When I was just out of college, I moved to Las Vegas for my first full time job. What an amazing time and an amazing experience I had. I was of the perfect age where friends would come and visit, and there was so much to do for entertainment. When you think of Las Vegas, you think of casinos, gambling, and partying, but when you live in Las Vegas, life is pretty normal. Of course, you can gamble or live the nightlife, if you have the itch, but there is so much more to the city. My friends would always say, "I don't know how you do this!", but I didn't do "this". When I lived the Las Vegas vacation life, it was mostly reserved for limited times when I had friends or family visiting, and even then, I was typically still working normal my normal hours.
So what does Vegas have to offer? Besides casinos, night clubs, and pool parties, Las Vegas has some of the best shopping, lots of events, great golf courses, hiking, desert activities like dune buggies, and even skiing and snowboarding. Yes, that's right depending on the time of year, you can take a short drive to Mt. Charleston (Lee Canyon), for an awesome day away from the casinos. Vegas has more to offer than most believe. With all these awesome activities and things-to-do, my favorite by far, was the amazing restaurant and dining scene. From the big name chefs with restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip to the hole in the walls and local chains, Las Vegas definitely gave me inspiration in the culinary world and showed me what good food can be and how to take it to the next level. Las Vegas gave me many great food experiences!
Enough about Las Vegas, okay maybe, the reason I brought all of this up is, besides for my grandma's beef and asparagus dish, I had one of the best asparagus dishes in Las Vegas. At the time, it was probably our favorite restaurant, Nove Italiano. Their steaks were amazing and definitely a go to, and two side dishes that were a must were the "Death by Potatoes" and their asparagus which came topped with parmesan and a poached egg. I remember thinking how weird it was to top it with a poached egg, but after trying it, I was definitely sold. It was an easy top-notch dish, which I would go on to recreate and make my own (as much as you can make a simple dish your own). Here you have it, just this time it's truffled!