USA 42 - The Best of Anchorage

This post is dedicated to Ezra, one of the cool guys at Snow City Cafe in Anchorage. He has been patiently waiting for this post...I think he thought it would never make it! Well, here it is Ezra, I'm writing it from the lobby of my Paris hotel...dreaming of Alaska and that wicked Kodiak Benedict!

Well, the final Alaska post. The final USA post (for the time being anyway!).

And what better way to finish Alaska than commentary on the best foodie places in the state's capital, Anchorage.

All up, I think I spent almost 2 weeks in Anchorage and bloody loved it. Downtown is small, friendly, safe, and a heap of fun. I met some great people who steered me in the right direction for food, drink, and fun!

A HUGE thank you to the Salmon Berry gals, Candice and Mandy, and to my fellow foodie soul-mate, Sarah (from Darwin's), who not only introduced me to Crush, but took an old fart out on an Anchorage bar crawl and got us kicked out of Darwin's at 3am!!!

Now...let's get down to it...keeping in mind that I didn't actually eat at every single restaurant and cafe in Anchorage, here are my awards for the Best of Anchorage....

Oh and one other thing - I've included addresses where I could, Downtown Anchorage has this cool system of the streets running parallel to the water being numbered, and the streets running perpendicular are lettered!!! COOL.

1. Best Restaurant - Crush, 343 W. 6th Avenue
Thank you Sarah for taking me to meet the wonderful team at Crush, and almost becoming besties with the chef, Luke, a local born and bread Sourdough (Alaskan). I ate here about 4 times all up and it was divineeeeeeeeee. Crush had the edgiest and freshest food I think I ate in the whole of Alaska (it was a little edgier than the before mentioned Kingfisher Roadhouse in Cooper Landing that I awarded best restaurant in Alaska).

Crush is a relatively new restaurant, only about 18 months old and sits in an unassuming spot opposite Nordstrom. It's a cool, hip place, a very modern and dark interior, but comfy and friendly. It's called Crush, I believe, because of its dedication not just to food, but more importantly for them, their dedication to wine. they have about 40 wines by the glass, and their menu features "flights" which are grouped wines by region - 3 glasses of 3 different winemakers for each wine type eg. "Pinot Envy" features a NZ, Chile and Oregan pinot - it's pretty damn cool stuff. I saw an empty bottle of Grange proudly displayed on their shelf...these guys take their wine seriously. They offer a retail cellar upstairs. Yep, they love their wine!

But their food. YUMMMMMMMMMMM. Their menu is quirky, creative, and fresh. Small plates to share, snack and taste, or big plates to devour, are on offer. You can come here for lunch, an afternoon wine and snack, bar dinner, or a full posh dining experience. I did a bit of all of these!

Sarah, Ty (mate of Sarah's) and I devoured a wonderful plate of Pork Ribs with jasmine rice and jicama and watermelon salad (pic above). For the aussie readers, jicama is a tuber vege, like a big white radish, but sweeter - it had the texture of a nashi pear. The ribs were divine...sweet and spicey, falling off the bone, and the wonderful crunchy fresh salad was a perfect accompaniment. MMMMMMMMm. We also shared a magnificent Caprese Salad, basil, mozzarella and tomato drizzled with olive oil and wonderful white balsamic vinegar...really yum. All the salads here are a must...I also ate the Strawberry Sheeps Feta and Hazelnut Salad (top pic), and I stopped for lunch one day and had the AMAZING Toasted Goats Cheese Salad, which I'm going to try and replicate at home.

Dessert. I ate dessert twice here, and it was really good. The Cranberry and White Chocolate Bread Pudding was wicked, and the best bread pudding I'd eaten so far in the USA (pic above). I also had a slice of their Lemon Cheesecake (after my lunch salad), and it was a smaller sized piece (very unusual for the USA) - the perfect size really, creamy, tasty, and not too sweet (again, unusual). Delicious.

