If you want to celebrate the holidays with a genuine Northern on-the-land feast like you might have had 50 years ago, don’t plan for turkey, gravy and pie for dinner. Instead, bring your best knife—don’t worry about plates or napkins—and find a comfortable spot on the floor. Here’s what’s on the menu:
First course
Fresh discs of bannock fried in lard, served with your choice of blueberry or cranberry jam.
Main course
Roasted head of caribou, served on a bed of spruce boughs, seasoned with salt and pepper, with thinly sliced rounds of eyeball and nostril, juicy morsels of jaw meat, creamy caribou brain, and savoury slices of roasted (or boiled) tongue. Served with roasted potatoes and onions, and garnished with cranberries.
(Serves four adults, and maybe a few young kids.)
Beverages
Your choice of caribou broth scooped up from the bottom of the roasting pan, or Labrador tea.
Dessert
Your choice of cooked cranberries, blueberries or cloudberries—or, if you had a chance to visit a nearby trading post, a fresh orange or two.
