David Ross

My Grandparents lived on a ranch in Prineville, Oregon in the central part of the state. It is on the Eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains. My Grandma used to tell a story of the American Indian woman who would sell huckleberries out of a hand-woven basket. She was a member of the Warm Springs tribe and picked the berries on Mount Hood near Portland. She sold the huckleberries door to door to the local farm families. My Grandfather made huckleberry pancakes on Sunday mornings. Huckleberries grow well in the high mountain areas of the Northwest. They thrive in cool environments with lots of Summer sun. The nursery folk have never really found a great method for growing huckleberries commercially, so they are still hand-picked. They start to show up in our farmer's markets in July, but I wait to buy mine until August or the first of September. Like fine wine grapes, you have to pick huckleberries at precisely the moment the sugars are concentrated, but before the little berries start to dry up. Unfortunately for the pickers, the grizzly bears instinctively sense the moment the huckleberry is at it's peak ripeness, so they have to take their bear spray into the forest with them. I buy my huckleberries from a Vietnamese family. They pick morels in the Spring and then huckleberries in the Summer and sell them at the Farmer's market. Last Summer the huckleberries were $35 a gallon, which is a typical price. They are usually sold fresh in gallon bags. Spendy yes, but what do we pay for prime beef or foie gras?

How wonderful! A Floridian who knows about Marionberries! I was raised in Salem, Oregon. Salem is in Marion County-the home of Marionberries. More on Northwest berries to come. You are correct, Huckleberries are more tart than Blueberries. We don't add too much sugar to huckleberries because we like the tart flavor to come through. Huckleberry jelly is wonderful, like the clear essence of the berry.

Hello and good Monday morning. Welcome to my Foodblog. First off, let me congratulate Little Ms. Foodie-a fellow Northwesterner and former resident of my home, Spokane, Washington. She correctly answered the location of the 'teaser' photo, and correctly answered the variety of the little berries in the second 'teaser' photo: You are looking East from Spokane through the pine forests to Mount Spokane, the little dark bump in the background. We are in the far Eastern corner of the state, about a 5 hour drive from Seattle to the West. Seattle is a one hour flight from Spokane, which I do every day. Yes, I commute to work on an airplane, every day. I live in Spokane but work in Seattle. The flying bit comes in because I am in management for an airline. That's the day job. Food and writing is really my passion. More on the work schedule later. Now on to photo #2, a personal favorite of mine: Sorry to the folks who guessed these little blue nuggets were wild Maine blueberries. No, they are wild huckleberries. I am so excited that a fellow Washingtonian, (is that a word?), correctly identified the secret ingredient photo. I am making an offer right now to Little Ms. Foodie that I will bring you a bag of wild huckleberries to Seattle later this Summer in recognition of being the first to spot the huckleberry photo. We will arrange delivery details later. Huckleberries are simply the most flavorful little beauties you will ever taste. In fact, I actually have goose bumps right now as I write to you about huckleberries-they are that precious to me. They are about half the size of a blueberry and range in color from red to purple to black. I can't really describe the flavor of a huckleberry other than to say it is sweet yet tart, much more tart than a blueberry. What sets the huckleberry apart in my opinion is it's fragrant aroma-a cross between rose, orchid and just about any other tropical flower you can name. The scent is unmistakeable, and wonderful. If you smell a huckleberry, the aroma will be forever stored away in your senses and then, even 10 or 20 years later, if you smell another huckleberry it will transport you back to that original huckleberry sensation. The subtitle to my blog-Black Pearls of Gold-is in honor of how highly I prize the huckleberry. We pick them wild just a mere 20 miles out of downtown Spokane, our main competition being black bears and grizzly bears. We'll visit more about huckleberries later this week-how my Grandmother used to buy them from an American Indian woman who sold them door to door out of a hand-woven basket, how to cook them and where to buy them. For now, welcome and I hope I've whetted your appetite for what I promise will be an insightful, fun and funny, informative and personal look into my world of food and cooking and how it really defines who I am. I hope we'll form some new friendships along the way and that I'll learn about you and the food and cooking in your life. Now back to the pesky day job for a bit and I'll be back to you soon.

