Get inspired by Inuit ice cream, be surprised of fat percentage of caribou meat and be startled by the smell of dried fish. Welcome to enjoy some Arctic aromas in Nam nam, the new temporary exhibition of the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland.

Diving into the Arctic diet of meat

30.05.2016

Berries diversify Arctic diet and color the new temporary exhibition
at the Arktikum Science Centre in Rovaniemi, Finland. Photo: Arto Vitikka / Arctic
Science Centre

Nicolas Gunslay, chief executive
producer of Arktikum Science Centre, is fascinated by food and cooking. He has
planned an exhibition of this tasty topic for a long time. Arctic diet is linked to
Arctic cultures but also linked to many crucial questions of the Arctic, like
globalization, climate change and sustainability.

Gunslay
moved to Rovaniemi from France almost twenty years ago. How do French and Lappish
food cultures differ from each other?

– We might not have
the quantity here in Lapland but we do have the quality, Gunslay says.

Reindeer meat, salmon, porcini and bilberries are common edibles in
Lapland but gourmet in South.

– If reindeer meat would be
‘found’ in European metropolis, we wouldn’t have enough of it here for us
anymore.

In the North, growing season is much shorter than
in South and the variety of species is much smaller.

– What
you can gather, depends on environmental issues, like climate.

According to Gunslay the relation to food is more social in France and more
practical in Lapland. For example, reindeer or fish soup is an easy way to feed a
lot of people without compromising the taste. But naturally eating is a social
situation also in the North.

– Grilling sausages on camp
fire is as social as having a three-hour dinner.

In Nam Nam
exhibition one can see, smell and maybe even taste a bite of Northern nature. Brief
bulletins dive into the diverse world of Arctic food where science is set on plates
in a restaurant like atmosphere with Lappish seasoning.

Mattak is a traditional Inuit delicacy made of whale blubber. Here
this delicacy is cut from narwhal in Qaanaaq, Greenland. Photo: Ulannaq
Ingemann