“So how does it taste?” asked the attendant at the desk of the local village airport as I chewed on the piece of muk tuk she had just given me.
“Umm … it tastes kind of like sushi,” I said, trying to decide whether or not I liked the taste of this traditional native food, considered by many to be a delicacy.
A firm believer in immersing myself in the local culture when I travel, I always try to sample the local food I’m offered, at least once.
In the past, this has led to trying anything from the traditional rice and beans of Central America to less traditional items such as taro root served with goat cheese.
In Nome, this has led to trying moose, musk ox and muk tuk, all edible items that have rarely, if ever, come out of my mouth in the form of words, much less entered my mouth in the form of food.
Many people in rural Alaska, primarily Alaska Natives, still depend upon a subsistence lifestyle, using plant and animal resources as a primary means of survival. Maintaining such an existence means engaging in activities such as hunting, fishing, and berry picking.
In Tennessee, for me hunting usually means hunting for the brand of organic milk that is on sale, fishing conjures up images of watching my uncles reel in fish stocked in a pond and berry picking is something I did for fun as a child.
At home when I want food, all I have to do is drive to the nearby grocery store and I find an ample supply of anything and everything my palate could desire. In Nome, there is no such supply.
My first weekend in Nome, I was invited by one of the local Nomeites to pick berries. I was used to picking berries as a child, so I thought it would be a casual outing. Instead I found myself engaged in an intense search of the artic tundra for small blueberry-yielding plants.
We squatted, searched and picked for three hours until each of us had over a gallon of the pea-sized berries in our buckets.
“Crowberries and cranberries should be ripe in a few weeks,” said my new friend as we drove back toward Nome.
Two days later, my friend invited me for another round of picking blueberries. Although I couldn’t understand why we were picking berries twice in the same week, I decided that I might as well take advantage of the opportunity.
We loaded up her truck with our berry buckets and drove away from Nome. About 15 minutes into our journey, my friend stopped her truck on the side of the road. There were no berry bushes in sight, just a small stream.
For a minute, I thought we might be lost. My friend went around to the back of the truck, put down the tailgate and proceeded to take a fishing rod and pair of boots from the bed of the truck.
“Wait,” I said, slightly confused. “I thought we were going to pick berries.”
“Oh, we are,” she said. “But this is a great spot to catch salmon. My family’s fished here for years and almost always catches a few good ones.”
“Oh, OK,” I said, still somewhat confused as to why we had stopped to fish. Although we fished for almost half an hour, we didn’t catch anything and soon left to pick berries. We returned to Nome with two more gallons of blueberries.
The next day, I decided to visit one of the three small grocery stores in Nome to buy something to cook for dinner.
I was shocked at the prices I saw: $1.80 for a pound of bananas, $5.99 for half a gallon of milk and $6.50 for a small bag of salad greens.
I left the store, thinking that perhaps I could find a cheaper meal at Nome’s one franchise restaurant, a sandwich shop. My small sandwich, bag of chips and a drink cost almost $10.
And it was in that moment that I realized the importance of berry picking, salmon fishing and moose hunting. For the people of Nome and the surrounding villages, several gallons of berries picked in the summer means a source of fruit to eat in the winter.
A successful hunt of moose or musk ox or a catch of several salmon provides a family with enough food to eat throughout the winter. Hunting, fishing and berry picking aren’t just hobbies; they are a means of survival for many people in rural Alaska.
Even though the past few weeks I’ve traded my usual semi-vegetarian diet for one of exotic meats such as moose and musk ox and my apples and bananas for blueberries and crowberries, I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to participate in the traditional style of living that many native Alaskans still practice today.

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