back of another of jose's restaurants, jaleo. behind the guys making paella over open flame in the center of a crowded dining room. quiet, serene, a kind of magic. this is, granted, a far cry from the $1 shrimp cocktail and all you can eat buffets groaning under the weight of a thousand carbs. iberico ham and bean soup with black and roasted garlic. jamon, baby. the world's best. like from espain. nitro almond cup, a frozen shell made from a puree of marcona almonds, filled with almond milk espuma and finished with andalusian caviar. >> you know, chef, this meal is working very well. my palate is open, i'm intrigued, i'm only growing more hungry and excited. the desired effect is taking hold. >> if you were a famous chef and you were lured, as so many are,
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to the rivers of green promised by vegas, it's nice if you can get yourself a playroom. >> gentlemen, this is elvermouse. >> mussels with an escave foam? >> he doesn't use the word foam. >> i would say air. water goes all over the place, it's a mess. a chef cannot do anything with these. air give us opportunity all of the sudden water is not water anymore. water has a body. belongs. >> the truffle egg, a gelee of truffles formed into an egg shape with an actual yolk suspended in the center. >> this is the idea of what if we were to be feeding our chickens truffles? would their eggs become like these? >> serves with onion puree, a
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cream and finished with more, lots more shaved white truffle. >> this is crispy chicken skin escaveche. >> i'm sliding this off right into my face. >> incredible. >> this is your portion of the salt roasted foie gras. and brian's going to come finish with a clementine sauce for you. >> light and flavorful. >> cocoches al piopio. >> this is squid ink sauce? awesome. >> secreto verico? the secret cut of the iberian pig. located underneath the front shoulder. >> this is an homage of the goodness of the sea meets the goodness of the earth. you know the work that goes into creating a menu like this? hold on. that we put the work doesn't mean it's good. when the food critics, they come and they say, the chef was not there. and i look at the food critics saying this is almost like a
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lack of respect. who do you think these people are? where do you think they come from? what do you think their careers are? every one of those amazing thousands of chefs, sous chefs that we have across the world, they are as good if not better than the guys that have their name on top with neon letter. and what they've been through lately. polar vortexes, road construction, and gaping potholes. so with all that behind you, you might want to make sure you're safe and in control. ford technicians are ready to find the right tires for your vehicle. get up to $120 in mail-in rebates on four select tires when you use the ford service credit card at the big tire event. see what the ford experts think about your tires. at your ford dealer.
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>> there is not one acre of preserved mojave desert in the city limits of las vegas. why would you preserve this? this desolation is not nurturing. we can't be here unless there's a lot of technology supporting our presence. and so there's a sense of the city versus nature. this is not our friend. >> you would think looking at the vast lakes, the canals, the fountains of vegas in the middle of a desert, the flush of 100,000 toilets, that the casinos and what they bring would constitute an obscene waste of water. and indeed water is an ever more desperate premium as water levels in the colorado river reservoir at lake mead decrease
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at an alarming rate. but it ain't the casinos that are the culprits. in fact, vegas casinos are a model of water efficiency and conservation. main culprit? the all-american lawn. a little square of green. robert kern is water police. he patrols the vegas streets looking for evidence of water violations. >> saw some water in the gutter on both sides. this is not their day. we're in an area where there shouldn't be any watering, yet there's water here. that's what we do, we drive around looking for something like that, to give them a little educational visit. hey, you're not supposed to water today. >> so you don't wrestle them to the ground, cuff them and drag them in? >> no, we do not. although we can go to a fee. >> how much? >> $80. >> $80. then -- >> then it doubles. >> and it keeps going? >> yeah. >> it seems a losing battle to
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keep your grass green. do you really need a lawn in the first place? >> well, most everyone that lives here came from the midwest or east coast and it was lush and green, and that's what vegas was 20 years ago. >> it was lush and green. >> sure. >> the city assigns watering days to control usage and also encourages xeriscaping, a landscaping style focused on drought-resistant plants and efficient irrigation. and if you don't get with the program, there's a hole out there in the desert for you. okay, not really. you get like a notice pinned to your door or something. >> but some people, they want the lawn? >> yeah. >> got to have it. >> and they can have it. just don't water on the wrong day. >> how critical is it? >> very. i mean, there's no snow on the western sierras, so we don't get any continued flow into the colorado dumping into lake mead. so unless something drastically changes, which there is no foreseeable relief in the near future. but you've got to stay positive.
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>> for the first 30, 40 years of the development of the town you just couldn't conceive of what was ahead. what we had, whatever was the newest thing that was happening was so spectacular and wonderful and oh, my gosh, we reached a new eastern edge, a western, northern edge. the odds are slim to zero that we're going to extend it to yet a further horizon. it was inconceivable. so there's the thing. what does the desert do? it exceeds our ambition. >> in vegas, nothing is permanent. it constantly eats itself, tears down, builds up, expands according to no known or easily understood plan. an organic thing responding to the dark dreams of the american subconscious. come frolic, live like caesar, or make money off those who do.
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drop a few moist bills in a gas station slot. see the full spectrum of human folly and commit some follies of your own. this is the story of one man, one chef, and a city. also it's about france and a lot of other chefs. and a culinary tradition that grew up to change the world of gastronomy. it's about a family tree, about the trunk from which many branches grew. it's about food, lots of food, great food. some of the greatest food on earth. ♪ i took a walk through this

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