Oh, and I almost forgot - one night I went for dinner, and ordered the special - it was a White Rock Fish grilled in an amazing sauce with creamed spinach served with marvellous mash and marinated yellow baby peppers (capsicum)...dear me...AMAZING!!!!

Thank you Luke, thank you Crush Team, and thank you Sarah for introducing me to this place - you can see Sarah and I with Sarah's mate Colleen in the pic above - we were out bar hopping after our big dinner at Crush!


Best Cafe - Snow City Cafe, 1034 W 4th Avenue
Ok Ezra, this is what you've been waiting for!

Whenever I told anyone I was a bit of a foodie, the cry was unanimous..."GO TO SNOW CITY CAFE". So I did. Three times.

This place is the coolest place to hang out in Anchorage, no question. It's big, bright, light, way cool, and really fun. The staff there are great - wacky and really helpful - when I got to talking to the guy next to me on my first visit (I was at the single's counter), turns out he works there and was eating breaky there on his day off...when I told him I loved food he brought me out all these cool things to try (thanks Josh)...that's how friendly this place is.

I also met the wonderful Ezra and Tucker - you can see their pic above, Ezra is the one pointing! The place is PACKED on Saturday and the queue was enormous, but everyone was waiting patiently for their turn, chatting with each other and just adding to the vibe of the place. Forunately I only ever had to wait once, when I wanted my own table rather than the counter. It was only 15 mins and I waited at the outside tables soaking up the rare sun!

So, how was the food??? FAN BLOODY TASTIC. It usually goes against the grain, but I ordered the same meal twice out of the three times I ate there. I actually ate my last Alaskan breakfast there, and just couldn't pass up the "best thing on the menu (according to Tucker)", that I'd eaten about 2 weeks before...the Kodiak Benedict (pic above).

Alaska is lucky enough to have crab coming out of its butt! So, imagine Eggs Benedict, where in place of ham there are two wonderful, thick, crabby King Crab cakes!!! OMG - sooooooooooooo good. So picture this...toasted English Muffin, crumbed and fried King Crab cakes, perfectly poached eggs, topped with the most divinely tangy Hollandaise sauce (served with a huge and very very good hash brown). Eggs Benedict people of the world rejoice...this is a masterpiece. And that's why I ordered it twice. I can still see the huge chuncks of crab I'd pull out of the crab cakes and just let them melt in my mouth allowing that wonderful crabby flavour to just invade my tastebuds...sighhhhhhhhhhhhh.

The menu at Snow City Cafe is huge, the soups are wonderful, and sandwiches creative and fresh, and the coffee fantastic. I wish I had an opportunity to try the pancakes and french toast...but I just couldn't got past those crab cakes under my poached eggs! Oh well...next time!

So, sportsfans, get yourself over to Snow City Cafe, but be patient if it's full, it is truly worth the wait. Say hello to Ezra and Tucker, and for goodness sake, let yourself be seduced by the Kodiak Benedict....mmmmmmmmmm.


3. Best Bar - Darwin's Theory, 426 G Street
As my Aussie friends know, I am no drinker. I'm old and boring, can't stay up past midnight, and fall asleep if imbibing alcohol.

Well...um...things don't seem to happen that way in the USA! I was a bloody rager! Thanks to Jordan, see Savannah post, I was fully hooked on bloody Captain Morgan and Coke - which, embarrassigly, is like saying I love Bundy and Coke. Hmmmmmmmm. Captain Morgan is a spiced rum if that adds any distinction whatsoever.

Travelling solo, I soon realised that a bar is a great way to connect with people. I had to learn to suck it up and just go in and sit down and start talking, it was hard at first, but I soon got the hang of it, and WOW, I still can't believe the cool people I met at bars, like really cool people. You can see me above, in Darwin's Theory, which I have voted Best Bar, with Jeff, who is like the "fishing Police" - he hangs out on commercial fishing boats to ensure they meet the strict fishing quotas, then there's the pic of me taken only a few days ago with spunky Greg from Hawaii, he spent 6 months in a Muslim refugee camp in Palestine studying conflict and also likes to Captain Hawaiin canoes, and on the other side Thomas, a Native Alaskan with OCD. See how cool the bar is!!! Darwin's is also where I met fellow foodie, and now good mate, Sarah. She works behind the bar.

