FoodTrek: Skip the Strip, It's Downtown Vegas, Baby

Glitz and glamour, a fortune at the press of a button, the playground for legendary stars like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and the spiritual home of Elvis Presley -- without even speaking the city's name, we know this to be Las Vegas. You would think Nevada would just cease to exist, because its famously infamous city is a place where you don't have to name the region or the state, you simply mention what happens here, stays here. All-night mega-club parties hosted by the latest (pseudo) celebrity. Beers in bong-sized glasses and cocktails with alarming neon hues. Every headline show is Cirque du Something-or-Other. High end luxury shops seeming to have more locations than Starbucks. It's a place that seems literally made of diamonds, which leads one to think, if we're surrounded by such profane wealth, is it even special anymore? I decided to track down my own diamonds in the rough, and stayed away from the Strip for the most part -- my fortune was made in old-school Downtown Las Vegas.

Keeping in real in Las Vegas, Downtown Style - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Mixed Plate: Happy Haunting on Halloween

Have a marvelously spooktacular, sugar-coated, pumpkin-smashingly good Halloween this week. It's a bit of a bummer when All Hallow's Eve falls on the middle of the week, but that doesn't stop anyone from binging on candy corn way back in September, in anticipation for October 31st.  And don't forget to practice your Thriller zombie dance, you never know when a Michael Jackson musical ensemble will happen.

This is a Wasabi-Dials-it-in post because as of this moment, I'm on vacation for a whole freakin' week! I'm leaving the homestead in the Mister and Indy the Pup's capable hands, and running away to Las Vegas, to meet up with the rest of the Wasabi Clan who's flying out from Hawaii, Oregon and even as far as Sweden to celebrate my cousin's birthday. We'll take our family reunion moments where we can get them! I've never been away on Halloween, nor have I been in Las Vegas during Halloween, so I fully expect to see some some crazy-ass crazy during my time on The Ninth Island, as Hawaii-folks lovingly call it.

I don't gamble, but rest assured, I will always bet on Wesley Snipes. I may buffet-it-up once or twice, so keep tabs on my exploits on Twitter. So till we meet again on the bloggosphere (first week of November, no worries), be safe out there, begging for candy like sugar-junkie-hobos and wearing that shirt "This Is My Halloween Costume" for the fifth year in a row. Because that never gets old.

Happy Halloween, Y'all!