Food in Iqaluit: A Review
When I moved here, I knew no one who lived in the North, and my information was coming from blogs, tourist websites, and cost of living statistics. They were full of warnings that fresh fruit is expensive, Sealift is really the best way to buy non-perishables, and fresh meat is hard to come by. Based on those warnings, I packed 60 meals worth of beans and spice mixed to make soup and collected websites from which to order freeze-dried meat and vegetables. I thought about taking a vegetarian diet. I thought back to those days (which are not so long ago, but feel like a lifetime ago) yesterday while I walked around the grocery stores here. The two main grocery stores are Northmart and Arctic Ventures, and they go in stocking cycles together- if Ventures is short on vegetables, Northmart will be as well. If there's no bread at Northmart, there's no bread anywhere. And, without fail, if I buy bread on sale at Northmart, it's cheaper at Ventures that day.
Typical pricing is not really as bad as people make it sound. It's all about purchasing choices. For example, if you buy gala apples they cost $5.99/lb, but if you buy Macintosh they cost about $2.50/lb. Meat is not that expensive either- at Northmart I can buy fresh pork ribs (packed in store) for $16.99/kg, and less than that when they go on sale for 50% off two days before their best before date. Frozen meat is actually harder to come by than fresh meat, with frozen ground beef selling at $5.99/lb ($4.99 on sale). I eat a lot of chicken thighs, which I buy fresh and either cook immediately or, more often, freeze and cook later. I can get those for $9.25/kg. Frozen country food (food from the land up here) is also a good option, although more expensive. So I have around 30 meals of bean soup left to cook, and maybe 10 more in the freezer. I'm really glad I didn't come in time to order a Sealift, because I would have ordered all sorts of stuff that I can just buy up here or order on Amazon. The shipping is slow, but it's still free, and Sealift shipping is much slower (order by April to recieve by October).
Grocery stores operate a little differently up here than the ones I've experienced in Alberta or anywhere else. Everything except meat sells at full price until the day it passes it's best before date. Once an item has passed it's date, it goes on sale for 50% off. I've bought a lot of peanut butter on sale this way. If it's not going to go bad, it doesn't really matter. Fruits and vegetables stay at full price until a whole box looks wrinkled or bruised, and then the price drops by about 50%. Food items that are far past their date or significantly bruised are placed in a free bin at the door. Seasonal items, with the exception of Christmas trees, drop to 50% off the day after the holiday and stay that price until every item sells. Right now at Ventures there are 50% off Christmas cookies and Halloween rice crispy squares right next to full-priced Valentine's day candy. Christmas trees sell for over $100 in the weeks before Christmas, but, around December 18, leftover trees around given away for free.
I appreciate that the stores here continue to sell perfectly edible food that has passed a best before date or looks imperfect rather than throwing it out. Of course, even if it was thrown out, it would be retrieved from the dump (or 'Canadian Tire' as some residents joking call it) by someone. The idea of not wasting food comes from several things.
First, Inuit culture is one of sustainability and waste management. These are people, who only one generation ago, were depending on hunting to provide for their communities. Many people still do, and some communities further North do even more. They had to use every piece of the animals that they hunted to make it through long, cold winters and difficult springs. The way that they eat walrus meat shows that clearly. More on that later.
Second, food insecurity is a real struggle here. People don't always know where their next meal will come from, so they aren't concerned about whether their apples are flawless. A bruised apple is just as edible as a perfect one. Will I pick an unbruised apple over a bruised one? Of course. Will I still buy, eat, and enjoy a bruised apple? Absolutely. Food waste because of a standard of perfection is ridiculous, and the people here seem to know that.