Now Anchorage has some great bars. Apparently drinking is a favourite Alaskan pastime, especially in winter. A couple of other bars that get an honorary mention are Humpy's on the corner of F and 6th Streets and F Street Station Bar on F Street - both of these are fun, friendly, and serve really good food. I ate at both places a couple of times and it was great stuff. The French Onion Soup at F Street Station was very special - but everything on the menu there, according to Sarah, is fantastic. Humpy's usually has live music, is packed full of locals and tourists, usually a younger crowd, but great bar food and very atmospheric - go and check these two out.

There are a heap of other bars, most of which were covered in my bar tour with Sarah and Colleen. They were pretty average. I kept going back to Darwin's. It's a real dive of a bar...it's really for locals, but with the odd cool tourist! That way you get to chat with really interesting people. The barmaids are all soooooooo friendly, the patrons are friendly and some rather eccentric! I felt safe, laughed a lot, chatted a lot, and even drank some!

Darwin's is actually famous for one drink - "A Red Hot" - you can see it above, it's Cinnamon Schnapps with a dash of Tabasco Sauce - and OMG, it leaves a lovely burn on the lips! It hits with a true "hot" cinnamon blast further developed by the Tabasco!! Warms the insides and the outsides! I would recommend you try it, at least once! It's called a Red Hot, because apparently it tastes like an Amercian Christmas cookie named the same thing, which is a sugar cookie with a hot cinnamon candy on top - so give it a go sportsfans. It burns, but it's worth it!

Make sure you get along to Darwin's - one warning though, Barbara-Jean, the barmaid on my first visit assured me the bar is "full of locals and only the "nice" tourists...if they're cranky they don't last too long"!


4. Good Seafood - Phyllis's Cafe & Salmon Bake, 436 D Street
Ok Ok, You may have noticed I didn't put "Best", I put "Good". I have to admit, I didn't go out to specifically eat seafood, and didn't eat a lot of it in Anchorage, so I don't feel it's right to say this is the best place. I ate here, the King Crab was really good - AND HUGE - and I thought it worth a mention.

I was taken here by some local friends, and as you can see above, ate the biggest crab legs I've ever had in my life. Alaska is famous for its King Crab - and here I had two King Crab Legs - I could get through one, and had to share the other. The flesh was so sweet and so yum...I am still amazed by how prolific crab is here - in Oz the crab is sooooooo expensive that we don't waste it in crab cakes!! Here the crab cake abounds (as we've already read)!

So, rock up here for some real crab - don't go for the very average baked potato and salad that comes with the divine crab - but to experience the cracking and slurping of the King is something you have to do when you're in Alaska.


5. Best Sweet Place - Cake Studio, 4th Street
Anchorage is pretty light on for patisserie. But there is one place I kept going back to. I went back to buy their divine toasted marshmallows, their home-made cookies, and the odd piece of cake!

You can see their sweet treats in the pic above - lots of little goodies in the front windows, then behind on the counter is about 5 different cakes you can try by the slice...I um tried two of these... and oh my...very very yum!!! I also had one of the peanut butter cookies - it was two cookies sandwiched with a peanut butter frosting...oh yes it was sooooooooooo good!!!! There's also a chilled cabinet here full of more delicate desserts...I didn't try any of those...I'm much more excited about the baked goods. You know me.

The coffee here is good, they will make it as you like, the girls are friendly, there's wifi, and it has a really nice atmoshpere - I spent many an hour here gossiping or blogging! Check it out.


And there you have it sportsfans...the best of Anchorage. A city of no Porsches, no Fendi handbags and not a lot of superficiality. It's a real place, and I bloody loved it.

