Showing posts with label alaska. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alaska. Show all posts

Saturday, September 14, 2013

seven glaciers retaurant

The dinner I was most excited for in Alaska was the one we went to on our last night. We went to Seven Glaciers restaurant, a spot nestled 2,300 ft above sea level with panoramic views and delicious locally-sourced fare.



Up we went on the tram (with some of us having their eyes closed or looking at the floor to avoid seeing the view).
 







We started with a celebratory bottle of Veuve...
 

...while we decided on our meals ahead. T went with trusting the chef and blindly accepted the tasting menu (which I became jealous of, but we had no idea what anything was, because we never saw the menu and when it was delivered no one really explained it!).

We started with soups and salads, in order: 1. roquefort & butter lettuce salad with a roquefort vinaigrette, crispy pork belly, tomato jam, and scallion pesto. 2. tomato & watermelon gazpacho with traditional garnishes, organic olive oil, and crab. 3. artisan greens salad with radish, wilted cabbage, shaved carrots, lemon herb vinaigrette, and rye croutons. 4. good question, it was T's (but enjoyable nonetheless).

 




Next was T's surprise 2nd course, which was my favorite of the entire night. Again, I couldn't tell you what it was, especially since it's now been over a month since I was there, but it was a delicious halibut with soft noodles and black olives.
 

T then had another mystery dish, an asian salad topping a fresh hunk of salmon, again good, but nothing close to how perfect the previous dish was.
 

As an entree I had the fresh Alaskan salmon with lemon spaetzle, corn, english peas, and a fireweed honey glaze. I had no problem finishing this entire dish, with the soft and light spaetzle pairing perfectly with the crispy top of the salmon and the crunch of the peas.
 

Meim went with the Alaskan halibut with tomato, green beans, fingerling potatoes, and a tomato vinaigrette. Again, another person had no issue finishing their dish on their own.
 

My dad went with the deconstructed king crab risotto with a lemon and black pepper risotto, broccolini, grilled lemon, and a citrus butter.
 

T had a delicious chicken entree wrapped in a pork belly, which was absolutely perfectly paired...and some mystery sides, of course. He also had a wagyu beef course, which was eaten to quickly to document, but was as tender as could be and had punches of flavor, unsurprisingly.
 

We finished with dessert, of course.
 

T started with a few small treats...
 


I went with the beignets with vanilla bean, a rum caramel sauce, and a banana cardamom gelato. I was so excited, I love the sugary pillowy goodness of beignets, but I was so sad when this arrived. They were dense pillows with lackluster sugar and a sauce that was overpoweringly rum with not even a slight glimmer of caramel. On the other hand, the banana cardamom gelato was deliciously creamy and a refreshing hit of banana.
 

Meim went with the chocolate hazelnut cake with dark chocolate, hazelnut and chocolate silk cream, and a smoked mocha gelato. Overall this worked much better, and the gelato again got a rave review.
 

My dad went with their signature baked Alyeska with a chocolate cake, trio of chocolate mousses covered in bittersweet ganance and an Italian meringue. Again, no complaints, but it was quite large, and definitely made for sharing!


 

After dinner, we strolled about outside, enjoying the gorgeous setting, before heading back down.
 



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Friday, September 6, 2013

silver salmon creek lodge

Towards the middle-end of our time in Alaska, our plan was to go with Mark from Air Madura to Brooks Falls for some famous bear-watching. When Mark picked us up, he told us it'd be better worth our time to go to a smaller space where the professional photographers in-the-know were going, so we trusted him and headed off. We left Anchorage for Lake Clark National Park in Cook Inlet to the Silver Salmon Creek Lodge.

 
 
 
 

We arrived and landed gracefully in a lake of lily pads, the way I hope to arrive on all of my future vacations.

 
 
 
 
 

After already being awed by our surrounding, we were whisked off  immediately by a guide in an ATV to view our first bears!
 
 
 

We trudged through the tall grass, following each move our guide made, holding our breaths out of fear. Is he really going even closer to that massive animal? Do I have to follow him and also go this close?! We closed our eyes and followed, and thank goodness we did. We were immersed in this close behavior for two days, feeling close to nature and having even more of an adrenaline rush than the time T and I tried sky-diving.
 
 
 
 
 
 

We took a break from the viewing to have some delicious as-local-as-you-can-get salmon with the best biscuits in the whole world before being visited by a 3-year old bear in camp and heading out for even more bear-viewing.
 
 
 
 
 
 

We headed back to camp and by 11:30pm the sun was pretending to set, so a bonfire was started while a midnight game of basketball and soccer went on. We tucked in late and woke up nice and early to get some last bear-viewing in before we sadly had to head off.
 
 
 
 
 

Sadly, our time had come to a close, and we had to say our goodbyes. I was hoping to be left behind, as I could actually live there forever, as could T, but we were found and dragged back to the plane. We headed out to find one of the bajillion (an almost-factual statistic) lakes and ponds in the area to land wherever we wanted and do some fishing before heading back to the real-world in Anchorage.
 
 
 
 
 
 

We continue to talk about how the highlight of the entire trip to Alaska was the couple of days we spent with Mark from Air Madura, and everyone at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge, from the owners David and Joanne, and David's son Oliver to the beyond-interesting chef and all of the staff. We immediately felt like we had been visiting for every year for our entire lives. Such warmth and happiness was felt on every inch of the area and it was contagious. I cannot recommend enough a trip out to see them, and the bears, or even just for some remote relaxation. Of note, don't be alarmed if you are the only non-professional photographer there. We sat with many highly-respected photographers that were surprised to hear that we were not there for our profession, and were very curious as to how we even had found Silver Salmon Creek Lodge, but remained some of the nicest and modest people I have met.
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