I hear you. I thought of how large the subject of Asian soups would be-a subject unto itself that could probably fill page after page. It sounded so big to me I almost didn't want to suggest it to you. Without any research of my own, off the top of my head I would agree with you-start with a central premise and then just highlight some differences from that point. Maybe start with the base for the soups-like chicken stock or seafood stock, then speak to the differences in how the soups are garnished. For example in Pho Soups in Vietnam the broth may start as standard chicken broth, and then a plate of garnishes is served with the soup like thin strips of beef, cilantro, lime and noodles. In China the basic chicken broth may be flavored with shark's fin or dried fungus and chrysanthemum bulbs. Something like that-start with the concept of basic chicken broth and then how the different cultures add different ingredients to make their soups unique.

I think it is a great idea. I think a lot of people don't understand there are very subtle differences between various Asian cuisines. If they gain a greater appreciation of the differences between noodles from Shanghai vs. noodles from Vietnam, they gain a greater appreciation for the flavors in the different styles of noodles. The end result is learning more about the world's food and cooking styles, and hopefully an urge to try that cooking at home. I suppose today's publishing world is quite competitive when it comes to books about food and cooking and of course, you want to set yourself apart, not only to be profitable but for people to like your book. I think adding the comparisons will help you be unique. You may want to also consider soups since they are such an integral part of Asian cuisines. I haven't done much research on the differences in soups throughout Asia, but I cook lots of different types of Asian soups. I know that curry style soups with coconut milk are popular in Thailand, while the Chinese tend to use lots of odd things like dried fungus in their soups. Just another idea for you and good luck.

I'm still working on a full review, with photos, of the dinner with Guy Savoy. But in the meantime, we had seven courses, my favorite being a filet of Sea Bass with a sprinkling of spices on the side that was a mixture of salt, pepper, mustard seed and coriander. The skin of the fish was very crispy. There were some tiny shitake mushrooms and tender stalks of chard under the fish. There was a butter sauce and then the waiter spooned a light seafood foam over the fish at the table. Chef Savoy was in town when I was there-both for the food events I was attending and to celebrate his one year anniversary at Caesar's. Unfortunately it is extremely hard to know when the chef will be in the kitchen. He only comes over a few times a year, and they tend to not announce it in advance. What I found was as outstanding as the food was the service. As opposed to Foodie Girl's experience at Robuchon at the MGM, the service at Savoy is quite comfortable and welcoming, even given the restaurants high status. Guy Savoy's son, Frank, runs the front of the house at the Las Vegas dining room. He appears to be under 35, but actually carries himself in a distinguished manner that reminded me of the excellent Maitre d's of years past-the men who made it their lifelong profession to serve others.

