Well, last week I posted a request for recommendations of restaurants in the South Lake Tahoe area. I received three recommendations: one for a restaurant about 30 miles outside of the Tahoe area, one for the Swiss Chalet chain, and one that sounded great, but it was too late for reservations. My story, however, has a happy ending. :^) We were staying at the Tahoe Seasons Resort (nice jacuzzis and fireplaces!) and asked the concierge for the notebook which contained sample menus of the local restaurants. One of our party had a hankering for escargot. There were only 2 which listed escargot, one of which was *very* expensive by our reckoning. The second restaurant looked reasonably priced, so that's where we ended up. Unbelievable! We had two appetizers: escargot, and a dish they call "seafood cheesecake." This was ample enough to split between 3 of us, and was designed to spread onto soft/crusty French bread. It had rock shrimp (?), cream cheese, cajun spices, red and green pepper -- very spicy, but all of us like spicy, so that was fine. We refilled the bread basket 3 times, and still hadn't finished the portion. We also asked for the recipe, but unfortunately they declined to share it. :^( I was the only one who had the soup -- Cajun 11 bean soup, according to our server. Mildly spicy, tender beans, and not too heavy. The salad came with a house vinagrette that our escargot fan found terrific. The two men just ate it, without the gastronomic commentary. :^) For dinner, two of us ordered the fresh salmon, julienned vegetables, and choice of new potatoes or linguini. The salmon steak was firm, yet tender. Lynn found a bone in hers -- none were in mine. The salmon was served in a *light* pastry, with a rasperry sauce that was very light, yet flavorful. Beautifully prepared, adventurous, yet not radical. The linguini was a trifle too buttery, but was nicely seasoned. The pastry was almost non-existent, as far as I was concerned. I think it was the lightest imaginable, solely there to protect the shape of the salmon. There was no loss of tenderness or moisture, and no hint of dryness at all! Dave had lambchops with pepper sauce. His complaint was that it wasn't spicy enough. He requested it medium rare, and that's what her got. Of the four of us, he's the least food-oriented (although even he admitted the seafood cheesecake was exceptional!). In retrospect, Dave said he should have emphasized that he wanted spicy on the pepper sauce for the lamb chops. We believe the lamb chop chef might have felt a bit restrained, since he/she had no way of judging preferences. Dan ordered Cajun thresher shark, extra spicy please. He found his shark to be fresh, tasty, spicy as ordered. It was also served with the fresh julienned veggies, and new potatoes. Like the rest of us, he was very pleased. We passed on dessert and coffee -- we were all stuffed! They had chocolate Grand Marnier cake; a chocolate cake with Hazulnut ice cream layered with the cake, and dribbled with chocolate syrup; they also had a chocolate/raspberry swirl cheesecake that sounded divine. With dinner, we ordered 2 bottles of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay ($16.25 a bottle). Total for four dinners was $138, plus tip. Very extravagant for us, but definitely worthwhile as an anniversary/birthday/birthday celebration! Service was excellent, reservations were not necessary, and dress code seemed casual/dressy. The name of the restaurant was NEPHELE's, on Ski Run Road right off the Highway 50. They stop serving at about 10 pm, we hear. Highly recommended! Sandi
Nevada