Sharing Salted Nut Rolls

On a plane from Anchorage, Alaska back to the Twin Cities I began a friendly conversation with the bearded man next to me. My plane mate was a fantastic conversationalist and the flight was dramatically shortened by his zesty stories.

One of the first things I found out about my neighbor was that he was going home to North Dakota to put the finishing touches on his hand built log cabin. He just happened to have photographs on his digital camera and I was able to see his beautiful craftsmanship.

Partway through the trip he offered to share a Salted Nut Roll with me. I had never heard of such a food and was slightly worried that it was somehow related to Beef Jerky. I agreed to try the mystery food mostly because I didn’t want to be rude and it was a long flight- however I was pleasantly surprised! I’d recommend the Salted Nut Roll to anyone. It was a delicious candy bar: nougat covered in caramel and rolled in salted peanuts. My plane friend and I shared two of them and some ginger ale.

As many people slept around us- we continued to talk. I learned that he had just been on a hunting expedition with two bear hunters. He was not a bear hunter himself- on this expedition he was hunting deer in a very rural part of Alaska. On his expedition he had found a bear skull. He took his carry-on luggage from the overhead compartment to show me his beautiful find. I wasn’t sure that bear skulls were particularly standard carry-on items so we were stealthy about spending the time to look at it.

He told me stories of his three man wilderness expedition- including that there were quite a few weasels that played outside of his cabin eating a deer head he’d left for them. Apparently weasels are playful and fun- especially when well fed.

My friend was on his way home to North Dakota- another harsh inhospitable land- with stark weather and unique people. He told me that at home he always empties a liquor bottle so that it is only ¼ of the way full so that he can offer guests a bit of spiked iced tea- but can also ensure that they will not stay too long- experience says they’ll almost always leave when the bottle is empty.

It is neat to think of all the times people connect with each other over food: sometimes it’s a connection built over a calculated snort of spiked iced tea and sometimes just a mile high nut roll.