Alaska Anchorage Mission

Probably the most authentic Alaskan cuisine that you might have the opportunity to try will be Eskimo cuisine. Now if you have the opportunity to serve in one of the Eskimo villages or maybe even if you're not in one of the Eskimo villages, you might have this opportunity and I suggest that you definitely try some Eskimo food because it's not something that you're going to have the opportunity to try later. Eskimo food is often made up of different types of things that you wouldn't normally be able to buy in your average supermarket. So you have something called Maktak, this is whale blubber and whale skin. Ugrak, which is bearded seal. Also I tried walrus skin and walrus meat. Walrus meat was the best out of all of those. And they'll combine it with some seal oil as well as kind of flavoring.

While Alaska is still the United States, and a lot of the foods will be very familiar to you, you also have to remember that Alaska is a place where people hunt, and they hunt a lot. Because of that, meat will make up a very large part of your diet, and a lot of that meat will be things like moose, caribou, muskox, sometimes maybe something more exotic. I mean, you could be like, oh, bear, right? Another thing that you should expect a lot is fish, right? Fishing season rolls around, everyone goes fishing, they fill up their freezers, and you're going to eat a lot of fish. But, you know, if you're someone like me who doesn't like fish, I wouldn't be too worried, because fish in Alaska is fantastic, and you will never have fish like it again, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

So one of the craziest foods I had on my mission was beluga whale. Tasted like eggs. It was pretty good. But any Alaskan native, they love to feed you, and so if you can get in a family with those, they have some good stuff. I had herring eggs, lots of salmon, moose, tons, all that good stuff. Just the classic Alaskan stuff you're totally gonna get if you ask for it. One thing I didn't try, but I would try it if you guys want a good laugh one day. But try the muktuk. It is so gross. But anyway, those are just some of the crazy foods that I had. Alaska has all the fast food restaurants and stuff like that. You're not living in an igloo or anything like that, so it's pretty good.

Alright, so you are still in the United States of America, so the food's not that crazy. It's pretty much whatever you ate back home for the most part. The only exception would be if you're serving as a language missionary for one of the many languages they have up there, and you'll just have to look at those cultures specifically, whether it's Samoan or Tongan or Filipino or whatever it is. Just know if it's one of the Polynesian cultures, it's really good food and it is a lot, so you'll have to make sure you save room for those dinner appointments.