The Floating Island

The classic French dessert, the Floating Island.  A sweet poached meringue served on a sauce of creme anglaise.  The meringue has a lesser density compared to creme anglaise this allows the meringue to float back and forth on top of the sauce, creating a nice visual effect for the diner.  Today we created an Alaskan version trying to conjure the image of Tutka Bay.  With it still being prime picking season for spruce tips we decided to go that route making an "Italian Meringue" by infusing a hot syrup with spruce then straining that syrup in the whipping egg whites giving them a spruce flavor.  After, we folded finely cut fresh spruce and fortified that same flavor by poaching it in the reserved spruce syrup.  On the meringue we garnished with candied fennel seeds, rhubarb granita, shaved rhubarb, bruleed meringue shards, fennel fronds, and poured a wild blueberry anglaise table -side creating our own litte Tutka Bay.