Traditional meats with a Malaysian twist served in Cambridge Bay

Slow-cooked caribou served on crispy sushi rice and potato patties mixed with minced muskox are not typical ways to serve traditional meat, but for one week in February, they were selling out at a Malaysian pop-up at Kuugaq Café in Cambridge Bay. 

Head chef and owner of U.K. restaurant Janda Diner, Ady Yacob, centre, created a Malaysian-inspired pop-up dinner menu with traditional meats at Kuugaq Café in Cambridge Bay with the help of chefs Josh Robinson of Janda Diner, left, and James Quinones of Kuugaq Café, right. (Photo by Brodie Larocque, special to Nunatsiaq News)

From Feb. 9 to 14, the restaurant hosted Ady Yacob, the owner and head chef  of Janda Diner, a Malaysian restaurant in London, England.

Yacob and fellow chef Josh Robinson created a special Malaysian-inspired dinner menu using local caribou, muskox and Arctic char sourced from the Kivalliq Region and Cambridge Bay’s fish plant. 

The pop-up served roughly 280 people in the hamlet of about 1,600, setting new sales records for the restaurant, said Adrian Nocon, co-owner of Kuugaq Café.

“Some community members took time to try out the menu so it took a while to get going but from Thursday onwards, we were all sold out,” Nocon said.

“We actually used all our caribou and muskox which shows how successful the menu was.”

The collaboration was initiated by Real Ice, a UK-based initiative that has been researching ways to preserve Arctic sea ice in Cambridge Bay for the past four years.

The idea took shape last June during an Arctic research conference at the University of Cambridge.

Real Ice chairperson Simon Woods visited Janda Diner with other attendees during the trip, including a researcher from Cambridge Bay.

“He had never had Malaysian food before and his instant reaction was, ‘I wish I could bring these flavours home,’” said Woods. 

Months of planning followed, including flying in specialty ingredients from Edmonton and Vancouver. 

After arriving in Cambridge Bay, Yacob and Robinson had less than a day to set a menu without ever having tasted or cooked with caribou, muskox or Arctic char. 

“When we first came into the [Kuugaq Café] kitchen, we saw the beautiful caribou meat and chef Josh and I started thinking how best to cook the meat to justify the flavour of the caribou,” said Yacob. 

The chefs also had to adapt to an outdoor seacan pantry, where the cafe stores some of its food. They sometimes had to allow time to let ingredients such as cooking oil and coconut milk to thaw before they could use it.

With the help of the Kuugaq Café team, the limited-time menu included both starters and main dishes such as Arctic char curry, muskox murtabak — a savoury stuffed pastry — and satay caribou, served on skewers marinated in lemongrass, garlic, ginger and soy.

For Yacob, one of the most memorable moments came when diners began ordering dishes by name such as the Ayam Goreng Susu, or milk-fried chicken.

“To be able to share my cooking, my flavour with local Inuit, that was an honour,” he said.

Yacob and Robinson also spent time on the sea ice with the Real Ice team, volunteering with their research. 

The pop-up also served as an informal way to thank community partners involved in Real Ice’s research, said Woods, as they hosted dinners for the local hunters and trappers, the hamlet council and staff from the Canadian High Arctic Research Station.

Neither Real Ice nor the visiting chefs were paid for the initiative, Woods said, with the organization covering travel and ingredient costs.

“We did this because it was our gift to the community and Ady provided his services for free as well,” he said.

Nocon said Kuugaq Café is open to similar collaborations in the future.

“It’s not about what I make out of it,” Nocon said.

“It’s more about trying out different food, different cultures and sharing it with the community. As long as I’m breaking even, and we’re doing this regularly, it’s worth it.”