Wild Bill’s Beluga Bash

I was going to take a little break from writing for a while. Relax, knock out a few things in my classroom, maybe read another Chapter of “Love Does”. Maybe watch a movie since Jon hooked up our DVD player yesterday. Thought about making Emma a card – her birthday is in just over a week.

There’s always things that could be done but tonight I had to put it all aside. On a whim we hosted a “Beluga Bash”. Since my roomie spent the entire summer on the Rock, he was here when the whaling crews brought in an unheard of 5 beluga this summer.  And since he’s nearly an elder and definitely a member of the community, he inherited his rightful share of the haul.

We pulled our hunk out of the freezer on Saturday and it hadn’t thawed enough until tonight. With no formal training, I became the camp cook and just tore into it. Our immediate response was to take photos but I’m not sure that a camera could capture just how DARK the meat is. We were told to boil it until it was “sticky to the fork”  - very technical term, I know. So I figured I could handle that and if we messed up, I’m not sure anyone would know any better.

Initially we just invited Jon over and he graciously supplied an onion and a 5 pound sack of potatoes. Separate from the Beluga, we boiled the onions and potatoes and made some white rice because it sounded like the right thing to do.

I brought my pot of water to a rolling boil and dumped in the chunks of beluga. After 15 minutes, Bill and I gave it a taste and since neither of us keeled over, we decided to invite the rest of the gringos over for an imprompetu tasting party. I dutifully tended the meal while Bill went door to door in our first real storm of the season. Almost everyone took us up on the invite and we ended up with a great little dinner gathering.

I have to admit, it was pretty tasty. Earlier in the week I bought a bottle of mustard because that’s what we were told goes best with Beluga. They were right. I wouldn’t ever think about putting mustard on a roast or a steak but on Beluga, it’s the cat’s meow.  It taste way better than the seal we had at C3 camp – which I’m now told may have just been a tourist ploy for the newbies to feel like they were getting the full Alaskan Experience. Here in Kivils, we’re told that the spotted seal are just for skinning. It’s the bearded seals that you eat. Anyway, I digress… if you ever get a chance to eat Beluga, do it. You won’t be disappointed. 8 out of 9 gringos in Kivalina give their stamp of approval .