This cookbook, Where People Feast-An Indigenous Peoples Cookbook, sheds light on the unique culinary traditions and cooking techniques of Native American people who live along the Pacific Northwest Coast of British Columbia, Canada. This collection shows how to prepare and preserve wild game, seafood, vegetables, fruits, and unusual ingredients such as oolichan, herring roe, and sopalali berries, (all of which can be purchased online from distributors if not from your local, specialty or gourmet markets).
Where People Feast is co-authored by the mother-and-daughter team, Dolly (Watts) McRae and Annie Watts. Where People Feast celebrates Dolly and Annies twelve years spent running their restaurant (Liliget is a Gitksan word meaning where people feast) which was designed by internationally renowned Canadian architect Arthur Erickson.
Gaining acclaim in Canada and beyond, Dolly participated in a food competition in Vancouver called the BC Gold Komochi Konbu Iron Chef Challenge. Michael Smith (Chef at Large) of the Food Network was one of the judges. The event was held at the Listel Hotel in downtown Vancouver, cooking alongside Japanese Iron Chefs on recipes that featured traditional spawn on kelp, and won; she was also recognized with a National Aboriginal Achievement Award for business and commerce in 2001. Accolades for the restaurant include: The New York Times gave Liliget a four-star recommendation, Where Magazine voted it Best Ethnic Cuisine, and Aboriginal Tourism BC awarded Liliget with the Excellence in Customer Service Award
The cooks of Liliget Feast House cooked over an alder wood-burning grill, preparing such mouth-watering dishes as Alder-Grilled Marinated Elk, Sweet Potato Tarts, with Savory Blueberry Jam, and Sopalali Mousse for dessert for local regulars, out-of-town tourists, and celebrities alike.
Where People Feast is a wide-ranging collection of traditional (and not-so-traditional) west coast aboriginal recipes. Now that Liliget Feast House has closed its doors, both Dolly and Annie are happy that its legacy can live on in this cookbook.
The Wild Game chapter includes delectable entrées such as Venison Roast with Juniper Berry Rub, Rabbit Pot Pie, Chokecherry-Glazed Grouse, and Wild Buffalo Burgers. Seafoods has recipes for all fish and shellfish that run the oceans and rivers of the Pacific Northwest Coast region: salmon, halibut, crab, oysters, clams, scallops, shrimp, Alaskan Black Cod, and oolichan fish that populate British Columbia rivers by the millions, or a delicacy herring spawn on kelp.
Vegetables, Salads and Sides youll find recipes for Alder-Grilled Butternut Squash, Blackberry-Glazed Beets, the Native interpretation of the classic Caesar salad called Caesar Goes Wild Salad, and numerous recipes for indigenous wild rice that grows across North America. The chapter Soups and Stocks cooks up mouth-watering soups, stews, chowders, and stocks that use ingredients such as salmon, buffalo, hominy corn, and shiitake mushrooms.
Next, the Sauces and Condiments chapter shares Liliget Feast Houses special recipes for their popular Dill Sauce, Raspberry Cranberry Chutney, and Brown Mushroom Gravy. Baked Goods & Desserts provides Dollys claim to fame: Just Like Grandmas Bannock, a traditional fried bread recipe, as well as many other delicious treats with a First Nations twist. And finally, Where People Feast concludes with a unique and insightful chapter, Smoked Foods & Preserves, which provides traditional methods and contemporary recipes for smoking and drying wild game and seafood and preserving berries.
