Smoked salmon pate at $6.95 for 7 ounces was barely edible.

Complimentary appetizers are also diverse: One night, pepper-spiked tomato butter and toast rounds; another, salmon pate, and creamy rich chicken liver mousse on a third.

The special is the 'shopping lunch' (75kr), typically a generous plate of salad, salmon pâté, and slices of lamb, cheese and homemade ryebread.

The other day, it was packed with melons, salmon pate, cheeses and a shipment of quail for Sunday night's supper.

The senator missed not only the kosher dinner of salmon pate, followed by roast veal with wild mushrooms, but also a welcoming speech by Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem, the home of the museum.

Recommended dishes: Salade d'Oncle Alfred, salmon pate, fillet of pork, rack of lamb, filet mignon with blue cheese sauce, salmon with red pepper sauce, lemon tart.

The village pub attached to the hotel has bar lunches of salmon pâté on wholemeal toast.

Serve a rougher blend of this smoked salmon pâté as a starter with salad and oatcakes or blend a bit longer for elegant canapés.

The following recipe for smoked salmon pate is from Penelope Casas's "Tapas, the Little Dishes of Spain" (Knopf, $22.95).

Another arresting combination featured a slice of salmon pate separating buerre blanc and lobster sauces.