Nunavut — Food and Dining
Cuisine
Known as ‘country food', the cuisine of Nunavut is mostly based around subsistence living and products that come from hunting and fishing.
Things to know: In group meals, elders are usually served first. Alcohol is controlled in Nunavut and in some communities is prohibited. Hotels and restaurants in Iqaluit are licensed.
Regional specialties:
• Arctic char (with a taste somewhere between salmon and trout) is served in many ways - as well as sampling it stewed, baked or smoked, try it dried for a true northern experience.
• Mussels, scallops (especially from Cumberland Sound), clams, turbot (especially from the Baffin region) and Greenland shrimp.
• Musk ox and caribou.
• Local bannock (a simple unleavened bread dough cooked slowly in a frying pan, baked or boiled), which kept for weeks in an easily transportable form, was a favorite of early Arctic explorers.
• Raw whale blubber and skin, known as maktaaq or muktuk, is a highly prized local specialty - despite whaling being frowned upon internationally.
Regional drinks:
• Melting glacier ice is collected and provides water in many communities. Bottled water is available.
Legal Drinking Age: 19.
Tipping: It is customary to tip 15% in bars and restaurants.
