A Chef’s Night out on the Town

It was the thrill of all the restaurants on the Strip that first drew me to Las Vegas, but it's the off-Strip places that keep me here. At least once a month, I head west to Chinatown to eat at one of my favorite places in the city: Honey Pig, a Korean barbecue joint. What do I order? Everything. Marinated beef short ribs, thick slabs of pork belly, octopus—you name it. It all gets put onto the round grill sizzling in the middle of the table, and we dive in with our chopsticks, picking out perfectly seared pieces of meat and wrapping them up in crisp green lettuce leaves with house-made kimchi and sliced jalapeño peppers and garlic, creating layer upon layer of flavor and texture. It's a chef's dream. Every time you take a handful, you can make it a little different: Spike this one up with bean paste, pile that one high with bean sprouts. It's simple, good, delicious comfort food, and after a day in chef's garb, I love how it's so hands-on, with everyone eating from the shared grill. Also (and I'm saying this as a man who knows from good fish), they do a breaded, baked mackerel here that really satisfies. It's not fancy—the fish was probably once frozen—but it is perfectly prepared, crunchy on the outside and flaky within, with a really clean, buttery flavor.