Smoked salmon heaven!

I'm just back from a three day weekend in Seattle. It's a bit far for only three days, but I wanted to go see my aunt for her 60th birthday.

The famous Pike Place Market is a sight to behold. It's a huge, I mean HUGE, market downtown by the water. There are a lot of tourists milling around and I'm sure the prices are high, but it's so much fun to wander around. I could spend days looking at all of the fish and seafood, flowers, cheeses, veggies, and other things.

I especially liked fish market stalls with all kinds of beautiful fish, especially salmon. I'd love to buy a whole on someday and poach it for a party. Wouldn't that be fun? The Alaskan crab were the size of dinner plates and the lobster tails were a foot long.

My aunt took me to a local fish market Tacoma, where she lives, so I could buy some smoked salmon. I also picked up a smoked salmon dip that I plan to recreate somehow. I much prefer that Pacific smoked salmon to the Atlantic smoked salmon which seems to me slimy more often than not. My favorite way to serve any smokes salmon is to put it in a plate, sprinkle with lemon juice, season w/ pepper and salt, and possibly garnish with chopped capers. I like it served with crackers and butter. Cream cheese is good too.