Alaskans keep themselves warm with foods that include wild berries, cold water seafood and wild game. For a true food adventure, try traditional native foods. - By John Jacobs

Alaska has to be one of the last places on earth where such a rich variety of foods are grown, picked, gathered, hunted and fished in the same region, and then turned into wilderness-exotic recipes. There are plenty of states where people eat wild foods, but not in such an extensive variety as those found in Alaska. There is something quite special about the way the Alaskans have maintained their traditions and adapted foods originally meant for survival into delectable dishes that include desserts, meats, stews and a host of foods filled with wild berries.

The Subsistence and Symbolism of Akutaq It could be a bit risky to request native Alaskan foods because they are recipes born out of a need to survive. The traditional diet of Alaska’s indigenous people, consisting of 20 different cultures, is best defined as subsistence, but that does not give it the credit it deserves. Indigenous foods represent the heartiness, adaptability and creativity of the people living in a harsh, unforgiving climate.

Consider akutaq, affectionately called Eskimo Ice Cream. Its nickname is deceptive. Though akutaq (pronounced ah-goo-duck) sounds like dessert, it is a staple dish traditionally made by whipping the fat of whatever wild game was available – reindeer, bear, caribou, seal – and then adding animal oil (often seal oil), native berries and snow. Sometimes ground fish was mixed in. Indigenous Alaskans did not have sugar so it was left to the berries to add the flavor.

Made for thousands of years, akutaq was carried on hunting trips. It was also shared with other members of the community when it was time for special ceremonies or events like the first hunt a boy would go on. Today, akutaq is still made by indigenous peoples, but it has also been adapted to the finest restaurants by adding sugar and Crisco while still using seal oil and reindeer fat.

It is symbolic of the traditional way of life versus modern life, and typifies how foods in Alaska are truly a cultural experience. It is a state where old and new have blended together, but the old delightfully still outweighs the new.

Restoring the Food Relationship If there were such a term as “modern-old” it would be used frequently in Alaska.There are not too many places in the world where people can explain that they hunt and eat bear, caribou and moose with regularity. Alaska is unique in that there are thousands of hardy souls living in the wilderness and still depending on their hunting skills for food. When very modern big-city inhabitants outside Alaska boast of fine sushi, it is with an air of superiority. They have nothing on muktuk sushi rolls with sea asparagus, a creation of Chef Rob Kinneen of Tlingit heritage. He is chef-entrepreneur, having started Fresh49.com with his wife Carolyn Kinneen. This entrepreneurial effort researches, investigates, and documents Alaska’s food traditions and bounty.

Rob Kinneen, born in Petersburg, Alaska, has impeccable qualifications and experience. He is the modern face of an Alaska that is preserving its cultural heritage while adapting to the contemporary environment in which Alaska is not quite so remote and not quite so independent. He was spurred into entrepreneurship by the fact Alaska had reached a point where it was sourcing 95 percent of its foods from outside the state (except for the wilderness dwellers). The Fresh 49 premise is that food should be sourced locally and seasonally, restoring the food relationship with health, natural products, and culture. Alaskan cuisine, whether camp fire roasted moose or plucked berries.

The intense relationship of Alaskan food and culture is evident in all the recipes. The food table is loaded with cold water seafood like Alaskan salmon. It is cured, smoked and turned into jerky. Salmon is grilled with olive oil and a variety of peppers. and it can be baked with butter, lemon juice, and garlic pepper. Also found is beer battered halibut, pan fried trout, fish soup, fish loaf, salmon chowder, and smoked and boiled King Salmon fish heads and tails.

Reading a list of recipes is like a wilderness adventure. Ever heard of moose borsch? Ground moose meat is simmered with white beans, a variety of vegetables and cabbage. How about “oogruk flippers” (seal flippers)?

The more traditional epicureans can take heart because berries rule in Alaska. So does sourdough bread. In fact, the slang word for an Alaskan is “sourdough.” People way back who lived in gold camps or were trappers also made bannock, a stiff dough that can be wrapped around a stick for cooking over an open fire. Contemporary foods that rely on recipes passed down through the generations of 19th century gold miners, explorers and adventurers include items like halibut pie, deer sausage, goosetongue (sea plantain), rhubarb crisp and Finnish sweet bread.

Such a Berry Good Time New Orleans may make the goods time roll, but Alaska makes the berries get picked. For thousands of years people have been picking berries on the tundra to use in recipes or to pickle and preserve for winter survival. Blueberry hunters carry small horns they blow to ward off bears that love the tundra berries as much as (likely more than) humans.

Alaska is loaded with berries that make their way into recipes. They include the small, sweet blueberries, bush cranberries (not cranberries), salmonberries (ah-pick), watermelon berries, crowberries, cloudberries, lingonberries, currants, raspberries and mossberries. There are over 50 different kinds of berries in Alaska. Berries are used to make jelly and syrup and are added to recipes for sweetness. The berries appeal to Alaskan bears so pickers have to give leeway to the wildlife, but the rewards are immense in the form of fresh blueberry pie, jam and syrup.

When visiting Alaska, be daring when eating time-tested recipes at any of the restaurants. Try fire-roasted salmon, reindeer stew, soup with black seaweed (laak’ask), pancakes with bog cranberries (k’eishkahaagu), or an Alaskan stew with shellfish and fish. Heck, why not try them all?

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