Hot Dog! Anchorage's Well-Known Reindeer Sausages Are A Gift From Siberia

 

COPPER RIVER COUNTRY JOURNAL 

ALASKA FOODS 

Reindeer Hot Dogs Are Popular Treats On Alaskan Streets In The Summertime. They're Sold At Hot Dog Stands With Mustard 

Try a reindeer hotdog when you're visiting Anchorage.

The "street food" of Anchorage Alaska is the reindeer sausage. It's pretty much a large hot dog, accompanied with the usual condiments: yellow mustard, chopped onions, catsup and relish. Reindeer are actually not a completely "Alaskan" animal. They're very close relatives of the Alaskan caribou, but the reindeer that now live in Alaska are mostly from herds brought over (with Siberian herders) from nearby Siberia, across the Bering Strait in Russia, back in the late 1880s.

The U.S. government imported the reindeer because during the mid 1800s the marine mammals along the Alaska coast had been killed off during the Russian fur trade, and Native people needed food.

Reindeer are a domesticated form of caribou. There are caribou in much of mainland Alaska. And Alaskans hunt and eat caribou. But you can't sell wild meat in Alaska -- and although Alaskans make hot dogs of their wild game for personal consumption, you certainly wouldn't buy caribou hot dogs on the street.

Reindeer hotdogs in Anchorage, Alaska.

But reindeer hot dogs have become a popular form of food in Alaska, especially in downtown Anchorage, where street vendors set up shop in the summer, and at major winter outdoor events, such as Fur Rendezvous and the start of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.  If you have't tried reindeer sausage, it tastes like any other hot dog.