Downtown Weekend Market

I love street food and think it is the best way to experience a culture's food. Unfortunately, like most US cities, the street food scene in Anchorage is sparse. Besides some reindeer dog carts in downtown and the various coffee 'huts' along the commuter routes there really isn't much to sample around the city.


A bright spot is the Weekend Market held during the summer here in Anchorage. Each Saturday and Sunday the market emerges on a large parking lot that overlooks Ship Creek. The market is mostly for tourists with trinket sellers galore, but there are also some food sellers (local vegetables and seafood) and most importantly with the dozens of vendor trucks, trailors, and carts, this market is the nadir for Anchorage street food.


Some of the highlights are the relatively affordable Alaskan seafood served dozens of ways, good ethnic food such as Hawaiian and Russian, and traditional carnival food in all it's fried and sugar coated glory.

Road Trip: Kodiak and Mill Bay Coffee Roasters

We went to Kodiak for the King Crab Festival a couple weeks ago. The festival itself was a bit underwhelming but Kodiak is an interesting and beautiful place.


There is a coffee shop on the road north out of town called Mill Bay Coffee Roasters. It's in a nondescript strip mall and we actually missed it on our drive out.


The owner is a master pastry chef from France who was the pastry chef for the French president early in his career. He later moved to the US and worked on the East Coast and at this point he began to visit Kodiak regularly to hunt and fish. He fell in love with the place and decided to retire there. Mill Bay is that retirement.


We ate there a couple times and everything was outstanding. There is a limited breakfast and lunch menu (crepes, eggs, waffles, quiches) that is very reasonable priced, especially for Kodiak. Pictured above is the king crab quiche and the seafood pie. The real draw here, though, is the baked goods. They include things like croissants, cinnamon rolls, tarts, eclairs, and a slew of cakes and pies. The pastries at Mill Bay beats the pants off of anything I've come across in recent memory, and it is a true gem on those cold, rainy mornings when you are touring about Kodiak.