Food section...

[lsanderson]

On High-Stakes Tables in Las Vegas: Fish, Not Chips
By R. W. APPLE Jr.
LAS VEGAS

JOËL ROBUCHON and his creations travel very nicely, thank you.

His newest venture, Joël Robuchon at the Mansion, which opened on Monday in the MGM Grand hotel here, represents a leap back into the rarefied realm of haute cuisine, from which he "retired" in 1996. During the tryouts preceding its official debut, the restaurant served the best food in Las Vegas, by a decisive margin, and some of the very best French food I have ever eaten on this continent.

This is no revolutionary Robuchon, like his Ateliers (including one here and, soon, in New York), where one eats at a counter and talks to the chefs. It is no casual, scaled-down, moderately priced Robuchon, like La Table de Joël Robuchon in the chic 16th Arrondissement, and its counterparts in Monte Carlo and Asia. This is full-scale, damn-the-torpedoes, three-stars-or-bust Robuchon, worldly, luxurious, costly.

Steam Dinner, Add Morocco
By MARK BITTMAN

STEAMING is not the most popular method of cooking meat, but it has several distinct advantages. For one, overcooking is nearly impossible if you choose a cut, like lamb shanks, that wants to end up meltingly tender. For another, you lose nothing to the open air, because the sealed pot keeps in all the flavor.

Recipe: Steamed Lamb Shanks, Moroccan Style

Not to Be Confused With Pepper

Sprinkle Hawaiian black salt on a bowl of smooth pumpkin soup or on a mound of sweet potato purée, or offer a dish of it as an unusual dip for crudités. It is naturally harvested coarse-grain Hawaiian sea salt that has been purified with lava and charcoal, giving it a clean flavor and a distinctive look. It is $7.95 for eight ounces at Adriana's Caravan in Grand Central Market, or at www.adrianascaravan.com or (800) 316-0820.

Closer to the Bone
By JULIA MOSKIN

JENNIFER MCLAGAN has been preoccupied with bones for years now.

"I don't think it's macabre," Ms. McLagan said. "I think it's honest."

Ms. McLagan, a plain-spoken Australian chef based in Toronto, pulls out food's deepest flavors in her new cookbook, "Bones" (Morrow). Influenced by the traditional cooking of France, where she lives for part of each year, by the roast-joint-and-three-veg Sunday lunches she grew up on, and by a particular plate of tall roasted marrow bones she ate at Le Pré Catelan in Paris in 2002, Ms. McLagan has produced a work of refreshingly old-fashioned sensibility about food and - in true Halloween spirit - death.

Recipe: Meat Stock and Piccolo Bollito Misto
Recipe: Aromatic Chinese Oxtail Stew
Recipe: Duck Legs With Cumin, Turnips and Green Olives

Recipe: Harvest Soup

A Traveler's Delight
By FRANK PRIAL
LUXEMBOURG

"WINES from Luxembourg? When did they start making wine in Luxembourg?"

Such is the first reaction to any mention of wines from that pocket-size nation in western Europe. The answer: "Oh, about 2,000 years ago."

The next question invariably is, are they any good? And the answer is: very good, but there's a catch. They're difficult to find in the United States, save for the random case a visitor might ship home for his own use and what is housed in the country's embassy cellar in Washington.

And, just for David Schroth

A Guilty Pleasure Shows Its Colors
By JOYCE WADLER

AAAAH, Halloween, or as it is known among those who are powerless over their addiction, Candy Corn Season. It is a bittersweet time of year. Sweet because candy corn, that delightful confection of corn syrup and sugar, can finally be found in the stores; bitter because of the social disdain for this classic American candy. Call it Candy Corn Shame.

But consider: the National Confectioners Association says that more than 35 million pounds of candy corn will be made this year, including Cupid Corn for Valentine's Day, Reindeer Corn for Christmas and Bunny Corn for Easter. Clearly someone besides you is eating the stuff.

And so in an attempt to bring this classic out of the closet and onto the tables of Per Se and the Four Seasons, the Dining section presents its first candy corn symposium.