I just watched repeats of the first two episodes today. What a poor show. I do local cooking segments on the ABC affiliate in my home town, so I hope I'm pretty experienced when it comes to cooking on TV. I also appeared in what was really the first 'reality' show about cooking that ran on US television-MasterChef USA on PBS six years ago. MasterChef still runs on BBC today and is highly popular. It was a 13 week series showcasing 27 amateur cooks from around the country, ultimately naming the top amateur chef in the USA. I survived to the top 3 but didn't ultimately win. Like all the cooking shows on PBS-we kept the food and the cooking as the main focus-not the personalities of the contestants. I'm a food purist-I watch cooking on television to learn about food and cooking plain and simple. While it is important that I connect with the host when I watch a cooking show, it makes no difference to me what shape, size, age, sex or tone of voice that the host has. I certainly loved Julia Child's crazy, high-pitched voice and her tendency to weild huge cleavers at sides of beef or ugly monkfish. But that wasn't why I watched Julia. I watched her because she was a good teacher of cooking and told us about food and ingredients. That is what I think we captured on MasterChef USA-the 'reality' show tag was simply a hook, but I think we maintained our integrity as cooks by showcasing the ingredients, the food, the preparation and our talents in the kitchen. I understand why this show is popular with viewers and why the Food Network pushes it. I imagine it is because it gets good ratings. Good ratings mean a lot of people watch. If a lot of people watch, then the Food Network can raise the cost of a commercial because they can tell the advertisers that a lot of people are watching their commercial when it runs during this show. WHile I do like many of the shows on the Food Network, I don't like this one. The reality show has become mundane, ordinary and anything but unique. The formula is basically the same whether the show is on CBS, NBC, Bravo, Fox, MTV, VH1, ABC or Food Network. Take 'everyday' people and put them in a setting like a hotel or a fancy rental home. They seem to spend lots of time drinking and deciding who sleeps where. The 'candidates' come loaded for bear as we say out West. In other words, this is their moment to get on TV, so they come dressed in trendy clothes with trendy glasses, goatees and spiked hair and they will tear down anybody who gets in their way. The one lady on this show that walked in dressed in a hot pink suit and knee length hot pink leather boots didn't look like a serious cook to me. When I was on MasterChef I was simply competing with myself to present the judges the best food I could prepare. I was not competing against anyone other than myself, and that's how I survived. The 'candidates' seem more intent on creating drama and conflict among themselves than keeping focused on why they should be there-the food and the cooking. I'm not doubting their abilities as chefs nor their knowledge of food, but they don't get it. They don't realize that food comes first-not the personality or the 'shtick' entertainment value. From what I saw on two shows I didn't see any of them being able to do a 30 minute show on Food Network. Yes, there is way too much 'shtick' on "Emeril Live," but what keeps Emeril going is that he is at the heart of the matter a good cook and he knows food. Doc and the Band aside. Of course, Food Network encourages the feeding frenzy. The formula of the reality shows is to focus on the arguing among the candidates so that we'll identify with 'good guy vs. bad guy' from the start. Remember how Marcel was set up to be the villain from the start on last year's "Top Chef." Right, you kept tuning in to see who would blow up at Marcel next. You loved it when Cliff hog-tied Marcel and got kicked off the show. And you loved it on the last episode when Sam slammed Marcel's leadership in the kitchen in front of the judges. That's right, Sam had to bring up the fact that Marcel left some of the ingredients in the walk-in cooler. Then in a moment of "you can't write that," Marcel took credit away from Sam that the dish with the missing ingredients was changed at the last minute-and the judges actually loved it. Sam was pissed he didn't get the credit for the dish because he was the one back in the kitchen who told Marcel what to do to make up for the missing ingredients. So that's just one little example of how they edit these shows, along with snippets of candidate interviews, a few clips of raised eyebrows, under the breath comments caught on mike, that sort of thing. It raises the excitement quotient, but lessens the respect for the food and the cooking. Hey folks, did you learn to make a wedding cake on that episode today? I didn't think so. Now, just to add one more critical comment to my rant, (I've gotten stirred up now), let's talk about that wedding cake competition. Some of those people didn't even know what fondant is. They didn't know the cakes at their work stations already had a 'crumb coat' on them to make the final icing coat go on smoothly. They didn't know because they had no idea what a 'crumb coat' is. I'm not saying that you have to know the definition of a crumb coat to be the good host of a television show about cooking. What I am saying is that if you don't possess a basic knowledge of food and pastry and you are so naive that you don't know what fondant or crumb coat means, you are in trouble. You won't last on a Food Network show or anything other cooking show for that matter. Maybe they'll end up being famous for being famous and not for cooking. I think some some of these people wouldn't know a Sea Bass from a Snapper-and most of them are professionals in the food business. Oh well, I supposed between clicks with the clicker I'll tune in again just to see whose survived the latest 'challenge.' They've got me roped in, a little, even though I hate them for it.

Doc and Molto e, just let me know when you might be going to Las Vegas again. I'd glady join you both at Wing Lei so we can try some more of the menu. I was really intrigued by all those Peking Ducks I saw wheeled by my table.

