Yelp

Last year sometime I discovered the gloriousness of Yelp. It was a great resource when looking for reviews on restaurants. Earlier this year, I started contributing, I figured giving back was the least I could do. A couple months back, I became Elite. Which allows me to meet really great people and attend special events. My busy schedule has kept me from attending previous outings, but I was free for the Yelpmazing Race held Tuesday at MGM.

I'm unfamilair with Amazing Race but I imagined it would be some sort of scavenger hunt, and it was. We had a meet and greet before we got started, and enjoyed Skyy cocktails. Then, we gathered with our assigned team (9 in all) and each team was given a packet with our first task. We had five to complete at different restaurants. After successful completion we were given a puzzle piece, once we completed our puzzle we were to return to Rouge.

First Stop:
Diego, one team member had to make guac the way Diego prepares it. While she did that we all had to salsa. Then, once it was approved we had to eat all the guac and chips. After scarfing those down we earned our puzzle piece.

Second Stop:
Seablue, two team members (us) had to identify and make a salad with ingredients checked off. Frank read and I plated. Nailed it. Two had to taste wines, and the rest had to answer a quiz, they were stuggling so when we finished we helped out. My otherwise useless chef/restaurant knowledge came in handy. Puzzle piece secured.

Third Stop:
Fiamma, we were led to a table with small plates of pasta: penne, gnocchi and spaghetti. I was seated in front of pesto spaghetti, Frank had gnocchi. We had to clear our plates using no utensils or hands, if we touched the plate there was a 30 sec penalty. Spaghetti is tough to scarf, and all I tasted from then on was pesto. Got another puzzle piece.

Fourth Stop:
'Wichcraft, one team member had to eat blind folded (I volunteered, but someone else wanted it), and describe ingredients to another and she had to re-create the sandwich. The rest of us had to complete a cross word puzzle, we finished in record time, but they were still working on the sandwich. Finally, got approval and we were off. Another piece earned.

Fifth Stop:
Grand Buffet, they laid out 40 items and we had to eat them all. They attempted to tell us about the dishes but we were too busy shoving food down our throats. Puzzle completed.

We really thought we did good, but we came in 7th out of 9th. 5th/6th place finished seconds before us. No clue how the other teams completed the challenge so quickly. All we could figure is they had less back and forth. We all had a different order to complete the tasks. Frank and I know MGM like the back of our hand, but it did not give us enough of an edge.

Back at Rouge they served cupcakes and cookies. I was too full to eat or drink. The bar remained open until 10:00. There was a raffle and awards ceremony. As a parting gift I got an old school metal lunch box. We left after the prizes were awarded. Each participant of the winning team got dinner for two (any participating restaurants) and two show tickets to Crazy Horse. Nice prizes. It was good fun! I'm glad we went.