Join Mark Lewis for a 2017 First Fall Foraged Dessert Salon on Saturday, November 18 at Chef Lounge (Formerly POSH Improvisational Cuisine) for a Presentation of Sustainable Desert Foraging and Gourmet Desert Dessert Cuisine – Eat Your Desert! Sustainable, respectful foraging and processing of Native Southwest ingredients and their cultures will be discussed. Aspects of each dessert’s preparation will be demonstrated. Samples will be enjoyed. Sign up and pay in advance ($20).  Contact Mark Lewis, 480.261.3730, manujib@yahoo.com.   Menu

• Dessert 1: panna cotta (made with asparagus/ rose/red and yellow cholla cactus flower buds);
• Dessert 2: subcontinental shrikhand – cardamom yoghurt – swirled with prickly pear puree;
• Dessert 3: saguaro shmkwin with chufa horchata, a gelled pinole/pap/kichuri/juk/congee of ground, cooked acorn, sunflower seed, and pureed tepary slathered through with smoky-sweet, suave saguaro syrup. Think back-strap molasses-infused ambrosia! Float in natural chufa horchata – the gluten-free, milk-free, added-sugar-free milky drink so local, it was born in your glass! This is the original horchata formulation, popular before the use of rice and additives, and using the plant known as tigernut/ nutsedge/ vashai, the original namesake of the Scottsdale/Vashai area.

Two beverages:

• Cota/Thelesperma greenthread/ Navajo tea (a naturally slightly sweet, inulin-rich relative of sunflowers, dandelions, Echinacea, Calendula, chamomile, and everlast)
• Graythorn/lotebush/Ziziphus juice (a nectar-like juice made from our native plant relative to sea buckthorn and jujube). 

Mark Lewis is a sustainable forager and wild crafter of 200 plants and 50 mushrooms local and indigenous to the desert southwest in Arizona and the surrounding area.  Existing supporters from last market season include Chris Bianco Group, the Sheraton Grand Kai restaurant, the Westin Deseo restaurant, and more. In 2017-2018, additional supporters include the Arizona Restaurant Association Foodist Awards, Flagstaff's Coppa Cafe, Washington DC's Smithsonian Institute NMAI restaurant Mitsitam Cafe, NYC's Steve "Wildman" Brill, Whole Foods, Baker Creek Heirloom and Rare Seeds, Native Seeds/SEARCH, and locals Green's Cookery, Agave Farms, Brother Nature Farms, Cool Gelato Italiano, Chef Lounge, Hot Noodles Cold Sake, Sel, and the Stockyards.