Yu'pik Fry Bread

One strong observable aspect of the Yu'pik culture is their willingness to share. Anytime someone makes fry bread, aqutaq (eskimo ice cream), or fish strips (dried salmon), they offer me a piece. Sometimes they'll even come out of their way to come find me to give me a nice fresh piece of fry bread. It is circular, more dense than a doughnut, band it is delicious without any frosting or butter.

 Marilyn, a teacher's aide at our school, and the mother of a student in my class, showed me how to make fried bread-- "aqaleq." I'll need to research the spelling. She use a large bowl and poured an unmeasured amount of flour into it. Then she let me add pancake mix of about a 2:3 ratio (more flour than pancake mix).

 Add just a tiny bit of salt.

 Marilyn's youngest daughter observes Marilyn makes a well in the middle of her dry ingredients and begins to add her liquids (just like my mom taught me to do when making her famous bread).

 The kids like to watch the ducks in a pond outside their house.

 Marilyn took her aggression out on this dough, adding just enough flour to make it so it wasn't sticky anymore.

 After taking a good handful of dough, she showed me how to roll mine up, stretch it out carefully, and poke a pentagon with a center hole with our fingers. Mine were lumpy and uneven at first, but with her encouraging words, my circles looked more like hers after a while.

 She lays them around the edge of the bowl to let them rise one more time before frying them. She starts at one end and fries them in a counterclockwise manner. This way she can keep track of which ones have been raising longer. Then she started putting them in the pot of vegetable oil based on which one she had rolled first.

 Once the holes get just a tad darker than this, we flip it over to fry the other side.

 I had a couple minor splashes in the process, but I learned quickly how to handle the tongs to the bread wouldn't slip off. Good thing, because I don't need to get anyone hurt from the hot oil.

 These were lain at an angle in a cardboard box to dry. I dipped a hot fresh aqaleq into honey to try their family treat. They were just right.

Thank you, Marilyn for opening up your home to me so I could learn how to make traditional Yupik fried bread. This is a skill that I hope I always remember so I will be able to pass this on to others.


Below: The sunset that night from the slough, looking toward AVEC and the Tribal Council (NW).