Food is fake, but art is real.

Peter Anton (born 1963 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American artist and sculptor. His primary subject matter is food with an emphasis on chocolates and other sweets. He creates giant realistic sculptures and is best known for his "bigger than life" boxed chocolates.

Anton treats his food artworks very seriously.  His beginning process of creating his artworks is to eat, smell, feel, study and dissect a new food over and over again in order to hyper-familiarize himself with the new subject. He then begins the long and tedious process of sculpting, carving, sanding, painting, and construction of his mixed media works.

I am sure his artworks could certainly fool you when you first look at it.  Even just looking at the pictures, I really want to lick the box of donuts or touch the giant ice cream.  However, his artworks has bigger meanings than just being looking real. Anton emphasizes:

In my sculptures I like to alter and overstate foods to give them new meanings. I have an innate reverence for the things we eat. Food brings people together and there is no better way to celebrate life. Through the use of humor, scale, irony, and intensity in my forms, the foods we take for granted become aesthetically pleasing and seductive in atypical ways. I like to create art that can lure, charm, tease, disarm and surprise. My sculptures put viewers in a vulnerable state so that I can communicate with their inner selves in a more honest and direct way. I activate the hunger people have for the things that give them pleasure and force them to surrender. The sensual nature of the works stimulates basic human needs and desires that generate cravings and passion. 

911

I made this cupcake to those who lose their lives in the tragedy and to those who flight for our freedom.
Thank you!

911 - these three digits were a defining moment for all New Yorkers, Americans and all people around the world. 


I still remember I was in college when the tragedy happened in NY.  I was about getting ready to school, and I heard my roommate was screaming in the living room.  I quickly ran out from my bedroom and see what happened.  We were both looking at the TV screen, and I was beyond speechless.  I was thinking what I was seeing was not real.  It just looked like another blockbuster Hollywood movie.    Sadly, that was not a movie, everything was real.  


Sad, angry, speechless, confused, emotional, heart-breaking...those are all the adjectives I could use to described how I felt at that particular moment.  

To those who passed away from the tragedy, you are always in our heart.


To those who dare to lose their own lives to rescue as many as innocent people after the tragedy, you guys rock!


To those who lose their friends and family, you guys are always in our prayers.  


To those who fight for our country, thank you!  We know freedom is not free.  


Please slow down and take a moment to thank God for what we have and NEVER take anything from granted. 

Max Brenner Chocolate Restaurant (Las Vegas, NV)

Mr. G and I go to Las Vegas quite often in the past few years.  Sadly, we have not yet got chance to visit Vegas together this year due to our busy work schedule, friends' weddings and other family events since our last visit in September 2010. 

During our last visit, we stopped by Max Brenner Chocolate Restaurant (located at the Forum Shop at Caesar Palace in Las Vegas).  The atmosphere of the restaurant is very casual - good for a quick bite, a coffee break, an after-dinner-hang out-place, a desert place for couples, a casual family dinner or a fast and decent brunch.  However, the shop is relatively small compared to most of the restaurants in Vegas though, if you have a big group of people (more than 6), that would not be a good fun place to dine together.

Their famous hot wings

Mr's G hang over breakfast

My chicken panini sandwich

My pren-go friend told me chocolate and pinkle are a great combination!  She didn't lie; they were pretty dang good.

My strawberry white chocolate milk shake

We went there on a Sunday morning for a brunch before leaving Vegas.  We got there at the perfect time because they offer both breakfast and lunch menus; the menu is short but "sweet".  They offer mostly American classic food (sandwiches, wings, burgers, and milk shakes).  They provide good size food portion; the taste of the food is great and price is reasonable.  We will definitely go back again to try more stuffs the next time.

Although their breakfast and lunch menu are small, but they do have an extensive dessert and drink menu.  Since only two of us, and Mr. G was not ready for something too sweet in the morning, so we didn't get chance to try their dessert.  We did order a strawberry white chocolate milkshake and a hot chocolate for our drinks though.  Both of them are so tasty, and you could not miss them!  Their signature chocolate pizza has been featured on the Food Network Show's The Best Thing I Ever Ate - Pizza.  They have a little To-Go counter just right outside the restaurant, if you just want to grab a slice of the chocolate pizza of some cookies, you could just order it from the To-Go counter.  They also have a little gift shop inside the restaurant.  You could take home some cute gifts for your family and friends or just pick up something "sweet" to reward yourself!

You could order the chocolate pizza by slice.

Chocolate bar

Pipe full of chocolate

Picked up a mike shake glass and a mini fondue set for myself.