My First Salmon Bake

Before I begin this post, I think you should know two very random factoids about me.

1. I strongly dislike eating outdoors. When I go to restaurants I only eat out on the patios if I'm out voted by friends. If I know I am entering a situation where I have no choice but to eat outside, then it takes about 15 minutes of mental prep before I start my day to squash my weirded out vibes about being forced to eat outside.

2. I loathe blueberries. I think they taste bitter and rancid all at once. I mean, I'm not crazy about berries as a whole to begin with, but I enjoy different berry flavors in certain specific formats so long as those gross seeds aren't involved. But blueberries? I'd rather go hungry. Of the many foods I disliked as a kid but have since grown up and enjoyed, blueberries are one of the few to stay on the list of DO NOT EAT foods.

Yep. That is pretty much the face I make when presented with them.
Image from http://cheezburger.com/2669553664

So imagine my utter delight when I realized that the salmon bake I had paid $50 to attend was not only outside, but only had one dessert featuring my "favorite" fruit. Yep...this is where you insert my WTF face. However, since I paid for it, I was going to go. Besides. Surely the salmon and other offerings would make up for it, right?

Enter the Gold Creek Salmon Bake in Juneau Alaska. My money got me a round trip ride (on a school bus) from the port, an all you can eat buffet, and musical entertainment. When you first arrive, you are handed a cup of very creamy clam chowder that honestly didn't taste all that different from Progresso clam chowder with some extra herbs thrown in for good measure. Long lines (and I strongly dislike long lines!) wrap around to all the stations, including the general food buffet line and the grill where two guys were basting and flipping salmon on large metal racks. Luckily the eating area was mostly covered by plastic umbrella shaped things over the tables. The buffet included a lot of food that had Alaskan themed names- but weren't much different from what you would eat at home. (For example, the "Miner Baked Beans" were simply pork and beans with grilled hot dog thrown in for good measure.) Warning- do NOT eat the blackish looking pasta salad. It has some sort of balsamic vinegar/soy sauce flavor that is absolutely terrible and no one I saw ate it! I liked the gravy covered chicken, and the salmon, though a teeny bit over cooked, was decent. I enjoyed that even all the way up in Alaska, they had a black man on the grill.

Grilling the salmon

View of the eating area and the plastic umbrella shaped things keeping us dry

I liked that they had no problems telling us what the glaze was on the salmon (brown sugar and pineapple juice), and I DID eat a whole lot of food (after throwing away that terrible pasta salad).

I was also pleasantly surprised that I liked the Alaskan Blueberry Cake. Apparently, blueberries (and huckleberries) are to Alaska what peaches are to Georgia and oranges are to Florida. But remember, I hate blueberries so I got the piece with the least amount of berries in it after my godmother insisted I try it. It was absolutely delicious- very light and delicate tasting and it was enhanced by the lemonade I was drinking. Overall, I'd rate the food as OK. I didn't enjoy being out in the elements- especially while it was raining and in the mid 60s- but I could see how that would be fun for people that like that. They also had marshmallow roasting camp fire areas, and two cute mallard ducks that had no problem walking among the crowd and eating what they pleased.

My plate: Chicken w/gravy, grilled salmon, cornbread, wild rice,
pork and beans, and my lemonade with my blueberry cake

The gift shop on site was woefully under stocked and tiny-- several visitors asked the girl at the register if they had bottles of the sauce used on the salmon. I can't figure out why you would want to buy something as simple as brown sugar and pineapple juice, but nonetheless they lost quite a few sales because all she could do was giggle and say they were out of stock.

And the singer-- man he was terrible. I almost felt sorry for him because only one or two people clapped for his off-key, tone deaf songs that were more depressing than anything else. I would have rather they played a CD or something over the speakers.

I know it sounds like I'm griping a lot about the experience, and while there were things I liked and didn't like, I'm overall glad I had the experience. The Pacific Northwest version of a fish fry is apparently the salmon bake. But as our bus driver put it (whilst he passed around pictures of his children and gave hints that he would appreciate tips), it's obvious they make a LOT of money ($1.5 million annually we were told) and reinvest very little of that back into the dining site.

But hey, there are thousands of cruise ship passengers who will shell out that dough for the Alaskan experience. Who am I to knock their hustle?