Whale & the Cupcake : Stories of Subsistence, Longing, and Community in Alaska. This item is unavailable.Whale & the Cupcake : Stories of Subsistence, Longing, and Community in Alaska

From fish and fiddleheads to salmonberries and Spam, Alaskan cuisine spans the two extremes of locally abundant wild foods and shelf-stable ingredients produced thousands of miles away. As immigration shapes Anchorage into one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the country, Alaska’s changing food culture continues to reflect the tension between self-reliance and longing for distant places or faraway homes. Alaska Native communities express their cultural resilience in gathering, processing, and sharing wild food; these seasonal food practices resonate with all Alaskans who come together to fish and stock their refrigerators in preparation for the long winter. In warm home kitchens and remote cafés, Alaskan food brings people together, creating community and excitement in canning salmon, slicing muktuk, and savoring fresh berry pies. This collection features interviews, photographs, and recipes by James Beard Award–winning journalist and third-generation Alaskan Julia O’Malley. Touching on issues of subsistence, climate change, cultural mixing and remixing, innovation, interdependence, and community, The Whale and the Cupcake reveals how Alaskans connect with the land and each other through food.

Julia O'Malley is an independent journalist, teacher, and blogger who writes about Alaska’s politics, culture, environment, and food. She has a chapter in Made of Salmon: Alaska Stories from the Salmon Project (University of Alaska Press, 2016) and pieces in the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Guardian, and Edible Alaska. 2018 James Beard award winner in the Foodways category (2015 nominee in Dining and Travel category).

Kim Severson is a Pulitzer Prize – winning food correspondent for the New York Times. Before joining the NYT, she served as news and features editor and reporter at the Anchorage Daily News. A four-time James Beard Award recipient for food writing, she is the author of four books, including Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life (2010).