tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48125358304272688272024-02-06T17:32:11.480-09:00Alaska State DishRestaurant reviews and other adventures with Alaskan gastronomy.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-76169459966633367162012-04-24T14:48:00.001-08:002012-04-24T15:04:53.459-08:00Fire Island Bakery: My Favorite Place to Spoil My AppetiteThis weekend I went to the Fire Island Bakery (twice!), which is located downtown at 14th and G Street. They're open Wednesday through Sunday, and they're also closed for a little while in the winter. It's one of my favorite places to go get a snack on the weekends (the other one is <a href="http://akstatedish.blogspot.com/2011/06/modern-dwellers-chocolate-lounge.html" target="_blank">Modern Dwellers</a>). One of the reasons I love it is because it was started by two former state employees, one of whom was the director of Alaska State Parks. So, I love it because they're totally living the dream- one day they just said to themselves, <i>forget being a bureaucrat, I'm going to open a bakery!</i> The bakery space is very small, and it can be pretty tight, with only a few tables and a narrow aisle between the tables and the counter, but there are more tables outside for the summertime. On the other hand, the small size concentrates all the heat and delicious smells in the bakery, so you are hit with it as soon as you come in, and can see and smell everything going on.<br />
<br />
They really try to be a neighborhood bakery, and they're in a primarily residential neighborhood just south of the Park Strip downtown. Especially in the summer, I see people walking in from the neighborhood a fair amount. It can be just a little hard to get a parking space, though, since it is near downtown- usually you drive up and it looks like a Subaru convention, but I've never had trouble parking within a block. If I lived or worked downtown, I would come here all. the. time. One of my friends who works downtown walks over at lunch sometimes to get a cookie and some bread to take home. It might make working in a cubicle downtown worth it. Everything I've had is great, and everything is made from scratch, and they buy a lot of local and/or organic ingredients. They also make small batches to keep everything fresh, so they do run out of things- you may want to go earlier in the day if you can. That's also one of the great things about it, though, that they bake all these different things, so you can go there twice and they have a lot of different tasty things each time, along with their staples.<br />
<br />
They also hire and train a lot of young people, and support local causes, including donating day-old bread to Bean's Cafe, a local soup kitchen. They also spend some time each winter going to pastry or baking classes outside, so they're really trying to keep things fresh, and to help train and develop the careers of their workers. Whatever, I want the job of the young lady I saw the other day, standing there with a <i>giant</i> tub of chocolate frosting, icing cakes.<br />
<br />
<b>Breads and Savory Baked Goods </b><br />
<br />
First of all, the bread. They make all kinds of great bread, from the rustic white and rustic wheat, which are delicious, plus the loaves themselves are gorgeous, to the ciabatta, which is a very rustic, uneven looking loaf of delicious bread. The ciabatta is my parents' favorite, but I like the rustic white and wheat, because it has a great crust, as well as a great texture. All their breads have <i>body</i> and <i>gravitas</i>, not like those breads you get at the supermarket that are so soft and insubstantial. They also have great things like French baguettes, and monkey bread and cinnamon rolls (iced and plain) for those who like their bread covered in cinnamon and sugar. If I was the type of person who got up early, I would go to the bakery first thing so I could smell the warm monkey bread in the oven. Other breads they have are whole wheat sandwich bread; challah; focaccia; roasted potato, cheddar with jalapeno and green chile; cinnamon raisin bread; volkonbrot (for those of you who are, the nice young man at the counter told me it was basically a dark rye); and rustic wheat with currants and pecans. they also have other Jewish breads for holidays. The most important thing about the bread is to estimate how much you are going to eat in 2-3 days, and freeze the rest. They are so good about making everything from scratch and using all natural ingredients that their bread actually molds <i>really</i> fast, way faster than grocery store bread, so you had better refrigerate or freeze it, because it would be a dirty dirty shame to have to throw any away.<br />
<br />
Next, to other baked goods. They have great scones and croissants. Everything I've had is great, but I haven't remotely had the chance to try everything they make. The scones are very popular. Last weekend they had apricot and fennel, but the variety changes a lot. I love the croissants especially- I usually get the traditional, but they have also had ham and cheese, mushroom and gruyere, and chocolate, during various visits. I've never had a muffin from Fire Island, but they have a huge variety to choose from. They also make their own granola that they sell in quarts - as my mother says, it's good, but not as good as her homemade granola. So maybe if you want granola you should just be nice to me or my mom.<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>Cookie Cookie Cookie Starts with C!</b><br />
<br />
They also have great cookies, of which I have sampled many. The cookies are probably my primary weakness at Fire Island. I very rarely go in and only get one. Also, I may tell myself that I'm only going to eat one and save the rest for later, but really, who am I kidding? They are all gone in minutes. they ask me, do you want these in a box so they don't get crushed? No, silly cashier, that will not be a problem. They have regular chocolate chip and cherry chocolate chip. These are great, especially when they're fresh from the oven (usually). They are totally packed with chocolate chips, and they have that great texture where they're a little crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside. They also have peanut butter cookies and ginger molasses cookies, which they sell as cookie sandwiches, with peanut butter ganache and lemon frosting, respectively, in between two cookies. They are super good, and the ginger molasses ones are my husband's favorite thing to get there. They also sell Parisian macarons, which, if you've never had them (for shame!), are like little wafer-cookie sandwiches- they have chocolate, lemon, chocolate-coconut, strawberry, and raspberry filling options. I loooove the chocolate and lemon ones, but haven't had the others. Since chocolate and lemon are two of my favorite dessert flavors, why would I? They also have Russian tea cakes, which are on my list of things to try (when they're out of Parisian macarons), and they have coconut macaroons, which look good, but I'm not the biggest fan of coconut in sweet things, so I haven't tried them, either. <br />
<br />
<b>Other Fabulous Pastries and Desserts</b><br />
<br />
Other tasty sweet things they carry include cakes, cupcakes, and tarts, which are delicious. Unlike with the cookies, I have actually managed to take home a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and not eat it until the next day. They also have small chocolate cakes with chocolate icing, carrot cake, blueberry tart, salted caramel pecan tart, chocolate eclairs, and last weekend they had an almond meringue tart with a berry filling.<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>For Lunch or a Nosh</b><br />
<br />
If you stop in and want, like, <i>a</i> <i>meal</i>, rather than a few cookies and a tart, then you can actually get a sandwich and a coffee here. They have some good loose leaf teas, and they have some natural sodas, organic milk, and other drinks to go with. I'm not sure how much their sandwich selection varies, but last weekend they had Tuna nicoise, turkey apple chutney, and roasted veggie sandwiches, as well as their focaccias. They make their own focaccia bread, which is seriously good bread, and then they top it with a couple different things, so it's like a pizza or open faced sandwich. Last weekend they had one with fig, prosciutto, and chevre, and one with pesto, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and cheese (I think gruyere). They give you huge slices, so it's pretty much the same as ordering a sandwich. I've had the pesto one, but the other one looked so good, that I'd probably order it next time just to try.<br />
<br />
So if you are in downtown Anchorage, <i>please</i> do yourself a favor and go to this bakery. You will eat too many sweets, and then later that night you will eat too much bread, but it is totally worth it. Everyone should have a bakery like this in their town.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-33156507806653292812012-02-27T12:03:00.001-09:002012-02-27T12:05:03.046-09:00Community Supported Agriculture in Southcentral Alaska<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Alaska State dish is back after a bit of a winter hiatus, and will be here the rest of the year to tell you about great Alaska restaurants and ways that you can support the producers of great Alaskan foods.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In many hip, progressive places in the Lower 48 with longer growing seasons, many CSA programs have probably already filled up and are starting waiting lists. Here in Alaska, they are just starting to get geared up for the 2012 season. While I think CSAs are a great idea, this is the first year I have signed up for a CSA share. At some point I would like to have a substantial vegetable garden of my own, but in the meantime I want to make sure I’m getting as many local vegetables as possible and supporting local farmers. So here’s a quick user’s guide to Community Supported Agriculture in Alaska. If you want more information on any farms, visit the <a href="http://akfood.weebly.com/index.html" target="_blank">Alaska Food: Eating Local</a> page, which has a listing of farms in Alaska, and links to their pages if they have one. This site is a lot more current than a site like Local Harvest- many Alaskan farms are not included and even more are listed but haven’t updated their pages in years. Of course, the best way to learn is to visit your farmer’s markets this summer and talk to the farmers yourself.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The CSA I just signed up for is run by <a href="http://www.springcreekfarmak.org/" target="_blank">Spring Creek Farm</a> in Palmer. Spring Creek is actually an educational farm, run by the folks at Alaska Pacific University as part of the Department of Outdoor and Environmental Education. All of the educational institutions in Alaska have been very important in supporting local agriculture. The<a href="http://www.uaf.edu/ces/" target="_blank"> University of Alaska Cooperative Extension Service</a> holds classes for the public on vegetable gardening, raising chickens, and other agricultural topics, and have a lot of resources for gardening and food preservation on their website. APU also holds lots of classes at Spring Creek Farm, including lots of classes for local young people, including ones for Girl Scouts on sustainable living, and a “farm school” for home-schooled students. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A CSA share in Southcentral Alaska usually costs about $550-$600 for the season, and usually produces from early June to early October, but of course this varies with the weather. There are CSA programs in the Tanana Valley, too, but their growing season is at least a couple weeks shorter. They don't have a traditional CSA, but there is even a <a href="http://www.meyersfarm.net/" target="_blank">farm in Bethel</a>, out on the Y-K Delta, that has a farm stand where they sell their organic produce, and they will send you a box of vegetables if you live in one of the surrounding villages. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The cost for the season for a CSA in the Anchorage area averages out to about $30-35 a week for a giant box of produce, so among other advantages, it’s cheaper than getting all your vegetables at the farmer’s markets. I can spend $40 on a summer Saturday without even trying! Of course, the most important thing is that you’re helping your local farmers by giving them a base income, and giving them an income early in the season, when they incur most of their costs. Also, it’s important to know that up here these are truly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">vegetable</i> shares. Few fruits grow well up here, and they’re not profitable for most farms. There is a limited supply of berries, tomatoes, and apples available at some farmer’s markets in late summer (see below), but expect to be getting lots of green vegetables in your farm box.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Other local (Southcentral Alaska) farms that have CSA programs include <a href="http://www.arcticorganics.com/" target="_blank">Arctic Organics</a>, which has been run by Sara and River Bean for over 20 years. They are one of the few local farms that has gone through the process of actually becoming Certified Organic – many local farms practice sustainable, pesticide-free methods but are not actually USDA certified. <a href="http://www.suncirclefarm.com/content/csa" target="_blank">Sun Circle Farm</a> is another option for those shopping for a CSA. They have both large and small shares, and they also offer whole and half pig shares. Do note, though, that they <em>only</em> sell in the Valley at the Wasilla Farmer’s Market and at their own farmstand, and CSA shares also have to be picked up in the Valley. Unless you know some other people who have Sun Circle shares that you can share pickups with, I wouldn’t recommend that. <a href="http://cottonwoodcreekfarm.org/" target="_blank">Cottonwood Creek Farm</a> doesn’t have a vegetable CSA, but they have a co-op and offer goat shares for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unpasteurized</i> goat’s milk, and you can also increase your share to get fresh eggs.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most of the farms in southcentral Alaska that have CSA programs also sell produce at the farmer’s markets, so you can talk to the staff and try their vegetables before you sign up the next year. I learned about Fireweed Farm that way, at the Spenard Farmer’s Market, but unfortunately they had to discontinue their CSA program after 2011. And don’t think that I won’t be going to the farmer’s markets at all just because I have a CSA share! First of all, I still need fresh eggs, and butter and cheese from Matanuska Creamery (I can usually get their milk at the store). Late in the season, I may still go to pick up carrots, potatoes, parsnips, and onions for winter storage, depending on how much I get with my share.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus, sometimes farmers just have great things – there are some very nice ladies at the South Anchorage Farmer’s Market that I swear have the best tomatoes in Alaska, and another farmer at that same market has great organic strawberries.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s hard to run a farm in Alaska, and Fireweed isn’t the only one that’s stopped their CSA program. Glacier Valley Farm also had a CSA up until this fall. Theirs was a little non-traditional: they tried to offer a year-round share, with their own produce and that of local farms supplemented in the off-season with organic produce from Outside. I’m not sure how I feel about the high shipping costs and environmental costs of something like that, especially for folks in Anchorage who can go to the store. If you want to help local farmers in other ways, you can support the <a href="http://www.akfarmland.com/aboutus" target="_blank">Alaska Farmland Trust</a>, which works on preserving available farmland for farming, and otherwise building Alaska's agricultural infrastructure to increase our food security and the farming economy. Read <a href="http://akstatedish.blogspot.com/2011/06/perfect-saturday-morning-wine-tasting.html" target="_blank">this post</a> about a wine tasting fundraiser I went to for them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Speaking of high shipping costs, there are also options for those Alaskans in the Bush who still would like fresh produce. The $30 pineapple at the Bush store can now be avoided with a subscription to <a href="http://www.fullcircle.com/" target="_blank">Full Circle Farm</a>. They send weekly boxes of produce anywhere in Alaska for around $30-$55 a week, depending on the size of the box, and they send boxes year-round. According to an article I read last year, subscribers in rural Alaska got more produce for less money than at the store, and the produce was all in far better shape than they could get elsewhere. This farm seems pretty successful- one day last September I flew into Haines (<a href="http://akstatedish.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-trip-haines.html" target="_blank">see previous post</a>), and at least half the mail they unloaded off the plane consisted of Full Circle farm boxes.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I can hardly wait until early June when I start getting fresh salads and herbs! I'm already collecting recipes for soups and other ways to preserve all the vegetables I will get. I do get jealous of my friends outside that have fresh, local foods year-round. Pretty much all the local foods I can get at the moment are eggs, milk, potatoes, and carrots. But that's okay: if I want to get serious about eating seasonally in Alaska, I'm going to have to get used to eating more potatoes, carrots, and parsnips in the winter, right?</span></div>Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-23706217633876450882011-12-14T12:25:00.000-09:002011-12-14T12:25:44.461-09:00The Lucky Wishbone: For when you just need an old-fashioned diner<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The reason you are here is for the fried chicken. You are not here for the décor, because the green booths and the World War Two and early Anchorage photos on the wall have not changed in decades. You are not here because of their big flashy sign that enticed you in, because it hasn’t changed in decades, either. You are not here because you made a reservation a month in advance; while it is usually pretty full, they don’t take reservations, and won’t seat you until every person in your party has arrived. The only exception to this is if you tell your waitress that you will order for the person who is late. Opened in 1955 by George and Peg Brown, the Lucky Wishbone has changed very little in the past 30 years. Peg passed away recently, but this is still very much a family operation. New people discover it, but there are also all of us who have been coming for decades. I’ve run into friends eating there, I’ve had kids making faces at me over the tops of the booths, I’ve been waited on by girls I went to school with, and I’ve seen the late Senator Ted Stevens eating dinner there. They started taking credit cards a few years ago, so don’t say they aren’t changing with the times. But honestly, they aren’t really, and they don’t need to be.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Lucky Wishbone gets all their chicken fresh, and they make fantastic pan-fried chicken. You can order the pop, mom, or junior chicken basket, which comes with 4, 3, or 2 pieces, respectively. If you pay extra, you can try and get all-white or all-dark, if it’s available. I usually get the Junior and my husband gets the Mom, but sometimes we get the Mom and Pop and take some home. The chicken baskets come with a cornbread muffin and French fries. Gone are the days when they make their own fries (before my time), so rather than fill up on frozen shoestring fries, I ask for coleslaw instead, that way I may possibly have room for some of the other delicious things on the menu.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They also make a good burger, one that’s probably in the top ten but not the top five burgers in Anchorage. You can get an unadorned burger, a burger with a square slice of American cheese, or you can get the “Deluxe” which has some shredded iceberg lettuce, pickle, and mayo. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Most of the accompaniments to your meal are fantastic, too, especially the ones not on the menu but on the dry-erase board by the front counter. While the salads on the menu are iceberg lettuce, a tomato slice, and massive amounts of creamy dressings (get it on the side or you will drown!), they make their own soups which are amazing, and which rotate sometimes by the season and by the day of the week. Family favorites for soup are chicken and dumpling and split pea with ham. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For dessert, they usually have pie selections listed on the dry-erase board too. This fall I had a great pumpkin pie, but honestly I don’t usually think to get pie because the Lucky Wishbone is a serious contender for the best milkshakes in town. I get chocolate (obviously), and my husband gets a berry one, blackberry if they have it. We usually get the small, which is very small, because one needs to pace oneself here, after all. They are so thick that I don’t think they even bother to bring you a straw with it. I have started ordering my shake at the end of the meal, because otherwise you get it first thing, and you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have</i> to eat it right away while it’s still thick, and milkshake-and-coleslaw, or especially milkshake-and-soup, are not among my favorite food combinations. Other dessert options are the hot fudge sundae – when I was a kid, it was a toss-up between the sundae and the milkshake, now the milkshake generally wins out- or strawberry shortcake with homemade biscuits. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If your fried chicken obsession becomes serious, you can take home buckets of chicken from the take-out counter or the drive through. And because the owners still think family time is important, they aren’t open on Sundays. A dinner for two will average $30-$40 with the tip, depending on whether you get soup, milkshakes, or pay extra for all-white or all-dark chicken. You can also buy a t-shirt or hooded sweatshirt, to declare your love of the best fried chicken and milkshakes in Anchorage. So come to the Lucky Wishbone, as often as my family does, and if you're just visiting, don't miss it. I'll see you there!</span>Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-15392007776797778982011-11-26T16:50:00.000-09:002011-11-26T16:50:21.648-09:00Tasting Classes at Summit Spice and Tea Company<div class="MsoNormal">Happy weekend-after-Thanksgiving everyone! In honor of Buy Nothing Day which was Friday, and Small Business Saturday, I wanted to talk about some fun experiential things that you can do with your friends and family this weekend, and throughout the holidays to take your mind a little off all the consumerism messages. And to remind you that if you <i>do</i> go shopping this weekend, to go to some local Anchorage businesses. My husband and I will be taking some walks in the new snow with our dog, Steve, going to the movies, and going to the Museum to see some new exhibits. One of the other things I like to do is take tasting classes at Summit Spice and Tea Company's midtown store. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The classes start at 6:00 on Thursday nights, and most of the classes cost between $10 and $25. And you <i>have</i> to sign up in advance; I have been in the store before a class and people just come in and want to take the class; that is <i>not</i> going to work, people! I’ve never been to one that’s not full. Most classes fill up at least a week or two in advance, if not a month ahead, and there’s often a waiting list. The best thing to do is sign up for emails, that way you get the class schedule first and can make your reservations for the next group of classes. Check in after the holidays for the next class agenda.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The classes I’ve taken last between an hour and an hour and a half. Of course, the reason they have the classes is because they want you to buy the things that you’ve just tasted, and to that end they give you discounts on those products. For example, the night of the chocolate class you’re taking, you get a 15% discount on any chocolate in the store, and then you get a 15% coupon for a future purchase of chocolate that’s good for a month or so. Sometimes (okay, usually) I will discover something new that I want to take home, but I've also gone just to learn and taste and walked away, so you can just go to a fun class and not buy anything.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Basic Tea tasting</b><br />
