As you saw, I took my annual trip to Vegas this past week. This was a little different, though--I added the element of finding new food spots this time, especially the kind that appeal to most Hawaii visitors to Las Vegas. Here's a little background on the making of this gallery....

Traci Toguchi, me, Melissa Kim, and Jason Kim (no relation)

I love that no matter when you go to Vegas, there is always someone there that you know. I was extremely lucky to be there at the same time as so many people who were nice company and excellent eaters (not picky, knew their food, and could clearly articulate the taste).

Melissa Kim was perfect. Good hapa girl who knows her Korean food, who was homesick for local style dishes since moving to Virginia. I wished she could have stayed longer to eat more with us!

I don't normally hit the spots that serve Hawaii/local food, but I know a lot of people do, so I thought I should show them where to go beyond the same old downtown restaurants. No disrespect to these eateries--hey, thousands of Hawaii visitors have made them what they are--but we needed to expand our horizons a little.

You can see all the places and photos on my Metromix Gallery, so here's some insight: I actually can't eat all the food you see on this road trip. That's a lot of food in a lot of places to eat at in a short amount of time! I took a bite of each dish, but for the most part, I needed good eaters like these to eat the rest for me.

When we went to Retro bakery, it was important to eat the cupcakes while still fresh. Who's gonna do that?! Turns out Jason is a cupcake fanatic. I took a bite to get the general idea, but he ate several cupcakes in one sitting to give me the full report.

I later tried to get him to eat six more from the Cupcakery, but that was later in the trip, after we'd already eaten so much. At that point, he was feeling a little like I do at the end of a long gallery, so he only managed to get three cupcakes in. Welcome to my world, Jason!

There was one day that I was on my own, so I had to eat four kinds of poke from Hawaiian Style Poke by myself. Oooof. I love poke, but four at once (plus the sushi Dennis Cornelio made me eat) was a little much.

I later found out that Traci was jonesing bad for some good poke! She was so mad that I went without her! Fortunately, we were headed for Island Sushi & Grill in Henderson, so I could make it up to her. As it turned out, Terrance Fong's creative spicy miso white crab poke was off the charts onolicious, more so than Hawaiian Style Poke (sorry, Dennis). Traci almost licked the container clean, the poke was just so good.

You'll notice that I also visited places that aren't necessarily reflective of local food, but have gotten good word-of-mouth from Hawaii folks. One of those places was The Oyster Bar in the Palace Station. Tip: it's first come, first served, so try to eat at off-peak hours so you don't have to stand so long in line. Also, it's more fun if you go with others. Last year, I tried it for the first time but was solo, so I had a trucker sit next to me and immediately ask to hook up. D'oh! What an awkward way to have to eat dinner. This year, I went with Traci and we wore our fake engagement rings. Needless to say, I didn't have any trouble this year!

Just a couple of final notes for those of you who may think I missed a spot: I tended to visit more "affordable" restaurants to appeal to the widest audience. If I had it my way, I'd be eating a little differently more often on vacation! One of my splurge spots, which has gained popularity with my more discriminating friends, is Rosemary's Restaurant. I couldn't decide what to order, so I got the sampler menu for $80, which included foie gras. Yay!

Everything was great, but the one item that was surprisingly not that good was their scallops. They were actually kind of tough and salty--this, coming from someone who loves salty stuff. Don't get me wrong, it was still pretty good, but I'd probably pass on it since there are so many other good things on the menu. If you go, I'd recommend the foie gras, the salmon tartare (difficult to photograph), and even the melty, butter-like roast filet of beef.

If you go to Rosemary's and are into cooking, get a seat at the food bar to watch all the action.

I hope you'll visit my Metromix gallery to see all the photos of the stuff we ate! Please leave comments on the gallery; I'd love to hear your suggestions for my next road trip.

Up next: Tweet up at the Las Vegas Hilton! My attempt to emulate Christa Wittmeir.