~Allright, I caught the old Alaska episode, and sat stunned for the 46 or so minutes of video your crew compiled of this state.
First off, you are the host of an internationally viewed television show about travel. When I heard you consistently mispronouncing the most basic of Alaskan names, ( Kenai is pronounced Keen-eye by the way ) I thought to myself "NO-one on this crew thought to ask pronunciation on these words he's tossing around.?" It calls into question the names of people, places, and foods I've heard you say on every episode I watched.

Now, to add insult to the scene, you travel to the Kenai penninsula, and hook up with a rural-native family because the matriarch of the house is a well respected native alaskan chef? ( I had never heard of her, but then if you had mentioned MY name to her, I'm certain she would have never heard of me either..)

There,as each other poster I've seen on the show mentions, in their lovely log home nestled into the center of our most expansive tourist area, you proceeded to eat the most artificial "Alaskan" meal I have ever seen. Everything from the chunk of muk-tuk set perfectly on the center of that mini-cutting board, to the 'one-piece' of native garb each family member was 'wearing' for the camera shoot, ( made me want to heave almost as much as that sweater you were given to wear for the show.)

You partake in "stinky heads" as they called them... Not a chance, that meat she was cutting was NOT the cheek meat from a stinky salmon head, it was at WORST fermented whitefish which most natives eat in liue of being able to have the3 "real thing" year round, preperation of that food is seasonal, and can not be done during 10 of our 12 months, we call them winter up here.

The last straw was the "Beluga Whale Pinwheel Roast", which you claimed your hostess said " Had become the premier recipie for Beluga in Alaska " ....Then she crushed what must have been twenty cloves of garlic into the thing and marinated it in BEEF broth !!

Your comment? " It...tastes like beef ! "

"Well, no *bleep* sherlock..." I could marinate an old shoe in beef broth and twenty cloves of garlic and it would taste like beef when I was done.

Absolutely unimpressed, each and every show I've seen of yours I've absorbed with the facination born of someone who has rarely had a chance to leave this state, MUCH less travel the world, your insightfull commentary on the rituals of food preperation, society, and the intrisic values of the cuisines and the people who keep them 'alive' in the world has kept me laughing and (semi) gagging right along with you through the shows.

The trip to my own home-state was a let down and a half, I don't know, not enough time? Money? or maybe it was all a 'set-up' based on friends and handshakes and deals made.

It certainly was not a trip to Alaska to sample true Alaskan cuisine, it was at best a shallow urban reconstruction of an era of life that is slowly passing from the culture we live in here. I wish you would come back and give it another go-round. There are allot of people, myself included who would host you and show you around the state to some of the places and faces you should have seen.

~Sorry to sould so critical, but it really cast the other episodes in a bad light.

~Jim

First of all, thank you for responding to this episode. I've never been to Alaska but it's one of the places I want to go most and I've done a considerable amount of research on the state. Now in comparison with this episode, I was highly disappointed. I'm interested in the native culture there but what was shown here was anything but native. Andrew's "knowledge" shown here also bothered me- especially after eating the agutuk (sp?) after snow shoeing and then doing nothing but complaining about it throughout the rest of the show. I don't know how it tastes or is supposed to taste but I'm willing to bet he doesn't either. A simple that's weird, etc, would have been sufficient there.

I have to completly agree with Jim on this episode. When Kenai was mispronounced at the beginning of the show I had to say to my self this is going to be another show about Alaska that Massacres all pronuciations of local locations. this is just the latest chance the travel channel has had to research before production and failed. I do love this show and was so let down. I just want the station to get it together and get the facts right. It was very florida tourist type show.
Paula
Alaska defect living in WA state

THANK YOU JIM!

As a guy who GREW UP in KEEN-EYE (kuh-nuy? Andrew, all you had to do was ask ONE person who actually lived in Alaska and they would have told you you were WAY off!!!) i was mad when Andrew totally botched my hometown's name. how embarrassing for a network called THE TRAVEL CHANNEL. totally makes me think twice about relying on what Andrew says, botching BASIC stuff about the places you go doesn't do well for your cred.

oh, and i like that he went gold panning in Girdwood, not Hope where everybody else goes.