Exploring the Last Frontier

Thursday was "Adventure Day" - participants of the tourism congress were invited to choose one of several day excursions and we had picked the "Taste of Anchorage (culinary) Tour", which was a good choice. From New Sagayas Town Market (see pic) - a predominantly Asian market with its own bakery and a spectacular seafood department with water tanks to keep crabs, oysters, mussels and such fresh - we continued to Modern Dwellers Chocolate Shop (pics), where they were offering hot chocolate samples. They produce their own truffles and chocolates, among them one with ground smoked salmon, big deal, but actually, you didn't really taste the salmon.


Highlight of the tour was the South Restaurant for a demonstration of breaking up, cutting and preparing different kind of salmon in their modern show kitchen. The two fish they prepared were King (Chinook) Salmon (left pic) and Silver (Koho) Salmon (right pic), the first one larger, higher in fat, with softer, pinkish meat and (in our opinion) more intensive in taste; the other smaller, leaner, firmer and more reddish in color.

The three chefs de cuisine of the restaurant showed us how to cut up the salmon, how to bone and fillet it, and this was highly interesting! Their knife skills and precision in removing the bones with tweezers was just incredible! On the pic the whole process is shown, including one (last pic) showing both salmons, king and silver, besides each other.
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After working on them, they prepared the fish in two different ways: seared and grilled. Doing so, we were able to compare the two kinds of salmon and the different cooking methods. They served it with three great salads: a Kale Caesar, a Roasted Beet Salad with orange, fennel and goat cheese, and a Tabouleh - all of them delicious! Salmon and salads were paired with a dry light Washington Rosé Wine and followed by dessert. This restaurant is still reasonably priced and they did a great job in promoting themselves.



On by bus to Midnight Sun Brewing Co., one of 26 breweries in Alaska (!), which is an amazing number, considering the approx. 700.000 people living in a huge area. "Midnight" is very creative and offers a broad variety of different brews, like the "Fallen Angel" (Belgium Ale) or the Alpenglow (a wheat beer). We tasted a couple of them after a tour with the "beer ambassador" , a striking lady with blue hair. Especially loved the Triple Dark IPA and the Bock! We had no idea, how many breweries there are in Alaska and how good the beers are they produce. BTW: A rule in Alaska is: no light beers, we wanna get the real deal: 5 % of alcohol and up... It's dark and cold a lot anyway, so let's get happy! They are even offering brewery tours - "Swig Tours" - and we met with the guy who is operating them; he was a good source of information.

The Anchorage Distillery, our next stop, is in operation for only one year but they already know how to produce their wodkas, with German equipment, as we got to know. Wished, we would have been able to buy a bottle, but with four more weeks of traveling and a flight tomorrow, we didn't. In the distillery we met with the adventurous young owners, experimenting with different spices and berries in their wodkas and, also, creating new cocktails in their little tasting room. Besides the wodkas they produce some gin and whiskey, too.

Last stop was the Lakefront Hotel, where they served us hot soup and appetizers with Irish Coffee outside on their patio with fire pits and a great view towards the lake with little planes landing and starting on the still frozen lake. Lucky us, have stayed here for three days at the beginning of our trip, a week ago. At about 45 deg. F. outside, we didn't need our winter coats anymore!


Strangely, most of the innovative places we were visiting were situated in Midtown Anchorage, in mostly unremarkable strip malls. Nevertheless, we got to know that Anchorage really has a fantastic culinary scene and great breweries! We've had a good time in Alaska and now just wish to be back once in summer!