I would like to thank my fellow e-gullet writers who encouraged me to dine at Wing Lei. I had dinner at Wing Lei, table for one, on Friday, May 19. This is an excerpt of a review I wrote about my experience. I write restaurant reviews just for fun and for practice to work on my writing skills, so this is part of a larger review. Enjoy. I have to apologize for not getting any photos of the dining room or the dishes that were served. I had pre-reserved the Seasonal Tasting Menu for one. It is normally only served to a minium of two people but they had no problem accomodating my request. Course #1-"Grilled Beef Salad with Rice Noodles." This was a simple description to describe a simple dish. It was simple merely because there were only a few ingredients-but the flavors were anything but simple. The salad was a light and refreshing introduction to the heavier flavored dishes to come. The beef tenderloin had been lightly grilled to medium-rare. The rice noodles were flat and thick like pappardelle pasta. The salad was dressed lightly with soy sauce and rice vinegar and garnished with shredded green onions and sweet red pepper. Course #2-"Chicken Soup." The description of the dish on the menu was almost too humble. Then again, maybe the chefs were trying to fool me? List a dish simply as "Chicken Soup" and you probably are thinking it isn’t fancy enough for a restaurant like Wing Lei. ‘Shouldn’t they be serving me Bird’s Nest Soup with Gull’s Eggs?” The waiter brought a covered porcelain bowl to the table. He placed a wide gold spoon next to the bowl of soup. He removed the cover from the bowl, releasing a fragrant cloud of chicken steam. Soft little dumplings that enclosed a center of chicken mousse floated in the 'essence' of chicken broth. A few strips of julienne carrot and zucchini squash were the only garnishes. Course #3-"Live Santa Barbara Spot Prawns." The waiter told me that the next dish was Spot Prawns that had been brought over from Santa Barbara that morning. "I like these prawns better than lobster” he said. “They have a sweet yet delicate flavor. And Mr. Ross, you know they were swimming in the live tank in the kitchen just a few moments ago." Two large prawns were served on a small, rectangular plate. The prawns had been taken live from the tank directly into a pot of simmering liquid and then gently braised for a few moments to keep them moist. They were served with the head on and the ruby red roe running down the tail. There was a tiny, whole mustard green served on the side. The mustard green was steamed and garnished with a little fried garlic. The idea was for the bitter mustard green to counter the flavor of the sweet prawns. Course #4-“Miso Glazed Salmon, White Bamboo Mushroom Fungus and Pi Leaf Greens.” Miso is salty and can overpower the delicate flavor of salmon if too much is slathered on fish. In this case, the Miso added just a hint of salty taste and the characteristic scent of miso and soy to the tender, medium-rare, salmon. Not too much, not too little. There are hundreds of different types of greens used in Chinese cuisine, but tonight the chef had chosen the leaves from the tender ‘Pi Leaf’ green. The steamed Pi Leaves served as a bed for the salmon. Another foundation for the salmon were shoots of Bamboo Fungus. The waiter told me that “Bamboo Fungus is usually stuffed with dried shrimp or mined pork,” but tonight the chef had only braised the tender, white cylinders. The fungus had a delicate, yet crisp texture and a hint of bamboo flavor. A sauce made from reduced soy sauce and miso was drizzled around the plate. Course #5-“Jasmine Tea-Smoked Chicken, Soy Reduction, Shanghai-Style Pan-Fried Noodles.” A baby chicken had been smoked with the tropical flower scent of Jasmine tea. The chicken was then braised in a sauce based with soy. There must have been a final cooking stage in a hot oven to crisp-up the golden brown, shiny skin of the chicken. Shanghai-Style noodles are thin egg noodles that are the size and texture of angel hair pasta. The noodles were stir-fried with sliced, fresh shitake mushrooms and a mixture of other vegetables. There was a ribbon of reduced soy sauce around the chicken. The sauce was thick, gooey and sweet. It was so delicious I thought I would name it ‘Chinese Molasses’ and bottle it. Course #6-“Dessert Trio.” At one base of the trio was a finger of creamy chocolate mousse encased in a chocolate shell and served with milk chocolate sauce. Next to the chocolate mousse was fresh strawberry sorbet served with poached fresh Lychee fruit. Lychee fruit are juicy little white orbs that taste like a cross between apple, pear and pineapple. The exotic scent of the Lychee smells of roses and tropical orchids. The third side of the trio was a tapioca based dessert. A small glass held tiny pearls of tapioca suspended in mango mousse with a base layer of coconut. The mango mousse was topped with a little scoop of icy mango sorbet. The trio of desserts was just the right balance of sweet, refreshing and refined flavors and light textures.

The word in the restaurant community is that the head chef left in late May to open his own place in Las Vegas. I'm not sure of the timing on when he will announce his new restaurant. I think they probably closed for both renovations and to transition to a new head chef.

Diann-have a great time! I've got a few suggestions for you. First, I would recommend the buffet at Wynn over Bellagio, especially if you are going for Sunday brunch. They are in the same price range and over the course of the past two years I think the quality at Bellagio has gone down while the quality at Wynn has gone up. The buffet at Wynn is smaller in terms of size, but the quality of the food is better and the setting of the dining rooms at the Wynn buffet make the rooms seem more relaxed and intimate than the cafeteria fell of the Bellagio buffett. I would go with the Tasting menu at Bartolotta. While the ala carte menu is certainly good, the tasting menu will give you small bites of a wider range of dishes and will also give you a greater sense of the Chef's creativity. All his fish is flown in from Europe daily so you can't go wrong. I am posting an excerpt of my experience at Wing Lei in the Wing Lei forum if you want to get an idea of what dinner is like there. They have two tasting menus-a seasonal tasting menu and a Peking Duck tasting menu. Both tasting menus are about $150-$175. Enjoy your trip and let me know how it was after you get back.

