Page 147 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2022 DISCOVERING MADRID

been here since the Ice Age, traditionally making names. Yesterday, I was at a tourist farm sitting
their living by hunting, fishing, and reindeer in a passenger sledge pulled through the snow by
herding. a reindeer with huge antlers. I couldn’t remem-
Now, there are only 700 reindeer herders left ber if his name was Sukki, Sula, or Sochi, so I just
in the area, but Lapland is still about reindeer, called him Rudolph. It was fun going around a
and not because Santa’s Village is close by at the loop in the forest in the reindeer train, but
Arctic Circle. In Lapland, reindeer are imbedded hoaky.
into the culture. The main food, for instance, is The second kind of reindeer have no names.
reindeer, which tastes like a combination of ten- They live in the forest as part of a herd and eat
derloin and Spring lamb: fried, stewed, broiled, mushrooms and lichen. The reindeer herders sell
baked, in soups, salads, and sausage. There are their meat as well as every other part of their
two kinds of reindeer; one kind you see at the body: the skin is used for clothing and blankets,
tourist reindeer farms which are tame and have the heads for dog food, hooves for boots, and

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