Summer in AK, Cr-kuriositas.com

I wrote a blog about the menu before we left for Alaska. But I could only list the food. I could not tell you how it tasted. It was delicious. Absolutely amazing. And we ate around 11 PM, in bright light.

We contracted with Alaska Alpine Adventures (AAA). They’ve been leading tours for twenty years, packing great food for their customers. This past year they began offering the food for groups like ours.

We didn’t build a fire. We used a propane stove. We each had a bowl, a coffee mug, a water bottle, utensils. The kitchen was a large box with pots, pans, coffee filters and pot, spatulas, serving spoons, soap. It was all prepared, freeze-dried or powdered, vacuum-packed and sealed, in a large Styrofoam food safe. There was a block of ice and directions to keep a couple of packs of cheese and meat cold.

For breakfast, we re-hydrated eggs and potatoes with chorizo and tortillas. We made blueberry pancakes. We ate reindeer sausage with eggs. We had granola, couscous with dried fruit, cherry apple orzo. The lunches were sandwiches on focaccia, pita, tortillas. The innards were curried tuna, black forest ham, prosciutto, a variety of cheeses, with hummus, olive tapenade, or roasted pepper garnishes.

The dinners of penne pasta with basil pistachio; chicken satay, pad Thai, teriyaki chicken, red enchiladas were easy to fix and we ate every speck. We kept a clean kitchen.

AAA cares about how the meals are prepared. They had fresh garlic packaged with the pasta, sealed packs of white wine for the roasted pepper bow tie, a cup of real butter, packs of olive oil. We ate like royalty.

We had planned to bring a cooler in the raft with the basics – milk, beer and wine. But it was easier to manage in the van. Actually, getting fresh milk was not so easy. One shopkeeper gave us milk out of her own refrigerator.