Alaska

A line of salmon tails sticking out of the dirt is an appetizing sight to an Alaskan, especially if the tails come off easily in his hand. This means the fish have ripened into an enigmatic dish known as “stink fish,” eaten raw. The line of tails is the fast food version of the dish. The more time-consuming version, meant to be harvested months later, is a cache pit, lined with wild celery leaves and then filled with salmon or salmon heads. Beauty is in the taste buds of the eater, or, as Cervantes put it in Don Quixote, “Hunger is the best sauce.” A whale grounded on the beach meant good eating to early Alaskans.