<br />
The basic tea tasting class gives you an overview of tea. You only taste true tea, <i>Camellia sinensis</i>, not herbal, rooibos, or other drinks technically called "infusions." But, Summit does have an herbal tea blending class, so you can take that if you want some peppermint tea. Like most beer and wine tastings, you start with the lightest, most delicate flavors, and end with the strongest ones. And since this is an overview, we tasted teas that are "typical" of a particular country or region. So, for the tea overview, you start with white tea, which is made with the least processed tea leaves. We tried a great one from Kenya that I really liked a lot. Then we tried two green teas, one from China and one from Japan, to taste the differences between the two countries' preferences. The Japanese tea is bright green and tastes more grassy. Then we tried an Oolong, which I really liked too. We ended with three black teas, one from Sri Lanka and two from China. One of the Chinese black teas we tried was from Keemun (or Qimen), a province in China that, unlike most places in China, only makes black tea rather than green. Most Keemun tea goes into English Breakfast blends. We ended with a Pu'erh black tea, which is fermented and aged. Think of it as the Roquefort cheese of tea. Seriously, it's aged in caves and grows mold. It tastes very smoky and earthy, and is very distinctive compared to the other teas. My favorites were the white tea and the Oolong, and I'll probably be buying some white tea from Summit in the future. Most of the loose leaf teas Summit sells are only a couple dollars an ounce, the vast majority are under $5, but they have a few, mainly oolong or very fancy green teas, that are over $10 an ounce. They have a whole brochure with all their teas and prices, so you can do some planning before you buy.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Black tea tasting</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This class was a great, intense tasting, during which we tasted <i>thirteen</i> varieties of black tea. Like with a wine tasting, you start with the lighter and move towards the stronger. Since the class started at 6:00 pm, I was still talking my husband’s ear off at 10:30. We started with Indian teas, trying two Darjeeling teas, two Ceylon teas, and two Assam teas. These are very British colonial types of teas. Ceylon now exports more teas than anywhere else. We then tried five teas from China, which grows the most tea, but they drink almost all of it themselves. We started with two from Yunnan, that incidentally you can re-steep to make multiple cups from each spoonful of leaves. We then tried two Keemun teas, which as I said above, are really common English Breakfast teas. The Rose Keemun tea we tried is reputedly one of Queen Elizabeth II's favorite teas, but I didn't like it, at least when drinking it straight. It was actually a little strange to taste these teas plain, because most people drink them with milk and sugar or honey, so you didn't really see what they would taste like as you would actually drink them. Then we tried the Lapsang Souchong tea, which was so amazingly different from any other black tea. This is smoked tea, and it seriously tastes like a salmon smokehouse. This is the tea that Tibetan monks drink with Yak butter when they're fasting. I bought a little of this so that I could have some every once in a while- I think I'll try it with milk or whipped cream. We ended with two teas from outside the traditional tea growing regions. We tried one from high altitude plantations in Kenya, and one from Vietnam that was very similar to the teas from Assam. <br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Dark chocolate</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>I already know a fair amount about chocolate, so the thing that I found the most interesting was the discussion of each individual company whose chocolate we tasted, because Summit makes a point of buying from really progressive companies, who are doing a lot of Fair Trade and environmental work. We tried 15 different types of chocolate, from 62% cacao to 80%. One of the chocolates we tried was from Original Beans, a company that gets some of their chocolate from Bolivia, and plants a tree in the rain forest around their source plantations for every single bar you buy. Another one of their bars, Cru Virunga, is made from beans from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and for every one of those bars sold, they plant trees in Virunga National Park to help preserve the gorilla habitat there. The owner of Davao chocolates gets his chocolate from the Philippines, and he not only pays Fair Trade prices, but he gives dividends from the company profits to the workers on the plantations. ChocolatBonnat is a French company that has been around since the 1880s, so they know what they're doing in terms of taste. We tried a bar of theirs that's sourced from Sri Lankan cacao. Askinosie Chocolate is from Missouri, and they work with every stage of the process to ensure fair prices and good environmental practices, and they also work to give books to kids in Honduras, where their bars are from. We tried an 80% cacao bar from Madecasse, who grows the cacao and makes the bars all in Madagascar, so that more of the revenues from the company (which also has a base in New York), stay with workers in Madagascar. The company also makes their own vanilla their on the island.<br />
<br />
The chocolate bars at Summit are not particularly cheap, with some in the $3-5 range, but many of the bars are $10-15. I find that all the bars I get from here last quite a while, since I only need a couple bites at a time. Even though they're expensive, if you get a chocolate card, you can buy ten bars and get one free. Once I've finished my chocolate card and gotten my free bar, I'll do a post on all the chocolates I tasted.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Olive oil and balsamic vinegar</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This was the last tasting I went to, and it was really fun. We tasted six of the olive oils Summit Spices carries, three plain ones and three flavored ones. The instructor talked about how olive oil is made, what all the different terms mean, and the differences in terms between America and Europe. She also discussed the different flavors common in different regions. For example, oils made in Spain tend to taste more buttery than those from other regions. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The three plain olive oils we tasted were from France, Spain, and Italy. All three used different varieties of olives, and tasted very different. The French oil was A L'Olivier Vallee des Baux-de-Provence. It was the least strong of the three plain oils, very buttery and smooth, and was $45 for a 1/2 liter. The Spanish oil, Marques de Grinon olive oil was my favorite of the unflavored oils. It was a very strong and peppery oil, made from Spanish olive varieties, and cost $34 for a 1/2 liter bottle. No wonder it was my favorite, because the company was founded in 1292, and is still winning awards for its oil. The third, Italian oil we tried was Badia Campo Corto Olive Oil. It wasn't quite as strong at the Spanish oil, and was really smooth without the strong pepper bite. It was the most expensive unflavored oil, $50 for a 1/2 liter bottle. I bought a bottle of the Spanish oil, and I may go back and get one of the others, too, or try one of the other oils they have for the "if you like this..." list for the Spanish oil.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The flavored oils we tried were lemon, ginger, and rosemary. The first two were Italian, and the rosemary oil was Spanish. The lemon oil was really good, with a good fresh lemon flavor at the end. I really didn’t like the ginger oil. Maybe it’s because I thought it was too strong, or maybe it’s because I just didn’t think the two flavors went together very well. I’m all for ginger in Indian food or something, but I thought it was strange with the oil. The rosemary one was in the middle. I think the flavors go really well together in cooking, so the oil was pretty good, too, but I liked the lemon the best. The flavored olive oils are sold in 1/4 liter bottles, and cost between $13.50 for the rosemary flavored oil, to $26 for the lemon flavored oil.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Next came the balsamic vinegars. I learned a lot about how balsamic and other vinegars are made. It was really interesting to learn how people traditionally make balsamic vinegar, aging it in the eaves of their houses for years and years, putting the vinegar in a new cask every year for decades as it concentrates, and flavoring each batch with a little from the last batch, like with sourdough starter or yogurt. This mixing is why the serious vinegars aren’t allowed to actually say how long their product has been aged, because it’s all mixed. I also learned that there are people in Italy whose whole job is to sit on the balsamic vinegar consortium boards (there are two- Modena and Reggio Emilia) and taste vinegar to make sure it meets the flavor standards and decide whether it should be certified or not and bottled by the consortia. How do you get that job? Are there whole families who for generations serve on the consortia? Also, we learned that the best balsamic vinegars contain <i>only</i> grape must, but most that you get in America have added flavors or other things. Because they're aged for so long, the casks make a big difference- we tasted two that were from the same company, of the same quality, but one was aged in cherry and one in juniper casks, and it made a big difference in the flavor. We tried one American balsamic vinegar which was what you are used to when you buy vinegar- pretty tart, liquidy, and would be good for using in salad dressings. All the other ones we tried were thick like molasses, and way sweeter.<br />
<br />
The ones that were certified by the Consortia were between $85 and $226 for a little 8 oz bottle. These are not for use in salad dressings! These are so thick and sweet and strong, you would drizzle them sparingly on fruit, salad, or cheese. The other two vinegars we tasted were $21 and $48.75 for a 1/4 liter. I bought the cheapest one, but I may go back and buy one of the thick ones while I have a discount.<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusions</b><br />
<br />
So, as you can see, there are lots of foods to learn about and taste. Other classes I haven't been to include a green tea class, an herbal tea blending class, candy and confection classes, and a class on mixed vinegars (balsamic, red wine, champagne, etc). So, if you want to do what I do, sign up for emails from Summit Spices so you know about the classes early, sign up for some, and then when you get off work on those Thursdays, you can go get a sandwich down the road at Middle Way Cafe, and go take a tasting class.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-72213868414846143852011-10-28T12:16:00.000-08:002011-10-28T12:16:44.652-08:00Road Trip! Sitka<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This summer, after my trip to Haines, I went down to Sitka. Sitka is a great little town on Baranof Island, and used to be called New Archangel when it was the capital of Russian Alaska. It was also the first Territorial capital when Alaska was sold to the United States. Although originally a Tlingit village, Russians had a presence in Sitka since the late 1700s. There were a couple skirmishes between the Tlingit and the Russians (the Russians had it coming, I can assure you!), including one major battle in 1804. Now it is a tourist and fishing town of about 9000 people, and still has a substantial Tlingit population. <u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sitka has a substantial cruise ship economy, which is important information to inform your dining habits. Since the ships are such a big part of Sitka’s economy, a lot of places are closed when there isn’t a cruise ship in town. This is more important for shops than for restaurants, but still impacts them. The cruise ships leave at 5:00 pm, so almost all of the stores are closed after 6:00, if not earlier. Very few restaurants are open year round, which I will talk about in more detail later on.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first place I went in Sitka was one of my two favorites, the <b>Larkspur Café</b>. It’s right on the western edge of town, next to the docks and the bridge that goes over to Japonski Island where the airport and college are. It used to be the US Army cable house for the northern end of the undersea telegraph cable that ran to Seattle, but you need to talk to my husband if you want to learn more about that! Today, there is a little coffee shop and café in the bottom, and it looks like KCAW radio might have been on the second floor- at any rate, the KCAW gift shop was also on the first floor. This restaurant of course features local seafood, and also had lots of organic foods. In the summer they are open for lunch and dinner, brunch only on Sundays, and closed on Mondays; I didn't find out what their winter hours were. I went for lunch, where they have a regular menu; the dinner that night was some kind of curry- the server I asked about it said that dinner is whatever the cook feels like, so you don't always know in advance. They had lots of homemade soups, including Alaskan clam chowder, potato and kale, and Spanish chorizo. All the soups come with homemade focaccia bread and are $6 or $9 for a cup or a bowl. I got the tomato soup with shaved parmesan. Most restaurants serve tomato bisque, but this was a straight-up vegetable soup. They had some delicious looking appetizer boards that I wanted to try but didn't. They had a fruit and cheese board with manchego, brie, grapes, chocolate almonds, spiced nuts, and focaccia for $10, a Mediterranean board with hummus, kalamata olives, feta, nuts, and vegetables with focaccia for $15, and a savory board with meats, brie, nuts, and grapes. They also had salads, pasta, a reuben sandwich, a quesadilla, paninis, and burritos. They have a great selection of drinks, including espresso, natural sodas and juices, Mexican Coke, Mexican hot chocolate, and beer and wine. They also had some desserts for $2-5, including chocolate crinkle cookies, bread pudding, marscapone tart, almond lemon coconut cake, and lavender pound cake. For my main course, I had the fish tacos, which were made with Alaskan ling cod, mozzarella, pico de gallo, cilantro, cabbage, sour cream, and corn tortillas. They were delicious, and were well seasoned and not breaded and fried. I love good fish tacos, and these were great. As you can see from the menu, there were a lot of delicious-sounding foods, and if I had had time, I definitely would have come back here. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When I needed something sweet in the afternoon, I went to the soda fountain at the <strong>Harry Race Pharmacy</strong>, on the westernmost block of Lincoln. They have a large selection of shakes, smoothies, malts, and sundaes. You should probably go with someone, because everything they make is <em>large</em>. You should also watch the time of day that you go, because I went by there once and the place was totally packed with high schoolers. I got the Mount Edgecumbe Eruption, which is named after Sitka's beautiful extinct volcano, which was itself named after some politically connected British fellow by Captain James Cook. This was a massive sundae that came with either chocolate or vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, marshmallow cream, coconut, chocolate sprinkles, whipped cream, and nuts. It was great, but like I said, gigantic. An example of one of their other offerings is the Harbor Mountain sundae, which was kind of a sundae/banana split combo, with chocolate or vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, banana, brownie, whipped cream, and nuts. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The only place I went that I wouldn’t recommend is <strong>Kenny’s Chinese and Japanese</strong>, across from Totem Square. This is a local hangout, and I was definitely the only non-local in there. I went there at lunchtime, and it was total chaos. It was really busy, there are only about 8 tables in the place, and all the employees (mainly members of a long-time Sitka family) are so busy that no one is really paying attention to the customers. Apparently if you are local you know how to get service, because I sure didn't. They have some $6.95-$9.95 lunch specials, plus a lot of teriyaki, sushi, fried rice, etc. I waited about 45 minutes for my lunch, and I was about to either go on a rampage or just faint, I was so hungry by the end. I went and ate it in the park since there still weren't any tables and it was so close and hot in there anyway. The other thing that was sad was that most of their business is take-out, so there was a <em>huge</em> amount of plastic and styrofoam going out that door. But whatever. The food was good in terms of basic Chinese food, but nothing amazing. It seems like the locals love it, but I probably won't go back.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you need a quick pick-me-up you should go to the <b>Highliner Coffee Company</b>. It’s a little hard to find in Sitka terms – meaning it’s not on Lincoln Street – but it’s well worth it. Even though they are a coffee shop they are totally obsessed with wild salmon, and well they should be. To that end, they sell bumper stickers that say “Friends don’t let friends eat farmed fish – support Alaska’s wild fisheries” (you can also buy one online <a href="http://stores.homestead.com/highlinercoffee/Categories.bok?category=Gifts">here</a>) and notecards with Ray Troll’s great artwork for “<a href="http://store.trollart.com/EAT-WILD-SALMON.html">Fish Are Not For Farming! Eat Wild Salmon</a>.” Click on the link to see the Ray Troll art, but I didn’t want to put it here without permission. And of course, they have the usual Alaskan coffee shop fare- lots of tasty espresso drinks, smoothies, and pastries. <u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Backdoor Coffee</b> behind the bookstore was also good- they make great cookies and have a great hippie-coffee-shop atmosphere, but like many Sitka establishments they keep odd hours when the cruise ships aren’t around. I was there pretty close to an hour before their posted closing, but there was no ship that day, so they apparently decided to close up early. Anyway, it’s not their fault – I’d stop working early, too, if I could – but it’s something to be aware of if you’re in Sitka.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Since I love chocolate, I figured I had better go into the <strong>Chocolate Moose</strong>. They have flowers and touristy gift shop things, and of course they have a chocolate counter. They had several chocolate bars that are made locally, including ones from the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Chocolate Moose </b>brand bars and from <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Theobroma</b> bars. They also had a counter with a ton of truffles and other candies. The truffles were pretty big but expensive, $3 each, or a little cheaper if you get a box. The thing that was disappointing was that I noticed on the box after I took some truffles home that they aren’t made in Alaska! So if you stop by, get the chocolate bars that are locally made, not the truffles or candies in the display cases that are made Outside and shipped up. I got a dark chocolate with hazelnut bar from Chocolate Moose, and a Midnight Espresso Bar from Theobroma. I like them both but I liked the Theobroma more, which is convenient because you can occasionally find them in Anchorage. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One night for dinner I went to the <strong>Dock Shack.</strong> It was good, but didn’t blow my mind or anything. I still recommend it for two reasons. One, they just opened it, and they’re trying to keep it open year-round, which we should always try to support, and two, the restaurant is located in the Shee Atika Totem Square Inn, which is owned by the Sitka Tlingit Tribe, and I am for supporting businesses owned by Native Alaskan tribes. They are open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The breakfast was a typical menu, but really I want to talk about when I went there for dinner. They had several Alaskan beers on tap; I got the Alaskan Summer Ale, which is a nice light beer for summertime. They had lots of seafood appetizers you would expect in any Alaskan resturant, like coconut shrimp, calamari, smoked salmon spread, cheddar baked scallops, and halibut bites. They also had several soups and salads, many featuring seafood, including a smoked salmon salad, a blackened shrimp Caesar salad, a Wild Alaskan Fisherman's Salad, which had shrimp, scallops, halibut, and crab and sounded really good, seafood chowder, and clam chowder. I got a "chop salad" with Stilton bleu cheese dressing which was totally <em>not a chopped salad</em>. It was a perfectly fine little romaine side salad, but I was expecting an actual chopped salad, which it was not even close to being. They had lots of typical sandwiches and other things, like a halibut sandwich, burgers, paninis (including a crab one), halibut tacos, and a roast beef sandwich. Entrees were also typical semi-fancy restaurant fare: they have a ribeye, a filet mignon, and cashew chicken. I got the shoestring-potato-crusted halibut with dill and champagne cream sauce. You could also get it with rice or fries, but I got it with the "cream cheese parsley mashers," which were basically really creamy herbed mashed potatoes. They were delicious, and actually way more interesting and original than the halibut. The fish was fine, it wasn't overcooked, and it wasn't drowning in sauce, but it wasn't as good as it sounded on the menu. I would give this restaurant another try for lunch or dinner, especially because it just opened recently, but my first impression was that it didn't quite deliver - nothing was as good as I expected from the menu.</span><br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My other favorite place that I went was the <b>Bayview Restaurant and Pub</b> on Lincoln Street. I went there once for lunch and once for dinner. This place is pretty new- there used to be a fancy restaurant there, but new owners bought it, changed the menu and atmosphere, and are trying to keep it open year round. They have a serious pub/bar atmosphere, including TVs on the wall with sports on, but that’s okay because they’re a great restaurant. Since I went for dinner, after the cruise ships had left, it seemed to be mostly locals. Even moreso that most southeast Alaskan establishments, they are very militant about their seafood and beer. There are what are best called manifestos on their menus and on their tables about their support of fresh, local seafood and fishermen, and about local and independently brewed beer. They explain that the seafood menu changes seasonally, and that everything they serve is fresh and from some guy down on the docks, not frozen and from a giant distributor. All their beer is from “American, 100% independently owned operations,” so that we can “take a drink to an Anheuser, Miller, and Coors-free environment.” My kind of people! There is also a manifesto on the ketchup bottles about how it ruins the taste of the food they have so carefully prepared for their customers, which according to my waitress appeared after the owner saw a customer drowning his fresh Alaskan Dungeness crab in ketchup. And they have a couple disparaging remarks about Pepsi, but I didn’t find out an explanation for that. Still, the owners clearly sound like awesome people that we should support by going to their fine restaurant.</span><br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Like most places in southeast Alaska, the primary beer is from the <b>Alaskan Brewing Company</b> in Juneau. I had an Amber Alt Style Ale from there while I was at the Bayview, although it was in a bottle and I meant to get one of the ones on tap. It was still good, as all their beers are. They also have beer from the <b>Baranof Island Brewing Company</b>, which is a very small Sitka brewery and sells only growlers to the public and kegs to restaurants. I had a Baranof Brown the second time I went, which was their one draft from there. It was a lot darker than I usually like, but it was good and I’d really like to try some other beers from them sometime. <u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For food at the Bayview, they have a lot of seafood, burgers, sandwiches, and barbeque. I got the fish and chips, made with fresh Alaskan rockfish. The fish was great, it came with three giant pieces of fish that were cooked perfectly and were totally falling apart between the delicate cooked fish and the thin, crispy (not greasy) beer batter. The fries were also fresh and house made, and were really good. I also got a side salad, which was a good salad but it was pretty darn big for a"side salad." I can't imagine what the entree salads are like. When I went back a second time for lunch with some colleagues, I got the build-your-own mac and cheese. You get a basic mac and cheese and then you get to pick the things they add, like peas, onions, broccolli, mushrooms, sausage, and bacon. I got it with onions, mushrooms, and peas. It was good, with a good cheesy base, and room to add the flavors you like. I would like to point out that it is not baked, for those of you like my husband, who like their mac and cheese with a browned, crusty top.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, I have to discuss one of the specials, which I did not get but was so crazy it needs to be mentioned. They had a Freedom Burger special one day, which the waitress explained was a burger topped with deep-fried pickles, and instead of a bun, it’s served between two grilled cheese sandwiches. I’m trying to figure out the “freedom” part- is it freedom to have a heart attack? Freedom to go on cholesterol medication? I guess a lot of people split it. Honestly, I’m sure it’s fantastic for, like, two bites. After that you're just crazy.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So clearly you have a lot of delicious options when you come to Sitka. There were several places I didn't go, including the restaurant at the Westmark Hotel, which was supposed to be decent, the Reindeer Redhots hot dog cart, the Mexican restaurant, the other Asian restaurant, and Victoria's, which just looked like a generic tourist place. But I think I got a good representation of the food on offer, and I really think I got to the best places. I hope you're hungry!</span></div>Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-75865709176588600522011-09-15T19:41:00.000-08:002011-09-15T19:41:17.412-08:00Road Trip! HainesThis week I went to the beautiful town of Haines in southeast Alaska. Haines is a great little town of 2500 people on the northern end of the southeast panhandle, and was originally at the end of an important Tlingit trade route with the interior, and then became one of the starting points for people heading to the gold fields in the Klondike and Alaskan Yukon. Today it has mainly a fishing and tourism based economy. It is surrounded by incredible mountains and glaciers, and has a lot of beautiful historic buildings that were originally part of Fort William H. Seward, which was established at the turn of the century to guard the Canadian border and exert control during the chaos of the Gold Rush. Some of the restaurants I will be talking about are in historic Fort Seward buildings. Because so much in Haines is dependent on summer tourists, hardly any restaurants are open year round, and in fact most places I visited were on the verge of closing for the season.<br />
<br />
My first stop in Haines was <strong>Mosey's Cantina </strong>for lunch. Several people said that it was one of their favorite restaurants, not only in Haines, but one of their favorite Mexican restaurants in all of Alaska. They are closed on Tuesdays, so if I wanted to go I figured I better to while I could (a lot of Haines businesses are closed on Tuesdays; I think it has to do with the cruise ship schedule). I was also told that it isn't exactly the cheapest place in the world, so going for lunch would also be better for that. Mosey's is located in one of the historic Ft. Seward buildings, and it has a fantastic view of the bay and the mountains, so sit on the big porch or in the garden if the weather is good. You have to go in to order and pick up your food though- they apparently don't believe in these things called "waiters." They don't have a huge menu, but everything is home-made. I got some chips and guacamole for $2, and they make their own, chunky guacamole that was pretty darn good. I also got a glass of freshly made sun tea. If you're in the mood you can also get a glass of Haines Brewing Company beer. I went with the smothered bean and cheese burrito for lunch for $11.50. It comes with your choise of red or green chile sauce, and for another dollar you can get chicken or beef in it, too. The burrito was freaking huge, and the green chile sauce was pretty spicy, and really good, and clearly homemade. Other options at Mosey's include tacos with chipotle chicken, beef, or pork, tacos or a burrito with fresh Alaskan rockfish, a real, slow-cooked chile verde with slow-cooked pork, quesadilla, tostadas (beef, chicken, or guacamole), taco salad, or a "south of the border" salad. I didn't see the dinner menu so I'm not sure how many more options they have later, but what I had was great, so if you want some surprisingly tasty Mexican food, check it out.<br />
<br />
For dinner I went to the fanciest restaurant in town, the <strong>Hotel Halsinglad Commander's Room Restaurant</strong>, which is also on Ft. Seward, across the parade grounds from Mosey's. They are only open for dinner, and this was the last week they were open, and they were already booked up for Tuesday's dinner, their annual chef's tasting menu. This year it was seven courses, and paired with wine for $100 a person. I'm not disappointed though, because their regular menu is pretty impressive. They have several delicious looking salads, chicken liver pate, and fresh salmon gravlox. I had the duck confit salad for $15, which was totally incredible. The salad and the duck would have both been incredible on their own, but with their powers combined, it was just fantastic. There was a huge piece of duck, and it was perfectly cooked and just falling apart. The salad underneath was also amazing, with red onion, candied walnuts, lots of really good creamy gorgonzola cheese, and a blackberry balsamic vinagrette. I also got a flatbread, which are kind of like mini pizzas the way they do them. They had three options, ranging from $10.50 - $12.50 including one with sausage, carmelized onion, cheese, and red peppers. I got the crimini mushroom one since I was getting the duck. It had lots of mushrooms that were very well cooked so they were dark and meaty and rich, a three cheese base, and some herbs and asparagus. I didn't get an entree, but their options looked pretty delicious. They had fresh Alaskan salmon, halibut, house made rabbit sausage, ribeye steak, and Moroccan lamb shank. Entrees ranged from $25- $33. They also have a great wine list, with a huge range of options, with glasses from $6- $7.50, and bottles mostly from $19 - $40, but with the higher end bottles ranging from $59 to $160. I had a glass of the Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon from Paso Robles and a glass of the Louis Martini Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma County. I wasn't going to have two glasses but the Liberty School was so good that I finished it while I was working on my duck. They also have several homemade desserts, including homemade ice cream. I got the Belgian chocolate torte, of course, which was really rich and dense and definitely better than a lot of tortes or flourless chocolate cakes I've had. This one was also topped with homemade peppermint ice cream, which was just incredible, and a little bit of raspberry sauce. Both were great complements to the chocolate without overpowering it. If you have the opportunity for a fancy dinner while you're in Haines, you have got to check this place out. <br />
<br />
<br />
Of all the places I personally went to eat, the <strong>Mountain Market</strong> was the only one open year-round, and they can do this because they have <em>everything</em>. They have a coffee shop and <em>roast their own beans</em> under the name <strong>Ripinsky Roasters</strong>, they have breakfast, lunch, and pastries, and they have an organic grocery store, which has all kinds of things, from organic milk, eggs, and cheese, to curry paste and bulk foods. Most of the drip coffee they had at the coffee shop was also organic, and they were clearly trying to sell local foods- they had local eggs and a couple of local vegetables. Since they're open year round, this is the coffee shop/local hang out of choice for the locals, and it shows. I swear the woman behind the counter knew the names of everyone that came in. So, I had a good mocha with locally roasted beans, and a really good homemade lemon poppyseed muffin for breakfast. They also make their own breakfast sandwiches and burritos. I also got a sandwich to go for lunch. They had several delicious looking options, but I went with the Market Sub, which was on a really good baguette that I think they made, with chicken, lots of pesto, avocado, and lettuce. It was really good, and really the only problem with it was that the bread was so good and substantial that you kind of squished a lot of the goodness inside out when you ate. I also got a brownie with peanut butter frosting. The brownie was okay but the PB frosting was pretty great, I don't know what they did- it wasn't really a <em>frosting</em>, per se, but rather some sort of fluffy peanut butter concoction. Anyway, buttery and delicious. Plus they're local, open year-round, display and sell local art on the walls, and bring some diversity and environmental-consciousness to the grocery options in Haines. So, both for taste and on general principle, make sure you go to Mountain Market next time you're in Haines.<br />
<br />
For dinner my second night in Haines I went to the <strong>Fireweed Restaurant</strong>, which everyone recommended. They are located right below the parade grounds on Ft. Seward. The first thing when I walked in I was hit by a fantastic smell of pizza, which was a good sign. They were also packed, and were planning on closing in late September. They had a good looking wine list, but I decided I needed to have some local beer, so I got a <strong>Haines Brewing Company</strong> IPA. It was wheatier than I expected, but <em>very</em> good. The owners, like many in southeast Alaska, try to have as many local and organic ingredients as possible. I had a bacon wrapped date, which was stuffed with a coffee-almond puree and drizzled with maple syrup for $2.50 each. It was really good, and I especially liked the bacon/maple syrup combo, but it wasn't <em>quite</em> as good as the bleu cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon at the Cafe Sevilla tapas bar in southern California. Seriously, those things were so good even my friend with serious diet restrictions for his heart ate one of them- it was his "bacon quotient for the year." But I digress. Other delicious-looking appetizers on the Fireweed's menu included a freshly baked pretzel with mustard, olives stuffed with anchovy, bleu cheese, and herbs, toasted cheese ravioli, tapenade, and white wine cheese fondue. For soups and sides, the soup of the day seems to change frequently- the day I went it was beef stew. They also had garlic bread, Italian potato salad, and pasta salad. I had a small house salad for $4.50, which was a basic side salad but was made with fresh baby greens and had a (I assume homemade) creamy gorgonzola dressing. They also have Greek salad, Caesar salad to which you could add chicken, a grilled flatiron steak salad, and a grilled halibut pesto Caesar salad. That last one was a serious contender for my meal. They also had several things "from the grill" for $13-17, including a flatiron steak sandwich, burger, buffalo burger, portabello mushroom "burger," chicken burger, and sausage plate. All of them come with salad, potato salad, or pasta salad. They had oven sandwiches (eggplant or Italian heroes), a calzone, and of course, pizzas. If I had been out to dinner with other people I totally would have gotten a pizza, because I saw several delicious looking ones coming out. You could get a small or large build-your-own pizza for $11 or $21, plus toppings, or you could get an 18 inch pepperoni, veggie combo, combo, or the Fireweed Favorite for $25-28. They also have several pastas, including the veggie fettuccine, which I got. It has artichoke hearts, tomatoes, mushrooms, red onion, broccoli, parmesan, olive oil, and herbs for $16. And it came with the herbed garlic bread, which was rustic and very tasty- not your average garlic bread. The pasta was a great, rustic pile of pasta, everything was cooked well and was really delicious, with all the flavors working together. I didn't have room after all this for their dessert of the night, the chocolate peanut butter pie, but I did get a big cookie to go that I ate the next day. I got the oatmeal walnut and chocolate chip, which was great, and they had a couple other kinds to choose from, too. This is another place I wish I had time to go back and try other things. I'll just have to work on getting back down there. <br />
<br />
Other places I didn't go to in Haines during my too-short trip include the Bamboo Room, which has a big sign for fish and chips and is also open year-round, the Bear-ritto bakery, the Klondike, which is supposed to have great pizza, and a fish and chips wagon that was never open while I was there. There was also at least one other coffee shop in downtown Haines that also wasn't open when I went by. I also didn't get a chance to go to Sarah J's coffee shop and bakery, which wasn't open on Monday when I went by, which was disappointing because she is supposed to make great cookies. And while I had their beer, I never actually went to the Haines Brewing Company, but I heard it's really fun to go to a beer tasting there before or after dinner. I've heard you need to try the spruce tip beer- apparently very tasty, plus prevents scurvy because of all the vitamin c in the new spruce tips! Oh, and the brewery is in the old movie set they built when they were filming the movie "White Fang" in town, so there's that. So, if you're in southeast Alaska, please stop by Haines. It's jaw-droppingly gorgeous, full of historic buildings and amazing food. You'll see grizzlies and eagles in the Eagle Preserve State Park, and there are tons of amazing local artists living and working there. So go to Haines - you'll thank me, I promise.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-26633311224830828252011-09-11T11:33:00.000-08:002011-09-11T11:33:04.046-08:00Alaska State Fair Part II: Attack of the Giant Vegetables!So, you've already heard about all the things I <i>ate</i> at the Alaska State Fair, so now I want to talk about all the local farmers whose products we saw at the Fair, including both animals and produce. We saw some great livestock, with a huge showing of 4-H project animals. There were a lot of goats, including a lot of Nigerian dwarf goats, but some Nubians and other breeds too. There were a few sheep, which we especially noticed because there were several Icelandic sheep, which had lots of poofy wool and looked like they would be right at home in Alaska. Most of the cows were Holsteins, but there were some other breeds too. There were several large lady cows that looked like they were going to calve <i>any minute now</i>, and did not look particularly comfortable, but how many full-term ladies are? There were several pigs, including one that was freaking gigantic, and one mom with a whole herd of piglets had drawn quite a crowd. There was also a very nice looking yak. There is at least one farm raising yaks (I was looking into their CSA) in the Valley- another animal that should be well-suited to the Arctic. I only saw one alpaca on this particular day, but I know there are several people who raise them. There is also a petting zoo, of course, so the kids can feed and pet some goats and other farm animals.<br />
<br />
The selection of rabbits and poultry had much more variety than the larger animals. There was a huge selection of chickens, and so many breeds, including Rhode Island reds, buff Orpingtons, and many that I'm not familiar with. There were some really beautiful birds. There were also a lot of turkeys, also generally raised by 4-H kids. There was actually a room where a lot of them were loose, and several were strutting around, puffed up and showing off to us and the other birds. There were some roosters, pheasants, and ducks, too, to round out the poultry. There was also an incubator with chicks and ducklings that was a total kid-magnet. It was put on by Triple D Farms, and I was surprised they had so many chicks, because they actually just said they were going to stop selling butchered chickens, meaning that as far as I can find there is not a single place to get locally raised chicken meat in Alaska anymore. There are still people that will sell you chicks to raise yourself, I believe, but nowhere that will butcher and sell you chickens. If you want to learn more about this issue, there is a great <a href="http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/alaskas-losing-its-last-commercial-poultry-farm">article about it in the Alaska Dispatch</a>, which explains that it's basically about not being able to get insurance for your farm because the government can't afford to inspect small farms. I've been looking into this, trying to find local poultry, possibly a co-op where you own the chickens and are paying for their care, but so far I haven't found one. There was a huge amount of aaaawww-ing coming out of the fair-goers for the rabbits on display. There were giant ones, teeny ones, long tall ears, short ears, floppy ears, and they were all super-cute. A lot of them were show or pet breeds, but there are several places here that raise meat rabbits. It's better than buying meat from a big factory farm Outside, but let's just move on, shall we?<br />