I'm glad it worked so well for you. Now I'll try your recipe.

I decided to take a trip to my local Asian grocery store on Thursday of last week to get some of the ingredients for a Chinese/Thai style menu. I had been thinking about making Shrimp Toasts for a long time and they turned out very good, albeit rich because they are deep fried. I added some really stinky shrimp paste to the shrimp mixture. That little bit of shrimp paste added an incredibly deep shrimp flavor. I served the Shrimp Toasts with some bottled sweet chili sauce. I thought a nice, clean and refreshing salad would be the right counter to the rich Shrimp Toasts. This is a salad of rice vermicelli with a simple dressing of soy sauce, orange juice, sesame oil and rice vinegar. I added some carrot, shitake, sweet red pepper, green onion, sesame seeds and cilantro. The entree I did was what I call a Thai Red Curry Seafood Stew. The broth is a mixture of seafood stock, coconut milk and red curry paste. I add a few drops of fish sauce, sesame oil and toasted peanut oil. The background flavors come from garlic, shallot and ginger. I always put in the same herbs-mint, basil and cilantro. This time I added prawns, clams, salmon and calamari. Sometimes I change up the seafood based on what sounds good to me at the time. The red curry paste is mildly hot-I purposely don't make it too hot because my tastebuds don't do well with really fiery foods. Enjoy.

Please always feel comfortable in the Dinner! forum. I encourage anyone and everyone to join us. From my perspective, just sharing the joys of food and cooking is the greatest gift we share with each other. And while sometimes we may talk about a cheeseplate with a rare, artisan cheese or an ice cream spiked with an unknown fruit liquer, we also talk about mac and cheese and what the kids like-aka pizza. Some of the photos are quite beautiful and could easily grace the pages of one of the national food magazines, but as others have said, a humble photo of a dish of spaghetti may elicit more positive feedback than a closeup shot of a slice of foie gras. Food is food and it is beautiful, delicious and knows no boundaries. So please don't hesitate to join us. You'll find the Dinner! forum is one of the highest visited forums and you are welcome anytime.

I dined alone at Wing Lei and they graciously served me a tasting menu. I didn't have the Peking DUck tasting menu, but I'm sure they would have obliged me that indulgence. I went to their Wynn dining reservations site and made the arrangements online. Thanks to the gentleman who accomodated my request via emails. I asked for the tasting menu, although I knew it was usually reserved for a minimum party of two. They didn't hesitate and immediately emailed me back with my request to have the Spring Tasting Menu. I'll post the menu tommorrow. When I sat down the waiter greeted me by saying "Mr. Ross we have the tasting menu ready to serve you tonight will that be acceptable?" My gosh, have you recently been greeted so warmly at a restaurant? Wonderful food and service ensued. Your list: Fix-hip, loud younger crowd and trendy (but good) food, Daniel Boulud-relaxed yet elegant crowd, very good French style food, and Wing Lei-the ultimate in Chinese cuisine and service, looks great. Wish I was going along! There are so many more choices in Las Vegas to add to your list. I haven't been, but based on the reviews, L'Atelier should be a good choice.

