local flavor

during my last meal in philadelphia (breakfast at delancy street), lauren said to me- why are you eating salmon (referring to my lox) that's all you're going to be eating for the next year! no way, i said, there will be lots of food. well, i was partially wrong- we eat A LOT of salmon- but we're spoiled because it is literally the freshest food ive ever ate- taking it out of the river and having it for dinner that night. oh the joys of subsistence living. after attending russian orthodox service this weekend bridget, chelsea, jesse & i were invited to a feast for first catch. first catch is when a child shoots their first wild animal-traditionally, they have a feast to give all of it away- the family has a feast to celebrate- this feast celebrated two of their kids- one that got a moose in the fall and their younger son that shot his first ptarmigan. as we were eating a spread of entirely native foods (with the exception of jello)i was thinking about all of the "interesting" foods that we've had a chance to enjoy this year...including but not limited to (in alphabetical order):

-akutaq aka eskimo ice cream (crisco, sugar, berries- mix 'em up)
-akutaq II (made with pike eggs instead of crisco)
-ayuq (tundra tea- made with incense like plants from the tundra)
-beaver
-berries picked right from the tundra
-caribou
-dried pike dipped in seal oil
-duck
-fish skins
-fish eggs
-moose
-ptarmigan
-salmon (cooked about a million different ways)
-salmon strips (like, salmon beef jerky)
-seal fat- that hangs out in the seal oil- eaten like you take a tequila shot- lick salt on your hand and down the hatch- but make sure you have a chaser...)
-seal oil
-seal soup
-smelts (small fish- they come before the kings start running)
-stink heads (take a salmon head, bury it in the ground for a few weeks, dig it up, chew & swallow)
-walrus
-whale
-wild goose eggs

going to the grocery store will probably be more of a shock to my system than any of these foods...nancy says that she's going to eat before she comes to visit. where is her sense of adventure??

hanging smelts to dry with our neighbor, martha: