When this placed opened years ago, I used to come here once a week. After a while, I got tired of the same thing but if you’re looking for sushi rolls, this is your kind of place. You can also create your own roll and if you’re a regular, they will name the roll after you and put it on the wall.

Eel Tempura Roll and Spicy Tuna Roll

As  you can see from the picture above, the rolls are large and generous. Although this place is far from being an authentic Japanese restaurant, the owner is Japanese and so the hot green tea is free. Nice.

Come here for sushi roll heaven, but this place is very small so if you come late, you may have a hard time getting seated.

11629 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 996-2366
calrollfactory.com

Jackpot

Finally got a table share of a Jackpot at the Hustler. It’s been a long time coming. AK vs. QQ and the flop was AA6. I asked the dealer for an A on the turn and got it. Nice.

After getting my new Alienware laptop with the backlit keyboard, my desktop keyboard started looking… well… dark. I really started wishing that my desktop keyboard was backlit like my new laptop.

There’s a bunch of gamer backlit keyboards available but they are expensive and not what I need. After looking around a bit, I came across the Logitech Illuminated Keyboard (model 920-000914) for $79.99. It was on sale for $59.99 at Best Buy.

Entire keyboard

The specs:

• Adjustable backlit keys (4 levels of brightness)
• PerfectStroke key system (eliminating slippage and delivering fluid and natural strokes)
• Music and volume controls
• Ultra-thin
• Soft-touch integrated palm rest

Ultra-thin design

This keyboard only works for PCs (sorry Mac users) and connects to your computer via USB cable that’s coming out of the keyboard. Although the keyboard comes with drivers on a CD, I just plugged the keyboard into the USB port and everything worked fine.

As you can see from the picture above, there’s clear plastic all around it and the keys are very low profile, along with the entire ultra-thin keyboard. Basically, they used the same technology that is used in laptops to make thin keyboards for this desktop keyboard. And as with laptop low profile keyboards, it is very quiet compared to the old school PC keyboards that make a lot of noise.

This post is being written from this keyboard and I can report that if you are used to using laptop keyboards with low profiles, you will quickly adjust to this keyboard. However, if you are used to using high profile keys that travel a long distance, you might need some time to adjust to this keyboard.

Backlit keyboard

There are also a few subtle difference with this keyboard compared to the standard PC keyboard. Normally, the backspace and backslash keys are slightly longer. On this keyboard, they are not as long as you might be used to. The entire top row is about 5mm to the right of regular keyboards. I’m not exactly sure why they decided to do that.

Also, the delete key in the middle area is vertically larger and takes up the space that normally would be the insert key. The insert key is above the delete where the “Print Screen” key would normally be. The “Windows” key on the right side is replaced with a “FN” function key which can be used in conjunction with the regular function keys as shown below.

Function keys

If you’re looking for a backlit keyboard for your PC, and don’t mind the thin laptop like profile keyboards, this one is for you. No more having to turn on my light to see where the keys are.

People are pretty used to a lot of vending machines, including the Redbox that rents out DVDs.  A new one I saw at the Las Vegas airport was a Best Buy vending machine chock full of nice gadgets, including iPhones, iTouch, digital cameras, chargers, headphones and other goodies. The day will come when the vending machine is all we’ll see and retail stores will no longer exist.

Best Buy Vending Machine

As you may have read, my sushi hunting in Vegas has been a complete fail for me so far. A little disillusioned, I asked my researcher friend to find me a decent sushi place.

She found Okada at the Wynn for me, and the although the look of the restaurant was semi-fusion, I liked the ambiance there. The first thing you see is the wonderful waterfall and koi pond, although I didn’t actually see any koi. Perhaps, they were being fed somewhere. The sound of the waterfall is very relaxing and would be perfect for meditation.

Waterfall

As per my usual test, I ordered the sushi combination dinner as shown below. Although the quantity was low, the quality was very high and the portions were generous, fresh and prepared correctly.

Sushi Dinner - $46

Although the miso soup was a wopping $6, the green tea was free. As readers of this blog knows, the free green tea is the indicator I use to see if a Japanese restaurant is authentic or not.

For desert, I tried the Creme Brulee shown below, which was well prepared and delicious.

Creme Brulee - $4.50

All in all, I can finally say that I found some good sushi in Las Vegas. Yes, it’s a little pricey but that’s expected and as long as you’re not looking for bargains, I recommend a trip here.

3131 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109-1967
(702) 770-3320‎

After being fully burned at BarMasa at Aria, I was over with the over-priced Asian-fusion crap and decided to checkout something more traditional. I inquired about a traditional Japanese restaurant that a local would go to and was told to see Hamada, located in a restaurant mall type area.

Although, by LA standards, this place is pretty large for a mom-pop type restaurant, by Vegas standards, it’s not that large. However, the first indication about it’s authentic nature was when both the hostess and waitress both spoke Japanese. So far so good.

One thing I did notice was that the restaurant was completely empty. I may have been the only customer there. That’s always a bad sign.

The menu consisted of the usual traditional type dishes, so I ordered Hiya-yakko (cold tofu) to start, and a sushi combination for my dinner.

Hiya Yakko - $5

The tofu was okay, but not great. Nothing wrong with the way it was prepared, but the tofu itself wasn’t fresh.

And below, you can see the low quality of the sushi itself. The tuna was not fresh, and everything was sub-par, including even the egg sushi. In fact, the ginger was even dry, which is a clear indication that they are not busy enough to use up their ginger. But how hard is it to keep your ginger fresh? At least it wasn’t $90, but I’d rather pay more and get good sushi.