<br />
Of course, if there is one thing people want to see at the Alaska State Fair, it is the giant vegetables. We are famous for our large produce up here. Of course there are varieties of plants that are suited to growing very big, but we usually credit our 18+ hours of summer sunlight here in southcentral Alaska for helping our vegetables to grow so large so quickly. Among the vegetables this year were a couple of cabbages over 100 pounds, I believe the winner was 126 pounds, which was <i>so close</i> to the world record of 127. So, cabbages that weigh as much as a person. There were also some zucchini, squash and gourds that were pretty amazing. Alaskans also hold the world records for carrot (just under 19 pounds), kale (105.9 pounds), kohlrabi (96.95 pounds), celery (63 pounds), broccoli (35 pounds), root beet (42.75), rutabaga (82.9), and turnip (39.2). So you see, this is serious business. In the room where the giant vegetables are displayed, there is a complete list of the Alaska records for you to marvel at.<br />
<br />
And then there was the Great Pumpkin Scandal of 2011. The winner of the giant pumpkin weigh in, and of the all-time Alaska record, was a 1287 pound pumpkin named Lucy Lu. Yes, we name our giant vegetables in Alaska- doesn't everyone? To give you an Alaskan comparison for how much that is, this pumpkin weighed about as much as a baby beluga or humpback <i>whale</i>. The grower of Lucy Lu has been doing this for a while, and was among other things the first to break the 1000-pound mark. But wait! You thought that was big- even though Lucy Lu broke the record, there was a <i>1723 pound</i> pumpkin named Patrick that was also entered in the weigh in. 1700 pounds! That's as much as an old Volkswagen Beetle! It took the grower <i>five years</i> to grow this pumpkin! But poor Patrick had a hole in him, so he was tragically disqualified by the judges. We can't have vegetables with holes in them- people could be juicing their stats, injecting them to increase the weight. So, only entries with skin intact can be considered. If he had won, Patrick would have come tantalizingly close to the <i>world </i>record of 1810 pounds. Oh, the world of competitive pumpkin growing- who knew that you could actually grow a pumpkin that could, say, be made into a carriage that you could then ride to the palace ball? This year set the bar pretty high, so in the future if anyone wants to break the Alaska record, they are going to have to be shooting for the world record, too. I for one will be keeping my eyes on next year's weigh in to see if Lucy Lu's record can be toppled.<br />
<br />
So there you have it - the thrills! The excitement! The giant zucchini jokes! It's just another day at the Alaska State Fair.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-45154733857950993102011-09-09T21:06:00.000-08:002011-09-09T21:06:59.140-08:00Alaska State Fair Part I: So much food, so little time...<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">Sadly, the Alaska State Fair ended this week. I love going to the fair, and I especially love getting to try so many great foods. When I was a kid, your choices included pretty standard, greasy fair food: corn dogs, burgers, pizza, and funnel cake. These days, you can find practically anything, from fresh Alaskan seafood to great barbeque to vegetable stew made with fresh Alaskan vegetables to Middle Eastern food to Indian fry bread. You can go to Mr. Gyros, <a href="http://akstatedish.blogspot.com/2011/07/hot-dog-nazi.html">MA's hot dogs</a>, get a hot cup of Kaladi Brothers Coffee, or go to Cheesecake in a Cone. I went to the Fair four times this year – I know, it seems a bit excessive, but in my defense I was working part of the day for three of those visits – and I <i>still</i> did not get to try all of the things I wanted. So brace yourselves: what follows is the chronicle of the many things I ate at the 2011 Alaska State Fair.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">My first day at the Fair I didn’t have much time when I wasn’t working, so my exploration of food options was a little limited. I needed something quick and I wanted some local foods. I ended up with a <b>Salmon Quesadilla</b> at a self-titled stall for $8<b> </b>to start with.<b> </b>It was actually a little disappointing, maybe because what I expected was a melted-cheese-bomb, and what I got was some dry salmon and a tiny sprinkling of cheese, but what can you do? Sometimes things sound good but don’t meet your expectations. When I took a break later I was redeemed when I got some <b>Matanuska Creamery</b> ice cream at their booth on the midway. Matanuska Creamery is the successor to Matanuska Maid, the defunct dairy co-op. Dairy farmers have a hard time in Alaska, so I try to support them as much as possible. From trying to grow enough hay to feed the cows, to the competition with cheap factory milk from Outside, they’re fighting an uphill battle. Some people don’t like how much they get in state subsidies, but I say anything that helps keep local farming viable up here is a noble thing. I have a love-hate relationship with their ice cream, though, because they divert all their summer cream to making ice cream, which is really popular, so they don’t make any butter for months at a time. People need butter! I love ice cream an awful lot, but I don’t <i>need</i> it. Anyway, I shouldn’t really be complaining because they are using their cream for one delicious thing instead of another, and their ice cream is really great. I got two scoops for $5, one scoop of chocolate and one of fudge brownie. They have a pretty good selection of flavors, which you still have a chance to check out at the Anchorage farmer’s markets. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">My next visit to the Fair I went in search of some well-known food booths that had moved and could not be found, and I tried some great new things. I spent a long day at the Fair on this trip – I worked in the morning and then spent the afternoon and evening watching “A Prairie Home Companion” and hanging out with my parents. For lunch, I went in search of what is generally regarded as the best barbeque at the Fair, and that is saying something, because there are at least half a dozen BBQ places these days. After a little searching, I finally found the new location of the <b>Center of Hope, Church of God in Christ BBQ</b> stand. They were keeping busy, I was glad to see. They have Texas style BBQ, and had pulled pork sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, pork and chicken plates (that come with baked beans, cole slaw, or potato salad) for $12, and baby back ribs. I remember that the ribs were by far the most expensive thing, but I didn't write down how much they were. I got the BBQ chicken sandwich for $10, which wasn’t much in terms of a sandwich, with some spongy white bread, but I was there for the BBQ itself, which was fantastic. The chicken was falling apart and smelled and tasted amazing. Of course, they also have dessert, in the form of mini peach or sweet potato pies for $5 each. I got a sweet potato pie, which was also fantastic, although I would recommend sharing it with someone. When I met up with my parents after lunch I also got to try my mom’s corn fritters in honey butter, but I didn’t catch the name of the place she got them. They pretty much only make corn fritters, though, and you can tell, because they are <i>tasty</i>! For dinner my mom and I stumbled upon <b>Mostly Mediterranean, </b>a stand run by some ladies<b> </b>from Homer who only sell food at the Fair and a couple of Kenai Peninsula festivals. With food this good, I’m kind of amazed that they don’t have a restaurant. We got the kibbe plate for $10, I think, which came with pita bread, tabbouleh and hummus. First of all, there aren’t very many restaurants, let alone food stalls at fairs that make kibbe in this country. I think I’ve only ever had it when my parents or grandparents made it. It was good, but they did what a lot of Americans do, which is to dilute the flavor of the lamb by combining it with beef. Otherwise, though, it was pretty tasty. The standouts were the tabbouleh and hummus, though. The hummus was creamy and delicious, and the tabbouleh was fantastic, and was actually an herb salad with some bulgar, instead of a bulgar salad with a few herbs, which is what many Americans do. They also make Italian sausage sandwiches and a couple other things that we didn’t try. We almost went to the Pasty Shack instead, but a group of people who had just gotten food there warned us off and said the pasties were disappointing, so we were spared. We'll stick with Cornish pasties from the <a href="http://akstatedish.blogspot.com/2011/05/talkeetna-alaska-climbing-peaks-of.html">Talkeetna Roadhouse</a>, thank you very much. For dessert, I stopped by <b>Strictly Strawberries</b> for a chocolate milkshake. They make a lot of strawberry shakes and also strawberry shortcake, which is why it’s called Strictly <i>Strawberries</i>, but they also had a sign up advertising their thick shakes, so I had to give one a try. And as you know, I generally pick chocolate above other options.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">The next day I went to the Fair, I just went by myself to work, so I didn't get the benefit of sharing like I did with my parents. I got a halibut taco and a quesadilla at <b>Tres Amigos</b>. One of the reasons I picked this place was that they had seared halibut tacos, whereas a lot of the seafood places at the fair serve foods that have been breaded and deep-fried to death, so you can't actually taste the seafood. I got a halibut soft taco for $10, which had cabbage, cheese, tomato, cilantro, onion, and a "special sauce" that was sort of like a tartar sauce. It was great and just what I was looking for. And then since it was a relatively small taco I also got a small plain quesadilla for $2 that was a good, basic little quesadilla. They also had meat tacos that I would have liked to try.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">On the last weekend of the Fair I finally got to go with Morgan, and we spent the day snacking so we could try as many things as possible. We got there late in the morning but still a little early for lunch, but we lucked out because we heard about the <b>throwdown tent</b>. I had heard that there was a seafood throwdown one of the other days I was at the Fair, but I didn't understand and didn't go. Basically, a couple of cooking schools and restaurants do a recipe throwdown, and we all get samples and then get to vote for our favorites. When we got there in the morning we had hangar steak from Humpy's, the AVTEC students, and... someone else who I didn't write down. The AVTEC students were by far the best, most creative, with a marinated steak and salad with a spicy peanut sauce. They also had a very nice plating design, as they say on "Iron Chef." The group I don't remember cooked the meat really well, but their food wasn't nearly as interesting. The next snack we got was at <b>Hoop N Hula Milk and Cookies</b>, which turned out to be one of my favorite places. They sell only milk and cookies, and 50 cents from each cookie goes to charities that you pick out. You get a token for each cookie and can put it in the slot for hunger charities, recycling, peace, health, community, and environment. They have a list of charities in each category in case you're wondering where the money's going. Morgan got a "peanut buddha" cookie, and I got a "double chip happens." We ate our delicious cookies and gave our tokens to the hunger and health charities. They also had vegan, and I think gluten-free cookies too. Then we took a break and looked at the livestock, and I bought some tickets for the 4-H raffle. First place was a butchered pig that was raised by one of the 4-Hers, and second place was a 4-H turkey. I didn't win, but oh well. I also bought some honey from <b>Chugiak Heights Honey</b>. I like them because they have bulk sizes- you're not paying $12 for an 8 oz jar of Alaskan honey, which is the case with some beekeepers up here. I got the 48 oz size, and they had a giant 6 pound one, too. It's tough, because the quantities are relatively small, but I really try hard to support the local pollinators. Our next snack was from a local Palmer coffee shop and restaurant, <b>Vagabond Blues.</b> I like going to the coffee shop for lunch because the have really good, healthy salads, soups, and sandwiches. They had wraps and other light-lunch things here at the Fair. Of course, we didn't exactly get anything particularly healthy ourselves, but the fresh, made-from-scratch garlic potato chips just smelled so good! They were $7, and were hot and fresh, had garlic oil on them, as well as parmesan and chopped up garlic and herbs. I wish I had discovered these earlier. After a break, during which we looked at Native Alaskan crafts, talked to some of the environmental and other advocacy groups that had booths, and gave a couple dollars to the Elk's Lodge at the rat races. We also saw some great Native dancers and singers from King Island and some Tsimshian singers and dancers that were all really good. And we looked at an exhibit on the agricultural colony that was created as part of the New Deal, and is the reason we have so many local farmers in the Matanuska and Susitna Valleys today. For our last snacks of the day we went to the wine bar run by the <b>Grape Tap</b>, which is a wine bar and restaurant in Palmer. I got a glass of Norton malbec from Argentina, and we got a cheese platter that came with a good baguette and some brie, gouda, and cheddar cheese. For dessert before we left we went to <b>Denali Cream Puffs</b>. That's right, there's also a place that serves only cream puffs. For $7 you get a giant cream puff (the custard is amazing), and you get it topped with either chocolate sauce, caramel, or berry sauce. We shared a chocolate one, because they are huge. And on that sugar bombshell, we started the drive back to Anchorage. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">The food at the Alaska State Fair has sure come a long way since I was a kid, and the healthiest thing you could get was a giant stuffed baked potato. I can't wait to try all the great food that will be waiting for me at the Fair in 2012.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div>Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-67112232593816724582011-08-21T17:18:00.000-08:002011-08-21T17:18:02.127-08:00Opa! The Alaska Greek FestivalThis weekend was the annual Alaska Greek Festival. It's held every year in Anchorage at the Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church on O'Malley Road. This year they are finishing up the renovation of the church, so all the profits of this year's festival are going towards that. I went with my husband and my parents for lunch, and our timing was great. Not only was it sunny, but the lines for food were a quarter as long as they were when we were leaving, plus by mid-afternoon they were starting to sell out of the most popular things.<br />
<br />
For the main course we shared a few different things. We got a pastitsio, which is kind of like a Greek lasagna. It's made with lamb meat sauce, macaroni noodles, and bechamel sauce. So it's like the richest lasagna ever. I like getting it in Greek restaurants because I know from experience that it takes a <i>long</i> time and a <i>lot</i> of pots and pans to make at home- you have to make the meat sauce, cook the noodles, make the bechamel, then bake it all. The pastitsio at the festival is really good, but a little dry, since it is made in mass quantities in big buffet sheet pans, but what are you going to do? The pastitsio, lamb, and moussaka come as dinners with Greek salad, bread, and a tiropita. If I had more room in my stomach I might have come back to this booth and gotten the Athenian Chicken Wings, which are marinated in lemon and oregano and served with tzatziki sauce. They also had a vegetarian option (the only main dish without meat), the fasolakia yiahni, which is made with green beans, tomatoes, and potatoes. For the rest of our lunch we got a couple of gyros and a chicken souvlaki. You should know what a gyro is already, I hope, so I won't say what's in it. These were traditional, hot and tasty. Souvlaki is a kabob, and I think it's normally made with pork, but you could get pork or chicken at the festival. The kabobs were so tender the meat was just falling apart. They were so good I'm kind of surprised how much better the gyros were selling. The guys selling the gyro and souvlaki also had the best shirts- one had a shirt that said "got ouzo?" and my favorite said "Gyro-Trash."<br />
<br />
We got several things to fill out our meal. We had some dolmades, which are grape leaves stuffed with rice, herbs and spices. These were so good that my dad went back for more later. And we got spanakopita and tiropita. Spanakopita is the better known of the two, and made by filling lots of layers of buttery filo dough with spinach, onion, and feta cheese. I like making little personal spanakopita filo cups for parties. The tiropita is not nearly as well known, but I think it's even better than the spanakopita. Apparently in Greece it's the indulgent thing you eat at Easter when you can finally eat dairy again after Lent, and since it's spring you get super fresh goat and sheep cheese. In Alaska, you can't get cheese that fresh, so they make it with feta, cream cheese, and ricotta to make a creamy approximation, and again, it's baked in filo dough. I'll definitely be making these at home. They have a beer tent, but it wasn't until after we were finished with our food that I noticed that people were getting bottles of wine from there, too. I was totally bummed that I didn't notice that earlier- add a bottle of wine to the sun, the fresh Greek food, and the old guys playing bazoukis all afternoon, the transportation to the Greek riviera would have been complete!<br />
<br />
For our first round of dessert we got loukoumades. They had a sign on the counter that these were the prizes for athletes at Ancient Greek religious festivals. They're basically doughnuts, but the thing that makes them Greek (and freaking amazing) is that they come hot out of the fryer, get rolled in honey syrup, and then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and chopped nuts. Oh my God they are good! And I was the first one after they brought out a new batch, so we had super-fresh hot ones. Mmmmmm....<br />
<br />
After we digested for a minute we went to the bakery tent to get more desserts, and we got a bunch of things to try and take home for later. You can get baklava at a lot of places, so we actually skipped it here, so we could try other things you don't find the rest of the year. We got the melomakarona, which are spiced cookies with walnuts and cinnamon, and dipped in honey; the kourambiethes, which are for holidays and weddings, and are almond cookies with powdered sugar and rose water, and can also be made with whole cloves inside; koulourakia, Easter cookies which are not really sweet at all, and are often eaten as snacks with coffee; karithopita, which is honey-soaked walnut spice cake; and my husband and mom's favorite, the galactobouriko, best described as a Greek eclair- it's rolled up filo soaked in lemon syrup and filled with semolina custard. It's also one of the most popular things they sell, and when I was in the store looking at the grocery store items they have for sale (orzo, Greek coffee, olives, grape leaves, etc), the woman in front of me bought the last package of frozen take-home galactobouriko. I should have gotten a little cup of Greek coffee to go with all the super-sweet desserts, but it slipped my mind when we got up to the counter. Of course, if you haven't noticed, most of the desserts involve lots of honey and nuts, so really, how can you go wrong?<br />
<br />
Besides all the leftover desserts I brought home, I also brought home a cookbook of recipes collected from the men and women of the Anchorage Greek Orthodox Church and sold to raise money for the Church renovation, "Tastes Like Home: Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska." It has lots of recipes from the Festival (including tiropita and all of the desserts I mentioned), and also has Mediterranean recipes for Alaskan seafood, including salmon and dungeness crab, besides more traditional Mediterranean seafood recipes for octopus, squid, scallops, and shrimp. It's a good thing I got this cookbook, because even with four of us sampling lots of things, I didn't get to try all the things I wanted. Hopefully by next year I will have forgotten my initial annoyance at how bad the traffic and parking always is, but remember how well all the Alaskan Greeks cook and that it's totally worth going if you're here in town. Opa!Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-11598553029250777922011-08-14T12:44:00.000-08:002011-08-14T12:44:15.611-08:00Road Trip! SewardMy husband, dog, mother in law, and I just got back from a great trip to Seward, Alaska. Seward is on the southern part of the Kenai Peninsula, at the head of beautiful Resurrection Bay. Seward is one of the older towns in this part of Alaska, and was important as the start of the Alaska Railroad and the Government Trail/Iditarod Trail. It was a really important transportation and supply hub because the bay is open year-round, unlike a lot of ports in Alaska that are frozen in the winter. Today, the port is still important as a base for commercial and recreational fishing, as a cruise ship port bringing thousands of tourists to Alaska every summer, and as a supply point for shipping things like coal from Alaska to the rest of the world. It is also adjacent to Kenai Fjords National Park, and a lot of people come to Seward to take wildlife cruises, go sea kayaking in the fjords, or to go hiking up to Exit Glacier.<br />
