Here There and Everywhere

Baked Alaska, A Highlight in Astoria, Oregon

“I see a place I want to eat!” I cried out as we were looking for a lunch place. “Baked Alaska!”

“You want to eat Baked Alaska for lunch?” AdventureMan asked me, thoroughly confused.

“No, the name of the restaurant is Baked Alaska. It’s underneath the Raymond James office and it’s right on the waterfront. I’ll bet it’s good,” I speculated.

One time when my niece, Professor Little Diamond was visiting, I told her how AdventureMan often accused me of speculating.

“Join the family!” she exclaimed. “It’s fun! We all just speculate our asses off!”

You can see why we loved it when she would come to stay for a while. She and I would go to the bookstores and tote out volumes and sets of Islamic books on scriptures, history, and the precedence of scholarly attributions, and all kinds of books about customs. Some I would mail to her, many she would manage to take back with her in her suitcases, leaving behind clothing rather than sacrificing room for a book.

We decided to go to Baked Alaska for dinner, and it was a lovely, memorable meal.

We had this amazing view of all the ships making their way up the Columbia river. We also saw seals playing in the wakes.

AdventureMan ordered a dry Chardonnay, and the waitress brought a glass of the house Chardonnay, bottled especially for Baked Alaska, which she described as “crisp.” We both heartily agreed, and think it was one of the best wines we tasted on our trip.

We both had the arugula salad with roasted cauliflower to start. You can’t see it, but it’s there, along with roasted garlic. This salad was fabulous.

It also came with tasty bread:

AdventureMan ordered clams, this time in a creamy sauce:

He said they were very delicious, and very rich. The next day, he said he thought maybe he’d give up on clams for a while, that he loves them, but sometimes a rich treatment is too rich, and keeps him awake at night. Aren’t they beautiful, these lovely fat clams in their cauldron?

I had the seafood small plate, with Pacific shrimp, sous vide smoked salmon, and Dungeness crab. I couldn’t decide which I loved the most, the salmon or the crab, but . . . Dungeness crab trumps almost everything anytime.

They had some tempting dessert offerings, including, ahem, Baked Alaska, but we are trying to both eat delicious foods, and keep our waistlines, so tonight we skipped dessert.

Even without dessert, this was one of the best meals we ate. Well, there were a lot of best meals . . .

We fell asleep to the sound of barking sea lions.

April 30, 2018 - Posted by intlxpatr | Eating Out, ExPat Life, Food, Restaurant, Road Trips, Travel | Astoria, Baked Alaska, Lodges Sea and Mountains, Oregon