Dried meat and fish

My favorite Greenlandic food is dried reindeer meat. 
The hunting season for reindeers is from August to October and many families make sure to fill up the freezer to cover good meat for the rest of the year. You can dry the meat, salt it, roast it, make soup, or make a delicious steak. 

The picture above is a starter plate from Hotel Icefiord in Ilulissat. It is whale, mosk ox, reindeer, and halibut. You eat this with bread and butter. Many also eat this as a snack as well as for lunch or dinner. 

This is a normal sight in Greenland. Different fish, mosk ox, reindeer are hanging for drying, and thereafter it is being put in the freezer, so it is a long-lasting healthy snack, which you also serve on celebration days or any other get-togethers which we call Kaffemik. 

The picture above is for dogs though. The Greenlandic sled dogs are in the northern part of Greenland and eat dried fish, as well as raw seal meat and dog food from the store. 

I took this picture when I worked on a cruise ship and took a group of visitors in Ilulissat for a sled dog visit excursion. Here we got the story of the sled dog which unfortunately is decreasing in numbers due to global warming, so the fisherman does not need the sled to go fishing and can use his boat throughout the winter. 

Ammassak is a very tasty little fish that we mostly eat dried or fried on a pan or in the oven. They are caught during the summer and there are so many of them you actually can catch them by hands for fun. Otherwise, it is with nets.

Then for drying, they are put one by one on a rocky surface and some days later they need to be turned around one by one, yes this takes time but it is worth it! 

Read more travel blogs from Laali Berthelsen

Laali Berthelsen

Laali Berthelsen, 38 years Born and raised in Nuuk, Greenland Self-employed Working in the health and tourism industry. I´ve been working with tourism since 2008 in Greenland and abroad, as a tour leader, expedition guide, destination guide, VIP guide, etc. and have travelled for many years both for work and pleasure. I have also had many different projects, like: - Personal development courses for the youth and adults in Greenland (mostly for social damaged groups) - Health courses for companies and schools - Working as an consultant at The Sports Confederation of Greenland Following are my degrees: - 2009 Service economist, tourism as specialty - 2012 Fitness instructor - 2015 Personal trainer - 2016 Nutritionist - 2019 Positive psychology supervisor

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