Eats in Alaska

[THE PILGRIM]

Now I will tell you about eating adventures in Alaska.
A few ago I was down in Seward, AK.
I walked into a small restaurant in the small boat harbor.
It was almost deserted, only several folks at one table.
As I walked by that table, I notice that their food looked really good.
I have eaten everything from survival kit food, mess hall food, deer camp food, my own cooking and up to gourmet restaurants
So when I tell you it looked good, it looked good!
The cook came over to take my order. I asked him , what are those folks over they having?
He said that's some 'special food' that I made for those folks.
Can I have some ? He replied, sure there's enough for one more serving.
It was some of the best food that I ever ate.
The main dish was delicious King salmon. But the item I really liked was a fried polenta. It had been cooked in vegetable broth before frying.
I also had some really bad food on that trip to Alaska, but that Meal was over the top !

 

[M E Morrison]

Now I will tell you about eating adventures in Alaska.
A few ago I wax down in Seward, AK.
I walked into a small restaurant in the small boat harbor.
It wad almost deserted, only several folks at one table.

So what was the adventure?

 

[bigwheelzip]

Now I will tell you about eating adventures in Alaska.

Hubby and I tried many game foods for the first and only time during a camping trip to Alaska, many years ago. Seems almost everyone we met offered something to try.
Camped alone on a river near Fairbanks, we meet a couple netting salmon. They offered us a whole salmon as they left.
With no means to preserve the huge fish, we wrapped it in aluminum foil and put it on the fire to cook.
Then an ancient pickup truck pulls up, driven by an eccentric character we befriended at a bar in Fairbanks the night before.
We ask him to share our salmon and he produces a case of Bud to add to the meal.
Somehow, camping in the middle of nowhere, within an hour of waking up, we met good people who provided the best salmon we'd ever had and another who joined us with refreshment.
Easily our most memorable breakfast ever.



Hubby's the tall one.

 

[Inusuit]

Unexpectedly good food in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant? My son and I spent 10 days in Alaska in 2014 and had only bad meal. I think he consumed his own weight in halibut fish and chips. Best meal of the trip was in Homer, a seafood dinner that set us back over $100 with drinks but worth every penny.

 

[bigwheelzip]

Best meal of the trip was in Homer, a seafood dinner that set us back over $100 with drinks but worth every penny.

In Homer, we made friends with the fishermen, and were their guests for potluck supper in the parking lot of the marina.



Shrimp on the barbie, crab, and halibut cheeks.



Left-overs.

 

[SPEEDGUNNER]

Hubby and I tried many game foods for the first and only time during a camping trip to Alaska, many years ago. Seems almost everyone we met offered something to try.
Camped alone on a river near Fairbanks, we meet a couple netting salmon. They offered us a whole salmon as they left.
With no means to preserve the huge fish, we wrapped it in aluminum foil and put it on the fire to cook.
Then an ancient pickup truck pulls up, driven by an eccentric character we befriended at a bar in Fairbanks the night before.
We ask him to share our salmon and he produces a case of Bud to add to the meal.
Somehow, camping in the middle of nowhere, within an hour of waking up, we met good people who provided the best salmon we'd ever had and another who joined us with refreshment.
Easily our most memorable breakfast ever.



Hubby's the tall one.

If that truck is "ancient" I am older than I think I am...

 

[bigwheelzip]

If that truck is "ancient" I am older than I think I am...

No offense. Since most vehicles don't last much longer than the family dog, it's ancient in dog years.
I'm sure your still in your prime.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I also went to Homer. It's a different type of place, kind of funky.
I also ate a lot of halibut sandwiches.
I spent a couple of nights up in the coal mining town of Healey.
Had really bad food there.
So bad it was difficult to determine did this food go bad or was the storage and preparation just wrong, all wrong?
Went into one of the large tourist hotels down on the highway near Denali.
It was early and I paid $12 for the breakfast buffet.
Worse than any mess hall, deer camp or truck stop food that I ever ate.
So in Alaska, I had some of the best food and some of the worse food that I ever ate.
I just started with the best.

 

[kthom]

Now I will tell you about eating adventures in Alaska.
The main dish was delicious King salmon. But the item I really liked was a fried polenta. It had been cooked in vegetable broth before frying.
I also had some really bad food on that trip to Alaska, but that Meal was over the top !