I just got back two weeks ago from a week in Las Vegas eating at some of the places you are thinking about going to. I'm working on a full report of my trip, but in the meantime, here are my thoughts: -I prefer Craftsteak at the MGM over Delmonico. I like the more lively atmosphere at Craftsteak, and the menu offers a few more choices of cuts of meat and preparations. -I had breakfast at Bouchon and it was wonderful. The service and food are good and consistent. I always ask for a table outside on the patio for breakfast. It's very peaceful in the morning. Their breakfast breads and pastries are especially good. I find that the dinner menu at Bouchon is more relaxed in terms of preparation than the dinner menu at Boulud. I don't think you'd find it overkill to have dinner at both-both offer good quality French food and the menus are different. For example-the mussels at Bouchon may be simply steamed with wine and garlic and presented in a cast iron pot-Boulud might do the same recipe but serve it a bit more fancy in a china bowl. Bouchon is Bistro while Boulud is a more upscale type of Brasserie. -I had dinner at Wing Lei and the service and food were both fantastic. I saw literally a convoy of carts roll by with whole Peking Ducks, destined to be carved tableside. I had requested in advance that the Chef prepare a tasting menu for me. No special requests, just whatever he wanted to prepare that night. It was seven courses of Chinese culinary heaven. They are gracious and welcoming and will describe the ingredients of each dish and how each element was prepared. -I went to a private winemaker's lunch at Alex. Chef Alex Stratta was in the kitchen and came into the dining room to introduce himself. He is a very convivial chap and graciously signed my menu. The service staff was extremely accomodating and friendly. The quality of the food, elegant decor of the dining room and welcoming service of the staff at lunch demonstrated to me that Alex would in fact produce the same results at dinner. If Spring Vegetables with Truffle Vinaigrette, Santa Barbara Spot Prawns with Corn Custard, Quail stuffed with Foie Gras and Truffles, Asparagus Gratin and a Trio of Chocolates sounds to your liking, those are examples of dishes you'll taste at Alex. -The highlight of my trip was a private dinner at Guy Savoy. Mind you, this was a private dinner, so our menu and the wines were specially selected by Chef Savoy and his staff-we didn't order off the regular menu. Regardless, any dish you taste will be special. Dream of butter, truffles, Foie gras, and intense flavors you have never tasted before. Not only was the food the quality one would expect from one of the world's top French Chefs, the special atmosphere of our evening added to the once in a lifetime experience-it was the one year anniversary of Savoy opening at Caesar's Palace and Chef Savoy was in the kitchen, his son Frank in the front of the house, and the full kitchen staff of 36 was present. The ratio was nearly 1 chef for each guest. Dining at Guy Savoy is a special, special experience. In addition to what you order off the menu, there is a bread cart, a cheese cart, and a dessert cart. The dessert cart was served after the plated desserts. On the night we were there the dessert cart had too many choices to mention here-but I tried lavendar ice cream, strawberry lollipops, blackberry marshmallows and pistachio macaroons. My only caution to you is that if you are going to dinner at Savoy do it right-that means spending upwards of 4 hours of your evening at the table. Going in with the intention of a quick bite doesn't give you the opportunity to really enjoy what this restaurant has to offer. Secondly, the prices are very high-similar to the prices at Joel Robuchon at the MGM. The entrees are upwards of $70-90.00. The tasting menu gives you the greatest opportunity to enjoy the seasonal ingredients that are in the kitchen. The tasting menu is in the range of $350.00 without wines. If you want a memorable dinner in Las Vegas and can afford the cost and time, go to Guy Savoy. Incredible.

I smoked/roasted a duck about three weeks ago, very easy. In fact, my method may sound too easy to get good results. I just bought your basic frozen Long Island Duckling, not organic, not free range. I just thawed it out, no brining. I didn't even season the duck ahead of time, no salt and pepper, no cajun rub, no garlic or lemon in the cavity. Just duck. I trussed the wings and legs and then ducky went into the smoker. I have a big old smoker that looks like an oil drum turned on its side. The fire box if off one end of the smoker pit. I used a combination of charcoal and hickory wood chunks. I kept the temperature at about 200-225, very low. I put ducky in the smoker pit and put a can of water next to him. I like to put a bit of water in the smoker to create steam, which seems to keep the meat moist as it smokes. The dark finished color of the skin comes purely from the smoke. I smoked ducky about 3 hours, then I finished him in a 300 degree over for another hour and a half. You'd think the poor thing would have been incinerated, but the meat was still moist and tender and the smoke flavor was very distinct. Here is a closeup of the smoked duck. The skin was nice and crisp, the meat very juicy. Here is the finished duck dish, sliced breast, duck leg, and served with spinach and cornbread.

Then on Saturday night, I made a lobster risotto. I had some of those local, fresh morels and local asparagus left over from the Copper River Salmon dish so I just had to use them up. I used lobster stock for the cooking liquid-it adds another hint of lobster flavor to the finished risotto. For the garnish I used another tiny sprig of that beautiful flowering chervil that I used on the salmon the night before. This risotto was REALLY GOOD.