<br />
Since Seward is a tourist town, there are a ton of places to eat. You'll notice that the prices seem pretty high, but I will point out two things about that. First, this is a town that lives off of tourists, including cruise ship tourists, so their prices are high because of that. Also, so much of the food includes fresh seafood from Resurrection Bay and Prince William Sound, so that makes things more expensive, too. Some of the places that I didn't have time to go include <b>Ray's Seafood Restaurant</b>, which is apparently the most expensive restaurant in Seward. Their seafood is supposed to be pretty good, but mainly they are popular because they are right on the water overlooking the harbor, and they have big plate glass windows giving you an amazing view. Also right next to the harbor is the <b>Harbor Street Creamery</b> ice cream parlor. I really wanted to go there, but didn't get the chance during our approximately 36 hours in Seward.<br />
<br />
And while I didn't get any coffee there, I really recommend going to the <b>Resurrect Art Coffee House and Art Gallery</b>. It is housed in the old Methodist Church, which is gorgeous. The coffee shop part is in the front where you come in, and they have teas, coffee, and things like bagels. They have a ton of local art for sale, which takes up the rest of the space, and includes watercolors and oils by local artists, prints of drawings and paintings, jewelry, hand-woven towels, knit hats, hand turned wooden bowls, books about Alaska, photo prints of cute Alaskan animals like sea otters, stained glass, and modern scrimshaw ivory with unusual designs, like an octopus one-man band. The tall church windows let in a ton of light, which is great. There is so much art and display cases that there aren't a ton of tables and chairs, but is seems like there is enough room. And if you go upstairs to where the choir used to be, there are a few comfy chairs and low tables, along with a bookcase of used books for sale. They also have a great bulletin board which advertises things like the photo contest and fundraiser for the SOS animal shelter. So while, since Alaskan love their coffee, there are probably a dozen places to get an espresso in Seward, if nothing else, you should go to Resurrect Art for the ambiance. <br />
<br />
Another great place to go, when you need a sweet snack, is to <b>Sweet Darling's</b> candy store. It's on 4th Ave in the heart of Seward, and they make all kinds of tasty candy. They make their own salt water taffy, which my husband loved, and they make their own fudge and truffles. I got a dark chocolate truffle, a hazelnut truffle, a "maple almighty" truffle, and a truffle that was basically a piece of their homemade fudge dipped in chocolate. They had a pretty wide variety of truffles, so I'm sure everyone could find something they liked. They also make fantastic gelato. Not only was it good, but it was really authentic- everything from the flavors (mostly) to the little spatulas they give you to eat it, was more like actually getting gelato in Italy than anywhere else in Alaska. I got two scoops of chocolate and coffee, and my husband got strawberry and fruits of the forest, and they were all delicious. I think the 2 scoop cup was $4. Alaskan towns usually have a ton of choices when it comes to ice cream, but if you're in Seward, you should definitely pick the gelato.<br />
<br />
For lunch when we got into town we went to the <b>Apollo</b>, a Greek and Italian place that has been around a long time. It was great when my whole family was down there fishing, and we were cold and wet. We could go here, and the kids could get spaghetti or pizza. This is a very old-style Italian restaurant, though, and the thick cream sauces were a little much for us. We got the seafood stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer. They were pretty much like a crab cake or something, with seafood and breading, stuffed in the mushroom caps, and topped with a lot of really thick cream sauce. I got the frutti de mare pasta, which had very well-cooked seafood, including halibut in it, but again, it was topped with a super thick cream sauce, almost like a roux or bechamel, so I didn't get very far. It is a Seward staple, though, and if you like old-fashioned Italian-American food, or if you need a hot pizza for for your family after a long, cold day of fishing, you should stop by. <br />
<br />
For dinner one day, we went to <b>Alaska Nellie's Roadhouse</b>, which is also on 4th Avenue. It was really good, and we wished we had time to come back for breakfast or for another lunch or dinner so we could try more things on the menu. They apparently make really good breakfasts, including hotcakes, corned beef hash, omelets (including one with reindeer sausage), and breakfast burritos. The breakfast prices ranged from $7 - $12, depending on what you got. For lunch and dinner, they have everything from nachos (which looked amazing), to sandwiches, falafel, and seafood baskets. They make their own seafood chowder fresh, and you can tell- it was really delicious. They also have really fantastic burgers, which are served on ciabatta rolls and come with coleslaw or fries, or for $2 you can substitute a cup of chowder or their amazing sweet potato fries. My husband got the mushroom and swiss burger, which was really good. It was cooked more than he would like, but he didn't ask for it rare, so you can't really blame them, and it was still really good. You can also get a caribou burger, a salmon burger, or a halibut burger, which is what I got. It was really great, good halibut, grilled so it was charred a little on the outside, and was perfectly cooked so it was just falling apart. The burgers cost from $10 to $17, and of course the most expensive were the salmon and halibut burgers. They also have dinners that come with a baked potato and vegetables, so you can get your fix of steak, halibut, crab legs, chicken, or caribou filet mignon. They also have a seafood pasta and a cajun chicken or halibut pasta. I didn't catch all the dinner prices, but they were in the $20 range for entrees. Everyone I know loves the food they get here, plus they have great old photos of historic Seward and of Alaska Nellie Lawing, who was a tough pioneer Alaskan woman who ran a roadhouse and was a world-class hunter back in the day.<br />
<br />
The other place I would really recommend, and that we'll also be going back to when we get back to Seward, is the <b>Smoke Shack.</b> They are located in the "Train Wreck" which is a group of four converted Alaska Railroad cars at the corner of 4th and Port Streets. One car is a bike repair and rental place, one is a guide outfit for tours of Exit Glacier, one is a hotel in case you feel the need to stay in a railroad car with a great view of the harbor, and one car is the Smoke Shack. They have a smoker out back, and a kitchen on one end of the car, and the other end of the car has maybe 10 4-person tables. There was a short wait when we went, and as you can imagine, it's so small that there's probably always a line. Their mottos are "Food for the Soul" and "Life's Too Short to Eat Boring Food!" The name of the restaurant is taken seriously - all meat in this place is smoked, from the breakfast meats to the burgers to the ribs. We had breakfast here, but the rest of the menu looks great. My husband had the eggs benedict, as always, and it was really good, but was really unusual. It was served on toasted little baguettes instead of English muffins, and it had smoked ham, and the sauce had a lot of cajun spices in it, that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I got the Huevos Rancheros, which was fantastic and also really unusual. I got it with scrambled eggs, but you could have your eggs any way you wanted. It was a big platter with tortillas on the bottom, covered in potatoes, black beans, cheese, and eggs garnished with pico de gallo. You got your choice of red Spanish chorizo sauce or green chili sauce. I went with the chorizo, which is what the waiter recommended. It was very spicy and delicious, and not at all the Mexican style huevos rancheros I am used to. Their other breakfast selections include frittatas, chicken fried steak, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, and the "Benedict Arnold," which is the Egg's Benedict with vegetables instead of ham (get it?). Breakfasts cost from $6 to $14. Most of the lunches cost from $10 to $14, but the large rack of baby back ribs cost $22. For lunch they have ribs, a smoked green chili burrito, smoked beef or turkey burgers, smoked chicken sandwiches, and smoked pork shoulder sandwiches, all of which come with beans and coleslaw. They also have a couple odds and ends like gumbo and "Cajun baked brie,"which is served warm with tomato salsa on toast. And despite everything I've just described, they also have vegetarian options for lunch - a smoked tofu burger (I told you everything was smoked!) and a portobello mushroom sandwich with carmelized onions and goat cheese. See, I totally have to come back to this place.<br />
<br />
There are several other restaurants and bakeries that I didn't get to, but luckily Seward is only a two and a half hour drive from Anchorage, so I should be able to get back to try some more things soon.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-1249583466790221762011-07-24T16:45:00.000-08:002011-07-24T16:45:58.984-08:00The Hot Dog NaziI can't believe it has gotten this far into the summer without telling you about M.A.'s hot dogs! There are a lot of hot dog stands that sprout up in downtown Anchorage over the summer, but you really need to make the effort to find this particular one. Go there right now! Once you go, you will realize that I am right. M.A.'s Gourmet Hot Dogs, owned by Mike Anderson, is located on 4th Ave and F Street, on the northwest corner in front of the entrance to the federal building and the Public Lands Information Center. He is there Monday through Saturday, starting in late March. He takes the winter off, opening up only for big downtown events like Fur Rendezvous and the Iditarod Dog Sled Race start. He has a green umbrella, a green chalkboard menu, a large bobblehead of James Brown, and the longest line of any hot dog stand in sight. <br />
<br />
Hopefully you watch "Seinfeld," or else the title of this article will make no sense. Basically, the "Soup Nazi" is an episode about a man who sells the most amazing soup ever, but he is very particular about how you behave, otherwise he may send you away with no soup. "No soup for you!" was his cry as he booted Elaine out. M.A. presents himself the same way. There is a list of rules posted on the front of his stand, which includes things like being ready to state your order when asked, about talking on your cell phone while in line, and about moving to the right after you order to pay and await your hot dog. There are other signs, too, including a disparaging one about our former governor, Sarah Palin. I have never actually seen anyone be run off for violating the rules, or for telling M.A. that Sarah Palin was the greatest governor we ever had, but I wouldn't be surprised if others have. M.A. is a character, but he is allowed because he absolutely makes the best hot dogs around, and he knows it. Locals know it, too. The lines can be long, so be prepared: when I was in college and worked downtown in the summer, we would poke our heads out as it came close to lunchtime, checking on the line to see if we would have time to get one- I have spent my entire lunch half-hour standing in that line. Sometimes I'd be ready to run over, and then the fire engine would pull up and ten firefighters would get in line. Or the courthouse let out, and the line was packed with lawyers.<br />
<br />
The standard, most Alaskan thing to get is the Alaskan reindeer sausage hot dog, but he also has other dogs, including Italian sausage, Louisiana hot links, Polish sausage, and beef hot dogs. He also has chicken, and I think he has turkey, but I forgot to look last time I was there. They are all roughly $5, give or take, and for $6.50 you can get a bag of chips and a can of soda or bottle of water (this might vary with the type of hot dog, I can't remember). They're pretty big hot dogs, definitely a satisfying lunch. And it's cash only, so stop by the ATM in the 5th Ave Mall before you go if necessary. M.A. or one of his employees will ask if you want onions on your hot dog. Say yes. He makes the most delicious carmelized onions on his grill, and I've seem him use a can of Coke to help them carmelize. They are perfect on top of your grilled hot dog, that you will get when it is perfectly done, crispy on the outside, and atomically hot on the inside, so give it a few minutes to cool off so you don't burn the roof of your mouth. He has a large condiment bar with which to embellish your hot dog and onions, with relish, several kinds of mustard, ketchup, sauerkraut, cheese, and jalapenos. And of course, napkins. You will need a couple of napkins.<br />
<br />
So now you have the scoop on the best hot dog in Anchorage. Tourists who stumble upon it don't realize how lucky they are. Luckily I don't work downtown these days, because I would spend a lot of time standing in line at M.A.'s.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-71823300682107888342011-07-23T16:43:00.001-08:002011-07-23T16:44:21.645-08:00Summit Spice and Tea CompanyToday I went to Summit Spice & Tea Company's new midtown store, which has been open about a month. Summit Spices have had a store for several years in south Anchorage on Huffman, but they just opened this new location at Benson and Denali, for those of us who don't live in south Anchorage and find it a pain to go all the way down to Huffman.<br />
<br />
Summit Spices is basically a gourmet food store, but the bulk of their stock is devoted to spices and teas. They have shelves and shelves of spices, from a section containing several different kinds of cinnamon, to star anise and whole cloves and nutmeg, to their own spice blends and rubs for all your cooking needs. They also have things like pepper grinders, spice grinders, and those planes that Food Network chefs use to grate nutmeg and zest citrus. They also have big jars of some spices behind the counter, so you can have them weigh things out for you, or I assume you can create your own blend. The spices can be expensive, but one of the things I like is that they carry most in very small jars which are only a few dollars. They know that you are probably not going to use a lot of sumac or tumeric in your kitchen, so why not sell little jars so you don't have 4 ounces of unused spices five years from now.<br />
<br />
Their tea section is also really amazing, and probably the best selection of tea in town. They have all kinds of loose leaf teas. Popular ones are available in little one or two ounce tins, or they have a counter where you can pick from a wall of tea caddies arranged by general types (black teas, chinese green teas, herbal teas, etc), and someone will weigh out what you want. I got the Jasmine Pearl tea- I love jasmine tea, and pearl tea means they've rolled up whole tea leaves, instead of the little shreds you usually get, into tight little balls that unroll when you brew the tea. I just loved the smell of this tea, and I'd never had it before, so I'm excited. They also have a tea room next to the store, if you would like to sit and try some new teas with your friends. I need to come back so I can try out this aspect of the store.<br />
<br />
They also have a great selection of teapots and teacups. Most of their teapots are a Japanese brand called Bee House, and they have a wide variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. My husband bought me a little one in which to brew my new jasmine tea. They also carry Bee House tea cups, as well as many other kinds of tea cups, including lots of nice, fancy English bone china ones with flowers painted on them. <br />
<br />
<br />
They also have lots of other random gourmet foods, including several Alaskan brands, which I appreciated. They had an Alaskan brand of salsas, and Alaskan birch syrup. They had a section of curry pastes and sauces I would like to try, including thai curry pastes from an Oregon company, and a line of Indian curry pastes and other things like tamarind paste. I would like to try both the Thai and Indian curry pastes, although what I'd really like to do is put together a list of spices I need from this store, and then try grinding my own spices and making my own Indian curry paste. They also carry Tonia's biscotti, which is popular and also carried by places like Cafe del Mundo, and things like Nikki's cookies, which makes real shortbread cookies, in plain, Meyer lemon, and key lime. I bought a box of the Meyer lemon. They carry several fancy kinds of oils and vinegars, including Chardonnay vinegar and raspberry champagne vinegar, fancy European olive oils, truffle oil, avocado oil, and things like that. Other foods they carry include popcorn and a brand of curds called "Elizabethan Kitchen" that makes apple curd and key lime curd. <br />
<br />
They also have a good sized chocolate section which will take me another visit to explore thoroughly and report on, but I will say that they have a good variety of single-source and fair trade bars. I hope you're not too disappointed that I didn't buy a bunch of chocolate to try, but frankly the chocolate section was a victim of just how much great stuff they carry. The chocolate section is right by the front door, so I saw it and thought I'd come back after I did a once-over of the store, but I got so absorbed in the spices and teas that I never did. It will just have to be an ongoing project, as chocolate always is.<br />
<br />
<br />
The last thing I need to mention is that they seem to host a lot of tutorial/tasting classes. The flyer on the counter had several scheduled just for July and August. Most are small and cost between $10 and $20, and include an olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting, beginner and advanced tea tastings, chocolate tastings, and a class on how to blend your own herbal tea. I am totally going to take a couple of these so I can learn more about all these things, and so I can taste things like super fancy olive oil and vinegar that I probably won't ever actually buy.<br />
<br />
As you can see, this is not your cheap, everyday ingredient kind of store. But, if you are really into tea, this <i>is</i> your kind of store. And when you decide to try your hand at making Ethiopian stews, they have a spice blend ready-made for you. And when you decide to finally try and make some delicious Middle Eastern dish or to make your own vindaloo paste, you can get everything you need here. There are a lot of things to try out, so I am sure that I for one will become a regular customer.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-43719229932003347442011-07-10T15:12:00.000-08:002011-07-10T15:12:54.182-08:00Moose's Tooth:The Great Pizza QuestThe Moose's Tooth Pub and Pizzeria is one of the most popular places in town. If you are from out of town, or are living in a cave in Anchorage and have never been there, they are on the Old Seward Highway just north of 36th, on a leftover little spur that they cut off in order to build the New Seward Highway. It is named after a mountain in the Alaska Range near Mt. McKinley that looks just like a moose's tooth, and if you don't believe me they have a photo of it in the front of the restaurant. They make their own beer, which is great and comes in many many varieties, and new ones with clever names are being constantly invented. You can take some home in either a keg or a growler. If I have to tell you what a growler is, you need to upgrade the type of beer you have been drinking. As you can probably guess from the name of the place and the title of this post, they also make many delicious kinds of pizza. They also host a lot of concerts, and their First Tap parties are especially popular. Posters from previous First Taps and other concerts line the walls of the restaurant.<br />
<br />
<br />
My husband and I are on a quest to eat every pizza on the menu at the Moose's Tooth. Arguably a less noble quest than, say, the search for the Holy Grail or the Fountain of Youth, but far more satisfying. The first problem with this quest is that the place is so popular that it can be pretty hard to get in. They don't take reservations, and they're so busy that you pretty much always have to wait for a table. If you're with a small group you get there between 2 and 4 pm on a weekday, you're pretty good. Later than 4:00 on any night, though, and it's a matter of <i>how long</i> you will have to wait, not <i>if</i> you will have to wait. This weekend we went for lunch at 1:00, and only had to wait ten minutes. If you have to wait and the weather is good, you can order a beer at the bar and go sit in the beer garden. There have been many occasions when we drive up to the Moose's Tooth, see the crowd (mob) of people waiting outside, and turn around and start thinking of somewhere else to go. If we could have gotten a table all those Friday nights at 6:00 when we had a craving for pizza, we would be much farther along on our quest.<br />
<br />
