Nalukataq & Mikaaq
 |
| Prayer before the Mikaaq feast |
There were a couple more Nalukataqs last week. On Thursday,
I arrived at the festival right at noon, just in time for a warm bowl of goose
soup and homemade bread. I even got an Eskimo Doughnut! (delicious fried dough
made by a native). It was very windy and cold so I left around 2pm.
On Saturday I attended another Nalukataq. This time I showed
up around 3pm. This part of the feasting consisted of more homemade bread, fruit, cake and of course the main
dish, Mikaaq (whale meat that has been fermented in whale blood). Yes, I tried
it. Although the idea of eating miqaak (pronounced “Mik yuck”) made me sort of
want to vomit, I decided I can’t spend all summer up here and not try it.
Especially because when I looked around, little children were eating it like
candy! Surprisingly, it actually tasted sort of good. It’s difficult to
describe the flavor, but it was sweet and the taste lingered in my mouth for
quite a while. I don’t think I’d eat it again, but it was definitely worth the
experience.
I also had my first taste of Eskimo Ice Cream, whipped
caribou fat that is mixed with berries, dried meats, etc. The kind I tried was
dried meat/caribou jerky flavored. It was very creamy and pretty tasty. I’d
really like to try the berry flavored kind sometime!
 |
| About to eat mikaaq |
 |
| Giant bucket of mikaaq |
Birds
It’s baby bird season! We found a bird nest in one of the
dog houses outside the vet clinic. The eggs have hatched and little baby birds
were right inside. There’s also a little bird nest at my house. It has 4 eggs
in it right now. I hope they hatch soon!
 |
| Bird nest outside my house |
 |
| Baby birds outside the vet clinic |
Native Dress Day
The North Slope Borough is celebrating its 40th anniversary. In
celebration, we have a “spirit week” at work. Yesterday was wear red day and
today was “native dress day.” Briana, a Inupiat coworker at the clinic, brought
in an atiqluk (ladies snowshirt)
that was too big for her. She even said that I can keep it. Thank you so much
Briana!
 |
| Rose, Briana, & I in our atiqluks |
No comments:
Post a Comment