Quick Bites

Special dinner to feature Spanish cuisine, wines

Chop House at Lake Lucille is hosting another multi-course wine dinner. The Taste of Spain will be held March 24.

The event includes a six-course meal featuring Mediterranean Spanish cuisine with a different pairing of Marques de Caceres wines with each course. Guests will enjoy guided wine tastings alongside chef-crafted dishes for an elevated and immersive dining experience.

The opening course will be a grilled crostini with Spanish sofrito, Iberica ham, Manchego cheese and radish slaw. That will be followed by an appetizer duet of beef tenderloin carpaccio and seared Alaskan scallop.

A classic Spanish-style seafood stew will be served up next with a hearty mix of calamari, prawns, mussels, halibut, and king crab.

An intermezzo of sage and lemon sorbet will precede the entrée, rosemary, thyme, and bay leaf braised short rib finished with a classic Spanish picada of ground roasted almonds, hazelnuts, parsley, garlic, olive oil.

Dessert is a Spanish almond cake served with sweet lemon cream and fresh melon.

This is a reservation-only event for guests 21 and older. Cost is $150. Doors open at 6 p.m., service begins at 6:30. Call 907-885-3225 to reserve your seat.

Special dinner to feature sake and cocktail pairing

Alaskana Social Club, one of the Mat-Su’s newer eateries, will be serving up a five-course Asian-themed dinner March 27. An intimate affair at the scenic property alongside Meier Lake near Wasilla has room for just 24 guests. Organizers say the dinner is “built to transport you somewhere a little farther from the everyday.”

The menu will feature a scallion pancake spring roll, sesame ginger sockeye poke, pork belly ramen, birch syrup-glazed duck, and matcha white chocolate mousse. Each course will be paired with a different sake or house-crafted cocktail.

The event, which costs $150, begins at 6 p.m. Reservations can be made online at www.alaskanasocialclub.com.

Reservations being accepted for Easter buffet

Chop House at Lake Lucille will be reprising its always impressive holiday buffet for Easter Sunday, April 5. Doors will open at 10 a.m., with the last seating at 3 p.m.

The lavish buffet spread will feature an array of breakfast and dinner entrees and side dishes, including Eggs Benedict and an omelette station, and grilled salmon picatta, chicken marsala, and baked mac and cheese. There will also be a carving station serving up roast prime rib and bourbon and honey mustard-glazed ham. Several salad and dessert options will be available, too, as will shrimp cocktail and fresh Alaska oysters.

Cost is $65 for diners 13 and up, $25 for kids 5 to 12, and free entry for kids 4 and under. This is a reservation-only event. Call 907-885-3225 to reserve your table.

Next community food workshop coming

Fresh off its successful potato soup-making event March 7, Homesteaders Community Center in Houston is looking ahead to April for its next event. A seed-starting workshop is designed to give local gardeners a leg up on the coming growing season.

The workshop, free to the public, is facilitated by instructors from Alaska Pacific University’s Kellogg Campus in Palmer and funded by the Mat-Su Health Foundation. It is tentatively scheduled for April 11. Interested people can call (907) 982-3122 for more information. Like the potato soup class, this one is the result of an October Houston-area community choice health summit sponsored by the Mat-Su Health Foundation.

Compiled by Mark Kelsey