Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives: A Culinary Adventure in Anchorage, Alaska

As we stepped into Pagoda Restaurant in North Pole, Alaska, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and curiosity. The restaurant's unique blend of flavors and ingredients had caught my attention, and I was eager to see if it lived up to the hype. Our host, chef Derrick Green, greeted us warmly and led us to our table.

"Everything's waffles here," he said with a smile. "Our waffle batter is made with love, and we've perfected the recipe over the years." And indeed, the first thing I noticed was the inviting aroma of freshly baked waffles wafting from the kitchen. Sarah, Derrick's wife, explained that their inspiration for waffles came from her own struggles with cancer. "I wanted to find a way to help my loved ones eat healthier without sacrificing flavor," she said.

As we perused the menu, I was struck by the creativity and variety of dishes on offer. Mac and cheese, barbecue sauce, and chicken sandwiches were just a few examples of the eclectic options available. But what truly caught my attention was the addition of healthy ingredients to many of their dishes. "We like to think that our waffles are not just delicious but also nutritious," Derrick said proudly.

Next up was the confused cousin, who ordered a mac and cheese dish with barbecue sauce. The combination may sound unusual, but trust me, it worked beautifully. The creamy mac and cheese was perfectly balanced by the tangy, sweet flavors of the BBQ sauce, while the addition of chicken provided a satisfying crunch. And let's not forget the waffle – crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and infused with all sorts of tasty ingredients.

But what truly sets Pagoda Restaurant apart is its commitment to using high-quality, locally sourced ingredients whenever possible. From the Mediterranean spice blend used in their cooking to the heavy cream that adds richness to their cheese sauce, every ingredient has been carefully chosen for its flavor and nutritional benefits. Even the chicken, which is cooked to perfection with a crispy exterior and juicy interior.

As we finished our meal, chef Derrick walked us through his kitchen, explaining the intricacies of each dish and sharing stories behind the recipes. It was clear that food was not just a passion but a way of life for him and his team. And as we prepared to leave, I couldn't help but feel grateful for this culinary adventure in Anchorage, Alaska.

Derrick's wife, Lee Ron, added, "After my husband took waffles to the public, working his way to opening this joint that he runs with me, people started to ask about our story. We were just a couple who wanted to make a difference through food."

