Alaska Cooks

original photo by Steve Nigl
The City Diner opened up in February to long lines and high expectations. You can’t have missed the place, with it’s smart neon, glass block, and chrome exterior. It stands out like shiny beacon in an otherwise typical Anchorage drab intersection, promising serious comfort food, vegetarians and dieters be damned. The initial buzz was mixed: There are no substitutions, it’s too expensive, the breakfast menu isn’t going to satisfy any traditionalists, and the long wait for a table seemed to make a few reviewers testy after they realized that they had waited an hour for what was, well, diner fare. A few scattered reports had me a bit nervous: The place sits almost across the street from my office and I’d been anxiously awaiting its opening. City Diner is co-owned by a few other familiar names from the Anchorage dining scene, Jens Nannestad from South Side Bistro and Chef Al Levinsohn from Kincaid Grill.Chef Kelly Thompson was brought in to run the kitchen. She told the KTUU News that

“The food is American comfort food, diner food, a little bit retro, ‘Back to the good old days,’ but modernized. We use fresh herbs; we use as much fresh ingredients as we can to make it taste more palatable and little more upscale.”

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review

The talented, well-traveled, and widely read Christine from My Plate or Yours tagged me for the 5 things meme that’s been making the rounds lately, and it’s taken me more than a few days to come up with anything even remotely interesting to write about myself. Interesting is relative, so my mother may very well be the only one that reads to the the bottom of this.

1. I moved to Alaska from North Carolina in 1994, and I remember telling my folks that I’d be back in a year or two. I arrived late in December, during one of the snowiest winters on record in Anchorage. I came with a dog, a backpack, and a box of blankets. For years, friends and family asked when I would be coming home. Over a decade later, those questions are less frequent, but no less difficult to answer.
2. I am a fly fishing fanatic. Growing up on the East Coast, an hour or so from the Appalachians made it easy. My dad and his best friend both had two boys, and they liked to take us backpacking. We would hike in a few miles, and set up camp along likely streams and prospect for trout. They spent a lot of time dragging us down mountain trails on weekend backpacking trips. Not only did those two dads carry 70-pound packs up and down steep mountain trails herding a bunch of 12 year-olds, they would cook us feasts. Blueberry cobbler, big breakfasts (ever tried cooking eggs & pancakes for six over a backpacking stove?) Now I live in Alaska, where we have trout the size of Shetland ponies, and so many salmon that they sometimes actually get in the way. Once things thaw and start flowing again, you can usually find me knee deep in cold water waving a stick around at the fish.
3. I have an a degree in English literature with a concentration in writing, and make my living as a systems administrator. Go figure.
4. If I could be anywhere in the world, I’d chose to swing my feet from a stool at my Grandmom’s kitchen counter, eating chicken dumplings, fresh biscuits, and cole slaw.
5. At one time or another, I’ve taught water skiing, scuba, swimming, sailing, and large-boat handling. I grew up in, on, and around the water. I went to college near the beach, and spent summers running boats at a summer camp. It’s kind of strange to live in Alaska, a land defined by water in almost every way and almost never get to swim.
6. Bonus thing: I read ravenously. Cereal boxes, magazines, books, whatever. Must read. Currently I have 3 books on the nightstand and two on the coffee table. I’m reading them all.

It would seem that I was one of the last players selected for this team, so I’ll let this one die a quiet death. Amazing though, how far this spread on the interweb. A google search for “five things about me” gets 128 million hits.

meme

For one to say that the partner does not like mayonnaise is a bit of an understatement. Similar to my feelings about republicans, the partner believes that mayo is an abomination, a filthy pestilence, and very possibly the source of true evil in the world. I do not exaggerate. Upon hearing this for the first time, new acquaintances and friends will inevitably attempt to discuss, to rationalize, to reason with said partner about the positive effects of mayonnaise. There is no point to this, and all who attempt are worn down. The phobia is extreme: utensils or food that may have come into contact with any emulsion of oil, vinegar, and yolks is suspect and is dealt with accordingly. New recipes are guilty until proven otherwise. A creamy dish can be dismissed out of hand without even a taste, if the mayo-ometer detects even the minutest possibility of contamination. Were the household an emulsion free zone, things wold be different, but I’m pretty sure that being raised in the South helped cultivate a love of mayonnaise in me. I mean, have you ever been to a family reunion or church picnic where the only things without mayo were the iced tea and the fried chicken? I grew up on that, and cannot imagine a life without proper BLTs, tuna salad, or cole slaw

The result of this dichotomy has led to some practical household considerations - separate knives for sandwich making, care to not taint the cutting boards, separate containers for certain foodstuffs when lunches are packed. I’ve promised never to chase her around the house with a jar of Hellman’s, and she reciprocated by promising not to kill me in my sleep. As I am not about to give up my favorite crab dip, sauce rémoulade, aoili, rouille, tartar sauce or anything else over this, we’ve had to find some work arounds. Last week I picked up The Minimalist Cooks Dinner by Mark Bittman and found a recipe that I thought would work for us both. Crab cakes generally, often, usually have mayonnaise in them, and they’ve been long shunned by the partner. One never knows where the dreaded stuff lurks, apparently. Most recipes also seem to contain bread crumbs or filler and other things that take away from the crab. Some recipes seem to be a bit much just for crab cakes, but I suppose that can be chalked up to personal preference. That and the fact that I’m reading a minimalist cookbook.

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seafood

So you’d think that with a food production system that regularly fails and kills people might actually need some more oversight? Not so much.

The FDA is conducting half of the food safety inspections it did three years ago
Safety tests for U.S.-produced food are down nearly 75 percent in same period
The FDA has 12 percent fewer field office employees who focus on food issues than it did three years ago.

Maybe all those tax cuts are finally paying off…

This reporter was amazed that Whole Foods charges an arm and two legs for all that lovely prepared food they sell. Who possibly could have known that upscale markets are expensive?

Got rodent? Trust me, if you ever needed a reason to stay the hell away from fast food, this is it. My favorite part? The city of New York fired the health inspector that had given the restaurant a passing grade, just one day before.

Not news: The august and somewhat revered Frank Bruni, food critic for the New York Times, reviews a restaurant. News: In a strip club.

Interesting site debunking some common misperceptions from around the kitchen. Some silly, some not. via megnut

Périgord truffles. Daniel Boulud. And Tennessee fits in how?

My food site of the week: The Diary of the Food Whore. Lovely venom and observations from a commercial chef.

friday leftovers

Are we even allowed to talk about eating surf an turf these days? Too 70’s? Something a bit retro about it, and maybe not in the groovy way that Target uses to make buying detergent more exciting. It isn’t hard to put together (I won’t even say ‘make’), the ingredients aren’t hard to find (but so important), and it doesn’t take a whole lot of skill. But damn, it’s good when you do it right. I’ve written before about Valentine’s Day dinners, but this year I wanted something that wouldn’t keep me in the kitchen all afternoon. I had to head out of state on a work trip the next morning, and just wanted something simple and a bit over the top. The secret to a good S & T is picking the right parts, and then making sure there is plenty of butter. In order to properly facilitate these requirements, I procured a large quantity of Alaskan king crab legs and some all-natural beef. Not quite grass-fed, but close enough for Anchorage. At this end of the supply chain, anything not from the major beef producers is a bonus.

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beef, holiday, seafood