Navajo Tacos, Three Sisters Soup, and Bear Paws from Tea N Bannock

It's National Indigenous People's Day - a day to celebrate the Peoples and cultures of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. It's also Indigenous History Month and personally and professionally, there are many things I've been able to to reflect, (un)learn, and celebrate the immense diversity of Peoples, cultures, languages, and land. However, preparing this blog post today is personally up-there on things I've been able to do to honour and celebrate the 25th anniversary of Indigenous People's Day.

As an important disclaimer - for this blog I wanted to review cuisine from countries I hadn't eaten before. Had that not been my focus, Tea N Bannock, Pow Wow Cafe, or NishDish (when it reopens) would have been the first restaurants I would have gone to because reflecting on this country's history and supporting Indigenous peoples and businesses is so important. However, with it being Indigenous History Month and with the release of Action Plans on MMIWG2S and recent findings from Tk'emlúps te Secwépmc, it felt remiss to not support an Indigenous restaurant right now.

I will say I've been very spoiled over the years. I have had the immense privilege of being invited and eating in communities across Turtle Island, had several meals at Kukum in the few years they were open on Mount Pleasant, and years later I still think about dinners at Salmon and Bannock in Vancouver. But, with the lack of travel over the past year it's been a long time since I've had fresh bannock or three sisters soup.

We recruited some friends and got to eating. We shared the three sisters soup and then I ordered the veggie Navajo tacos without sour cream or cheese with a side of wild rice and stir-fried veggies to make it entirely plant-based. Aside from B, my eating companions had never eaten Indigenous food before and the three of them ordered the bison burger and the bison stir fry and we finished off the meal with bear paws (fried bannock in the shape of bear paws and covered in cinnamon sugar), blueberry jam, and cedar tea.

Three sisters soup is a Haudonsaunee (Iroquois) dish that emerged from the Iroquois creation story and features beans, corn, and squash. The three sisters are planted together to help the other grow strong; the beans take nitrogen from the air and uses it to keep the other sisters healthy, the corn grows stalks that the beans can climb, holding the plants together, and the squash grow large leaves and prickly spines that act as ground cover, keeping weeds and predators away and leaving the ground moist. The soup was lighter than versions I've had before, featuring each of the three sisters as individuals within a light broth rather than the chowder-like consistency that I prefer and have gotten more accustomed to.

Bannock is a fry bread made from flour, baking powder, salt, and traditionally lard (but can also be made with water, oil, shortening, milk and/or butter) that was introduced during colonization by Scottish settlers. For some, it's seen as a symbol of survival; a creation made from government rations. For others, it's a household staple that holds a cultural significance and/or a way to incorporate traditional unleavened bread recipes made and eaten by Indigenous peoples pre-contact.

At Tea N Bannock, there are two preparations of bannock - baked and fried. Both are vegan and both are delicious. The baked bannock had this great juxtaposition of tasting like a scone but with the lightness of sandwich bread. The fried bannock was also perfectly light and was the base for both the bison burger and the Navajo taco. It had this amazing crunch while being light, fluffy, and not at all greasy.

Like bannock, the Navajo taco (which is truly impossible to eat gracefully) is a dish created post-contact but has become a mainstay in homes and at pow wows across Turtle Island. The Navajo taco was served with mushrooms and beans and topped with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, salsa, and to make it completely plant-based - no cheese or sour cream. I ordered the small Navajo taco and despite being concerned that it would be dense like versions I've had in the past, it was tasty and fresh and felt like a light dish despite the base being fried. Similarly, I was told the bison burger had a great lightness and was a perfectly balanced burger. On the side, we shared stir fried wild rice and sautéed vegetables. The rice was fluffy and had the air of a puffed rice rather than the density of wild and black rice grown outside of Canada.

We finished the meal with cedar tea, bear paws, blueberry jam, and complimentary popcorn (all vegan). The bear paws were simply amazing. I mean, can you go wrong with fried bannock doused in cinnamon and sugar? We didn't pair it with the blueberry jam, but rather tried the jam with a piece of baked bannock and found it perfectly balanced and incorporating the earthiness and delicious taste of wild blueberries. The popcorn was also so snack worthy. I hadn't tried cedar tea before, an anti-inflammatory and healing, tea. It was good, but I think everyone preferred the labrador tea I brought back from Iqaluit on my last trip.

Overall Rating: 8/10 (unanimous)

Main Takeaway: This was a delicious meal and with the right order (i.e., eating a meal of burgers, Navajo tacos, and bear paws) both B and our guests would have pushed it to a 10/10. Everyone at Tea N Bannock was so amenable in telling me what was prepared vegan and while there weren't a ton of vegan options compared to other restaurants, it's far more important to me (personally) to celebrate the diversity of Indigenous cultures, sustainable hunting practices, and preparation of food from the land.