The second problem is that they have <i>so many</i> kinds of pizza to choose from, and every week they have a new special pizza, which is usually pretty good, so we can go a few times in a row and never make any headway on the main menu. There are currently 39 pizzas on the menu. The problem of agreeing on a pizza has been solved by a family rule: my husband and I alternate choosing the pizza with 100% discretion. The person who doesn't get to choose the pizza gets to choose the appetizer or salad. They have several great, fresh salads (no iceberg lettuce here), and they have other good appetizers, too, including hummus, mozzarella breadsticks, chips and salsa, smoked salmon pate, and roasted garlic, which comes with bread, a head of roasted garlic, and with this creamy cheese spread that is super delicious. They also have really good soups, which also rotate. They always have Hungarian Mushroom plus a couple of other kinds. On our last visit we had the tomato and roasted garlic soup, which was fantastic. <br />
<br />
We have currently only tried 12 of the pizzas on the menu, plus all the specials we get distracted by. I don't think I could ever pick a <i>favorite</i>, but some of the amazing pizzas they have are the <b>Wild Mushroom pizza </b>(portabella mushrooms, crimini mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, goat cheese, mozzarella, provolone, and Denali Sauce (spinach and ricotta puree)), the <b>Solstice pizza</b> (roasted chicken, portabella mushrooms, roasted garlic, sundried tomatoes, oregano, mozzarella, provolone, parsley, and marinara sauce), and the <b>Five Cheese pizza</b> (mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, gruyere, and gorgonzola).<br />
<br />
For two people, if you get a salad or appetizer and beer, you really only need a small pizza. If you eat a lot or you want leftovers, get the medium. The other great thing about the Moose's Tooth is that it is cheap. Two people can get an appetizer, small pizza, and dessert for under $30, so it's a great place to go with your family or a big group of friends and not spend a lot of money.<br />
<br />
They have also recently overhauled their dessert menu, if you have any room left after your pizza and beer. They have a cheesecake of the month, and a pie called "Death by Peanut Butter," which is so amazingly creamy and peanut-buttery you won't believe it. They also have a couple of chocolate options, including a delicious "melt away brownie," a flourless chocolate cake which is only average, and my favorite, the Pipeline Stout Chocolate cake. I think they make it like a coca-cola cake, so that the bubbles and the moisture give the cake a little extra something, but I really don't know. I just know that it is ever so good. When we get desserts we usually end up taking part home.<br />
<br />
Speaking of taking things home, the Moose's Tooth is also relatively eco-friendly, packing all leftovers in 100% recycled paper boxes and never styrofoam, and only selling beer to take away in reusable growlers or kegs. Oh, and you can also get any of the pizzas with whole wheat crust or a gluten-free crust. Don't ask me how they make a gluten-free pizza crust, since I thought that the whole reason pizza dough becomes pizza dough is, you know, because of gluten.<br />
<br />
So basically, everyone in town will tell you how great the Moose's Tooth is, but a lot of them also don't go there very often because there are usually a hundred people in front of them in line when they get there. But it is the best pizza in town, and a contender for the best beer, so really, Anchorage residents just have good taste.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-65878221443366156352011-07-02T15:36:00.000-08:002011-07-02T15:36:27.487-08:00Road Trip: Glennallen and Copper CenterLast week, I went to Glennallen for work, so I wanted to give you some ideas for the next time you happen to be driving the Al-Can or heading for Valdez. Glennallen is a small town at the junction of the Glenn Highway and the Richardson Highway. It is in a beautiful part of Alaska, at the edge of the Copper River Valley, home to one of Alaska's great salmon fisheries, and also sits next to the Wrangell Mountains and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Everything I discuss below is located on the Glenn Highway, unless I say otherwise.<br />
<br />
Glennallen is on the highway and so technically isn't in the Bush, but because they depend on seasonal business like tourism, fishing, and hunting, they have a limited selection of services. The only real grocery store is Omni Park's Place. This is a pretty decent grocery store, and like most stores in rural Alaska the most expensive items are perishables like dairy and produce. The bananas, for example, were not in good shape, and were over twice the price of the Anchorage Fred Meyer. The only caution I would give regarding this store would be to check the expiration dates of what you buy. A lot of things have been sitting on those shelves for a while, and several of the canned and frozen items I looked at expired in 2010. Other stores that carry food, like the Hub at the intersection of the Glenn and Richardson, are really gas stations that carry snacks and basics like you find at your typical quickie-mart.<br />
<br />
There are two places that many locals and people I know who go through Glennallen a lot warned me <i>against</i>: the Chuck Wagon and the Caribou. The Chuck Wagon is a food truck made from a converted school bus, and the Caribou Cafe is one of the main places in town and has an adjacent hotel. I have been told that both of these places may cause, how do I say this....intestinal distress. I have also never been to the Tastee Freeze, which has burgers and ice cream. I have been told that the food is decent, but is expensive for what it is.<br />
<br />
I have been to the <b>Copper Center Lodge</b>, but not on this trip. It is located on the Richardson Highway south of the junction at Glennallen. They have a little hotel and a restaurant, and serve typical rural Alaskan food: large portions, and tons of meat. Which is great if you are a construction worker or are going out fishing. They have large, traditional breakfasts, and dinners like burgers and prime rib. Besides having decent food, they are also open year round, which is important in Alaska. There are lots of towns in Alaska that depend on tourism, and most of the businesses in these towns are only open in the summer, so it is important to support those businesses that are open all year to serve, and employ, the local population.<br />
<br />
One of the places I ate was at <b>Tok Thai Food</b>. This food truck is parked next to the Hub at the highway intersection on the east end of town. It is bright purple, so you should be able to spot it. Since it is a food truck, my local friends usually call ahead and then go pick it up. All their entrees are $10, and if you want shrimp instead of the normal choice of beef, chicken, or pork, that's $2 extra. They also have Thai ice tea and canned soda. For an appetizer, they have large orders of fresh spring rolls and egg rolls (also $10, but you get a lot). The portions are huge, and the locals I know generally get something and either split it with someone, or eat it for two meals. They have things like Tom Yum Soup, Tom Kha Gai, Pad Thai, and fried rice. The special the day we went was chicken larb. I got the green curry with chicken, which was good, but not very spicy. Among my local friends the Pad Roum Mid with beef seems to be popular, which is basically mixed vegetables and beef, although they like pretty much everything, except the cashew chicken, which is too salty, and the sweet and sour, which is too strong. There are so many choices for Thai Food in Anchorage, that Tok Thai seems pretty average by comparison, but it is the only Asian food for at least 150 miles, so you should stop by if you're in the neighborhood.<br />
<br />
The other place I ate while I was in town was at the Princess Copper River Lodge <b>Two Rivers Restaurant</b>. Princess cruise ships bring thousands of tourists up to Alaska every summer, and a local I know said that they like the Copper River Lodge because, while it is seasonal, it employs a ton of locals, so they want them to do well. The first thing I noticed about the restaurant was the view of the Copper River Valley and the Wrangell Mountains on the other side. Even though the tops of the mountains were covered in rain clouds, it was still beautiful. They had a pretty typical wine list, with a variety of grapes but not any really good wines, but it didn't really matter because I had to drive back to Glennallen afterwards. Of course, being so near the Copper River, which is widely known for its salmon, and not far from PRince William Sound and its abundant seafood, fresh Alaskan seafood dominated the menu. Alaskan appetizers include Alaskan crab cakes and smoked salmon spread. Other appetizers included Tiger Prawn cocktail, baked brie, and sausage stuffed mushrooms. For soups they had Alaskan salmon chowder and the beef noodle soup of the day, and for salads they had a mixed green salad and a caesar salad. They also had some tasty warm rolls- one good plain one and a great kalamata olive roll. I got the salmon cakes, which were the appetizer special, and a casear salad, in my attempt to keep it light. You'll see later how that turned out. I got the side caesar salad, which was <i>small</i>, and made me think at the time that I should have gotten the entree size. It was fine, but wasn't the best salad I've had. The salmon cakes were great though. They were amazingly light were really flaky. I'm kind of amazed they actually stayed in cakes long enough to be cooked and served, because they totally fell apart and melted in my mouth when I ate them. They were coated in a very light later of bread crumbs, and came with a light herb aioli.<br />
<br />
Entrees were also mostly Alaskan seafood, and made me wish I could come back, this time with lots of people so I could try things. They had Alaskan halibut, Alaskan salmon (done a couple of ways), Alaskan caribou, Alaskan scallops, and Alaskan crab legs. Other entrees to round out the field included sirloin, New York strip steak, prime rib, lasagna, and chicken.<br />
<br />
And of course, there was dessert. This was really the reason I wished I could have eaten there again before I left. Naturally, I went for the chocolate option, but I really wished I could have tried some of the other things. They had a raspberry white chocolate cheesecake, key lime pie, vanilla creme brulee, green tea creme brulee (whaaaa??), Alaskan blueberry pie, or vanilla or blueberry ice cream from Matanuska Creamery. I got the "chocolate lovin' spoon cake."While the menu described it as "chocolate pudding" between two layers of cake, it was basically a really dense chocolate cake, into which they have crammed an amazing amount of dense chocolate frosting. I seriously think there was at least as much frosting as cake. And it was good frosting, not some crazy sweet store bought frosting. The only problem was that it didn't come with ice cream, so after two bites I ordered some of the vanilla ice cream so that I could actually finish it. By the end of that cake, I wasn't sorry at all that I'd just gotten the appetizer and small salad. It would be a minimum of $50 for two people to eat here - most of the entrees were around $25 - but it was good and it was really great to see so many fresh, seasonal Alaskan foods on the menu.<br />
<br />
So if you go to Glennallen, especially in the summer, you have a pretty great selection of places to eat, considering that you are passing through a town of only 500 people. I would recommend going to Tok Thai or the Princess Lodge in the summer, and to the Copper Center Lodge in the winter for a good meal on your road trip.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-17787267453265717182011-07-02T14:28:00.000-08:002011-07-02T14:28:35.418-08:00Buying Wine in Anchorage: The Warehouse and the BoutiqueLet me preface this article by saying that the wine selection in Anchorage is very good, relatively speaking. I have lived in towns Outside where the only places to buy wine at all were Safeway and Costco. And that is<i> not </i>to say that you cannot get perfectly decent wine at Costco. This article is not about that. If what you need is a bottle of Tin Roof or Menage a Trois or Root 1, by all means, go to Costco. This is an attempt to go a little deeper.<br />
<br />
This is about a lesson I learned on BBC America, watching "James May's Road Trip," a wine show hosted by James May, one of the hosts of the British car show "Top Gear," and by wine expert Oz Clarke. James' goal is to learn how to pick a decent bottle of wine out of the corner store for under 10 pounds (roughly $15, depending on how the dollar and pound are doing), and Oz's goal is to teach James to appreciate good wine. The lesson that stuck with me from the show came when they were touring California's wine country, and were visiting a big industrial winery. Oz said that large American industrial operations like this tend to make a homogeneous wine that can be good, but is not ever particularly subtle or interesting, and that the great thing about wine is exploring all the stranger, more eccentric wines that are made by the small wineries that can go so much further in developing the flavors of their wines. <i>Smaller wineries produce more unique, unusual wines</i>. And therefore, by definition, any wine that is produced in quantities such that it is carried at your local supermarket chain or at Costco, <i>cannot be that wine</i>. So, faced with that, what's a wine loving girl to do?<br />
<br />
<b>The Warehouse </b><br />
<br />
The first of my top two Anchorage wine sources is the Brown Jug Warehouse, on Tudor and the Old Seward Highway. Brown Jug is an Alaskan chain of liquor stores, and this location is far and away the largest one in town. Most of the stores are small and near grocery stores, and they have about the same variety of wines that you would find in your supermarket liquor section: the Yellowtail, the Menage a Trois, the Beringer, and a couple European wines to round out the field. The warehouse location, on the other hand, has everything. The wine section is huge and is organized by country, and then by grape, and they have an impressive selection. There are a fair number of wines from Italy and France; they also have Spanish and German sections which include the varieties most popular in those countries which are less common in the US, like Albarino from Spain, for example. They have a big South American section where you can pick out a Malbec or cabernet or other varieties common there. Their biggest section by far is for US wines, which is almost as large as all the wines from other countries combined. All their wines are from California, Washington, and Oregon. I asked about wines from other, less dominant states, like Missouri and Virginia, but so far they haven't been able to get any. The diversity is not just in the number of wines they carry, but in the price range. There are a huge number of wines for under $20, and many for around $10. So if what you want is a good bottle of Rex Goliath for under $10, Brown Jug has you covered. If you want a $35 bottle of Rex Hill King's Ridge pinot noir from Oregon, one of my favorites, they have that, too. Or if you are the kind of person who wants to take home a $219 bottle of 2006 Estate cabernet sauvignon from Stag's Leap in California, one of the wineries that beat out France in the Judgement of Paris in 1976, they have what you need.<br />
<br />
<b>The Boutique</b><br />
<br />
For the other end of the spectrum, you can go to the store that wants to be the "boutique" wine store. Wine Styles is a franchise, and the Anchorage location is located on the Old Seward Highway and O'Malley Road. This is a store for those who call themselves "wine people," or, as the British James May would say, a "wine ponce." Besides wine, the store sells other things that cater to this crowd: cute wine bottle holders, blown glass wine glass charms, aerators, and cheese boards.<br />
<br />
They don't have a particularly large selection of wines here, but the wines they have are <i>interesting</i>. They also have a great staff to help steer you to wines you might like, no matter how well you can actually articulate what you like about wines. They also have a wine club. For $35 a month, you get two of their monthly selections (usually four choices), which usually have a regional theme, and you also get 10% off the price of all their wines, and 15% off former wine club selections. They also do charitable food and wine tastings. They have one coming up at the Alaska Zoo, and in the summer they usually have at least one at the farmer's market for the Alaska Farmland Trust (<a href="http://akstatedish.blogspot.com/2011/06/perfect-saturday-morning-wine-tasting.html">see previous post</a>). And I really like that the wines they have are not from giant wineries, so you can reap the benefits of the smaller, more creative winemakers. The other great thing about this store is that almost all the wines are about $15, so they still fulfill James May's goal, while also fulfilling Oz Clarke's goal of drinking unusual wines from small wineries. They carry a few wines, I'd say 10% or less of their inventory, that are $20-$60, but most are very affordable, including the sparkling wine and prosecco. I have a membership here, and it definitely helps me to try wines I might not normally go for.<br />
<br />
So, whether you want a big selection and huge variety of wines from all over the world that cost from $8 to $200, or if you want a smaller selection of wines from smaller wineries for about $15, Anchorage has what you need to find a great wine to go with a great Alaskan meal.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-32956538879112497292011-06-19T13:17:00.000-08:002011-06-19T13:17:57.199-08:00Gourmet Alaskan Seafood: Simon and Seafort's<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This weekend, my husband and I were celebrating, so we went to dinner at Simon and Seafort’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a long time staple of ours for when we want to go out someplace nice. Two people can easily spend over $100 here, because there are delicious appetizers, soups, and salads, $25-$45 entrees, and great desserts. It’s </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">located downtown on L Street, between 4<sup>th</sup> and 5<sup>th</sup> Avenue; it’s a little hard to spot, since it’s in the first floor of a very plain looking office building, but there’s a sign out front with two old-timey Gold Rush fellows to point you in the right direction. I recommend getting a reservation- you don’t have to make it more than a few days ahead, but it is nice not to have to wait. If you show up and can’t get a table, you can always try and find a spot in the bar, which has a couple dozen tables, but that’s been pretty busy lately, too. They will bring you both the dining room menu and the bar menu, so you won't miss anything. Whether you go to the dining room or bar, you get a bonus if you get a table by the picture windows that overlook the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet and Mount Susitna.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Simon and Seafort’s is very much a classic “steak and seafood” kind of restaurant, and they really do have fantastic Alaskan seafood. They always have some fresh seafood selections for entrees, and have several great things that stay on the menu because they are so good. They also have a good bar for mixed drinks. The selection is good for beer and wine, too, but not really amazing or unusual. They have great happy hour food and drink specials that are just served in the bar. The drinks they’re better known for are things like the scratch margarita and the mojito.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We always start with the hot Dungeness crab and artichoke dip, and if you have been here before, you know why. It’s a hot and gooey cheesy crab dip, and you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have</i> to get it if you go. Make sure you get extra of the warm sourdough bread that the waiter or waitress brings to your table, though, because the little bread slices they give you with the dip aren’t enough, and aren’t nearly as good as the sourdough. Other great appetizers I have had include the steamed clams and the calamari. I've never had the oysters, but they serve those as well.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Simon’s also has incredible salads and soups. They always have New England clam chowder and authentic French Onion soup. I think they must make their own stock for the French Onion, because the soup I've made at home isn't nearly as rich and dark as theirs. Their salads are also fantastic. They have a great Caesar salad, a Maytag bleu cheese salad with slivered almonds and hard boiled eggs, and a salad with egg-mustard dressing that is amazing. The latter always makes me think of my aunt, who got the recipe years ago and has been using the dressing on green salads and potato salads at family occasions for years. On this visit, my husband and I both ended up with the Maytag bleu cheese; I got the Caesar the last couple times I was here, so I thought I should have a different one.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For entrées, they have several choices. They have your basic steakhouse options: filet mignon, ribeye, and prime rib, as well as a burger, seafood linguine and a seafood etouffee. They also have a variable menu that depends on the availability of fresh seafood. This weekend, they had a few different preparations of fresh Alaskan sockeye salmon, your basic king crab legs, and King salmon special. They also had a steak special that sounded great, which included bleu cheese and carmelized onions. As mouth-watering as the salmon specials sounded, I was torn between their two fresh Alaskan halibut selections, because they do such a great job with halibut. Their classic is the crab and macadamia stuffed halibut, which is well known around town, and has even gotten a special mention in the Anchorage Daily News - Simon's has won various "Best of Anchorage" awards for over ten years, including Best Fine Dining and Best Seafood, but this dish has also been specifically called out. As much as I love it, I went for something new, the pan seared halibut cheeks, made with fresh halibut from Kachemak Bay. They were really good, with a light coating of Panko bread crumbs, and were served in an asiago cheese and butter sauce, with creamy red skinned mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables. After the crab dip and salad and sourdough bread, I didn't get very far on the halibut, but that's okay, they'll pack up your leftovers for you. Simon's also gets extra points for using paper take out boxes instead of styrofoam. My husband got the prime rib, which he said was very tender and perfectly medium rare. He thought the au jus was a little salty, but we don't use much salt when we cook at home, so a lot of things taste salty to us. Even though he got the "small" steak, he also had a lot of it boxed up.</span><br />
