Goto Pares atbp.
What? It looked like someone had come up with the name by accidentally sitting on a computer keyboard. But the colorful sign declaring “Goto Pares atbp” (what?) beckoned amid this otherwise bland and aging strip mall on east Charleston, and the logo — a bowl of soup puffing two playful curls of steam — spoke to my stomach, which was making dubstep hunger noises that no mere computer keyboard could express. (Though “oorgheaaxchchkk!” comes close.)
It wasn’t long before I was mouth-deep in culinary adventure, enjoying crispy kwek-kwek (boiled eggs deep-fried in sweet batter), a massive plate of palabok (vermicelli with tofu, fish sauce and fried pork) and, for dessert, halo-halo — a bracing, icy ambrosia of purple yam ice cream, milk, flan, coconut shreds and fresh fruit chunks served in a glass chalice generous enough for two. Goto Pares atbp is a recently opened Filipino restaurant downtown. (“Goto” is rice porridge; “pares” is a nickname for a popular Filipino beef bowl; and “atbp” means “et cetera.”) They specialize in Filipino street food, everything from fish balls to the dreaded balut — that is, duck fetus boiled in the shell, a dish launched into infamy on a million reality TV and extreme-eating shows. It wasn’t long before Goto Pares atbp owner Angelita “Baby” Cariaga was penciling me in for a balut date on my next visit. “Balut is very good!” she said. “As long as you don’t look at it!” (I asked her what Tagalog for “rain check” was.)
You know this dead horse: Everyone in Las Vegas is from somewhere else. It’s a musty truism, but its effects sometimes take novel forms. For instance, I suspect it’s one reason for the dispiriting dominance of chain restaurants; in a transient and rootless realm, your neighborhood Chili’s Outback Taco Garden becomes a culinary shrine of familiarity, a stand-in placard for a real sense of place: If you’re not in authentic Las Vegas, at least you’re in a shared version of some corporation’s idea of America, right?
There’s a sunny flipside to that effect. That Vegas is a city of immigrants — from across borders both foreign and domestic — means we also have a surprising diversity hiding in every strip mall and shopping center, whether it’s a bustling Korean market or a sleepy Ethiopian café. And that brings us to our fourth annual DEALicious Meals edition. Certainly, the dining deals that abound in this issue (starting on page 46) will likely lead you to keeping this magazine around for months to come as a sauce-stained foodie micro-bible. It will also serve as a map to the wild side of dining in Vegas, whether you’re a fan of ethnic eats (adjarski khachapuri, anyone?), spicy food (fire breathing dragon roll — yowza!), contest yums (eight pounds of nachos in 55 minutes? Go!) or novelty plates (the huuuge Alaska Donut eats other donuts for breakfast). And, given that our city is genetically engineered for nightside mischief, breakfast may as well be considered an exotic meal, too. It’s also become very good in recent years, graduating well beyond hangover-banishing grease bombs slung at the dining counter — and we issue the wake-up call on page 64. And after reading our — hic! — expert guide to our favorite happy hours on page 26, we suspect you’ll need just such a breakfast, whether you’re wrapping up at three in the morning or three in the afternoon. Whatever your poison — out-there fare or hand-crafted cocktails — this issue is sure to deliver plenty of buzz. Broaden your palate — and get a taste of your own community.