Royal Muktuk (Makttaq, ᒪᒃᑖᖅ)

Will and Kate must have really loved their time up North when they visited Yellowknife during their Royal visit in summer 2011. I can just imagine how much they must have hyped it up at Sunday dinner to make their aunt and uncle so jealous that they needed to plan a Northern visit of their very own! The not so impressive Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, included Iqaluit as a destination as part of their first ever trip to the North, which was certainly not their first trip to Canada.

Nunavut Premier, Eva Aariak, greeting Prince Edward and Sophie

The Earl and Countess of Wessex visited with community members tonight, and I'd say it was a pretty big deal. About 1,000 people came together to greet the Royals at the Community Parish Hall. A full house is an understatement! The majority of the people who attended were Inuit. The young girls were the most excited about it all with their cameras, cell phones and iPads ready to capture the moment.

A full house at the Parish Hall

Television reporters from major networks made it out! I recognized cameras from APTN, City TV, CBC... and there were more!

A little girl being interviewed in Inuktitut by a news reporter

A demonstration of traditional Inuit activities followed as Edward, Sophie, and myself, watched attentively. Throat singing, drum dancing, and an inuit games were among the main "numbers". 

Inuit game demonstration -  A ball hung 6' high is kicked .

Throat singing is unique to the Inuit culture, and generally performed by women who sing duets/compete to see who can outlast the other before running out of breath. Historically, throat singing was a form of entertainment among the women while men were away on hunting trips. I kind of think it sounds like beat boxing! Click >here< for a video - no, it's not a Julia Dales video! ;)

2 girls throat singing

The evening finally progressed to the finale: The community country food feast complete with bannock, Arctic Char, caribou, Muktuk and bannock.

The above - served RAW! 

My plate at the community feast
bannock, frozen Arctic Char cubes, frozen raw caribou meat,
and Muktuk (sprinkled with salt and soy sauce) and Char chowder 

Muktuk (Makttaq, ᒪᒃᑖᖅ) is most often made from the skin and blubber of a whale, although beluga and narwhal muktuk is also very common. The Muktuk we had tonight was of whale origin. I guess the pinky part is the blubber, and the black part is the skin...

A closer look at the Maktaaq (Mulktuk)
A layer of whale skin and blubber

I'm sure you're wondering how much food off my plate I actually ate... Mom, I did better than you think! I loved the Char, especially the Char chowder, and enjoyed the bannock as well. I eat my steak well done to begin with, so the raw caribou steak, although frozen, really wasn't my thing, but I did try a mini bite and it tasted like blood! I couldn't get my teeth through the Muktuk, so I didn't really get to eat it! I can't even tell you how it tasted because I had dowsed it in soy sauce! The texture though was soft, and really rubbery. I was only able to scrape a tiny layer off the corner with my teeth.

Attempting to bite into the Muktuk, but it wasn't working!

I really lucked out coming to Iqualuit and experiencing such a wonderful community event! You can probably tell that I'm quite indifferent about the visit of these "second class" Royals but it was great to see the community come together the way they did, and experience some Inuit culture and tradition!

The visit was obviously a big deal! <3 craft time!

Fun fact! Street signs were only installed to make the city look more legit prior to a "Royal visit" a few years back.. before Will and Kate. Even though street signs are present, locals have a tendency to disregard them and continue to identify location based on building number only. Building numbers aren't repeated. I'll have to remember that I'm staying in the "one thousand" part of town!

I think the Royals would like the street names!