Pilgrim,
You probably know, but polenta is just yellow corn grits coarsely ground. I happen to love grits, white or yellow. My wife's grandmother who lived in SE Missouri would cook yellow corn meal or grits (which ever she had, but her corn meal was locally ground so it was much coarser than store bought stuff) and then pour the grits into a cardboard "can" such as Quaker Oats come packaged in. She used the smaller size containers to do this. She put the stuff in the fridge and allowed it to congeal to a fairly solid state. Then she'd take the lid off and cut the bottom of the "can off, then press the stuff out a bit from one end to the other and slice it off in about quarter inch thick slices. She'd place those slices in her hot cast iron skillet that had bacon grease in it (or lard if she was out of bacon grease but that didn't happen often!) and fry it fairly crisp and serve the stuff for breakfast.

I loved it just as it was with my eggs and bacon, and then a slice or two to follow with maple or sorghum syrup and butter. I agree with you that this fried polenta is outstanding vittles! FWIW, Red Mill sells polenta in a fairly large plastic bag today and it's good stuff. I just fix it like any grits and eat it with other food or in a bowl with some sugar and cream as a hot cereal. Haven't talked my wife into frying any yet so I may have to do it myself. Thought you might like to know you can do this easily for yourself at home in NM. Most of the larger grocery stores or natural grocers sell the Red Mill products, and I have found them to be excellent products. They are a bit more expensive than some other brands but after reading the Red Mill website, I believe they are a company that puts out very high quality products.

Thanks for your story. I'd have enjoyed to have that meal with you!
PS: Spent most of last week in Albuquerque checking on my wife's dad, who has lived there since the early 50's after moving from SE Missouri. He worked many years as a security guard at Sandia, back when security was a really serious thing at that place.

 

[Onomea]

In Homer, we made friends with the fishermen, and were their guests for potluck supper in the parking lot of the marina.

I take it these were hungry fisherman...

 

[BearBio]

My mom's side of the family is Irish/Native American (Chickasaw-Cherokee)==grew up eating fried mush, with butter and syrup.

I leave for Anchorage Saturday==making me hungry. I'll live off of halibut and chips for 10 days if I can!

 

[Ron M.]

Our only trip to date to Alaska was on a cruise ship from Seattle. The food at the dining room was great, didn't try the local fare. Still had a drink in a Sitka saloon.

 

[inspcalahan]

You either get really good food, really bad food or really necessary food in Alaska. Here's the last fire pit in the yard. Moose backstrap and crab legs.... Some of the better food.

 

[joeintexas]

I spent 12 months in Alaska but only ate at one place, the Shemya Air Force Base mess hall!! I have to say the SOS was probably the best on the face of the earth. Everything else not so much. Outside of the Aleutian Islands Alaska is beautiful, I have a cousin that was in the Army the same time stationed in Anchorage, he liked Alaska so much he is still living there today. Way north of Anchorage. By the way, the pickup in the picture sure looks like a "53 Chevy.

 

[bigwheelzip]

I spent 12 months in Alaska ... Shemya Air Force Base...!! ...By the way, the pickup in the picture sure looks like a "53 Chevy.

Wow, who did you tick-off to get posted at Shemya for a year?

The environment in AK was not kind to the old truck. You could hear it long before it came into sight. The owner was quite a character too.

 

[M E Morrison]

Wow, who did you tick-off to get posted at Shemya for a year?

The environment in AK was not kind to the old truck. You could hear it long before it came into sight. The owner was quite a character too.

Exhaust leak - or rods knocking?

 

[s&wchad]

Cruise ships dock at Seward, so they have a lot of tourist traps and expensive restaurants. On our first visit there, we asked a a charter captain where he likes to eat. His recommendation was Thorn's Showcase Lounge.

It's not an upscale restaurant by any stretch (picture red vinyl booths and walls lined with empty Jim Beam decanters), but the lightly battered fresh halibut is second to none. If you go there, order a bowl of halibut, a side fries and a pitcher of beer. You'll think you died and went to heaven, which is fitting since Seward is on Resurrection Bay!

 

[BearBio]

Cruise ships dock at Seward, so they have a lot of tourist traps and expensive restaurants. On our first visit there, we asked a a charter captain where he likes to eat. His recommendation was Thorn's Showcase Lounge.

It's not an upscale restaurant by any stretch (picture red vinyl booths and walls lined with empty Jim Beam decanters), but the lightly battered fresh halibut is second to none. If you go there, order a bowl of halibut, a side fries and a pitcher of beer. You'll think you died and went to heaven, which is fitting since Seward is on Resurrection Bay!

If that is the place I think it is, it was good! Across and up the street from the National Park Office?

 

[Alpo]

The original post. He said, "fried polenta", but I misread it as fried PLACENTA.

Thank you, no, I believe I'll pass.

 

[joeintexas]

Wow, who did you tick-off to get posted at Shemya for a year?

Apparently everyone from LBJ on down!! LOL.