<br />
I also had a great wine to go with a great dinner. While their wine list isn't spectacular, they do have a decent selection of white wines to go with their seafood. They had just run out of the nightly Sauvignon blanc special, so I had a delicious Chateau la Fregnelle Sauvignon Semillon from Bordeaux that was just the perfect thing for the crab, salad, and halibut.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, shockingly, after everything I've just said, we decided to try and squeeze in a little dessert, because we knew how great they were. They also usually have New York cheesecake, creme brulee, and berry cobbler, but we got our two favorite things: the chocolate indulgence cake, and the key lime pie. As you know, I <em>looooove</em> chocolate, and this warm, gooey slice of cake is just great, served with vanilla ice cream and some warm chocolate sauce. Love of chocolate aside, the key lime pie is also fantastic, and a must-have if you bypass the chocolate cake- it's fresh and light and made with real key lime juice and garnished with fresh lime zest. </span><br />
<br />
Okay, I know, that was <em>a lot</em> of food. We totally over-indulged, and shouldn't have gotten nearly as much as we did. But as you can tell, we love several things from every course they offer, so it is really hard to skip something, especially since we don't come here very often. Next time, we will probably have a lighter dinner at the bar, and I'll tell you all about it. </div>Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-45859184574598859022011-06-15T21:29:00.000-08:002011-06-15T21:31:16.774-08:00Navigating the Office Potluck<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">This week, I have an office potluck. That means I have spent the beginning of the week thinking about what I am going to bring. One of the most important things for a potluck is to know your office, so you know what other people are going to bring, and then you can make something that fits in perfectly to the overall spread.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Now, I have worked in places where the potluck consisted almost entirely of casseroles and desserts. Casseroles are easy, and it is always easy to throw together a batch of brownies or cookies, or pick up a cheesecake at the store. I make a fantastic brownie, but I hardly ever make them for this sort of thing because there are always too many desserts. I have also worked in offices where “potluck” was used loosely and almost everyone brought take out: from Safeway, from KFC, or from a chain pizza place. I don’t begrudge anyone the occasional Costco cheat at a potluck, because they make some great dips and cakes and things, but too many casseroles and take-out doesn’t make for a well balanced lunch, and by about 2:00 I’d usually crash from all the refined carbs and want to curl up in my cubicle and take a nap. So in that sort of office, I always ended up bringing a vegetable, like a green salad with real dressing (not just a bottle of ranch), just to make sure there was at least one.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">My new office is much better at potlucks. The last one included several salads, a couple of entrees with moose in them (gotta love Alaska!), and a couple of homemade desserts, among other things. Particularly because I didn’t have too much advance notice about this lunch, I will be making something simple, which will not take too much time the evening before- hummus and vegetables. I usually serve carrots with hummus, but of course you can use celery or whatever other vegetables you want, or you can bring bread or crackers. Below is my recipe for hummus, and it is one of my standard potluck dishes. This is a traditional middle eastern hummus, not one of those new-fangled roasted red pepper or whatever dips they call hummus that you get in the store now. Sorry the measurements aren’t too specific, but it’s one of those things you should really just taste as you go and see how you like it, and feel free to change proportions as needed.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Hummus<br />
(It has it all: Vegan! Dairy Free! Gluten free! Kosher!)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Ingredients:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">1 can of garbanzo beans, try for low sodium or organic</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Olive oil</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Tahini</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Chopped garlic</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Cumin</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Lemon juice</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Drain the can of garbanzo beans, but reserve the water for later. You may want to rinse the beans to get rid of some of the salt if you didn’t get a low sodium brand. Depending on whether you want your hummus to be smooth or chunky, either puree the beans in a food processor, or mash them up with a potato masher or fork. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Add a couple cloves of finely chopped garlic. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Add roughly a quarter cup of tahini. I like roasted, but some people prefer raw. This is a Middle Eastern sesame seed paste, and you can find it next to the peanut butter and almond butter in most stores. Here in Anchorage, they have it at Fred Meyer, and I think at Carrs. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Add a few tablespoons to a quarter cup of olive oil, depending on your taste and how healthy you want this hummus to be.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Add a few pinches of cumin and the juice of at least half a lemon. Use all the juice in the lemon if you want.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Now, this is where you need to really taste what you have, and make adjustments. Does it need more of anything? Does it need a little salt? Add more tahini, cumin, or olive oil if needed. Use the reserved water from the can, or plain water if you forgot to save some, and add to the hummus until it reaches the consistency you want. You generally want it to be a little <i>too</i> thin at this point, especially if you’re not serving it right away, because once you put it in the refrigerator it is going to thicken up considerably. If you keep it covered in the fridge it will last around a week to ten days.</div>Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-41275432654950236902011-06-13T18:03:00.000-08:002011-06-15T21:31:52.208-08:00The Perfect Saturday Morning? A Wine Tasting at the Farmer’s Market<div style="font-family: inherit;">And yes, I realize that the title of this post makes me sound like a total drunk. But hey, I love going to farmer’s markets, I love wine tasting, I love good food, and I love supporting good local causes, so basically, I had no choice. And don’t worry, my husband who doesn’t like wine drove me.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">This great Saturday was courtesy of the South Anchorage Farmer’s Market, which runs from 9:00 am – 2:00 pm at Old Seward Highway and O’Malley Road, next to the Alaska Club South. This is a good market for seafood, including one of my all-time favorite foods, Alaskan side-stripe shrimp. They also occasionally host fundraisers like this wine tasting. The tasting was put on by WineStyles; the local branch of this franchise is one of my top two places to buy wine in Anchorage. But I digress- I’ll do a more in-depth post on that subject later. For $10, you got <i>very</i> generous tastes of three delicious wines, some tasty little appetizers, a coupon for 10% at the wine store, and a polycarbonate wine glass to take home (and use on camping trips later on in the summer).</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">The proceeds benefited the Alaska Farmland Trust, a great organization that supports Alaskan farmers by ensuring that suitable farmland is actually available for agriculture. Supporting Alaskan farmers is a really important subject. If you don’t live in Alaska you might think that farming in the Arctic is a futile task or even laughable, but because <i>so much</i> of our food is imported, however much we can eat locally has a huge impact: on the freshness of our food, on our health, on the environmental impact of not shipping so much food up here, and on the local economy. The Alaska Farmland Trust ensures that land is available for production, which is an issue because the most suitable farmland is also near the largest population centers in the state. I have lived in other states in which what little farmland there was was being bought up and turned into tract housing, so all over this country we need to make owning and working a small-scale farm a viable option.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">As far as the tasting itself, you got to choose any three wines they had on offer. To start with the whites, they had a Blonde Bombshell white blend from Rutherford, CA (near Napa and Sonoma), and a Sextant Chardonnay from Paso Robles, California. I tried the chardonnay, which was great, especially because I was basically drinking it at lunch time- I generally think that a cold glass of a crisp white wine is the best choice if you actually go in for drinking at lunch. For the reds, they had several choices: Sensual Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina, a Chateau Faire le Pont red blend called Tre Amore from Washington state that blended cabernet, San Giovese, and Nebbiolo grapes, a Sextant Zinfandel from Paso Robles, and a Sea Glass Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara, California. I went to WineStyles later that afternoon to use my coupon, and all the wines they had at the tasting were under $25. The Tre Amore was $25, but the rest were under $20, generally around $15.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">The wine was definitely reason enough to go, but they had a couple little appetizers, too, to eat with your wine. They had puff pastry with fruit in port wine and bleu cheese, and crackers with a carrot chili puree, pulled pork, and farmhouse cheddar. I definitely preferred the puff pastry one the best- the fruit and bleu cheese went very well together.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">So, that is the story of how I got drunk on a Saturday morning in South Anchorage. I also paid an extra $20 and bought a Farmland Trust t-shirt made of organic fair trade pima cotton, so I can proclaim my support of Alaskan farmers every day.</div>Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-28201359257694650542011-06-08T19:07:00.000-08:002011-06-08T19:07:52.294-08:00Modern Dwellers Chocolate LoungeLast week I went to Modern Dwellers Chocolate Lounge, one of my favorite places to get chocolate in Anchorage. They have some extremely innovative chocolatiers working there, and they have a wide range of chocolates to satisfy anyone, from those who like plain milk or dark chocolate, to those who would like their chocolate combined with some beer, salmon, or wasabi.<br />
<br />
Modern Dwellers has two locations, a small one downtown on G Street between 4th and 5th Avenues, and in midtown on the Old Seward Highway and 36th, about two blocks south of the Moose’s Tooth. I go to both, but prefer the midtown location- it has a bigger selection of packaged chocolates and other gifts, more seating, and of course better parking than the heart of downtown.<br />
<br />
One of my favorite things to get is the drinking chocolate. This is not <i>hot chocolate</i>, although you can get that. This is like melted chocolate. It is thick and dense and filling and served in a tiny ceramic cup with whipped cream, and is best sipped with the tiny spoon they give you. You might also want to ask them for a glass of water to accompany it. It is <i>rich</i>. This is nearer to what the colonial Spanish thought of as hot chocolate or drinking chocolate. There are two kinds of drinking chocolate to chose from – the silky dark and the spicy Mayan. The more traditional chocolate lover should probably pick the silky, but if you like Mexican chocolate or a kind with a little kick, try the spicy Mayan. They will also dilute either with steamed milk into a more traditional hot chocolate. They also have espresso drinks, but I’ve never tried them- why get a latte when you can get the drinking chocolate?<br />
<br />
The other chocolate you shouldn’t miss are their truffles. These are gourmet, handmade truffles with fun names, and they are expensive, close to $3 each (a package of 6 is about $16). But they are soooooo good. Just remember these are not the kind of truffles that you eat a giant box of at a time, and you will be satisfied. One way you can tell they are handmade is that they vary a lot in size; you can watch this in action as they try to fill your truffle box. Modern Dwellers has some more traditional types of truffles, like dark chocolate, hazelnut, and espresso, which are all really delicious, and then they also have some that you initially think are strange, but then you taste them and the flavors really work in an unexpected way. There is a goat cheese and chocolate truffle that is great – the goat cheese adds a nice tang to the chocolate. There is also a smoked salmon truffle- the deep smoked flavor adds a really rich note. Last week I got the bleu cheese, wasabi, mint julep, and beer truffles. I know, right? And these are all chocolate truffles, with these foods added to the chocolate ganache filling. It’s like what adding coffee or espresso adds to the chocolate flavor. I liked the mint julep truffle ("julep jive") a lot, but that's not surprising; both liquor and mint go very well with chocolate. The beer truffle (named the "midnight mambo" because the beer used is from the Midnight Sun Brewing Company) is one of their newest. The flavor was pretty subtle, and didn't really taste like beer. You got a little of the barley/grain flavor, but not much. The bleu cheese was good and tangy, like the goat cheese one, but I think the goat cheese works a little better with the chocolate. My favorite of the new ones I tried this week was the wasabi truffle ("tokyo tango"). It comes with a piece of seaweed and crystalized ginger on top. I'm telling you, wasabi flavored chocolate ganache is a spectacular thing. And don't worry, because it's not super spicy, although there is quite a kick. <br />
<br />
Modern Dwellers, especially the midtown location, also has a wide variety of packaged chocolates. Most are from small companies, and are organic and/or fair trade. They range from plain or milk chocolate bars, to more interesting flavors like smoked sea salt. I tried a bar from Taza chocolate, which was 60% cacao, organic, and was made with "direct trade" chocolate from the Dominican Republic. There were two things that made this bar interesting. First, it is dairy free- so cacao, cocoa butter, sugar, and vanilla, and that's it. Second, it's "stone ground," so it isn't very smooth- it's actually kind of gritty. It's an interesting texture, but I'm not sure I'm a fan. I think it's that the grittiness makes the lack of milk or cream seems more pronounced, but I'm not sure. If you like experimenting with texture, though, give it a try. I also got a milk chocolate bar for my husband from Michael Mischer Chocolates out of Oakland. This was a traditional milk chocolate bar, and it was very rich and creamy. Definitely good if you want high quality, but traditional chocolate. I think they carried some other flavors, like toffee, from this company as well.<br />
<br />
If you get the hot chocolate instead of the drinking chocolate, you might be able to handle a delicious, handmade baked dessert. They usually have at least one kind of biscotti, a chocolate chip, oatmeal, or shortbread cookie, and sometimes they have muffins. I’ve had a good pumpkin muffin in the past, and I really wanted to try the banana and cacao nib muffin on this last visit, but there are only so many things a girl can try at once.<br />
<br />
Modern Dwellers also has other things to buy besides chocolate. They have a lot of art by local artists on the walls that is for sale, and they also have good cards and jewelry; some of the cards are by local artists, too. You can also sign up for their email newsletter, the “Chocolate News,” which tells you about new (beer truffle!) and seasonal (lavender flavored chocolate Easter eggs!) chocolates, and about new artists and First Friday art events.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-43694511057492225772011-06-04T21:11:00.000-08:002011-06-15T16:37:14.980-08:00How to Make Cheese and Influence PeopleThis week, I learned how to make my own cheese. The workshop was taught by Saskia Esslinger of <a href="http://rededgealaska.com/Welcome.html">Red Edge Design</a>. She does workshops about how to raise chickens in Alaska (hint: insulation and electric bear fences) and how to get the most out of your Alaskan garden. She hosts lots of gardening workshops, and other activities like seed swaps, and she has a garden blog. Her husband works on sustainable buildings and does home energy audits, and they are generally working on the concept of the “urban homestead.” Saskia knows an amazing amount about living locally and sustainably, and is definitely working to make Alaska a better place. The book Saskia uses, and that I just bought, is "Home Cheese Making," by Ricki Carroll. It is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and apparently is occasionally seen in Title Wave Books, but they don't currently have any copies. The book is full of information about cheesemaking, including about the ingredients and the science involved, and is a good book to read if you are interested in food, even if you are not going to make your own cheese. And of course, it has recipes for everything from cheddar, cream cheese, and feta, to ghee and paneer.<br />
<br />
In some ways, making cheese is simple. Generally, you heat milk, and add enzymes. In other ways, it is complicated. Lots of attending to pots so things don’t sit too long or get too hot or cold. You need thermometers, large stock pots, some sieves or colanders, and cheesecloth. These are all things that you can get at several stores in Anchorage, like Fred Meyer or Natural Pantry. Butter muslin, which is a fine cheesecloth that retains more of the milk, and is used for making soft cheese or butter might be harder to find at a regular store. If you want to make hard cheese, you need a cheese mold/press and cheese wax. Saskia had a homemade cheese press, so I’m sure if you don’t want to pay for this more expensive piece of cheese-making equipment (over $100), you can make one yourself for less than $20 if you are handy. You need non-chlorinated water for diluting the enzymes and bacteria, particularly the rennet, but if you don’t have a filter you can just leave a glass of water out overnight and most of the chlorine will evaporate. Some books say you need “cheese salt” for a lot of recipes, but basically you just need fine grained, non-iodized salt.<br />
<br />
In Anchorage, you can get most of the specialized equipment and ingredients you need from Arctic Brewing Supply on Abbot near the New Seward Highway, and you can get some stuff from Alaska Mill and Feed. You can also order everything online from the <a href="http://www.cheesemaking.com/">New England Cheese Making Company</a>. If you’re buying a lot, just order from there, because Arctic Brewing gets their stuff from them, too, so it will be cheaper to order direct. Arctic Brewing started as a supplier for home brewers, but have now expanded into all kinds of home food- and drink-making equipment. The New England Cheesemaking Company sells lots of equipment and ingredients, and also has a blog and tips for making cheese.<br />
<br />
You also need various starter bacterias, enzymes, and rennet."Starter" bacteria convert the lactose in the milk to lactic acid, and are necessary to convert the milk to cheese. The rennet contains enzymes that coagulates the milk and separates it into curds and whey. Traditional rennet is from one of the stomachs of a calf or kid, but there are lots of plants that contain natural coagulants as well, like yarrow, nettles, and fig tree bark, so it’s totally easy to find vegetable rennet. Lipase powder is another enzyme that is needed for some cheeses, particularly Italian cheese.<br />
<br />
And of course, you can’t make cheese without milk. Basically you can use any whole milk as long as it is not ultra-pasteurized, because that kills off everything and the enzymes and bacteria aren’t effective. Regular pasteurization is fine, because there are still enough enzymes and other "flora" left in the milk for the things you add to work on. And of course, better quality milk means better quality cheese. Saskia belongs to a co-op and so she gets fresh goat's milk. I’m all for fresh local milk, but the milk she gets is raw, not pasteurized. Now, the raw milk thing is a very contentious issue right now, so I will try not to get <i>too much</i> into it here; everyone needs to weigh the risks and benefits themselves. Marion Nestle, who knows an amazing amount about the American food system, including food safety and food politics, has some entries on her blog about raw milk <a href="http://www.foodpolitics.com/tag/raw-milk/">here</a> (I also have a link to her blog on the right). Bill Marler also discusses the statistics and scientific studies regarding raw milk safety at <a href="http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com/">Real Raw Milk Facts</a>. I will say that neither Nestle nor Marler are fans of raw milk, but there are plenty of advocates that say it is more nutritious than pasteurized, that it is good for allergies, etc. At any rate, there are options for both in Alaska. There is at least one co-op, as I mentioned, in which you buy a goat share and pay for its care, and are provided with milk. Matanuska Creamery is a farmer cooperative that makes all kinds of dairy products, including delicious sharp cheddar cheese, and sells pasteurized cow's milk in several Carrs stores and in both New Sagaya markets. This workshop piqued my interest in local milk, so I will be looking into this more, because I'm sure there are more farms and cooperatives that sell both goat's and cow's milk. The best bet regardless is to get to know your farmer, and take a look at the farm itself. Whether you want raw or pasteurized, goat or cow, you have options here in Alaska. <br />
