The Feast

Our Ride to the School

Yesterday was the big feast at the school that most of the town attends to celebrate Thanksgiving and eat. First course consisted of Quaq, pronounced "coke" which is frozen fish. It was funny when we got to the school we saw about ten thirty gallon rubber maid totes full of frozen fish sitting outside the door. The whitefish was the first round.

Students Passing out the Quaq

I received a tail half of the whitefish. Apparently that is the better half because there are less bones. It is also the better half because that is where the "sivuks" (fish eggs) are. One of the ladies that was sitting next to me offered me some seal oil to dip my Quaq in. She also offered to help me cut my fish to. I politely declined saying that I wanted to try to do it. I struggled mightily and when she offered again saying that my fish was starting to melt I accepted her offer.

Cutting up the Quaq

I managed to eat most of my half as well as the sivuks. It isn't as awful tasting as one might think. The fish eggs actually tasted a lot better than the fish itself. The second round of quaq was frozen trout. I was told that I would like the trout better. It was a little better but I was starting to get a little overwhelmed by the taste of fish and seal oil, so I didn't really eat very much trout.

Dipping the Quaq in Seal Oil

The second course was referred to as black meat. I think it was dried seal meat that is soaked is seal oil, but don't quote me on that. I overheard one of the locals telling one of the other white guys that if you eat black meat for breakfast you won't have to eat for the rest of the day because it was very high in calories. The black meat wasn't delicious but it wasn't half bad. The third course was caribou soup. After the frozen fish and black meat it was very good. The fourth course was dried fish. The dried fish that we had was pike. It was pretty fishy tasting and very tough to chew. After the dried fish rolls and donuts were passed out. They were like a halftime food to give everybody a little break because shortly after there was ham and turkey that was brought around. I didn't eat much ham or turkey because I was pretty full. Then after the ham and turkey some more desserts were passed around. Eskimo ice cream was only passed out to the elders but the couple that was sitting next to us offered me theirs to try. The man told me that traditionally it was made with caribou fat whipped to a butter like consistency and then blueberries, blackberries, salmonberries, and cranberries are mixed in. I think they said that it didn't taste as good because this stuff had been made with Crisco. I thought it was alright. I wouldn't go way out of my to eat more but there were a lot of berries in it so it was pretty good.

Eskimo Ice Cream