The Alaskan Light Is Something to Behold
Well, it’s our last night at the regal Captain Cook hotel. The Anchorage component of the Alaskan adventure is drawing to a close. It’s been fun, but as with travel and with life, we must be moving on. We started our day by hitting the Athletic Club to get some real exercise in. The weight rooms are separate by gender, so I did my own routine and got my blood pumping. Dan did his routine and we met afterwards by the Jacuzzi (coed).
We took a quick jaunt down to the Spenard district to get a few souvenirs in the food department. At Alaskan Sausage and Seafood,, we stocked up on reindeer sausage and some salmon products. It is actually illegal to sell wild game in Alaska, but since the reindeer are raised on farms, their meat can be incorporated into products for sale. With all the spices and processing, it doesn’t really taste any different than pork pepperoni, but it will be fun to share with friends, nonetheless.
Jen’s Restaurant looked like a special place to visit. The current chef was trained at the Portland Culinary Institute and the focus on fresh fish with a Scandinavian flair sounded good. Unfortunately, they were closed for January, which meant the only time we could go there would have been lunch today, but honestly, I didn’t want to spend so much time on lunch, as I was itching to hit a museum or two. So we went back to The Bubbly Mermaid for oysters. When we arrived, we entered and called out after we stood standing for a while with no people in sight. A man came from the back and told us they were doing construction but we could eat in the back. We got led through an art gallery with a secret door that opened up to a narrow, dark passageway and eventually emerged into a dark bar in the back which I liken to a dungeon. I guess a lot had happened since the night before! This time we indulged in some champagne, which is the drink of choice with oysters (or that’s how it’s done in France anyway). My former oyster consumption record in one sitting was twelve oysters. This time, we ordered 30 oysters to split and so we each slurped down fifteen, sumptuous, smooth, sweet, meaty, awe inspiring creatures. They are doing something right in Ketchikan!
We Ate the Oysters Too Quickly but Here Are the Remnants
Today was a lot colder than the other days and while it was great news for the ice sculptures — no danger of melting — we were chilly in eighteen degree weather. The Anchorage Museum is a large art, history, ethnography, ecology and science museum located in a modern building in downtown. It focuses on studying and exploring the land, peoples, art, and history of Alaska. Although I was rather bummed to arrive and see it was closed on Mondays. I guess we could have checked this earlier and rearranged our days to accommodate such things (hike today, do the museum yesterday), but in the States, it simply didn’t occur to me that it could be closed. Last time I was in Alaska, I opted to hit the Alaska Native Heritage Center instead of The Anchorage Museum – which was incredible, but I really did hope to get there the second time around.
The Anchorage Museum Is Reputed to Be Impressive
So we walked to the Anchorage Performing Arts Center to admire it and it too was closed. The locals refer to it as Tony’s Taj Mahal. The building was erected when Tony Knowles was governor, and to take it to completion, it went WAY over on budget and time – henceforth, garnering the Taj Mahal title.
I was starting to think that Paris’ Monday closures were catching on like wildfire and becoming a global phenomenon! Annoying!! We killed a bit of time getting warm inside of Kumagoro and having some hot soup.
Some of the Art One Can Expect to Encounter in Alaska
On Friday when we arrived, we had booked massages for Monday. We had earlier discussed the idea of having a “spa day” in the spirit of self-care and I had researched a dozen or so spas before we showed up, and concluded that Adagio would best suit us. It was cozy and non-pretentious and the staff seemed upbeat. We were taken by two young ladies into the massage area and, for the next 80 minutes, gave ourselves to them. Don’t be deceived, because there are some small framed women that know how to use their hands and elbows to navigate tight muscles. It was much needed, and we really appreciated the great job that they did. At the end of the massage, one of the ladies left the room and came back in with a tray with a couple of goodies on it. Lemon water, which is helpful in clearing out waste generated from deep body work, and sparkling water, mixed with pomegranate juice, which hit the spot. And a couple dark chocolate caramels – when doesn’t dark chocolate hit the spot? We graciously thanked them and said our goodbyes.
We had a bit of downtime before heading upstairs for dinner at the Crow’s Nest and so we took some time to read from the new Alaska book. The Crow’s Nest serves innovative French and American cuisine and since it sits on the 20th floor of the The Captain Cook Hotel, the views of the city, Cook Inlet and the Chugach Mountains are very, very nice (maybe not when compared with New York City, but in its own right). We were greeted promptly and sat at a comfortable booth with a view. A quick conversation about where we were from yielded a comment from the hostess about “I love Portland. It is a haven for foodies.”
I had read about the chef, Reuben Gerber before we went. I was not familiar with him, but his resume sounded spiffy, working at a handful of five star restaurants in California. Yet, his working and studying cooking in Paris is what really caught my eye. And knowing that the seafood in Alaska was abundant and clean, I was pretty sure we’d love the experience. We actually found out he is running the four restaurants in the hotel and only cooks at the Crow’s Nest one night a week and a woman named Tabatha who has been the seafood chef for 20 years would be preparing our meals tonight.
We decided to share one entrée and three smaller plates. We started off with the foie gras, which was cooked (brings out the fat), and the plate was beautifully laid down with chopped pistachio nuts and colorful edible flower, and an apricot coulis which was carefully served in dots on the plate (very French). Diagonally crossing the plate were bite sized slices of black cherry bread.
Foie Gras in Anchorage Was a Real Treat!
Next arrived the beet salad. Beet salad these days seems to be synonymous with chèvre and roasted hazelnuts,and indeed it had those two ingredients. An extra special touch was the white truffle mousse and an aged balsamic dressing. I also liked that we had yellow and red beets, both arranged in a manner that was pleasing to the eye.
Reuben Gerber’s Handiwork
I couldn’t resist a bowl of crab bisque – simple yet very nourishing. The sherry gelée, bitter greens and crab leg medallion were sitting in the bowl for effect. The waitress waited a few moments to let us admire those things, before pouring the bisque on top of it. This is very typical in French cuisine. Since the beauty of the food is so important, the chef wants us to see the different colors and textures and shapes of the components, before the sauce goes on top and it all gets blended.
It was hard to select an entrée, since they all looked so good. Seafood called to me though, since that’s where Alaskan cuisine shines. So I asked the waitress about how the scallops are prepared. If a chef does scallops well (which I have not quite gotten down myself in my own kitchen), they can be excellent and the meat almost melts in your mouth. She said there are four large scallops from Kodiak Island (flash frozen from when they were in season) and she sears them on both sides and then bakes them medium rare. All I needed to hear was medium rare and I knew they would be divine. They were indeed incredible and almost raw inside. The irregularly shaped plate housed the bed of sweet corn and fennel succotash and had a touch of Spanish chorizo (to give more body to the entire dish), and then to decorate the dish, as well as provide contrast of flavor was a cauliflower emulsion. The scallops were the highlight and, once we tasted them, we easily could have had many more of them.
Dan is equally as adventurous of an eater as I am and we were in agreement when we ended up completely satiated. I can see that Reuben has made his stamp in Anchorage and a well-deserved one at that. And if the Crow’s Nest got plopped in Eugene, it would be notable there as well. Our day of self-care was a great idea. It’s easy to run oneself ragged while traveling in the spirit of seeing and doing as much as possible. And it’s also wonderful to step back for half a day and focus on ourselves.
I Cannot Decide if I Am More Attracted to Sunrises or Sunsets