<br />
In the workshop, we learned how to make mozzarella cheese, chevre, lemon cheese, and ricotta cheese. The chevre and lemon cheese were the easiest and I will totally be attempting to make them both at home in the near future. The lemon cheese is the simplest, you heat your milk, add lemon juice, and after it starts to curdle, you put it in cheesecloth and hang it up to drain off the whey. The acids in the lemon juice do the work. It was really delicious, kind of like a ricotta in consistency. A lot of the lemon juice drains away in the whey, so it doesn't taste very lemony, just really fresh and bright, if that makes sense. The chevre is also pretty easy, you heat the milk, add starter bacteria (Saskia gave us some at the workshop), and let it set for about 12 hours, then drain it for about another 12 hours. I said easy, not quick. All cheese making requires heating milk slowly and to precise temperatures, and lots of draining, straining, and things like that. It also requires a lot of trial and error, and lots of paying attention, to what the milk is doing, to the texture, etc.<br />
<br />
The mozzarella is more complicated, and the process is more like making a hard cheese. You heat half the milk slowly, add lipase powder, let it sit, add citric acid to the half of the milk you have chilled, combine the two, bring the temperature slowly back up, add the rennet, let it form curds, drain them, and then put some curds into a pot of warm water and stretch them and form them into mozzarella balls or knots. Again, the temperatures all need to be very precise in order for the chemistry to work properly. And then, once you have done this, you can use the whey you have leftover from the mozzarella to make ricotta. You heat the whey until it is foaming but not quite boiling, let it set, and then drain it, and voila, ricotta!<br />
<br />
So, that is what I learned this week about making cheese. It takes a lot of milk to make cheese, and it takes a lot of work. Will I stop buying parmesan at the store? No. Will I look into buying local milk, and start wowing my friends and family at parties with homemade chevre? You bet!Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-59011772125792700782011-05-29T14:35:00.000-08:002011-06-07T15:00:36.951-08:00Talkeetna, Alaska: Climbing the Peaks of DeliciousnessThis weekend we went to the town of Talkeetna. Talkeetna is a small historic town on the Susitna River north of Anchorage, and is the base for flying to Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America. In May, you can see a lot of sunburned mountain climbers speaking German and Japanese, and all summer there are helicopters to take you on sightseeing tours of the McKinley and nearby glaciers. There is also great fishing, and you can go on your own or take a guided boat trip. The town has really taken advantage of the tourists, and it gets really busy in the summer. Like Virginia City, Nevada or Julian, California, it is a small historic town that is close enough to the city to be a popular day trip. The year round population is less than a thousand, but there are a couple dozen gift shops and art galleries, and several restaurants that survive on a combination of Anchorage visitors and cruise ship tourists. There is a small Historical Society Museum which is worth a trip to learn about the local history, and to pick up a walking guide to the town's many historic buildings, several of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On a sunny day like our visit, you can find an enthusiastic crowd watching a baseball game at the local ball field, and lots of people splashing around in the shallow parts of the Susitna River off the end of the historic airstrip. This last part was the highlight of our dog's trip to Talkeetna, for sure.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>My husband and I have been to Talkeetna before, so we know some places that we like. We drove up in the morning and got there just in time for lunch at the West Rib, named for one of the routes to the top of Mt. McKinley. There is a patio which is great during the summer. It was warm and sunny today, but there are big umbrellas on the outside tables, which make it great even when it's raining (which happened to us last summer). This place is always busy, and it was featured on the Alaska episode of Man vs. Food, so it's well known. The menu item featured on that show was the "Seward's Folly" burger, which was an old nickname for the Territory of Alaska when it was first purchased by the United States. People thought the purchase was a bad decision, but then they found out that we had gold and copper and oil and salmon, and that shut them up. Anyway, the Seward's Folly is over four pounds, and has three layers of sourdough bread, two one-pound caribou meat patties, ham, bacon, Swiss cheese, American cheese, a concoction called "fat ass sauce" (which I think they make on the Man v. Food episode if you feel the need to learn more), and one pound of French fries.<br />
<br />
Such a thing is waaaay too much for me, so we stuck with slightly more reasonable portions. I tend to get seafood there, since they make a point of getting fresh Alaskan fish and crab, and they also serve caribou. We got potato skins to start, and there were only three little skins, but they pack a lot into them, and we knew there was tons more coming, so it wasn't disappointing. The skins had caribou chili, cheese, and a black bean and corn salsa on them, and were delicious. I got the halibut chunks and chips as my main course, and they were fabulous. They make them with a beer batter, and the halibut was perfectly cooked and flaky, with a thin, crispy batter. These are honestly some of the best halibut fish and chips around. They came with garlic parmesan fries, which are totally just frozen shoestring fries, but surprisingly good gussied up with herbs, parmesan, and garlic. My halibut also came with a great coleslaw, which was topped with cashews for a nice crunch. Morgan got the black and blue burger, which had sauteed onions and bleu cheese, and also had the parmesan fries as an option. The only thing was that the cook seems to go a little rare, so you might want to ask for your burger darker than normal.<br />
<br />
Other things on the menu that looked great but that we haven't had a chance to try are the caribou chili, seafood chowder, smoked salmon pate, and nachos topped with the caribou chili. They have lots of other seafood menu items, including a crab cake sandwich, and the Homer Split, which I got last time I was here- it has both salmon and halibut, for those of us who can't decide which they want. They also have tons of Alaskan microbrew beers, from breweries in Fox (near Fairbanks), Anchorage, Juneau, Kenai, and Soldotna. And if you picked someplace else for lunch, you can always stop by from 4-6 pm, when appetizers are half price. They're not the most environmentally friendly place, I'm sad to say, since they serve practically everything in plastic cups and with plastic silverware, but I'm willing to forgive them that since they make a point of only having fresh Alaskan, sustainable seafood that is in season, so you could say it cancels out.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY65pi0Cc8K4pg489omyzVF1YtMPtV9JC-Auz3aFbayPBjvTv_FH5ADBEqQj4cszLdTuA5-irmGOn0TA-mVrvpqOchdY7wtr7VYGOThyphenhyphen24oVy1_KE_p7OQewctEFNLGlR37ae9NuoJwHbr/s1600/DSCF0303.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY65pi0Cc8K4pg489omyzVF1YtMPtV9JC-Auz3aFbayPBjvTv_FH5ADBEqQj4cszLdTuA5-irmGOn0TA-mVrvpqOchdY7wtr7VYGOThyphenhyphen24oVy1_KE_p7OQewctEFNLGlR37ae9NuoJwHbr/s320/DSCF0303.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The West Rib Cafe. The main entrance is on the right, but you can also go in through Nagley's Store.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
We also usually stop by the Wake and Shake ice cream stand. They only ever have a few flavors, but they're always homemade. This time, Morgan got strawberry and I got apple pie, which is seriously like they took a small slice of apple pie and a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and mashed it all up and served it to you. Yum.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimoqke3NGJitjG377ETy_NWwMkV5C3w9BnlEqFvQXZUbZqiX9rEyIWG5thyJqMp2KtsmaOUS0kOmZAbF98eSwxnYWV95Tl3qYRl01QeikPoKhtO8_g_erxhKW_V_Ex9wzUpNnVgTIlUav7/s1600/DSCF0297.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimoqke3NGJitjG377ETy_NWwMkV5C3w9BnlEqFvQXZUbZqiX9rEyIWG5thyJqMp2KtsmaOUS0kOmZAbF98eSwxnYWV95Tl3qYRl01QeikPoKhtO8_g_erxhKW_V_Ex9wzUpNnVgTIlUav7/s320/DSCF0297.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Wake and Shake ice cream stand. The chalkboard is being updated with today's freshly made flavors.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Now I have to discuss the Talkteetna Roadhouse. This place has been around since the 1910s, and is fantastic. If you are staying overnight in Talkeetna, even if you don't actually stay in the Roadhouse or one of their cabins, you <i>have</i> to eat breakfast there. Now, if you somehow don't know about sourdough, it is a type of starter, or leavening for bread, that miners brought with them to Alaska and the Klondike. You can feed it and cultivate it, and each batch takes on unique characteristics. The Roadhouse has been using a batch that was first brought to Alaska in 1902 and has been used since the Roadhouse first opened. You can buy freshly baked sourdough bread that is fantastic, or get either sourdough toast or sourdough hotcakes with your breakfast, served from 7 am to 2 pm. The main breakfast is the "Standard," which comes with scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and homefries, and endless coffee. You can also get sourdough hotcakes, as I said, or biscuits and reindeer sausage gravy. I would highly recommend getting the half breakfast, which is still too much to finish, rather than gorging yourself on the full. You need to pace yourself in this town. They also have a menu called "Not Breakfast," which is served until 8 pm, and includes soups and sandwiches and things. I've never had anything off this menu, but if it's as good as the breakfast, it's worth a try. Their bakery is also worth a visit to pick up things to take home, because while there are lots of great smells coming out of the place, you're probably still stuffed from breakfast or lunch. You <i>need</i> to pick up some sourdough bread, but while you're there you can also get a slice of carrot cake or red velvet cake or chocolate cream pie, or one of three kinds of cinnamon rolls, or a couple of kinds of quiche, or some lasagna or mac and cheese. They also have cookies, brownies, bread pudding, and homemade peanut butter cups. We got a couple of cinnamon rolls to eat for breakfast the next morning. Oh, and did I mention they make their own pasties? They have a couple of more traditional ones, as well as a salmon one, all of which are really great. Of the things I just mentioned, I have eaten and can highly recommend the sourdough and honey wheat breads, the quiches, pasties, mac and cheese, bread pudding, and peanut butter cups. And as of this morning I can recommend the cinnamon rolls.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifmnLXMEV4DAC0ebtHLNWL_fFeHkQs9HWN2F40RYTDu-U9kbaSvb21zbd3s9oxYMBBVshNVoPcpj0mOC7OMy42EHCZLJdvbxv1SwNtJPQG31ks54x9RFthlVtZPiVI0cOLPfyBcj9PVCTK/s1600/DSCF0301.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifmnLXMEV4DAC0ebtHLNWL_fFeHkQs9HWN2F40RYTDu-U9kbaSvb21zbd3s9oxYMBBVshNVoPcpj0mOC7OMy42EHCZLJdvbxv1SwNtJPQG31ks54x9RFthlVtZPiVI0cOLPfyBcj9PVCTK/s320/DSCF0301.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Talkeetna Roadhouse. The older part of the Roadhouse is on the right. The one story addition on the left expanded the kitchen and bakery and added a few more seats.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
As I said, there are several other restaurants in town to choose from, as well as a hot dog stand and a stand selling nothing but dumplings and smoothies. Seriously. A couple of the popular restaurants I haven't been to yet are the Wildflower Cafe and Mountain High Pizza Pie. Last summer we went to the Twister Creek Restaurant, which is also home to the Denali Brewing Company. It was good, but not our favorite, but as you can tell, there's a lot of competition for such a small town. If you're from Anchorage, or up here visiting, I really hope you'll go up to Talkeetna for a visit.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-41109699347404116662011-05-23T19:08:00.000-08:002011-06-07T15:00:09.645-08:00Chocolate: The Never Ending StoryI thought I had better do an introductory post for something that will be a recurring theme in my blog: chocolate. Everyone who knows me knows I loooooove chocolate, and it is very rare for me to pick a non-chocolate dessert when there is a chocolate option on the menu. My mom tried to convince me that a person does not need chocolate every day, but that lesson didn’t really stick. When I was a little kid, I would order a chocolate milkshake in any restaurant at which it was an option; I told my parents I was searching for the best one in the world. Milkshakes are a double whammy, because I also desperately love ice cream.<br />
<br />
Anchorage has a wide and diverse array of chocolate options to satisfy anyone. To continue with the chocolate milkshakes, lately my favorite has been at the Lucky Wishbone, and probably the Arctic Roadrunner has the second place ribbon. My favorite used to be at the White Spot, but I haven’t had one since the new owners took over, so I really shouldn’t rank it. For ice cream, I was crushed that Hot Licks, Fairbanks’ hometown ice cream makers, couldn’t survive next to Title Wave here in Anchorage, but I have hopes for the gelato at Café del Mundo, that I will get to one of these days.<br />
<br />
The unquestioned champion in both the truffle and hot chocolate category belongs to Modern Dwellers; they will get their own dedicated post in a week or so. They are innovators and artists in the truest sense.<br />
<br />
For the chocolate cake category, the fancy downtown restaurants get that prize for Sak’s flourless chocolate gateau, and for Simon and Seafort’s chocolate indulgence cake. Last time I was at Sak’s I didn’t even get a courtesy taste of my mom’s slice! It was Mother’s Day, though, so she gets a pass- I would have gotten her two if she’d wanted. And I had a fabulous chocolate pot de crème of my own, so it’s not like I was deprived.<br />
<br />
Other honorable mentions include New Sagaya City Market for having a deadly chocolate checkout aisle, tempting you with gourmet chocolate impulse buys, and the Bear Tooth Grill for their rich chocolate mousse. Try it, but plan on taking at least half of it home, because the portion is huge. Fire Island Bakery also has several chocolate options, as does the Café Paris; both will be the subject of their own posts. I still haven’t found a brownie that rivals my own homemade ones, but the one at the Moose’s Tooth is very good. Another honorable mention for Alaskans is the Chocolate Dilettante in Seattle. Their main store and ice cream parlor is on Broadway down there, but they now also have a stand in the food court at SeaTac airport; any chocolate lover absolutely must pick up an ephemere hot chocolate on their way Outside, and a box of truffles or a bottle of hot fudge to take home.<br />
<br />
I am always looking for new chocolate desserts, so the title of this post will repeat, I hope frequently, as I find new ones to try. I will also try to provide more detail on the desserts I mentioned here as I do reviews of the restaurants where the desserts are found. My search for chocolate really is a neverending story. Finally, if you have a particular chocolate dessert in Anchorage that you love that I have not mentioned, let me know and I will give it a shot.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-87423249153934696022011-05-21T20:52:00.000-08:002011-06-07T12:24:57.935-08:00All Hail the Falafel King!On Thursday my husband and I finally succeeded in going to the Falafel King when it was actually open! Located on Gambell Street just south of 15th (as it leaves downtown and turns into the Seward Highway), the Falafel King is housed in an old burger stand. It is teensy-tiny, and run by a family of Israelis. I think they're from Haifa, judging by the soccer banners hanging above the soda case. The family is pretty much the only staff, which explains why their hours can be erratic, especially in the slow winter months. Because they're Jewish, they're often closed on Saturdays, but in the summer they try to be open 7 days a week. The matriarch of the family told me she was in Israel visiting family, so with just the husband running the place, that apparently explains why our previous attempts, on both Saturdays and Sundays, were to no avail.<br />
<br />
Now, to the falafel. For those who do not know, falafel (also called (ta'amia) consists of balls of beans, spices, onion, and herbs fried in oil. Most falafel in the US is made from chickpeas/garbanzo beans, but Egyptians make them using fava beans, and people from Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan use a mixture of the two. Coptic Christians in Egypt claim to have invented it, as something to eat during Lent and other festivals when they couldn't eat meat. Claudia Roden's "New Book of Middle Eastern Food" (the source of the last two sentences) is an amazing source for Middle Eastern recipes, and provides a lot of information on the culture and history behind different foods, if you want to learn more about Middle Eastern food. She herself is from Egypt, so that tends to be the focus, but she tries to provide recipes for popular foods from all over the region.<br />
<br />
The Falafel King basically has three things on the menu: falafel, schwarma, and schnitzel. Falafel I explained already, schwarma is sort of like gyros- thin strips of cooked lamb, and schnitzel is what it sounds like, pounded flat, breaded chicken, like you get at Oktoberfest. I've had the falafel and schwarma, but not the schnitzel. All three come either in pita sandwiches (again, think of a gyro if you've never had one), or as a platter. The pitas come with lettuce, onions, kosher pickles, tomatoes, and liberal amounts of tahini and hummus. Both the falafel and schwarma pitas are delicious and cooked fresh. They are also hugely filling, and you could totally split one, or take some home for lunch tomorrow. This coincidentally helps you to save room for homemade baklava, which is also very rich and delicious. Two people can expect to pay $20-$30 for a meal- $8.99 for the falafel, $10.99 for the schwarma, $2.50 for a slice of baklava, plus drinks (bottled and canned drinks from a case, or coffee) and a tip.<br />
<br />
So, as you can tell, there's a reason that my husband and I kept driving by the Falafel King, hoping to find it open. Long may they reign as the monarchs of Israeli food in Anchorage!Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812535830427268827.post-6696532354871569592011-05-21T19:59:00.000-08:002011-05-21T19:59:01.048-08:00Welcome!Welcome to my blog about food in Alaska!<br />
<br />
First of all, I would like to be very clear about something: I am not a <i>food critic</i>. This will not be a blog in which I criticize and nitpick the restaurants and other places that I visit. I am starting this blog because Anchorage has an amazing diversity of restaurants, markets, festivals, and other opportunities for great food, and I want to share the great things I find with other people. I <i>love</i> food, and I love learning about the history of foods, of foods' influence on our culture and our politics. Along with not being a food critic, I would also like to stress that I am not a food <i>snob</i>. I appreciate good food and drinks in all their forms, and I definitely do not turn up my nose at a street vendor or a cheap burger, as long as it is delicious. Because I want to share my love of food with everyone, I will try and highlight places where two people can get a delicious dinner for $30 or less, but I will also be talking about the great food that you might only get on special occasions, because dinner there will set you back closer to $100 for two. <br />
<br />
This blog will include restaurants I visit, mainly in Anchorage but also in other towns around southcentral Alaska that I visit, like Palmer, Talkeetna, Seward, and Homer. It will also include great food stores that I find, because people should know about all the great bakeries, wine stores, cheese stores, and other food specialty stores we have here. When talking about a particular place, I will also try and point out those that have vegetarian or vegan items, as well as those that use local meat, seafood, and produce, because eating locally and sustainably in Alaska has a huge impact. I also may write occasional reviews of food writing, and I may share cookbooks or recipes with you if I find something particularly new and exciting.<br />
<br />
So, there you are. I hope that this blog will be interesting to you, and helpful if you live in Alaska or are thinking of visiting. Send me an email if you are interested in a particular food genre (dessert! Thai food!) or have another question or comment you think I should post about.Jenny Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16411330130782701871noreply@blogger.com1