Thanks to everyone who took me under their wing, gave advice, kept me company, laughed with me, ate with me, and answered all my inane questions. I have truly fallen for Alaska, and I thank you.

USA 41 - Bison, Bears, and Moose!!!

Before I leave my Alaskan adventure, I want to share a piece of the puzzle...of why this place has enchanted me so.

Of course, I've already shared the immense and majestic beauty of this place. From the moment I stepped out of Anchorage airport and saw those magnificent mountains, I was hooked...and it only got better from there. A five day trip has turned into five weeks, and I'm already planning my next visit. There is something so magical about the mountains here - they light me up on the inside every time I look at them.

And then there's the animals.

Never knowing when I may come across a bear or a moose leaves one on their toes, yes, but also leaves one breathless with excitement about what might happen next - a simple walk along the road could become a huge adventure! And if you read three blogs ago, you'll know I witnessed a grizzly bear steal a baby moose from its mother and eat it...right there on the river bank opposite our campfire. WOW.

I've already shown pics of the sea life, the fab fish I caught, and the odd bird. A few days ago on the way back to Anchorage I stopped in at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Centre, and it was marvellous.

This Centre looks after orphaned or injured wildlife and releases them back into the wild if they are able to be released - the moose and bears have to stay if they are orphaned because their Mum wasn't there to show them how to survive.

So, above are a few pics of the wonderful beasts that roam Alaska. There's a grizzly and cub, a black bear, moose, and the cutest baby moose, and of course the wonderful Bison - they have been doing a breeding program to reintroduce the species back to Alaska - they were hunted to virtual extinction here in the late 1800s. There's also wonderful Muskoxen, you can see them there in the pic with the mountains behind - again, brought back from the brink of extinction.

Sigh. Magical.

Enjoy.

USA 40 - Cooper Landing: Gastronomy Capital of Alaska

I found it - foodies paradise in Alaska. Go figure. Cooper Landing. A stretch of only about 6 miles. Population of 369. Best food in Alaska.

Named after Joseph Cooper, a gold mining pioneer, Cooper Landing is on the Stirling Hwy - about 11 miles from the turnoff to Homer off the Seward Hwy, and sits right on the Kenai River. It has a heap of fishing lodges and fishing guiding services, and is home to my Alaskan home-away-from-home, Drifters Lodge. And it's the best eating around.

OMG, what a surprise to find such yum diversity - from great diner food through to sublime posh eating with to-die-for views! Man oh man, this place is a bloody gold mine for foodies. And all this amongst the most amazing scenery in the world - I've included a few pics taken from the Stirling Hwy in Cooper Landing to set the scene for you, readers.

Now, let's keep it simple. I'll start at the beginning of the "Magic Mile" (well it's really about 5 miles all up, but why kill a good story) and work through to the other end.

As you come into Cooper Landing, you'll see on the left a dodgy looking diner and motel - The Sunrise Diner and Inn! You can buy petrol, get a rum and Coke, have a great burger and sleep over, all in the one quaint place! I just got a burger! This mum and pop diner still has wooden laminate all over, and has a salt & pepper theme - hundreds of different types of wacky salt & pepper shakers are all over the place. I had a Buffalo Burger which was YUM - basic but YUMMMMM.....but the best thing was the blueberry pie - pic above! Home made. We all know how I feel about blueberry pie (see Napa post), and this one was fabuloso - so I'd highly recommend a stop here for the basics.

A few miles up the road, still on the left, you'll come across a very unsuspecting grey plank building. Now, I'm going to make a big call, and I know there are some people reading who may be shocked with what I'm about to say, BUT, this next place, I would say, is...the best restaurant in Alaska - well that I ate at anyway. Yep, the award for the yummiest food in Alaska goes to....Kingfisher Roadhouse (applause please).