So far, I’m batting zero in Vegas for sushi. At least the green tea was free.

Sushi Dinner - $27

Come here for the non-sushi traditional Japanese food. Actually, just skip it.

Hamada of Japan
365 E. Flamingo Rd.
Las Vegas, NV
(702) 733-3005

As a change, we decided to checkout the Las Vegas branch of Bouchon Bistro, a French bistro cuisine opened by acclaimed chef Thomas Keller. Located upstairs in the Venetian, this restaurant has the ambiance that you would expect from an upscale bistro.

Upon out waiter’s recommendation, we tried the Sweetbreads, which was prepared perfectly but not a dish that I would try again. There was nothing wrong with it, just not my type of dish.

Sweetbreads - $13

For our main course, we tried the Poutlet Roti. As you can see from the picture below, it looks like a big pile of chicken, which is exactly what it is. As you would expect, it was prepared perfectly, but I’m not sure the ambiance and name makes the price tag worth while. Of course, if you are price conscience, you shouldn’t be coming here.

Poutlet Roti - $59

If you like excellent service, and upscale French bistro and you happen to be in Vegas, check this place out.

3355 Las Vegas Blvd.
S Las Vegas, NV
(702) 414-6200
bouchonbistro.com

Burlesque strippers in Star Wars costumes. Need I say more?

Now that the November 9 has been set at the 2010 WSOP, it’s time to reflect on my trip this year.

Compared to 2007, this year’s WSOP was better organized and seemed to be running a lot smoother. I liked that the 1st day wasn’t a marathon 16 hours, and instead was not even 12 hours (including the 90 minute dinner break). This made the experience more enjoyable and I actually had a lot of fun, unlike in 2007.

During my day off from the tournament, I saw an interesting spherical camera device that was hanging above one of the tournament tables. There was an operator (see the guy in the white hat on the left) that was controlling it using what appeared to be game console controllers. The sphere had multiple camera lenses on it, including one at the bottom (see picture below).

360 degree camera?

I don’t know what this device was but it was not being used at an “important” table so I assume it was some kind of experiment, perhaps by ESPN.

Just like in 2007, I stayed at the Rio for the advantage in the tournament to being closer to it during the breaks. As a matter of fact, I was able to leave the table a couple of minutes before the 20 minute break, get back to my room, order food, go to the bathroom, and still make it back in time. One thing I didn’t know until this year was that I could just ask room service to leave the food in my room even if I wasn’t there in time. This made it a lot easier for me to have my dinner waiting for me in my room.

Something I did this year was to go to the grocery store near the Rio (Food For Less, a few blocks away) and stock up on food to put in the frig in the room. This is a lot cheaper (including the taxi cost) than eating and drinking from the room bar. This was definitely the smart move and I’ll be doing this again next time.

The only thing that was a fail at the Rio was the internet connection, or lack thereof. It was so intermittent, it was basically unusable. I literally spent several hours total over a few days talking to the customer service people for the Internet service.

If that wasn’t bad enough, even the checkout service on the TV was not working properly. As you can see below, I guess the Internet service wasn’t working for the hotel either.

Rio TV

Despite this one glitch, my stay at the Rio was good and I plan on staying there again when I return to the WSOP, hopefully next year.

After getting a new Samsung monitor for my computer recently, I decided it was time to get a new TV for my bedroom. Since I’ve already ranted at length about the problems I had getting this new TV from Best Buy, I’ll just move on.

After looking at the new LED backlit LCD HDTVs, I decided they were still too expensive for me to justify for my bedroom since I don’t watch too much TV in there.

Since I was pretty happy with my Samsung monitor, I decided to stay with them, but get a larger 40′ LCD HDTV (model LN40C530F1F) from Best Buy. It also happened to be on sale for $674.99 (MSRP $749.99).

Samsung 40'

Basically, this is just a bigger version of the monitor I got for my computer except the remote is a little different.

Remote

The specs are:

• 1080p
• 40″ screen with light sensor
• Only 3-1/8″ thick for wall mounting (mounting kit optional)
• Screen refresh: 60Hz
• Dynamic Contrast Ratio: 80,000:1
• Wide Color Enhancer
• Two 10W speakers with Dolby Digital and DTS decoders
• Inputs: 3 HDMI with Anynet+ and 1 PC video (rear)
• USB 2.0 port with ConnectShare Movie
• Game Mode which enhances dark areas, and sharpens the picture

The screen refresh is only 60Hz but that’s why it’s on sale. Don’t expect any theater type Dolby sound coming out of these speakers. It’s good enough for just watching the news or playing some non-serious games. The screen is small enough that you would not be that far away to need sound that good anyway.

Side

There is one HDMI input on the side, S-video and the USB port. If you plug a thumb drive with pictures or video, you can use the remote to go through them like you do on a computer. You can also update the TV firmware using the USB. The side HDMI is a nice touch for people who want to put this thing on their wall.

Back

The back is where most of the inputs are located, including 2 HDMIs, DVI, PC, S-video and Antenna inputs. Pretty much, all the usual inputs are available here. Some people might want 4 HDMI inputs but for a small TV that you’ll probably just use for gaming or your bedroom, 3 is plenty.

Since I never tested the TV feature on the computer monitor, this was the first time I used the TV functions and the remote control. It took me a little while to get used to the menus on the Samsung but it’s easy to figure out without reading the manual. The only thing that was not simple was setting the favorite channels, which requires going into a sub-menu to do.

All in all, the price is right if you don’t need the best and latest technology available. For your den, office or bedroom, this unit is more than adequate.