[Photograph: Dean Phipps] There are cabbages and then there are 125.9-pound CABBAGES. Every year the Alaska State Fair holds a giant cabbage weigh-off where people battle for vegetable-growing prowess. This year, reports the Anchorage Daily News, Wasilla resident Steve Hubacek won for his green monster (the leaves span five feet!) beating the previous cabbage world record set in the UK in 1989 for 124 pounds. Related Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off at Alaska State Fair, 2008 Duchess Camilla Gets a Big Cabbage for Her Birthday Copious Cabbage [Talk]...
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Note: Today, a quick post that really evokes a sense of place. Food writer Cheryl Sternman Rule takes us on a fishing expedition in Alaska. Enjoy! —AK Photographs by Cheryl Sternman Rule When the server set the salmon carpaccio in front of me, I felt like whispering in her ear. "Just so you know," I’d say, "this fish and I have met before." And it was true. A day earlier, on Prince William Sound in southeastern Alaska, I’d bore witness as the commercial fisherman on whose boat I was riding netted three sockeye, pulled out their gills, and tossed them to the bottom of her bow-picker. There was blood, yes, but there was also something beautiful about the process—its simplicity....
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With street vendors using Twitter on the brain, my friend who lives in Anchorage, Alaska, sent over this photo of a local reindeer hot dog van. The guy parks on West 4th Avenue and F Street (map), serving up reindeer dogs from the blue Volkswagen van. He hasn't picked up the tweeting yet (though @reindeervan seems to be available)....
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Longtime fisherman Randy Hartnell; photo from Vital Choice My Alaskan friend recently shipped me ten pounds of fresh salmon he caught in the Kenai River. Not a bad cardboard box to find waiting on your doorstep. My first batch—cooked with lemon, sea salt, and pepper— was so tasty, I wanted to jump up and down and invent a happy dance called "The Salmon." Unlike the light pink, over-boiled salmon at Ikea (sorry Ikea)—and most salmon of my childhood (sorry Mom)—this one was a deeper, almost-red shade. Why is Alaskan salmon so much better? To understand, I went to Randy Hartnell, a longtime Alaskan fisherman and founder of a wild fish and berries company called Vital Choice. After over twenty...
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"And if you look twice at the reasons why Palin hunts, they resemble an ideal cherished by city-dwelling, New York Times-reading folks. Sarah Palin is a locavore, harvesting meat from her local 'foodshed.'" [Slate, via Eater L.A.]...
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Joe Dilley, owner and operator of Joe's Guide Service in Alaska, can't get enough Moose-ghetti. It's one of his favorite meals in the crock pot, he told NPR, sounding a bit bashful. Besides the Alaskan-Italian fusion dish, he was full of moose cooking tips. How do you prep the meat? You let a little bit of white mold grow on it. The natural enzymes in the meat start breaking it down from being a tough chunk of muscle. Yum, white mold. Almost as good as yesterday's image of a Bic razor shaving a furry moose snout, before it gets boiled in salt water and eventually tastes like beef tongue. Three weeks since the Republican veep nomination, journalists are finally churning...
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Don't you wish this was you? One thing Alaska governor turned John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin might consider in her campaign strategy: showing off her state fair's cabbage entries. She was actually supposed to make a cameo at the Alaska State Fair's 11th Annual Giant Cabbage Weigh-off this afternoon, but apparently she's too busy. Making speeches in Dayton, Ohio. Go figure. All week, giant cabbage growers have been sweating—so many things could go wrong! Slug invasion, heavy rains, hailstorms, soil maggots, and most realistically, a dining experience for rabbits and porcupines. Even yanking the beast from the ground is a concern. There is a science to unearthing veggies! Three years ago, Scott Robb woke up to find his...
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