Maybe next year we'll do this for Thanksgiving

This year's Thanksgiving was nice. It was very quiet for us. We didn't cook for anyone. We went to a quiet restaurant and had a "traditional turkey dinner".

Maybe next year we will fly to Alaska to the Nunivak Island village of Mekoryuk. I'll get to see Alaska for the first time, and try some things that I've never had before. You have to keep an open mind now, or you miss out on so much in life (that's my motto). Seeing what different cultures do is extremely fascinating to me. (story)

At noon, people had their first feast: reindeer, dried fish and that old favorite, Eskimo ice cream, known locally as akutaq.

It's just the opposite in Allakaket, up the Koyukuk River. The turkey dinner was Thursday, but on Friday, the community gathers for moosehead soup, beaver tail and bear. And of course, akutaq.

In Barrow, Eugene Brower and his family had some of each, the traditional western Thanksgiving and the Inupiaq food he grew up with.

"Turkey, ham, muktuk, fish, potatoes, yams, you name it, a smorgasbord," he said. "The best of both worlds."

You have to admit, it's different. Then, of course, there's "moose food", which they describe as "bits of root gathered by mice and collected out of the rodents' nests after freezeup in the fall. The roots are sweet, and make a tasty addition to akutaq - the rural Alaska treat made from whipped Crisco, sugar and berries." Keep an open mind now. It may be better than you think.

A few other delicacies: seal meat and dried salmon strips; dried herring and smelt or salmon dipped in seal oil; dried fish eggs crushed in seal oil and "whipped like crazy," then mixed with cooked cranberries; and fish pie.