We spent a day at sea in the Tracy Arm Fjords which were gorgeous, to be sure. I like days at sea. Something about the untamed waves, the wind…I don’t know. It makes me want to live on a ship.
The day at sea was relaxing. Dinner was King Crab Legs, but it’s been a couple days since then, and I don’t remember what the appetizer and soup were. :) The crab, however, was overcooked, I think. Crab often has a more “fishy” flavor than lobster, but this was much more pronounced than I prefer. I have heard it said that fish and shellfish smell and taste more fishy the more they are cooked. Add that to the stringy consistency, and I will hazard the guess that the crab was overcooked.
I didn’t have the crab, however. Kim ordered it, so I went with the Chicken Kiev. Chicken Kiev is a breaded, pan-fried, bone-in chicken breast in a garlic cream sauce, stuffed with butter and some other herbs. Quite tasty, and given the condition of the crab, the preferred dish, to my thinking.
Yesterday was Ketchikan, which is the first town settled in Alaska during the Gold Rush. We had about 4 hours or so in this town, and we did a little bit of shopping. I got a pocket ulu knife, which is an Alaskan knife that’s a little broader and shorter than standard pocket knives. It was cheap, but if it lasts a year, I’ll definitely have gotten my money’s worth.
I also got a couple strings of Christmas lights made from…wait for it…SHOTGUN SHELLS! Kim hates them, but they made me so happy, I wept. :)
Last night’s dinner was exquisite:
- Crab, Scallop, and Whitefish salad with a duet of caviar – I’ve never had so much fish or loved it quite so much. The salad, which was a formed mold of said fish and shellfish, was exquisite. Not too much of any flavor dominated, and I was quite pleased with the flavor harmony. The caviar was definitely…interesting. I’ve never had the opportunity to try caviar, so I leapt at the chance. We had a small orange style and a larger orange style. (Check out the descriptive wording on that sentence, folks.) The smaller orange variety was salty and fishy, as would be expected. It was tasty with breadsticks, and I finished it all. The larger of the orange variety was rather unpleasant to my palate. They burst when you masticated them rather like…salty, fishy grapes. Exactly…my thoughts as well.
- The soup was a chilled Pineapple, Banana, rum-flavored concoction – It was more of a smoothie, to my taste, and quite good, at that. These chilled soups are quite interesting, and never feel like soup to me. Still, I rather enjoyed it.
- Caesar Salad – In this dressing, I could actually taste the anchovy that all Caesar salads are supposed to contain. I think often chefs do all they can to minimize this taste, which would account for its popularity. I enjoyed the flavor, though, preferring it to the “tangy ranch” variety we are more often served.
- Lobster and King Prawns – What more can be said? The lobster was cooked rather well, especially compared to what we had on our cruise to Mexico a couple years back. The prawns were cooked equally well, and all of it was quite good. The waiter was late with the butter last night, but I don’t really feel that the lobster required it. It really stood on its own. Very buttery and rich.
- Beef Wellington – I know this is the first time I’ve ordered two entrees, and I tried to keep that sort of thing to a minimum, given the fact that I’ve not exactly lacked for food this trip. However, Beef Wellington prepared properly is a thing to behold. It makes me feel better to say I split this with Scott and Kim. Beef Wellington is beef tenderloin cooked in a puff pastry shell with a black truffle “filling”. The black truffle filling was earthy and helped to balance the pastry shell with the heartiness of the beef, which was quite tender and juicy. It was served with some sort of polenta-like mould made from Italian Parsley that I found rather good. Everyone else disagreed, including Laura who almost didn’t even try it. (She’ll think twice about trusting my recommendations from here on out, I think.) At any rate, I enjoyed the Beef Wellington, and am glad I chose last night to do the 2-entree thing.
Tonight is Victoria, British Columbia, and the menfolk of the family will be doing a Pub Tour. (In truth, though this is the last day of our journey, I’ve been looking forward to this tour for quite some time.) We arrive in Victoria at about 7pm, and there will be a line to get off the ship, I think. We’ll be doing an early dinner, and then heading off. The ladies will be doing a tour of Bushart Gardens which is apparently supposed to be beautiful. Kim will be bringing her camera. I will be looking for Canadian dark beers. While we import only lagers and “Ice” beers from Canadia (intentionally misspelled), there have GOT to be some decent beers in these pubs. I look forward to trying them all.
Home tomorrow, though. In all honesty, I am looking forward to it. I miss our house, our shower, and having Internet whenever I want it. Oh, and my XBOX is supposed to come back today! Oh, and Lord of the Rings Online is waiting for me. So much to look forward to.
Notes to friends:
Gabe – The Crown Royal on the ship is $22.95…for 1 Liter. BevMo said it’s $31.99, so that is a good enough deal to pick you up a bottle. :) Looking forward to hanging with you again, mang.
Shawn – I have sporadic Internet on the ship, and it costs $0.50/minute. I posted all those posts you missed in the span of about 10 minutes. :) Windows Live Writer allows me to backdate posts, though, so it looked like I’d been posting them the entire trip. Yes, the food is quite good on a cruise. In fact, in my estimation, it’s almost the main reason TO go on a cruise. :)
See you all upon our return! Hackmaster next weekend! woot!
