Eating Alaska; treat guests to the ultimate Alaska experience: food!(dining on Alaska grown food)

• Author: Campbell, Melissa

OK, so summer is just around the corner. Guests from Outside are coming soon, and you know they'll want you to provide that "Alaska Experience:" A trip to Mount McKinley (hope for that one clear day so they can actually see the mountain top), a glacier cruise (pray for warm weather and glacier calving) and a fishing charter (please let them catch something).

Since you are already obliged to provide guests with the greater attributes of Alaska, why not go a step further? Feed them nothing but Alaska foods! But wait, this is Alaska. Can one eat three well-balanced meals consisting of nothing but Alaska-made and grown foods?

"I see no reason why not," said Jim Wamberg with the Alaska Manufacturers' Association. "There are some limits: In the winter, it might be a little difficult to eat Alaska grown vegetables and fruits. But in the summer..."

Currently about 75 companies use the Alaska Grown logo, according to Dan Bagley of the state Department of Agriculture. Alaska Grown is a logo that shows foods are raised in this state.

The program isn't regulated, however, and the logo essentially delineates an honor code. Bagley said the department has developed proposed revisions to the program that will offer consumers a guarantee, but the process had been on hold waiting for the appointment of a new director to the Agriculture Department.

"The revisions have gone out to users, but until somebody is appointed and we get a clearer path, we can't release them," Bagley said.

Alaska Business Monthly came up with menus to help with ideas. Most foods are in your local grocer, especially those in the Anchorage area. Others will take a little legwork and planning. But, hey, if you're driving from Anchorage to Denali, you'll pass right through the heart of Alaska's growing grounds in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. Why not stop along the way to stock up the cooler? If all else fails, get on the Internet.

These foods are a surprising treat for family, as well as visiting business associates, dinner parties, lunches, you name it. Get creative.

LITE BREAKFAST

Bagels

Jam or Honey

Yogurt

Coffee

Orange Juice

HEARTY BREAKFAST

Sourdough Pancakes

Syrup

Eggs

Reindeer Sausage

Coffee

Milk

Regardless of a preference for a lite breakfast or a hearty start, most people reach first thing for a cup of coffee. For the Alaska Breakfast, start with Kaladi Brothers coffee. Based in Anchorage, Kaladi buys some of the finest raw beans available from three continents, then roasts the beans--about 2,000 pounds a day--in a small warehouse in South Anchorage.

Beans are roasted as needed for Kaladi's seven coffee shops and to sell through various retail and wholesale markets, said Josh Marineau, the company's coffee buyer. Only about an 18-hour supply of roasted beans are ready at any given time.

Beans are roasted using a relatively new hot-air method, and the heat is digitally monitored to stay at around 460 degrees. Roasting takes about 10 minutes, then the beans are packaged or sent to coffee houses and...