"Kate B" writes:

>I had dinner in a very fine Chicago restaurant last night that served an
>incredibly good appetizer that I want to replicate for a dinner party. It
>was a potato crusted "Balik" smoked salmon with dilled cucumber, ossetra
>caviar, crème fraise and a lettuce butter sauce. I'd never had or even
>heard of "Balik" smoked salmon before this appetizer. The salmon was
>smoked, mild tasting in an extremely thin hot crispy potato crust. I am
>assuming something along the order of 1/16th inch mandoline sliced potatoes
>briefly pan fried in a very hot skillet. The smoked salmon wasn't the usual
>paper thin slices but pieces about 1/2 inch thick by 2 inch long. It wasn't
>the chunky type though but the extremely tender sort that you'd expect to be
>sliced paper thin ... except it wasn't ;-).

Check

http://www.caviar-house.com/products/balik.lbl

Looks like you're describing the Filet Tsar Nikolaj cut.

FWIW, Balik seems to be a registered trademark. From what I was able to glean
via a quick google there's some sort of "secret russian method" used by Balik.
Without having tasted it myself I'd guess a light smoking with alder. Great
Russians tended to use alder for smoking.

Best,

Marc