Dining on the Wilderness Express

Wilderness Express cars operate on the Alaska Railway. The cars are modern but provide an old-fashioned first class rail experience. The top floor is fully domed for a continuous view of the spectacular Alaska scenery. The bottom floor provides white tablecloth dining service.

The trip down to Denali started in the morning. I couldn't pass up the blueberry pancakes. The syrup comes from Alaskan birch, which gives a different flavor from maple syrup that is very nice. The reindeer sausage was excellent, with a porky flavor.

My return to Fairbanks was my chance to try dinner. Alaskan fish is uniformly superb so I ordered the halibut. The fish was tender and flaky, nicely moist, and very flavorful.

I couldn't resist this berry tart for dessert. Berries are another Alaskan mainstay and these were superb. The preparation hit just the right amount of sweetness to show off the flavor of the berries.

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Eating Around Georgia Tech: Ecco

Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course)

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Cava is a DC area chain with light Mediterranean food. Saibal encouraged me to try lunch at their airport location and I was very happy with the experience. I ordered falafel on SuperSalad with assorted other toppings. The falafel was tasty. The SuperSalad was light, flavorful, and very easy to eat. Overall, a healthy and enjoyable lunch, something you can't always say about airport eating.

Atlanta etc.: Marilyn Wolf's Food Blog and Restaurant Blog

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