One hasn't eaten Alaska king salmon until one has feasted on what are known as "white kings,' a rare delicacy which consists of white rather than pink, orange or red flesh.
White kings are accidental, or incidental catches whose white flesh derives from feeding on huge random rafts of tiny shrimplike crustaceans in the ocean deep known as "krill."
Sometimes the white flesh of the white kings may be only partly white, partly colored because their diet on their ocean feeding journeys may have consisted only partly of krill as they outswam or depleted the krill rafts, partly of other fish species.
A popular restaurant known as "Mike's Place" on Douglas Island in Gastineau Channel, connected by bridge to Juneau on the mainland, was the only place I've ever been served white king (it was illegal for retailers or restauranteurs to sell or serve incidentally caught king salmon).
The restauranters would secretly reserve servings of the rare catch ( it was never listed on the menu) for special customers whom they would call whenever a friendly or cooperative fisherman clandestinely sold them the white kings for a high premium.
During my extended residency in Juneau, where I covered the regular and special sessions of the legislature for some 20 years, I happened to be a close personl friend of legendary state senator John Butrovich from Fairbanks, who served in the State Senate for more than 30 years, and his charming wife, Grace.
They would always invite me to join them in one of these rare feasts whenever they were favored with a call from Mike's telling them he'd obtained some white king and would be quietly serving it for dinner that evening.
That was many years ago. I don't know whether these intriguing practices are still ongoing.
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