Alaska News

Market Fresh: Ring in the new year with fresh seafood

The year 2015 is just around the corner. Why not celebrate with some fresh seafood?

New Sagaya Markets has a load of options for party planners and Alaskans who just want something tasty for themselves.

"The seafood department will be chock full of fresh and live seafood this week," says John Jackson of New Sagaya.

Some of the options include Alaska golden king crab clusters for $15.95 per pound, Hawaiian poke for $9.99 per pound in a variety of flavors and fresh white shrimp for $9.99 a pound.

"Also available at our Midtown stores are live Alaskan oysters out of Homer and Ketchikan," Jackson says. "We will have some beautiful raw size oysters from Kachemak Bay out of the Alaskan Shellfish farm. Weatherly Bates and her husband have been doing a beautiful job producing some great-tasting Alaskan oysters.

"They have also been producing fresh Alaskan mussels out of the same bay there as well and they have been a great success in some of the local restaurants around town."

Prices may be a bit steep on some traditional Alaska favorites.

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"Fresh Alaskan cod will be tight for a few days till the season begins later this week," Jackson says. "Troll king salmon will be available, but expect to pay a premium as catches have been very tight throughout the holiday season."

Some imported options include fresh Manila clams, Hawaiian marlin and tuna.

Center Market

The Center Market in Midtown will be open Wednesday and Saturday this week.

Sweet Caribou will be at the market both days with a special New Year menu because owner James Strong says "our executive flavorologist has a party-ready menu this week."

The menu includes special aurora borealis party-chip cupcakes (vanilla bean cake with hand-formed white chocolate rainbow chips and rainbow chip buttercream) and firecracker fruit punch, a pop rocks macaron (citrus zest shell, fruit punch ganache and pop rocks surprise). Other macaron flavors are champagne rose, butter rum and hot cocoa with marshmallow filling. Additional cupcakes include Cook Inlet caramel (topped with a handmade fleur de sel caramel) and Copper River creamsicle.

Sweet Caribou also will have Belgian chocolate brownies, which "started out as a sample item to demonstrate how tasty premium ingredients and small-batch baking are; made available for purchase by popular demand," Strong says.

Alex Davis and A.D. Farm will be at both markets. And he has some extra items available on Wednesday.

"Just because we shut down the market for Christmas didn't mean the chickens stopped laying," Davis says. "This week we will have about 130 dozen eggs on Wednesday. Come get them fresh."

In addition to the huge volume of eggs, he has his regular vegetables, barley and pork items available. Vegetables include cabbage, three varieties of beets, three varieties of potatoes and carrots in four colors.

Drool Central's Daisy Nicolas will be at both markets with her pumpkin chicken "muttfins," fresh dehydrated treats and fresh-baked beef, chicken and salmon meals.

La Grass will be at the market with fresh spinach and original hand-cut pasta, vegan strozzapreti;, roasted squash and pecorino ravioli, mushroom and ricotta ravioli, and Alaskan potato gnocchi.

Top Shelf Artisan Market

The Top Shelf Artisan Market in Palmer is back. Jonesers Alaskan Handmade Nectar and Loose Leaf Teas are a new vendor to the market on Friday. Jonesers makes its locally crafted items from flowers, berries, herbs, roots and mushrooms.

Among the returning vendors are: Country Health Foods with locally sourced yak, beef, seafood and vegetables; La Grassa with hand-cut pasta; Turkey Red Cafe and Bakery with scones, cookies and focaccia breads; Rempel Family Farm with organic beets, carrots, cabbage, potatoes and kohlrabi; and Farm 779 with four varieties of coconut based kefirs, root beer kefir sodas, locally sourced beet kvass and rosemary magnesium body butter.

Grab your bread

Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop in downtown Anchorage will be closing its doors for most of January. Be sure to stop in Wednesday for your favorite loaf, baguette, scones or cookies.

After Wednesday, the bakery is closed until Jan. 28.

Steve Edwards lives and writes in Anchorage. Contact him at akmarketfresh@gmail.com.

Local farmers’ markets

Monday: Depot Farm Market, noon to 6 p.m., Palmer Depot

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Wednesday: Center Market, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mall at Sears, Benson Boulevard and Denali Street

Friday: Top Shelf Artisan Market, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., 550 S. Alaska Street, Palmer

Saturday: Center Market, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mall at Sears, Benson Boulevard and Denali Street

Steve Edwards

Steve Edwards lives and writes in Anchorage. He writes the Market Fresh column weekly and can be reached akmarketfresh@gmail.com.

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