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Eating local and authentic food is one of the strongest travel memories we can create
When we travel, tasting different kinds of food is part of the experience because food is a fundamental element of all cultures; besides, we all need to eat! Many different types of food tourism range from street food to meal sharing, gourmet food, and much more. Visit Natives concentrates on authentic indigenous food experiences, all about the traditional preparation of Sami favorites. But it is not only about the food, the surroundings, and the experience. It provides a chance to connect with the sami reindeer herders, prepare food together, and sit down and talk around the campfire.
Traditional Sami food is wild, such as fish, game, reindeer, berries, and herbs derived from the Arctic. Berries - like cloudberry and lingonberry- have been essential because other vegetables were unavailable during the long winters. Also, potatoes and Lappish bread or Sami flatbread are much used. This traditional diet still plays a vital role in Sami’s life and cuisine.
Sami cuisine respects the natural cycle of animals and plants.
New travel experiences take us out of our daily routines. Slow food is defined by how its made. With authentic Visit Natives Sami experiences, you will taste local Sami culture through the traditional cooking styles, such as smoking fish and reindeer meat inside the traditional Sami "lavvu" tent. You are invited inside the tent while the Sami host smokes the reindeer while you can listen to the beautiful tradition of Sami yoik singing.
Besides smoking, drying reindeer meat is also a vital cooking style for the Sami people as only low-fat food such as reindeer is suitable for that. Reindeer meat is perfect due to its fat content of two percent. Food gives you insights into Sami's livelihood, history, and traditions so that you gain a better understanding of the values and customs of the Sami reindeer herders. That turns it into a whole new Arctic food experience.
Reindeer is very important for the Sami; therefore, everything from the reindeer is used. The Sami people have always utilized every part of the reindeer for food, including the hooves, the skull, the marrowbone, the bones, the intestines, the internal organs, the skin, and the blood.
The Sami use the reindeer blood for making blood sausages, blood pancakes, and dumplings, for example. Bidos is a stew the Sami serve at weddings or other special occasions. It consists of slow-cooked reindeer meat, including the heart, potatoes, and carrots. No seasoning is used except salt, yet the stew has a rich taste reflecting the pasture of the reindeer.
Other specialties are boiled reindeer eyes and tongue. The dish is served together with potatoes and flatbread, and lingonberries. Traditional Sami food is sustainable with higher respect for the food and animals and diminishes the current food waste.
Healthy and Pure Arctic Food
Reindeer graze freely in the cleanest environment in the Arctic. Reindeer get food from nature every season by eating pastures like fresh leaves, berries, herbs, and lichen hidden beneath the snow. Their diet is far away from the soya-based concentrates industrialized food production from cattle to salmon rely on.
Reindeer husbandry also helps the ecosystem by protecting Tundra. What would be better than that? Reindeer meat is much healthier than red meat and is high in omega 3 & 6 and vitamin B12. And what's more, reindeer meat is very delicious!
We call our experiences slow travel as preparing food and fetching water is part of our Sami experience in the Arctic. You are welcome to enjoy traditional Sami dishes that feature local Arctic ingredients and traditional Sami cooking methods.
