Alaskan Cuisine

Professional chefs know that a meal is a kind of performance, the dinner table a place of theater. So for the holidays I made sure to don my best chef’s hat and draw the red curtain on all my best cooking. Now, with the New Year upon us, I notice […]

Food Culture: a Creamy Moral Center

29 Jan, 2012 in Alaskan Cuisine / Essays / Food & Culture by Madara

Just FYI, if you show up on an evening that’s a little slow, and if you appear to be enjoying the food, the chef will probably send over a little extra…

Seuol Sushi Cafe Dessert

9 Dec, 2011 in Alaskan Cuisine / Essays / Restaurants by Madara

Without a doubt the best food in Fairbanks: Seoul Sushi Cafe. The chef is consistently creative, as in these tuna tacos, the food is consistently good, and the service is consistently quirky and pleasant. My only complaint is that I can’t eat there often enough.

Photo Post

9 Dec, 2011 in Alaskan Cuisine / Essays / Restaurants by Madara

(This piece was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) Of all the Thanksgiving traditions I inherited from my family, “Always invite someone new” is my favorite. Over the years, this tradition has created some memorable feasts: I’ve reconnected with old friends, made new friends and watched as the “someone […]

Gratitude in a Pilgrim’s Hat

23 Nov, 2011 in Alaskan Cuisine / Essays / Food History by Madara

(This piece was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) In 1993, I returned from a brief stint as a nanny in France with a suitcase full of stinky cheese. Nineteen-year-old girls should bring home kitschy black berets or sleek leather handbags, maybe even a snow globe with the Eiffel […]

Stinky, Glorious Cheese

30 Sep, 2011 in Alaskan Cuisine / Essays / Food & Culture by Madara

(This piece was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) People are sometimes surprised to find that I don’t own a blender, or a food processor or a spring-form pan. Recently a friend of mine was so appalled that I didn’t have what she referred to as a “proper spatula” […]

The Heart is a Muscle

24 Aug, 2011 in Alaskan Cuisine / Essays / Food History by Madara

According to UrbanSpoon, there are 231 places for me to get a bite eat in the city of Fairbanks. So why is it that when I’m trying to think of a place to have dinner on a Friday night, I can only think of 10 places to eat? Clearly, I […]

Operation “Eat It”

15 Jun, 2011 in Alaskan Cuisine / Essays by Madara

(This piece was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) You know you’re loved when someone pit-roasts an entire pig in your honor. During the last three years, Eddie Kim, a poet and the most recent friend of mine to depart from Fairbanks, has become, as another friend put it, […]

Goodbye to All That

31 May, 2011 in Alaskan Cuisine / Essays / Meditations by Madara

What do you make for a man who was raised on a Midwestern farm, spent time in the Navy, and now writes poetry and runs ultra-marathons in Alaska for his birthday? You dig the grill out from under the snow, fill up your propane tank, and make him a […]

The Best Burger a Midwestern Farmboy Ever Ate

6 Mar, 2011 in Alaskan Cuisine / Essays / Main Fare by Madara

The Tart Little Piggy

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