12/03/2025
Dipping Spoon’s values are rooted in our Yup’ik cultural inheritance and the origin stories of traditional Alaska Native cuisine, subsistence foods, harvests, and cultural practices.
In June 2025, we traveled to the remote, rural village of Tuntutuliak, Alaska, to participate in and document the summer fish harvest with our founder, , and her Yup’ik family.
There, her mother, uncle, aunties, and cousins gathered together to cut salmon. Salmon strips were wet-brined in a mixture of salt, brown sugar, and soy sauce and then dried on the fish rack. The Charlie family also half-dried fish for egaamarlurkaq soup and qamiiqurluk (salmon heads), which are then cooked slowly and served with salt and seal oil.
As Dipping Spoon merges traditional subsistence practices with modern ceremony through our Indigenized FoodSTEM Culinary programs for Alaska Native youth, we are reminded that the Arts in Culinary have always been with and belonged to Indigenous peoples.
Travel to Tuntutuliak, Alaska, with us, wherever you are, and experience the sounds, sights, and taste buds of reciprocity with the natural world.
