More Anchorage Eats...

I decided to focus this post on the food we ate in Anchorage. Why? Because, now that it's five months after I've completed my trip, the first thing I remember when I think of Anchorage is the food! I was pleasantly surprised with the food in Alaska because I really wasn't expecting much, especially after reading people's reviews on travel websites. What were those people thinking??? What did they eat? Just about everything I ate was wonderful, including the hotel food!

During our stay in Anchorage, most of our breakfasts and lunches were provided as part of our conference. The hotel food was quite good. At least twice, we had full breakfasts with cheesy eggs, and what we suspect was reindeer sausage. The lunches were pretty good, although they got to be pretty standard after a while since there wasn't as much variety as I've experienced at other conferences. There were a lot of wraps and sandwiches, including boxed lunches for us to take with us one day when we took a bus to go on a "photo safari."

Our second night in Anchorage, we went to the Glacier Brewhouse, which turned out to be quite a find. It was very close to our hotel, and it had everything to offer -- a great atmosphere, great food, and alcohol! I could not go to Alaska and not have Alaskan king crab. I also had a salad to start (I think it was the blue cheese salad). I'm not sure if the crab was any different than the crab we can get here at Costco or Sam's Club, but somehow it just tasted better eating it IN Alaska! The Glacier Brewhouse is known for their prime rib, but by the time we got there, they had run out (I think we waited about 45 minutes before we got a table, that's how popular it is!).

On day three, breakfast and lunch were once again at the hotel. For dinner, we made an attempt to go to Humpy's, a place I learned about on one of Rachael Ray's shows (I think it was Tasty Travels). However, it turned out to be another popular place! I was slightly disappointed to learn that this was actually more of a bar than a restaurant, so it was one of those places where you had to kind of wander around and see if you can find a seat. We were unsuccessful, so we attempted to go back to Sack's Cafe, where we had lunch on our first day. The dinner menu looked a little pricey, but we were game, so we walked in. But they were all booked too! So, we went back to the Snow Goose. Third time's a charm.

When we walked in, we noticed something going on in a private room off to the side. It looked like some kind of ballroom dancing class! It was really cute watching older couples dancing. Anyhoo, back to the food...they had some interesting things on this menu, so I decided to try something I would not likely find elsewhere. I ordered a caribou burger with fries. I enjoyed the burger, although I'm not sure it tasted significantly different from a traditional hamburger, which I suppose is a good thing! One of my colleagues said she thought the caribou burger affected her somehow because she had really strange dreams that night!

I will end my post here. I think that takes us half way through my stay at Anchorage, although I will definitely have separate posts on some of the places we visited in or near Anchorage including Hatcher Pass, the Native Alaska Heritage Center, and the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.