From waffle batter to mac and cheese, Derrick Green's menu is full of tasty creations that are both familiar and innovative. And while the restaurant may not be from the main stream, you will find that this place serves up good food.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThe dilly dilly up for table six.What are we going to make first? We can makethe dough.Water, flour, yeast.Olive oil, salt.The big old hook. This used to anchor aship.This does not look like pizza dough making.Let that go for about 10 to 15 minutes.We typically boil it right after we mix it,put it in the fridge and let it growovernight. What do we do next?Now we're going to make the sweet Italiansausage, garlic, thyme, oregano, paprika,brown sugar, wing of bat fennel, onionpowder, red pepper, basil parsley, blackpepper. Where's the dill?Oh, that comes later.Oh, salt and red wine vinegar.So we mix that up into this pork, and thenwe put it in the fridge overnight.Now we're going to make our dilly drizzle.It starts with a ranch base.So we have mayonnaise, sour cream.Got it. Parsley, onion powder, salt, thyme,dill water, chives, granulated garlic, blackpepper. And that's our ranch.To make it the dilly drizzle, we'll add redpepper, parsley, parmesan, garlic and alittle olive oil. What's next?Roasted garlic, white sauce.So we got roasted garlic, some butter cream,parmesan, black pepper.Cook that down. Make it a nice paste.Let's see it, chef. First we stretch thedough.Look how nice and light and tender that is.The white sauce. Sparkle, mozzarella.This is where things go off the rails.Right here, folks. Whoa.You're going pickle happiness.We do a lot of pickles on the dilly, dillyand just a little sausage.Very nice. Let's go cook it in the oven.How long? 90s to two minutes.The type of wood birch.And then we have our dilly drizzle.Drizzle with the drizzle.It's delicious. I like biting into it andgetting the pickle crunch.I like the fresh acidity contrasting to thecreaminess of the base spread.And then you get the crumble from thesausage.That's a destination pizza.So I'm here in downtown Anchorage, Alaska.And you're going to love this story.A local chef has two restaurant concepts.He's got a sports bar and he's got a highend restaurant.Well, then the pandemic hits.And what's he do? He pivots.He brings the two restaurants together andkind of makes like a greatest hits album ofall the menu items because this dude's arock star.This is Hope Quarter Grill, our singleJambalaya.Alex is super creative.Cook, Alaskan oysters pickup.It was a.Little deceiving coming in.You always assume it's going to be veryAlaskan and rustic, but then it's a littlefancier.Which comes from a deep culinary arsenal thatallowed owner Alex Perez to merge his casualand fine dining concepts into one spot.We kind of went with Hope Quarter 2.0, madethe food a little bit easier, a little moreapproachable. In the super kitchen, thiskitchen can produce just about anything underthe sun. Spicy chicken Yoki.The spicy chicken with enoki is excellentItalian.Dumplings, gorgonzola, cream sauce and thenblackened chicken.And then you always have leftover sauce thatyou can dip your bread in.All right, so what are we going to make?Homemade gnocchi.Roasted russets nicely riced salt and peppereggs, parmesan.You can see how much parmesan cheese justwent in.So I already know that he's the gangster.And then we start kneading it.It's just going to be enough flour to bindthis and that's it.Because you don't want to overwork thedough.Roll this out. Look at how tender this is.You touch it too hard. It's going to flattenstraight up pillows.Gorgeous. I mean that.Just drop our gnocchi into the salted water,blanch them off so they'll tighten up.What's next? Blackening spice.Cayenne. Wait, wait, wait, wait.This is blocking spice, not kill them.Spice, paprika, Cheese.Sorry, Paprika. Good.Okay. All right. Oregano, salt.You're an iodized salt guy.It's going to caramelize better.I'm not arguing with you. I use kosher witheverything else.White pepper, granulated garlic time.Now we can put the cayenne That's stillheavy handed.Of course. Black pepper, Of course.Granulated onion.Nobody does this thing on sugar.Are we going chicken breast or chicken?Thigh? Chicken breast. Have you ever heardof chicken?Mamou We make chicken.Mamou Get out.We have made it. We do Fat Tuesdaysspecials.I think we might be related.Step Brothers, The Alaskan edition going totake our chicken breast blackened seasoning,trying to get a little bit of a crust on it.Take our clarified butter, little seasoningon top of that controlled burning of thespices. 