little ms. foodie-Wonderful Copper River Salmon! It looks so juicy and delicous on the cous cous. Great combination. For those of us who live in the Northwest, (I'm in the Eastern part of Washington), we have the opportunity to be the first people in the lower 48 each Spring to taste this delicious salmon. It comes from the Copper River in Alaska. The season is very short and the price tends to be high because only a small amount of salmon are harvested. The meat is almost red in color due to the high oil content of the salmon. And it's that oil that makes it moist, tender and delicious. People actually put in advance orders at their fish counter to reserve one of these precious salmon. The season must be good this year because in my fish market it was only $14.99 a pound last Friday. That is cheap considering the fact that in recent years Copper River Salmon was as high as $35.00 a pound in my area. The fishermen in Alaska and some of Seattle's best restaurants sponsor a competition each year to see who can be the first to get Copper River Salmon onboard Alaska Airlines and down to Seattle in time to get on the evening's dinner menu. Here are photos of Friday night's dinner. The Copper River Salmon was the entree. The starter was a take on a recipe I got from the Roux Brothers Le Gavroche cookbook-with a few of my own changes. It is a salad of watercress tossed with a black truffle vinaigrette. The dressing is actually the consistency of thick mayonnaise rather than the runny consistency of a traditional vinaigrette. The recipe called for presenting the salad in a 'bowl' made of melted parmesan-like a parmesan wafer. I served the salad on a 'crouton' that I sauteed in lots of butter. I added the fresh radishes on the side with some more of the truffle vinaigrette. I seared the salmon, skin side down, in olive oil and butter for about 4 minutes, then turned it over and roasted it meat side down in a 400 oven for another 7-8 minutes. I basted the salmon a couple of times with some of the pan juices to get the skin really crispy. (I love crispy salmon skin, it's sort of the 'chip' with the fish). I made a beurre blanc sauce and added a bit of fish stock for some extra flavor. I served the salmon on a bed of asparagus, morels and baby yukon gold potatoes. The fresh morels in our area finally came down in price-from $45 a pound three weeks ago to $25 a pound last week. The morels are huge this year, about the size of your thumb, so you only need a couple for each serving. The garnish is a little sprig of chervil that happened to have flowers-a great little flourish for my photo. The dessert was also from the Le Gavroche cookbook. It is a chocolate sponge cake bottom with a thick top layer of chocolate mousse. The sauce is a mint creme anglaise. I would probably fine tune the recipe a bit in the future-I wouldn't add ground almonds to the cake layer because I didn't like the texture of the nuts in the cake. Otherwise it was very good. The chocolate mousse is very thick and dense, not like the airy chocolate mousse you might imagine. The texture was closer to the texture of a chocolate terrine. I used bittersweet chocolate to enhance the chocolate flavor. As they say, a little goes a long way.

Great question. I only found one 'definition' of savory online that I thought came close in terms of food: "Sweet and savory foods often complement each other at a dinner. A salad may have savory cheese and bacon bits, but may also include sweet fruit such as apples or strawberries." I've always viewed "savory" as a European term used to describe salty dishes-as opposed to "sweet" dishes using any form of sweetener like sugar or honey. I'm finding in my travels to restaurants that a lot of chefs today are breaking the traditions of keeping savory and sweet separate and combing the two. Like in the dish I had at Guy Savoy-Sea Bass with Vanilla. The flavor contrasts can sound odd, but if the combinations are right, the flavor sensations are incredible. It seems to work the best when vanilla is combined with other ingredients common to areas where vanilla is grown-like the dish Steve describes-"pan-seared scallops with coconut rice and candied red pepper and cilantro salad."

Thanks for starting a discussion on the use of vanilla in savory dishes-it is definately a popular technique right now. This topic is so appropriate to a dish I had last Thursday in Las Vegas. I was at a private dinner at Guy Savoy at Caesar's Palace and one of the dishes we had was simply described as "Crispy Sea Bass with Delicate Spices." It was anything but simple. The sea bass was sauteed skin side down to make the skin so crispy it was the texture of potato chips. When the waiter presented the dish at the table he described the sauce as a mixture of butter, ginger and vanilla! It was what I would describe as a Vanilla Buerre Blanc. The spices were a mixture of black pepper, Szechuan peppercorns, mustard seeds and coriander seeds. The waiter spooned a delicate fish fume over the Sea Bass. The aromas could best be described as the scent of tropical flowers-the subtle fish, the vanilla and the spices all combined in this wonderfully fragrant South Seas perfume. My skepticism over serving vanilla with fish quickly faded after the first bite. The sweetness of the sea bass was accented by the sweetness of the vanilla. The dish was garnished with tiny shitake mushrooms and a julienne of "White Chard." I've cooked with Swiss Chard but I had never heard of white chard. I'll post the full menu and more photos on the Guy Savoy thread in the Las Vegas forum, but in the meantime here is a photo of the Sea Bass and the vanilla sauce.

