Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU -- Five women whipped what looked like pink meringue at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center, but the recipes involved no eggs or cream.

Instead, tiny red fruits called soapberries were mixed with sugar and water to make a dessert many Native Alaskans consider a treat.

It was the first-ever soapberry recipe contest at Celebration 2008, a biennial cultural festival.

Louise Gordon, a contestant from Atlin, British Columbia, called it "Tlingit ice cream."

"When we were young we didn't have ice cream, so when we wanted a treat we'd make this," Gordon said.

She and her siblings would make the treat directly in their hands, putting berries and sugar in their palms, then rubbing them together until they turned pink and sticky.

Then they'd lick it off.

"I'd let the littler kids have a lick," she said. "It taught me to share."

PERSONAL TASTES

The women Friday passed spoons around so that everyone could taste each recipe. Some added apple juice or bananas. Other like it the traditional way: just a little bit of sugar and lots of whipping.

"I start at a slow speed with the beater then as the berries get bigger, I keep turning up the speed," Gordon said. "It comes with experience."

Judge Pam Leabogda said she was looking for a certain taste and texture.

"You want to be able to taste the berry," she said. As for texture, Leabogda had to reach back to a childhood memory, when her grandmother used to whip it the traditional way -- with her hand.

"We would sit and watch her make it," Leabogda said. "My grandmother would take it and fling it. If it stuck, it was done."

Winners of the contest, along with winners of a black seaweed contest, were awarded $500, $250 and $100 by Sealaska Heritage Institute.

For the second time in a row, Ivan Williams of Angoon won first place in the black seaweed contest. Second place for black seaweed went to the 2004 winner, Marian Adams.

"I just use clam juice," she said. "I think drying is the most important -- how you dry it. How you dry your seaweed -- right away," said Adams, who lives in Juneau and is originally from Kake.

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