Hundred dollar steak

So what, that's like, meat, on a grill, and that cost a hundred dollars? They don't put no bourbon in it or nothin'?

Good thing I reserved judgment. As per Emma's advice, the Venetian is one crazy/awesome/scary place. I'm sure a lot of you have heard the stats about it being the largest air-conditioned building in the world (and second largest building, second to the BOEING FACTORY), but holy shit, you have to see this behemoth. No real good photos from the outside because I think you need to take the photos from Hong Kong to get it all in frame, but here's some pictures of the Venice-esque shopping arcade (which is massive).

Exterior.

Interior.
Gondolas!
The worst store ever made.
All that wandering through the streets of Venice gave us a healthy appetite. Seems like Morton's, a fairly renowned 'Chicago Steak-house' would be a fine place to fix this temporary ailment. A quick glance at the menu and some convincing from the maitre'd who looked remarkably Ben Affleck saw us seated in a dinner which encouraged us to continuously look over our shoulders expecting to see Frankie and the Rat Pack.

Anyway, trying to set the mood here. This place was f-l-a-s-h. You want beer? You got it. You want bread? Hopefully, because a steaming cob is already on your table by the time you've picked up your napkin. Menus? What is this, the stone ages? These winners give a food presentation. Like, explain the menu in great detail while showing you raw cuts of meat, fresh seafood and vegies they use in their meals. Yep, my wallet was already crying without even seeing a price. Yes, eventually you get a menu. Place your order, enjoy some oh-god-I-hope-its-free bread and wait in eager anticipation for a hunk of dead moo.

Holy peanut butter and jelly, Batman. What an amazing steak! You hog's breath fans can cram it. This is the real deal. My fillet mignon almost defeated me. ME. I love steak! But it didn't. Enough waffling about food though. The steak was rad. Here's the final bill so you can all have a laugh and then cry about why we spent a mortgage repayment on dinner. If you're not real up to date on MOP currency conversions, divide that total by 6 for a rough idea. Yeah.
After a quick cry in the men's room when Emma wasn't around, we set out to win dinner back, courtesy of the Venetian's gaming floor. Thanks to our extreme finess on the roulette table, guess what? Dinner was free. With change. HAHAHA HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES, VENETIAN?

Right, that was last night. As of today, we'd done everything we'd hoped to do in Macau, so we toured the major casinos. Some great, some not-so-great but all worth checking out.

Check out old mate at the top of bamboo scaffolding, with no harness. Note, the scaffolding isn't attached to anything.
More rad Macanese graffitti work.
A popular Macanese beverage. Pocari Sweat.
*NB: San Miguel longnecks cost about MOP$8.50 from 7/11 (divide by 6!)

That's about enough from us though. It's time for some Portugese food and drinks followed by an early morning flight to Vietnam. More updates when we get a chance.

t+e