I'm counting down the hours to my private dinner tonight at Guy Savoy. The Chef himself is supposed to be hosting our dinner, along with Barbara Fairchild, Editor of Bon Appetit. I'll try to get photos, but the tone of the evening may be such that the little guy with the digital camera isn't appropriate. I'll report back on the dinner. I agree with Little Ms. Foodie-Sensi at Bellagio is o.k., but like so many restaurants down here in Las Vegas what is billed as "Fine Dining" is certainly a great experience, but casual in dress and not in the same league as the big players like Guy Savoy and Alex. Those are the REALLY big fine dining restaurants. I'm looking forward to dinner at Wing Lei tommorrow night-they've graciously reserved the chef's tasting menu for me even though it is normally only served to a minimum of two people and I will be dining alone. Saturday is a private winemaker's lunch at Alex at The Wynn and then dinner at Daniel Boulud Brasserie at The Wynn Saturday night. I had a quick lunch at Noodle Asia in the Venetian casino yesterday after I arrived. Good Traditional Chinese in basically a quick sit down service format-BBQ Pork and Chinese duck. The pork was very tender and the duck had the crispiest skin I've ever had. It was served with a sweet chili dipping sauce. The menu listed it as "BBQ Pork and Roast Duck Rice." So I'm expecting, (I knowm stupid on my part not to ask), maybe a plate of fried rice with chunks of pork and duck. The meats were plopped down on a huge mound of plain white rice. There were some tiny baby bok choy scattered around the rice. Not a bad dish at all but not great other than the meats. I also had a spicy jellyfish salad-marinated jellyfish with hot red pepper slices. It was crunchy yet soft, and a bit chewy-which I like. All in all a good lunch with ice tea that cost $34. I'm not complaining about the price but want to share it with you as an example of the prices in Las Vegas. Dinner last night was at the Buffet at Bellagio. Believe it-the wait at 830pm was 45 minutes and when I left at 945pm, the line was longer than when I went in. Amazine for a Wednesday night. The highlights of the buffet for my tastes were some new items I hadn't had at the Bellagio buffet before-tuna and salmon poke. I missed the poke with three other side dishes-black seaweed, "Namasu" spicy cucumber salad and "Chukawa Kama" salad (another type of seaweed salad). I also liked the North African spied Duck Legs at the meat station-but while the loin of venison had decent taste, the huckleberry jus tasted like weak blackberry juice. Trust me, I live in the mountains where huckleberry's grow wild and the chefs at the buffet need a lesson in huckleberry cookery. Not so good at the buffet was the chilled yellow tomato gazpacho and crab salad. The dungeness crab salad was simple-chives, oil and lemon juice-and delicious. But the yellow tomato gazpacho almost had a metal tang to it, I suppose because the tomatoes weren't ripe. Oddly, the chef placed some napa cabbage in the bowl first, then spooned in the gazpacho and topped it with the crab. The cabbage added a crunchy element, but since it was a bit bitter, it really accented the bitterness of the tomato gazpacho. Probably the crab salad alone would have been fine. Off for a greasy burger this afternoon before a nap and then the luxury indulgence of dinner at Guy Savoy.

I love the idea of the coriander paste on the trout. I'll have to try that. What were all of the ingredients in the paste? I'm keeping it simple this week before I head off to Las Vegas for 5 days of food pleasure. Did a basic rotisserie chicken last night. And I know you will all be laughing at me about the method I use for roasting chicken. I've read Thomas Keller's recipe for the perfect roast chicken, read through Jacque Pepin's recipe, and settled on my own-using a "Showtime" Rotisserie from the one and only Ron Popeil. Yes, the same guy who coined the phrase-"you set it and forget it." You really don't set it and forget it, but once you start the rotisserie it is a simple operation that takes only a few glances every 15 minutes or so to make sure the chicken doesn't get too brown. I buy small chickens under 3lbs. and then truss them and rub all over with olive oil to help the skin crisp. I season the chicken after it is done, which takes about an hour and 20 minutes. Yes, in the case of when I roast a chicken using Mr. Popeils invention, the phrase "As seen on TV" is actually true.