David Ross

A friend posted a goat dish from Vetri that looked delicious and I'd order that in a minute. I like that they are doing some dishes that you'd rarely see on other Italian restaurants on the Strip.

I also recommend Esther's Kitchen off-strip by Chef James Trees. All of my friends, experienced food writers and Las Vegas locals alike give it rave reviews. Creative dishes at affordable prices and you won't walk for miles from a Strip parking structure through a casino.

Always love your reviews of dining in Las Vegas. The fine dining prices at the newer places seems astronomical even by Las Vegas standards. Le Cirque has always been worth the price for the food, service and the gorgeous dining room. I've always preferred it over Guy Savoy at Caesar's and Twist by Pierre Gagnaire. I know Vetri is expensive, but based on what I read and hear from my local friends down there it's one of the new fine dining places that is worth it.

Has anyone ever pickled avocado? I'm thinking the soft texture of diced avocado might suffer in a pickling liquid. I'm thinking about a fish dish using both raw avocado and pickled if I can pull that off.

My avocado cookery is limited to guacamole, which by my own measure isn't very creative. I do like a blt with sliced avocado added along with the bacon, lettuce and tomato, yet again not overly creative. So I'll be looking to everyone for some ideas on how to experience the flavor of avocado in dishes that I wouldn't normally think of.

Ah, the avocado! For many of us, this humble little fruit inspires only one dish. Yet the avocado has a culinary history that is deeper than we may understand. The avocado (Persea Americana) is a tree thought to have originated in South Central Mexico. It’s a member of the flowering plant family Lauraceae. The fruit of the plant - yes, it's a fruit and not a vegetable - is also called avocado. Avocados grow in tropical and warm climates throughout the world. The season in California typically runs from February through September, but avocados from Mexico are now available year-round. The avocado has a higher fat content than other fruits, and as such serves as an important staple in the diet of consumers who are seeking other sources of protein than meats and fatty foods. Avocado oil has found a new customer base due to its flavor in dressings and sauces and the high smoke point is favorable when sautéing meat and seafood. In recent years, due in part to catchy television commercials and the influence of Pinterest, the avocado has seen a resurgence in popularity with home cooks and professionals. Walk into your local casual spot and the menu will undoubtedly have some derivation of avocado toast, typically topped with bacon. Avocados have found a rightful place back on fine dining menus, but unfortunately all too often over-worked dishes with too many ingredients and garnishes erase the pure taste and silky texture of an avocado. When I think of an avocado it’s the Hass variety. However, a friend who lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, can buy Choquette, Hall and Lulu avocados in the local markets. This link provides good information about the different varieties of avocados, when they’re in season and the differences in taste and texture. https://www.foodrepublic.com/2012/10/18/know-your-avocado-varieties-and-when-theyre-in-season/ I for one must challenge myself to start eating and cooking more avocados. I think my recipe for guacamole served with chicharrones is superb, and the cobb salad with large chunks of ripe avocado is delicious, but as a close friend recently said, “one person’s ‘not especially new’ is another’s “eureka moment.” Well said and as history tells us, we’ll find plenty of eureka moments as we discuss and share our tales and dishes of avocado during eG Cook-Off #81: The Avocado. Fun fact: The name avocado derives from the Nahuatl word “ahuacatl,” which was also slang for “testicle.” See the complete eG Cook-Off Index here https://forums.egullet.org/topic/143994-egullet-recipe-cook-off-index/

I'll eat just about any sushi or sashimi, but I also draw the line at uni. What's funny though is my Sister and Brother-in-Law, who aren't what I'd call adventuresome eaters, love uni and can eat skads of it at a local restaurant in the Bay Area.

For a few years now I've gotten more interested with Japanese cooking, triggered in large part with my fascination of watching Dining with the Chef, Trails to Tsjuiki and Tokyo Eye 2020 on NHK. Our local PBS station carries Dining with the Chef and Trails to Tsjuiki, (now the new seafood market), and I can catch Toky Eye 2020 on YouTube. Tokyo Eye features segments to promoted the Tokyo Olympics, but many cover food and dining. With that said, Miso Soup is now a regular part of my cooking. I especially like to make a breakfast of pickled daikon, steamed rice, a small grilled piece of salmon and miso soup. This is my home version of Dashi. I started with a recipe, but now I just vary it based on how strong I like the flavor. This was 6 cups water, two large pieces of Kombu and one 5g packet of dried bonito flakes. Then added to some of the dashi was red miso, shredded cabbage, clam meat, shredded carrot, a dash of soy sauce, Korean gluten-free rice noodles and a garnish of green onions. Really easy to make a good on a cold day with plenty of snow on the ground.

Last year I was planning on entering a contest for cooking with Naan Bread, but the contest never got off the ground so I've had this recipe in waiting-Spicy Mediterreanean Lamb Naan with Cucumber Raita- The ground lamb is sauteed in olive oil with red onion and garlic, then the spices go in-cumin, Greek seasoning, chile flakes, dried oregano, lemon juice, and a dash of Worcesterchire. The drizzle on top is mayonnaise mixed with lemon juice, mint and basil. I change the raita each time I make it, but this time it was diced cucumber with Greek yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, mint, basil and salt and pepper. Sometimes I add red onion to the raita, other times cilantro. The Naan bread comes, from all places, Walmart. They offer it in two sizes and either plain or garlic and it's delicious. I heat it up to bring out the flavors and then run it under the broiler to add to the char.

me too!

