Anchorage Food Mosaic
The Anchorage Food Mosaic’s mission is to build and celebrate community through our cultural foods.
In our current conventional agricultural system, a monoculture replaces lots of genetically diverse plants with one uniform crop, which is highly susceptible to disease and failure. In the same way that monocropping is dangerous to the future of a crop; we must encourage diversity within our community to prevent disease.
In order for our community to thrive we need to embrace and nurture the “mosaic” of people in this city.
The Anchorage Food Mosaic features different community members through photos and traditional recipes. Let us cook each others cultural foods and share our stories with one another.
anchoragefoodmosaic.com
Slow Down Like a Spaniard: with Cake
The hardest thing to get used while studying abroad in Spain was the timing of Spanish meals. Spaniards eat a light breakfast, their largest meal of the day at 2 in the afternoon and a light dinner around 9 at night.
Inevitably, I would find myself with my stomach grumbling around 6.
Read more. 
Local Harvest Feast at the Botanical Gardens
You are invited to the inaugural Anchorage Food Mosaic Local Harvest Feast at the beautiful Alaska Botanical Garden.
Alaska’s rich abundance of fish and game, diverse people, wild edible greens, plump berries, and anything and everything your near-Arctic garden can grow are worth talking about – and eating – amongst friends new and old.
More details. 
Sopa Azteca: Mexican Traditions in Alaska
The smell of chicken stock simmering with spices, tomatoes and potatoes brings Rebeca Barbosa right back to her childhood kitchen in Central Mexico. She now prepares Sopa Azteca regularly at her home near Westchester Lagoon.
This is her mother's traditional recipe.
See the recipe.
The Power of Urban Gardens
The question was simple: why is gardening (in Alaska of all places!) important to you?
The responses were thoughtful, witty, and it quickly became clear to me that a garden represents something different to each person.
It is a small, yet powerful act of self-sufficiency, localism, and in some cases rebellion.
Read more. 
DIY Naan Bread
My quest for some at-home Naan bread on a snowy day was motivated by a recent trip to Bombay Deluxe.
That, and the terrible driving conditions preventing me from getting into town during Anchorage’s spring snow offload.
Learn more. 
Alaskan Wild Berry Multigrain Pancakes
I am not familiar with the cultural origins of pancakes, but I know that they were a part of my family culture growing up.
Now, they've became part of the culture of the family I’ve created with my husband as a weekend treat–especially with maple syrup and fried eggs.
Read more. 
Anchorage Food Mosaic Scavenger Hunt
Try something totally new and get to know your community with Anchorage Food Mosaic Bingo!
Participants who complete a row (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) will be eligible to win prizes from a random drawing of great food related prizes!
Learn more. 
Celebrating Diversity with a Holiday Feast
Come and celebrate the holiday season with a potluck gathering in Mountain View!
The Anchorage Food Mosaic and Anchorage Community Land Trust invite you to prepare a special, traditional, or cultural dish to share with others at this 2nd annual holiday feast.
Read more. 
Hunting Alaska’s Wild Chickens
While much of Alaska’s summer bounty is coming to an end - the salmon runs are done, moose season is wrapped up, berries are frozen on the ground - there are still some harvests to be had.
As we sit in the limbo of fall and winter, our lovely state bird becomes a stand out target on the landscape.
More on harvesting the birds.
In the Devil’s Domain: Cooking with Devil’s Club
A microscopic thorn pierces your fingertip, never to be retrieved. As the pain pulses, you carry on through the woods.
Devil’s Club is a plant that has the power to make most people cringe. It is a worst nightmare for off-the-beaten-path hikers who stumble upon it. It's also delicious.
Read more. 
American Hipster: Anchorage
This video profiles Anchorage Food Mosaic's Wild Harvesting contributors Jennifer and Tikaan!
There will be five episodes from Anchorage highlighting local "movers and shakers" in our creative community.
Kimchi and Me, A Love Story
Korean food, and Kimchi, is one of the world’s best-kept secrets.
Alaska doesn’t really have a a thriving Korean food scene yet, but it’s my hope that one day soon it will be a common option when going out for dinner, as well as cooking at home.
Read more. 
Celebrate Your Rhubarb, Alaska
In Alaska, rhubarb is one of the crops that grows with a pretty high success rate. The yield is excellent, it is a perennial - that means it grows every year - and harvesting the stalks is absolutely satisfying.
Some folks will even pull a shaker of salt out of their pocket at this moment, cover the stalk, and chomp in to it.
Click for recipe ideas. 
Salmon Delight
As the end of winter draws near I open the chest freezer to find it mostly empty. It is a sight that stirs both sadness due to a diminished food stash and excited anticipation for how to best fill it again in these imminent summer months. A freezer full of locally grown and wild harvested food is no small task.
With March here, it is time to start blocking out the weekends to ensure that we are in the right place at the right time for the many seasonal wild foods available in Alaska.
See the recipes. 
Wild Alaskan Low-Bush Cranberry Sauce
Chutneys, sauces, jams and other acidic fruit preserves are a refreshingly tart way to brighten up a winter meal. I happened to find myself with 5 gallons of low-bush cranberries, handpicked and straight from the Interior. Check out one of my favorite ways to prepare the berries and then try your own experiments.
Click for the recipe. 
Wild Meat Stew, Norway
Anna Barnwell and Øistein Berget are two Alaskans slash Norwegians that cannot get enough of either location. Anna – a born and raised Anchorageite – first lived in small town Norway as an exchange student, but has since returned multiple times both to visit her partner Øistein and most recently for grad school.
Although generally speaking, they miss Alaskan food more than they love Norwegian food culture, there are some highlights of Norwegian cuisine which they love. Norwegians have a rich tradition of using local food from their own ecosystem.
Click for the recipe. 
Food Day and Fair Trade Month
October 24th is National Food Day and October is Fair Trade Month!
Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life-parents, teachers, and students; health professionals, community organizers, and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers, and eaters of all stripes-to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way.
Click for more, and a fair trade recipe. 
Baba Ghannouj & Peasant Flatbread, Syria/Germany
Camilla Hussein grew up between Germany and Syria; her Dad is from the Syrian Golan Heights and her mom is Bavarian. She is a German national, but has been in the United States for over 23 years. Camilla came to Alaska four years ago because her then husband opened a pathology lab and she wanted her three home schooled daughters to be closer to their dad.
See her recipes.
Anchorage Food Mosaic Project: Ghormeh Sabzi, Iran
When Samuel Bayani Neek arrived to Alaska in November 2009, the Alaskan winter seemed tough. He left as a refugee from his native country of Iran. He lived in Turkey before coming to Anchorage. He did not know a single person in Alaska when he arrived.
Learn more, and check out the recipe.