After years of trying, I got to write about the phenomenon of Kenai Dip for the New York Times and also adapted a recipe (!) from Maya Wilson’s Alaska From Scratch Cookbook.
Here’s how it starts: “Drive three hours south out of Anchorage, through two mountain passes, down a highway dotted with rural churches and the occasional moose, and you’ll arrive in Kenai, a seaside town world famous for its salmon fishing. But in Alaska, the area is also known for a specialty made at the 50-year-old butcher shop called Echo Lake Meats.
On the package, the dip is labeled “World Famous Jalapeño Cheese Spread,” but in Kenai and the neighboring town of Soldotna, people refer to it as “Echo Lake cheese dip.” To everyone else in the state, it’s just “Kenai dip.”
“You find very few people of any age bracket that haven’t had it or don’t love it,” said Erick Watkins, who owns the shop with his wife, Holli.”