Made my Chipotle-Pepita Salsa that I've been making for years. It's somewhere here in the many pages of eGullet, but here is the recipe. Sometimes I chop the ingredients by hand, including seeding the tomatones. More and more though I'm pulsing it in the food processor so it's chunky, which of course is much easier and quick than my hand method. Chipotle-Pepita Salsa-makes about 3 cups 8-10 large Roma tomatoes 1/2 yellow onion, diced 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 cup cilantro leaves, minced 2 tsp. ground cumin 1 tsp. ground coriander 2 tsp. chili powder 1 canned chipotle with 1 tbsp. of the adobo sauce 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice 2 tsp. sugar 2 tbsp. olive oil 1 cup toasted pepitas Heat the oven to 400. Spread the pepitas-green pumpkin seeds, in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Toast until the pepitas start to brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. In a food processor, add the tomatoes, onions and garlic and pulse to coarsely chop. Put the tomato mixture in a large bowl, then add the minced cilantro, cumin, coriander, chili powder, chipotle, lime juice, sugar, and olive oil. Stir to combine. Roughly chop the toasted pepitas and stir into the salsa. Serve with fresh lime wedges.

I was just looking back at our eG Cook-Off Bee#69: Cooking with Beer to look over my recipe of batter-fried onion rings, (which I plan to make for the Superbowl). We've got a lot of interesting dishes over there to https://forums.egullet.org/topic/151237-eg-cook-off-69-cooking-with-beer/

It's been a crazy few years here in the Pacific Northwest with our Dungeness fisheries. We normally see the first crabs show in the markets by Dec. 1. This year the season was very early, then shut down for weeks over the holidays. Late January we'll still see some but not the bounty we are seeing now. And we have prices down as low as $5.97 a pound.

Yes I'm already thinking of broiling salmon then with the watercress butter on top and maybe mixing some of it into a pasta to go with the salmon. I saw your photo and then thought, why didn't I think of watercress butter?

I love rutabagas and glad to see some creativity in this oft-forgotten vegetable. But I'm especially intrigued by watercress butter, which I think would be very good with seafood and chicken.

Delicious and I've loved Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage for years. It is far better than what I've tried to make at home and the "artisanal" sausage I've tried. I like the balance of the seasonings but especially the grind of the meat. Sometimes a name brand is in fact, as far as some of my cooking, the best ingredients.

My gosh look what I found in my eGullet archives. From 2010, a Washington Apple Gateau with Caramel Sauce.....

I'm about a month behind in my candy making, specifically my Almond Butter Crunch, basically the same as a home version of Almond Roca. That looks so wonderful and thanks for the tip from Engstrom's. I've always wondered about storing mine. Was there too much humidity in my house, did putting it in a covered can make it soft? It's natural now to think yes, keeping it in the fridge keeps the butter in the toffee cooler.

That would be wonderful. I even found a few more great back issues of Gourmet and Bon Appetit this year.

Horizon Air was also the first airline to serve Starbucks. Way back in the late 1980's, this fellow named Howard Schultz was starting a coffee company in Seattle and since we were a Seattle based company we linked up with Howard to serve his coffee onboard. And we also served it free in the boarding areas. I remember they had strict brewing standards for the coffee. Passengers loved it from the start, especially since it was a Seattle company. At the time every corner of your town wasn't bordered with drive in coffee stands. Well we all know how the story of Starbucks has unfolded. I love that piece of history. But I don't love working in that stressful business!

I've mentioned before that I worked in management for 28 years at Horizon Air which is the regional sister carrier of Alaska Airlines. One thing we always prided our service on was that we served complimentary micro-brews with a focus on Pacific Northwest breweries. Well I've been gone for three years now and I no longer fly but I saw on their website that they are serving the Ninkasi Ale right now on Horizon. I'd say that's a pretty decent service for a regional flight along with the requisite bag of snack mix.

Beautiful and delicious. What type of camera and lens do you use for your food photography?

Thanks to all of you for teaching me about the intricacies of bread baking. I used these rolls as the base for sandwiches with a slow-roasted beef roast I did last weekend. I still have some work to do as the interior was a little soft for me and the next day the rolls pretty much crumbled when I cut into them but overall a good start for me.

I've been testing a new, (at least for me), method of slow roasting beef. As in 200-225 degrees for hours. As part of my experimenting I made some soft pretzels rolls which turned out incredibly good for a novice bread baker.

I bought this dark fruitcake at Cost Plus World Market last week. Imported from the UK, it's just fair, nothing I would buy again. The icing is of course delicious, but the cake is dry and there is no hint of brandy which is listed as one of the ingredients. So I have it curing under a good dousing of Cointreau.