Alaska News

How Alaska eats: the musubi McMuffin, apple pie and Chicken Shack’s single flaw

Newsletter #15: Allow me to be your Spambassador

I get food inspiration in the weirdest places sometimes, like for example this week, when I felt moved to write about Spam musubi, the sleeper food trend that has delivered the little savory morsels of rice, seaweed and salty ham product to Pop Warner football practices and the warm case at Chevron in Anchorage.

As part of the reporting, I got to hang out with Kenji and Sandy Kusano and learn to make musubi. Kenji is one of Anchorage's sushi pioneers and Sandy was born in Hawaii, where Spam musubi comes from. (BONUS: Ken took me through how to make rice, the most important part of musubi and sushi, and there are way more tricks to it than you might think.)

The more musubi I ate and the more I learned about it and its cousin, onigiri, or Japanese rice balls, the more I became convinced that it's kind of a perfect Alaska snack, savory, portable, cheap and with limitless variations. And then I couldn't help riffing on my own version, an homage to the egg McMuffin, my favorite road food, which a small panel of judges (read: two dudes who happened to be in my kitchen) said was great.

Oh: Have you tried Chicken Shack yet? Our reviewer Mara Severin has, and she's got some scoop for you on how to eat your best there. (You'll be surprised what she says to avoid.) Meanwhile, down in Kenai, Maya Wilson was having a heck of time trying to make her version of the Internet's favorite apple pie recipe in a storm that knocked out the electricity. Guess what? It STILL turned out awesome.

Meanwhile, hot tip: GO TO THE FARMERS MARKET THIS WEEKEND. It's the end of the season and the selection is GREAT. Market columnist Steve Edwards has everything you need to know. (Look what I bought last week in the Lutheran church parking lot at 15th Avenue and Cordova Street. Dahlias not pictured.)

Meanwhile, up in Fairbanks, food people are all waiting for Costco to open. Are there really words to describe how that place influences how we eat here? (Fairbanksans: Did you say you were going on the Facebook event page?)

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Over in the Facebook test kitchen, we're giving Sarah Palin's moose chili recipe a hard look. (No politics in the kitchen, please.) I really want to make it with her, but so far no answer to my requests. Join us and test some recipes? And, as always, email me with your food thoughts and questions. And, if you don't already, think about subscribing to the paper.

Here's hoping the musubi in your pocket is still warm. Thanks for reading.

ALASKANA RECIPE: SPAM MUSUBI AND THE MUSUBI MCMUFFIN

Julia O'Malley

Anchorage-based Julia O'Malley is a former ADN reporter, columnist and editor. She received a James Beard national food writing award in 2018, and a collection of her work, "The Whale and the Cupcake: Stories of Subsistence, Longing, and Community in Alaska," was published in 2019. She's currently writer in residence at the Anchorage Museum.

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