OMGGGGG, I ate here 5 times, and each time it was so fresh, so incredibly tasty, sooooooo friendly, and has the most beautiful views as you chow down. HOLY CRAP, it was yum. From the most simple of soups such as potato and leek, and the most incredibly amazingly divine smoked tomato and basil soup, to the sexily sweet scallops on vege risotto you see above (the scallops just melted in my mouth) - and then through to King Crab Eggs Benedict, yep, amazing chunks of luscious king crab under perfectly poached eggs with a very subtly tangy hollandaise sauce...oh myyyyy. I mean it just doesn't get any better. I heard others at their table moaning over their food too, and I also picked up a whisper that they do the best burgers around...I'll have to go back and test that one out.

I recommended this place to Jeff the Fishermen (see previous post), and he and his wife invited me along...she insisted she wasn't hungry and wouldn't eat, she would just watch us...hmmm... even she downed their superb spinach salad then their risotto of the day, Mushroom Risotto, and finished it off with their Coffee and Chocolate Ice Cream Tart! Yep, the place is that bloody seductive. Sigh. Magical.

For those of you who are locals...get your butts down there, it's a HEAVENLY 2 hour drive from Anchorage, the perfect thing to do on a weekend or day off!

Now, let me draw breath.

Ok, next stop is Sackett's. This is a great value, super tasty place to eat. Cheap and simple but with a powerpack of flavour, Sackett's delivered a divine plate of spicy ribs with stir-fried veges for $15, it was really really good. The gals I ate with had Philly Cheese Steak sambos for around $6. Apparently, Mr Sackett used to be located where the Kingfisher is and only moved to this new location last year. This place is big with locals...so check it out.

The final stop on the Magic Mile is a few miles down the track, just as you get out of that slow 35 mile zone into the racey 55 mile zone! And it is FANTASTIC. Gwin's Lodge. This place has been around for 57 years (you can see inside it above, the rustic log cabin pic), and is famous for its Salmon Chowder and its pies. And what do you think I had????? Yep, Salmon Chowder and pie!!! I managed to end up trying 3 of their pies (Fruits of the Forest, Strawberry & Rhubarb, and of course Blueberry) and their famous Apple Walnut Caramel Cake. OH MYYYYYYYYYYYYY. But, back to that Salmon Chowder.

I sat up at the counter (that's where singles sit), chit chatting with the waitress, I decided to go for it. She popped it down and front of me, and all I did was inhale. Oh those aromas, sooooo beautiful. And it was a really cold day outside, so perfect soup weather. I picked up my spoon, and dove in. Sportsfans, there are no words for the flavour blast in my mouth...not just the wonderful creamy texture on my tongue, but this heady, potent smoked salmon flavour, and not that raw orange smoked salmon aussie flavour, but rather a punch in the head, full blooded red smoked salmon flavour, smoked in a real smoker. I just looked up at the waitress and said "it's smoked salmon" she just smiled and nodded. "Do you smoke it yourself?", "Nope, we have a local guy do it". And yes, they use the "Reds" (Sockeye Salmon) straight out of the Kenai. Honestly, I sat there for the next 10 minutes and just spooned this heavenly velvet into my mouth, no words, just sighs between mouthfuls. Fresh parsley, dill, corn, carrots, really good smoked bacon, potatoes...all came together with that divine smoked salmon to produce a symphony of flavour. Sigh. Magical.

And that dear friends, is Cooper Landing. I have to say it was an unexpected surprise to find the freshest and tastiest of meals in this blink-and-you-miss-it Hwy town. But what a truly divine surprise. Sigh. Magical.

I just had to add another pic of the Drifters gang (with me), so I don't forget who they are! Left to right, Marissa the Legend Float Captain, Kevin who wants to marry one of my girls, Bob (at the back) one of the owners (Frank, the other one was asleep), me, Jefferson the naughty fishing guide (and brother to fabo fishing guide, Jason) and Derek the young sweetie pie! Thanks guys for everything. Sigh. Magical.