Whale Blubber and Seal Soup--Yum

When you visit a country where it is nearly impossible to grow vegetables and there are only about half a dozen land mammals that thrive in the harsh climate, you learn to celebrate seafood. And so it was that we ate mostly fresh salmon and shrimp during our visit to Greenland in September. But we also tried some of the more unusual local specialties, a sampling of which follows:

Whale steak: It is common to hear people say that unusual meats taste like chicken. Whale doesn’t. The aged narwhal steak we were served in Qaqortoq bore a superficial resemblance to well-cooked beef. But both the smell and taste were more like an unusual combination of liver and seafood, good for those who like gamy meats.

Mattak: There is nothing quite like whale blubber, served in small cubes with a layer of skin atop a mass of white fat. At first, the blubber seemed to resist all attempts to chew it, and only after 30 seconds of applied dental work did it begin to yield. Once it did, the blubber had a rich, milky taste that lingered.

Suaasat: Seal meat soup, served with a brown broth of rice and onions, is the national dish of Greenland, and it is hearty enough to be the centerpiece of a meal. Biting through the chunks of seal alone took enough time for a full course; the meat we ate in Narsaq was stringy, like beef from a well-cooked stew, but tougher and less flavorful--almost bland.

Smoked halibut: Fresh Atlantic halibut is not unknown to American diners, but the whitefish we ate had been smoked for 15 hours in pits outside town, using burning grass because wood is in short supply in Greenland. The result was nearly translucent strips of halibut with a stronger smoldering flavor than most store-bought smoked fish.