Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Barrow Misc.

Osaka's, the Japanese restaurant in Barrow, had started to post pictures of Korean dishes on the walls. At first I just thought "decoration?". But one of the owners said they were dishes from their homeland that hadn't made it onto the menu. Like several other restaurants in Barrow, Osaka's is owned by Koreans. I don't have a picture of the first one I tried which was listed as "kimchi stew". Basically a spicy soup made of kimchi, tofu and some vegetables. I had it with a bowl of rice on the side. Very delicious.   

The second dish, shown above, is pork belly. Basically pork belly stir fried with vegetables and made as spicy as you want. I chose spicy and it was also very good. This place was on a roll. Several other dishes I had tried earlier as they were listed in their menu like kalbi or Korean short ribs. Also good and I make these at home. And one of my favorite dishes bibimbap though they didn't have the smoking hot stone bowl. But they do now. When it is brought to the table, you can hear it sizzling. You then add a tomato based chili sauce to taste and start mixing. This partially cooks the raw vegetables and the rice gets a nice crust. 

On this last visit I tried the seafood noodle soup. It was listed as "jam pong" on the photo. It was also very spicy and had scallops, shrimp, crab, fake crab, squid and a variety of vegetables. The noodles were udon which was fine with me. I think I really like Korean food if these are typical.

On my flight back to Fairbanks, the Disneyland themed Alaska Airlines 737 was in Barrow. Of course, this meant that it wasn't a combi (combined passenger and freight) which meant a free upgrade to 1st class. Nothing special though lunch was toasted pita with a roasted red pepper hummus and roasted veggies. No more food posts for a while. I'm back in Fairbanks for a couple of weeks. 

15 comments:

  1. Lucky you to have such an easy access to Korean food, Richard. No such luck my my neck of the woods...

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    1. What's become hard to find are Chinese restaurants. Lots of Thai, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

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  2. I don't know why it seem odd to have the Disney plane in Barrow but it looks a little out of place. Nice you got an upgrade though.

    The food looks tasty. I enjoy the flavors of asian cuisine.

    FYI - we went to Evergreen for Indian food last night (our 20th anniversary) it wasn't nearly as hot as when we were there with you and Bridget last year. We were thinking of you two though.

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    1. First class on Alaska Airlines isn't like it is on some other airlines but I'm not going to turn it down. The one remaining item is a spicy tofu dish. Next trip...

      Happy anniversary!

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  3. Richard, you made a delicious Chinese dinner this evening that was worthy of a picture, or at least a mention.

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  4. People think I'm odd when I drive a hundred miles to eat Indian food on the mainland. Now I shall point out someone flies 500 miles to eat bibimbap. And I shan't tell them its Alaska for greater effect.

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    1. Given that we don't have any Indian places around Fairbanks, you'd need to head to Anchorage for Indian food. Actually, there is a pizza place in Fairbanks that has a decent Indian menu when the mother inlaw is in town.

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    2. Actually, there are about half a dozen places in town that now serve bibimbap but only a couple serve it with banchan.

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  5. I've got a favorite Korean BBQ place in Salt Lake, but you're really tempting me to take a trip to Barrow just for the food, Richard.

    Problem is, if it's better than what I can get in SLC then, well, I'm stuck taking regular trips north for a good meal, and that could get expensive (I wonder if they deliver).

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    1. That would be a pretty long trip for Korean food. In fact, given that the cost of flying to Barrow is ridiculously high, it may be cheaper to fly to Seoul for Korean food...

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  6. Is that a tail prop I see on the 737? I used to see those on IL62s!

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