FOOD FOR ESKIMOS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30364, 13 February 1964, Page 2

FOOD FOR ESKIMOS

Exotic Dishes Popular [By a Reuter Correspondent] CHESTERFIELD INLET, ■ (Canada). The housewife seeking dishes with a difference to add variety to her. family’s table may find something to her taste among menus gathered from the epicurean Eskimos of the Canadian north-west territories. Raw caribou tongue is considered a choice morsel and generally reserved for an honoured visitor or child of particular favour. Boiled caribou head, looked upon with relish, is prepared in half an oil drum filled with water over a fire stoked with iksiutark, a root herb that gives a tangy flavour to the dish. Other favourites to stimulate northern appetites are:— Nerukka, “high” meat—the partially digested rumen of a caribou. Ukkoserk, a large piece of “high” caribou liver cooked slowly in a soft stone kettle over a seal oil lamp—which also pleases Eskimo palates. The liver is liberally basted with caribou fat or, if available. seal oil Dried fish or pepsi with tiny squares of seal fat and ipko, which is dried caribou meat eaten with succulent pieces of fat taken from around the folds of the caribou’s eyes or from the kidneys. These are much sought after dishes in the north.