30s to a minute on both sides, thenfinish it in the oven.We're going to make the gremolata Italianparsley, sun dried tomato, garlic, freshlemon zest. Okay, final step.Start the sauce with butter in the pan,fresh garlic, heavy cream, a little salt andpepper into our saute pan.Gorgonzola, a little salt and pepper forflavor.This is not going to be lacking in flavor.Add the gnocchi. Let them finish in thesauce just builds flavor.Black and chicken green onion whisk just tocut through the fat Gremolata a littleparmesan Reggiano.That's Nonna's gnocchi.It's outstanding.Like savory marshmallows.Gorgonzola is very polarizing.It can be the bull in the China shop, andit's judiciously handled here.I don't even know how to spell judiciously.You know how I spell it. No, go ahead, Matt.Wrong every time. Thank you very much, Matt.That's how I spell it.The blackening on the chicken is exactlywhat Blackening is supposed to be, and thechicken is so tender and so moist on theinside.The gremolata is the little kiss at the end.And that's why I keep dabbing to the topthat is so perfectly executed.Dynamite dish dropping yolky and the spicychicken Yolky pillowy.Goodness, it's my favorite dish.Every time I come here, I can't help but getit.Chicken is perfect.The spiciness of the blackening goes greatwith the gorgonzola cream sauce.So when I hear there's a jazz joint that hasa real deal.Cuban chef. Well, that says triple D allover it.This is Jazz Bistro on fourth.Churrasco Order up.We start with cilantro and parsley, freshtomato, salt and pepper.Fresh oregano. Paprika.Mixed peppers again.Onions. Cumin.Jalapenos. Bell peppers.Water. Red wine.Vinegar. Heat it up in the pan.Next up, we're going to.Make a Rico sound sauce.We start with the peppers, carrots, yellow.Bell peppers, onions, red bell peppers, andagain, the jalapenos.Rico son is going loco.We got some lemon lime juice, tomato juice,salt and pepper and some oregano.Cilantro, again.Water. Olive oil.Rico, stop pushing the.Microsoap because son pushes the blender.What have we got.Going on, bro? Okay, we're going to slice upabout a quarter inch.Add some olive oil, get that really hotbefore we put the steak.Green. Olives, onions, garlic.We had the meat.That's always put out my pan fires, Ricosouthern style Rico, some salsa vinegar.It's sofrito that we made earlier.While that's cooking, we're going to makethe chimichurri, cilantro, parsley, mixedfresh onions, salt and pepper, paprika andachiote culantro, cilantro, tomato, a littleolive.Oil and some lemon lime.So we're going to play the churrascochimichurri.Let me.Rico it.Mambo, baby. Mambo!Mambo! It's actually dangerous to think ofyou with a real big kitchen.Then I don't know what would happen becauseof this much flavor is coming out of thislittle kitchen. You're like the culinaryTony Montana right now.Dude.Well, one taste, one love, one Rico.I said it once and I'll say it again.You got to slow down and take a look around.I'm here in Juneau, Alaska, and every otherday, thousands of people get off those cruiseships and they walk right by this funkylittle joint where the chef who's workedthrough the ranks and studied a little bitin Italy has opened up a joint where he'sscratch making hand, making just abouteverything on the menu.It's Alaskan food with an Italian influence.This is in Bocca al Lupo.Thunderdome for B4.If you want really amazing Italian food likethis is the place to go.Homemade pasta, homemade pizza dough.Going in with two sausages.You can tell his style of cooking is not fromhere.Yeah, it's actually a little something Boschooler brought back from his culinarytraining in Italy. What does the name mean?It means end of the wolves mouth.It means good luck.See, I'm learning Italian. So you doWoodfired pizza.What else? Fresh pasta.Our own charcuterie.Get in the summertime. We're kind of moreseafood focused.King crab Pappardelle, 25.King crab pappardelle.It's hard to stop eating, that's for sure.Chunks. A big, meaty, juicy Alaskan wildcaught king crab.And the pasta is perfectly al dente.Every time you have.It, it's heaven on earth.What are we going to make?King Crab pappardelle.Let's get into it.We got to make pappardelle noodles, lowgluten flour, egg yolks, olive oil, sea salt.You making all the pasta in house?We make all the pasta in house.We always have a gnocchi.The Janaki.I love Ganashi.Ganashi.Ganashi. I got to knead it till it's smooth.Let it rest.Roll with the sheeter.Sprinkle semolina on.Cut it by hand. Yep.All right. What are we gonna do about.We got to basically make, like, a seafoodbisque, and that's our pasta sauce.Okay. Got clove, green peppercorns, bayleaf.We got to grind that all up.Combine it with sweet paprika, ginger,cinnamon, sweet Calabrian chili powder, staranise, allspice, cardamom, cardamom, mustardis our spice.Something got my tongue? Is that from thegreen peppercorn?That or the.Cinnamon? Okay. What are we doing next?Olive oil. Break down our king crab legs andwe got our crab shells here.Garlic. Got it.Carrots, onion, leeks, fennel, celery andginger.Then time to cook all that down.We add in tomato paste.Copious amounts.White wine.Glaze it, lemon.Juice, fish sauce, seasoning, good.Amount of that.Cover it with crushed ice.You got to explain this ice game to me.It just allows that broth to, like, build upreal slowly and gently.And then by the time it's all melted, it'sgoing to simmer for maybe 30 minutes.So we get a ton of flavor.I've never seen it.Well, there you go. Come to Alaska.We do things cold.I mean, he was waiting to say that I wasn't.He was waiting to say the entire time.So after this simmers, we're going to blendit and then strain it.We got our pappardelle noodles throwing ourbisque base.Beautiful noodles.Throw in some crab.You're generous.Lemon crumb.Fresh, gorgeous.Finish it off with this sorrel that ourbuddies are growing.Delicious.The bisque is really nice and light andrefreshing.The crab is not tough.The pasta is the heart of the dish and issuper tender.And the key is the creme fraiche.Two of my favorite things crab bisque and apasta dish.So we're here in Anchorage, Alaska, andyou're on Triple D, We always say if it'sfunky, we'll find it. Well, this goes beyondfunky, this goes into inspirational, thisgoes into a place I don't think we've everseen before.You take a 21 year military vet who learnshow to cook, teaches himself to help hisfamily through cancer and turns it into arestaurant that everybody's talking about.This is waffles and whatnot.Sarah's waffle up.Everything's waffles here.And these are the best waffles in town.More waffle.Batter. They're appealing to the eye.And your tongue will be happy.But it was actually health.That was Derrick Green's true inspiration.Recipes and everything that I came up withliterally, was because I had a wife that hadcancer, and I also had a mom that hadcancer.And you can hide a lot of ingredients in thewaffle so that they don't have to take asmany pills.After his wife passed, Derrick took hiswaffles to the public, working his way toopening this joint that he runs with hiswife, Lee Ron.For confused cousins, This one has mac andcheese and it has barbecue sauce.Chickens are phenomenal.You will not go away hungry.What are we into, chef?This is the waffle for the confused cousin.Chicken sandwich. Confused is right here.Almond milk, flour, baking powder, purevanilla.I have a second type of vanilla.Also a pure vanilla white sugar.Brown sugar. And then we have a substitutefor eggs.Keep it vegan.Coconut oil, butterfly.Next step. Chicken coating.Unbleached all purpose. Flour, adobo,granulated garlic, white pepper.This is a mediterranean spice blend that weimport from Israel.That's awesome. Parsley granulated onion,kosher salt.Got it. Next, the chicken.We're going to go dry.Flour, egg wash, dry flour, grease.Three 56 minutes.What are we making next? Garlic, Mac.Okay. Colby Jack cheese.Oh, you're going immersion circulator?Yes. Aren't we?Chefing it up a bit now.Sharp cheddar cheese, sodium citrate to makesure that it doesn't clump.Up and some heavy cream.Seal that up.Why not just melt it in a pan like everybodyelse?Sweet hotshot.We have our noodles in the pan.Eggs, bacon fat.Oh, so another vegan dish.Nothing vegan about this one, brother.Ghee, garlic salt, granulated garlic, whitepepper.You got to think about white pepper.The white pepper is there because a lot ofour dishes have turmeric and activeingredient that is curcumin.Very healthy for you. And one of the bestways for the body to absorb that is mixedwith white pepper.Okay, Dump that cheese sauce and some heavycream in this.The last thing we have to make is a barbecuesauce.And then the barbecue sauce is part of thehouse sauce.Correct.Water, brown sugar, paprika, mustard, garlic,black pepper salt.All right. Ketchup, lemon juice, molasses,liquid smoke, light corn syrup.Take me to flavor town, brother.So for our house sauce, we're going to beginwith some hot sauce ranch, then that barbecuesauce.Honey, let's see it, bud.Grill some cheese.Chicken, maple syrup.Scoop up this side of cheese.Slap some bacon on there.Garlic, mac, spicy barbecue.Smash that down, Finish that off with alittle bit of hot sauce.I'm actually scared.Can I phone a friend?I want to know how much this little piggyweighs.£2. You think I need more of that in my day?You eat this.I don't even know how to attack it.And pick it.Up. You have a pressure washer.That's a bite.Mac and cheese is delicious.Chicken's nice. Crisp on that nice crunch.One of my favorite things is that spicybarbecue sauce that contrasting with themaple syrup. Get the hot, get the spice, andthen you get the sweet.It is a gigantic juxtaposition of flavorsand textures.Dynamite. Here's your confused cousin.We do not show up in Alaska without theAlaska superstar of diners, Drive-Ins anddives, the one and only Benny Lynn fromPagoda Restaurant in North Pole, Alaska.So what do you think?Good flavor. Barbecue sauce.Very nice. Good waffle, crispy chickencooked just right.\n"