Mike Peters

The sun made a rare appearance in Seward last week, and while chef Robert Wilson's office has a window, he barely seemed to notice. Wilson, head of the culinary academy at the Alaska Vocational Technical Center, was back from his summer break to prepare for a new influx of students.

Local meteorologists may have thrown in the towel, but Anchorage chefs and bartenders are determined to give us great tastes of summer. You don't need us to tell you that the fresh shines through at Anchorage restaurants now, in an annual frenzy of king salmon, halibut, rockfish, fiddlehead ferns, just-gathered morels and rhubarb mead.

I tend to get giddy and wave my arms when I'm asked about a food favorite -- whether it's a restaurant, a recipe or simply that I've finally figured out how to caramelize beets on a grill.

It's a tiny spot, with half a dozen tables in play while the kitchen jams on more orders to go. So it didn't take much word of mouth to keep Pho Lena, Anchorage's newest Southeast Asian eatery, busy at peak hours.

The voice is deep and gravelly, almost musical, always expressive. Jens Hansen is looking out the window of his eponymous restaurant, which will celebrate its 20th year Monday at its annual Bastille Day dinner.

After sipping and nibbling through two formal wine dinners recently -- and reading Wine for Dummies cover to cover -- my senses were tweaked by last week's beer dinner at Kinley's Restaurant. It wasn't exactly a Hillary Clinton moment -- no Bud Light, no Frito pie, no bowling, and both the food and beer were distinctly high-end.

If you've been missing the warm aroma of sweet red bean pastry in the morning lately, it's time to change your commute slightly. Yummy Bakery, the Korean bakery formerly on Fireweed Lane that fired up at 2:30 a.m. to produce such delights, has reopened in a larger space on 36th Avenue just west of Spenard Road.

The spices can be unexpected, the heart-pumping music videos a little racier than you might expect in a Middle Eastern restaurant, and the service a little bumpy. If Turkish is your frame of reference for Middle Eastern food, this Palestinian couple from Israel is ready to change your expectations. "I want people to know the food we have in our homes and in my country," Nisrin says.

Visit this eatery on a holiday like Mother's Day, and it's clear that you're stepping into a local institution. If you came to Johann's early on this Sunday -- or after the rush, catching the last hour of service between 2 and 3 p.m. -- you might walk right to a table. In between, you could wait for 40 minutes or so.

When this Muldoon bakery expanded to a sit-down dining room, the Hawaiian theme that colored its pastry selection found full voice on lunch and dinner plates.

Not too many years ago, you might go to your favorite restaurant for years and never know who was churnin' out that great grub. Today, a meal is much more than a refueling for the bod. It's often the evening's entertainment -- and sometimes a spectator sport.

The tall tulip glass came to the table gleaming like an albino margarita. Snow-white, searingly sweet, gloriously icy, this festival of fresh coconut juice was impossible to stop sucking once I locked lips on the straw.

Sara Spudowski, the Dessert Queen of Sugar- Spoon, is fighting the urge to wrinkle her nose. She's working on recipes for sugar-free pastries that the dessert boutique she co-owns with Tom Bunger and Angie Alkire will start serving April 1.

Those sublime avocado melts are back. Ditto the wheat-gluten-free muffins and the familiarly holistic menu. Middle Way Cafe has reopened on Northern Lights Boulevard, a few doors down in the same Spenard mall. We dropped in to check out the big new space and chat with owner Jonathan Campabello recently.

Take a group of 20 foodies to a kitchen with five cooking stations. Send in a top local restaurant chef with a menu and recipes for a complete dinner. Add the raw ingredients for each dish and some well-matched wines. Everybody cooks. Everybody eats.