Day 0: Anchorage

By special request, we are backing up to report on our provisioning day in Anchorage. Diane wanted to know if we had had any great meals, so I'm going to write about our Saturday night at Sacks. Pete and I had arrived in Anchorage Friday night, and we spent Saturday day running errands and getting organized. One of our tasks was to pick a place for dinner - we wanted to have a special meal since for the rest of the trip we were expecting to be in small towns where we hoped to eat mostly fresh fish without exceptional preparations. Our online research yielded a few promising places, so we made a couple reservations and planned to decide once our trip mates arrived. We picked Patty and Bill up from the airport around 4:30, while waiting for the luggage to come out we agreed on Sack's as our restaurant for the evening, then drove them to the hotel to freshen up.

Our reservation was for 6 pm, and we were right on time. Pete suggested we start with champagne and oysters, and everyone agreed. Next we shared several salads: pears soaked in kahlua served over greens with candied pecans and gorgonzola, and a spinach salad topped with grilled calamari, olives, capers and carmelized onions. When our entrees arrived I felt my first urge to take a photo while on vacation in Alaska - of my meal! But I held back and instead took this photo of Pete and Bill as they were about to dig into their dinners.
If you look at Pete's plate, you'll see rare Wagyu beef served over polenta with grilled asparagus. The beef was perfectly cooked and extremely tender. The wine we enjoyed was a 2008 Duckhorn Sauvignon Blanc.




Here's a picture of my dinner. Bill ordered the same dish of king crab legs served with clarified butter, gruyere and carmelized onion fritters which were deep fried to perfection, and more of the delicious grilled asparagus.









Our waiter noticed all the photography going on and offered to take a picture of the four of us. We agreed but were really eager to dig into our dinners. Patty had halibut with a toasted fennel seed crust topped with fennel compote and arugula pesto, and grilled asparagus.




For dessert we shared a piece of flourless chocolate cake and a triple berry tart (blackberries, blueberries and raspberries).