Some standards of freshness will probably always stay with me, however. Walrus meat is a good example of something that I might not be able to stomach, although I would definitely try it if given the chance. Walruses are hunted by boat during the summer, and my understanding is that the meat is eaten in three ways: some may be eaten raw by the hunters immediately, some may be brought back to the community and boiled, and most will be buried under rocks for several months to ferment and become igunaq. All of these methods are traditional, safe, and healthy, even though American and European culture says that raw meat is dangerous, especially if it's been dead and raw for months. And yet the Inuit survived, and they must have done well, or they would have left eventually.
In conclusion, food isn't that expensive, and there are plenty of meat options- some that sound very strange to my non-native ears.
- Aliya
Typical pricing is not really as bad as people make it sound. It's all about purchasing choices. For example, if you buy gala apples they cost $5.99/lb, but if you buy Macintosh they cost about $2.50/lb. Meat is not that expensive either- at Northmart I can buy fresh pork ribs (packed in store) for $16.99/kg, and less than that when they go on sale for 50% off two days before their best before date. Frozen meat is actually harder to come by than fresh meat, with frozen ground beef selling at $5.99/lb ($4.99 on sale). I eat a lot of chicken thighs, which I buy fresh and either cook immediately or, more often, freeze and cook later. I can get those for $9.25/kg. Frozen country food (food from the land up here) is also a good option, although more expensive. So I have around 30 meals of bean soup left to cook, and maybe 10 more in the freezer. I'm really glad I didn't come in time to order a Sealift, because I would have ordered all sorts of stuff that I can just buy up here or order on Amazon. The shipping is slow, but it's still free, and Sealift shipping is much slower (order by April to recieve by October).
Grocery stores operate a little differently up here than the ones I've experienced in Alberta or anywhere else. Everything except meat sells at full price until the day it passes it's best before date. Once an item has passed it's date, it goes on sale for 50% off. I've bought a lot of peanut butter on sale this way. If it's not going to go bad, it doesn't really matter. Fruits and vegetables stay at full price until a whole box looks wrinkled or bruised, and then the price drops by about 50%. Food items that are far past their date or significantly bruised are placed in a free bin at the door. Seasonal items, with the exception of Christmas trees, drop to 50% off the day after the holiday and stay that price until every item sells. Right now at Ventures there are 50% off Christmas cookies and Halloween rice crispy squares right next to full-priced Valentine's day candy. Christmas trees sell for over $100 in the weeks before Christmas, but, around December 18, leftover trees around given away for free.
I appreciate that the stores here continue to sell perfectly edible food that has passed a best before date or looks imperfect rather than throwing it out. Of course, even if it was thrown out, it would be retrieved from the dump (or 'Canadian Tire' as some residents joking call it) by someone. The idea of not wasting food comes from several things.
First, Inuit culture is one of sustainability and waste management. These are people, who only one generation ago, were depending on hunting to provide for their communities. Many people still do, and some communities further North do even more. They had to use every piece of the animals that they hunted to make it through long, cold winters and difficult springs. The way that they eat walrus meat shows that clearly. More on that later.
Second, food insecurity is a real struggle here. People don't always know where their next meal will come from, so they aren't concerned about whether their apples are flawless. A bruised apple is just as edible as a perfect one. Will I pick an unbruised apple over a bruised one? Of course. Will I still buy, eat, and enjoy a bruised apple? Absolutely. Food waste because of a standard of perfection is ridiculous, and the people here seem to know that.
Some standards of freshness will probably always stay with me, however. Walrus meat is a good example of something that I might not be able to stomach, although I would definitely try it if given the chance. Walruses are hunted by boat during the summer, and my understanding is that the meat is eaten in three ways: some may be eaten raw by the hunters immediately, some may be brought back to the community and boiled, and most will be buried under rocks for several months to ferment and become igunaq. All of these methods are traditional, safe, and healthy, even though American and European culture says that raw meat is dangerous, especially if it's been dead and raw for months. And yet the Inuit survived, and they must have done well, or they would have left eventually.
In conclusion, food isn't that expensive, and there are plenty of meat options- some that sound very strange to my non-native ears.
- Aliya
Comments
Post a Comment