When in Rome – or Fairbanks – do as the locals do.
Whenever I travel to a new city I always like to try the local cuisine. This trip is no exception. For lunch today I had reindeer stew. It was very tasty – much like traditional beef stew. In fact, if the chef hadn’t told me it was reindeer, I would never have been able to tell.
About to enjoy a cup of Reindeer Stew for lunch.
Since this was such a unique lunch menu item for most of us, the reindeer stew became the topic of our lunch table discussion. Specifically, we wanted to know the difference between reindeer and caribou.
I decided to do a bit of investigating on the internet and as it turns out there is not a simple answer. Here is some of what I’ve found:
- Reindeer and Caribou - both in the deer family - are the same species, Rangifer tarandus
- Reindeer have shorter legs and stockier bodies while Caribou have longer legs and smaller bodies
- In the U.S., Caribou are wild and Reindeer and domesticated
Tomorrow we will be going on a 'field trip' to the University of Alaska Reindeer Research Program where I plan to ask the real scientists' that same question – I will report back tomorrow.