Known as 'country food', the cuisine of Nunavut is mostly based around subsistence living and produce that comes from hunting and fishing.
Things to know: In group meals, elders are usually served first. Alcohol is controlled in Nunavut and in some communities is prohibited. Hotels and restaurants in Iqaluit are licensed.
Regional specialities:
• Arctic char (with a taste somewhere between salmon and trout), mussels, scallops (especially from Cumberland Sound), clams, turbot (especially from the Baffin region) and Greenland shrimp.
• Musk ox and caribou.
• Local bannock (a mixture of flour and water blended into a dough and cooked slowly in a frying pan) dates from the old prospecting rations which kept for weeks in an easily transportable form.
• Muktuk (skin of the whale).
Regional drinks:
• Melting glacier ice is collected and provides water in many communities. Bottled water is available.

There are general retail stores in almost all communities in Nunavut; some specialise in handicrafts, furs, fisheries and Inuit Art. The high cost of goods (an increase of up to 50 per cent on the rest of Canada) is due to the supply and distribution costs caused by the large distances that goods must be transported by air or sea. Shopping hours: Mon-Fri 1000-2000, Sat 1000-1800 (although these may vary regionally).