A Taste of Alaska’s Bounty
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/tr...le-span-region

"Until recently, Juneau didn’t have much to offer the discerning diner. But what a local chef, Tracy LaBarge, started nine years ago with a small shack behind the public library devoted to king crab has snowballed with new restaurant openings, a weekly food truck event and fresh enthusiasm for locally sourced fare".

((I))

Yeah, those locally sourced grapefruit are something.

Those of us who remember the Fiddlehead would take exception to the characterization that "Juneau didn’t have much to offer the discerning diner."

Actually, because of the pay scale and demographics of Juneau's population (higher, younger and lefter - thanks to State government employment) Juneau has always tended to be more hip and <i>au courant</i> than most places in Alaska. There have always been excellent restaurants in Juneau, their bottom lines assisted greatly through the generosity of oil industry lobbyists during the legislative session.

But calling Tracy's crab "locally sourced" is seriously half-true. The king crab comes from the winter fishery in the Bering Sea, so it's been frozen for 1400 miles and six months before it's eaten by a cruise passenger. Dungeness crab might be local, but also might be from as far away as California.

Usually, the last thing that I need on a shore excursion is food. The ships feed you well and, at least on Holland America ships, they serve excellent regional seafood like salmon, halibut, dungeness crab and king crab which is stocked in Vancouver, doubtless the culinary capital of the American Northwest.

But for Tracy's Crab Shack we made an exception. Albeit a few steps from our docked vessel, where we could have stuffed ourselves with tons of yummy food, we chose to try a bucket of king crab legs and a box with crab cakes from Tracy's. It is probably the best king crab you can get on earth.

Before we went to the Crab Shack, I asked a local taxi driver about Tracy's and if there are other places in Juneau which might be better. "No", she said, "Tracy makes the best. I don't know why - but someway the cook it so that they are better than anywhere else". And it's true.

And the atmosphere is special. It is a shack indeed, and you get a tin bucket full of legs and you pour it down with Alaskan Amber (or a light Summer Ale, brewed in style of German Kölsch).

It is an Alaskan experience and it is surprisingly inexpensive, regarding that king crab belongs to the premium category of food. If you are in Juneau, do it - even if the dining room is in sight.

But I am in doubt if I really need a proper restaurant when on a shore excursion. Time is precious and I see no need to waste it for in a restaurant when I can have virtually the same food on the vessel. And the real fine dining experiences we usually have pre-cruise and after-cruise. I cannot highly enough recommend the Blue Water Café in Vancouver and, when in Seward, Ray's Waterfront is not bad either, although you will not find a restaurant on Michelin-star level in Alaska.

I caught a 58# King salmon in the Kenai River. We had it pack and brought it home. It was so good that now I am spoiled. I cannot stand the taste of farmed salmon. Yuk! It tastes like mud.