Rhythm of the Tides: my arctic experience

Country Food

We're in the arctic and we're still eating like southerners. Where's that wholesome country food that the Inuit rave about? I'm prepared to have some raw arctic char, seal and whale meat, but the restaurants serve the same fare as anywhere else in Canada. Steaks, hamburgers and chicken wings served with French fries are typical entries.

The first day here I ordered arctic char at the Frobisher Inn restaurant and was told that they didn't have any. I asked for caribou and muskox and they didn't have any. I didn't even have to ask about seal or whale. The waiter tells me, "We don't have any country food."

What happened to all the country food?

The answer is simple: there's not enough to feed a town of more than seven thousand people. As Iqaluit's population increased so did the demand for country food. But the supply actually decreased. One reason is the shortage of wild animals, especially caribou and muskox. The other is the shortage of hunters. Hunting is no longer done with sleds and dog teams. Snowmobiles and boats, which require money to purchase and operate have overtaken them. Moreover, guns have replaced the traditional hunting tools and they and the ammunition required are not cheap. This means that not all potential hunters can afford to hunt. Furthermore, in the past, every Inuit male was a hunter, now many find jobs in other areas of the economy, so the actual number of hunters has decreased significantly; and so has the supply of country food.

Therefore, even though country food is more nutritious and less expensive than food imported from the south, it's become very scarce.

Caribou meat, long a staple of the Inuit, is in short supply. The caribou herd on Baffin Island has been decreasing for decades and is now being threatened to extinction. Accordingly, strict hunting limits have been imposed. Each Inuit family has a limit of one for the entire year. But why is caribou on the verge of extinction while sea mammals like seals, walrus and whales are not? Is it possible that the increased numbers of southerners, whose palates favour caribou and muskox over sea mammals, part of the problem?

Although Don and I want to try whale and seal blubber, just for the experience, we crave a caribou or muskox steak, just as much as the other southerners here in Iqaluit. That's why the marine mammals are still plentiful and the land ones are not.

During the week of the Habitat for Humanity build we ate most of our dinners at restaurants. Lunches were served at the site and consisted of soup, salad and sandwich. After word spread that the team had a strong desire to try some country food, Caroline showed up one lunchtime at the construction trailer with arctic char and muscles that she and her family had caught a few days earlier.

Thanks to Caroline's and Tiivi's generosity, we have partly satisfied our desire for country food, but there is still caribou and muskox high on our list, and we can't go back home without eating a caribou steak.

Now that the rest of the team is gone Don and I cook our own meals and we're determined to eat caribou, even if we have to hunt it ourselves! We discover that there's only one place in town where we can buy caribou meat: the Country Food Store! We waste no time in finding it, but when we arrive there isn't much selection. We're told that the steaks and premium cuts disappear on the same day it arrives. Demand is high and the word spreads fast. Only a few frozen pieces of bone stewing meat are left. We choose the biggest one and go back to the apartment semi elated. We didn't score the victory we wanted, but we're not going back empty-handed.

I carve the meat from the bone and shape it into mini steaks to be fried with olive oil and seasoned with garlic powder and black pepper. I make sure to cook them rare to enjoy both the taste and the texture, as overcooking toughens meat, particularly lean meat like caribou.