Cool Hunting

On a sail to the far north of Canada and Greenland, Fran Golden gets an education in Indigenous traditions and flavors she couldn't find anywhere else..

- Fran Golden

DURING DINNER, Peter Berthelsen described his first hunt, which took place when he was nine years old. Accompanied by his father and uncles, he walked six hours into the mountains above Sermilik Fjord, in eastern Greenland. "We saw a herd of musk oxen, and my father said to me, 'If you catch one, you must carry it yourself,"." Berthelsen remembered. "So I aimed for one of the calves, which was still bigger than me. I saw the opportunity to shoot, and the calf fell. I hit the heart. I was so happy."

Berthelsen and fellow Greenlandic Inuit chef Miki Siegstad had cooked a special dinner on board the 199-passenger expedition ship Ultramarine, and I was one of the lucky few to enjoy it. When Berthelsen came by the table, we'd just savored a dish of surprisingly tender musk ox in cream sauce. But we didn't just taste it. Thanks to the chefs, who sat down with us for an intimate chat between courses, we connected with the culture that had brought this locally harvested meat to our plates.

Icebergs; endless tundra; the chance to see polar bears, whales, and rarely observed seabirds; and the history of exploration in the Northwest Passage-these are things that typically draw cruisers to far-north itineraries, which typically run during August and September, the two months when the weather cooperates. But I was on Quark Expeditions' 17-day adventure to northern Canada and western Greenland to gain insight into the people who live in the permafrost. I also wanted to check out the American company's new Tundra to Table program, which is designed to add Indigenous food-and a deeper cultural element to exploration north of the Arctic Circle.