New #45: Taste Hopi Food

Unlike some eats I've avoided because I'm finicky, Hopi food is something I've never tried because I never knew it existed -- until learning about it from an American Indian himself last week. I was visiting my parents in Arizona, and my dad took me to his Rotary Club's meeting. Each week they have a new speaker, and this special guest was a Hopi Indian from the nearby reservation. I don't remember the name he goes by - which was Mark or Steve or something - but his official Indian name was Snake Hunter. As his name implies, he was awesome.

The presentation was only about a half-hour, but Snake Hunter told us all about his culture, including the ancient history of his people, various holidays they celebrate based on the crop seasons, gods they worship (like this creepy one that threatens to chop up and eat bad children) and the various clans that make up the greater tribe. I was happy to hear it's a matriarical society, where women rule the roost.

Near the end he was a bit rushed for time, but Snake Hunter made sure to pass out various samples of his people's food he had prepared for us. Everything revolved around corn, which is a major (if not the only) staple of their diet. To start we were given cooked corn kernels, which tasted and crunched like Corn Nuts. They were pretty yummy.

These are the kernel treats. The blob on the left is the mystery corn dough.

Next we tried some weird corn bread that had a consistency similar to play dough. This dish is a pain in the ass to make, Snake Hunter said (in his own poetic Hopi way). Women essentially have to grind corn down to dust and then cook it with their bare hands over a red-hot rock. They usually get really sore and burnt -- but when they can complete the bread, it proves that they'll be a great wife. The dish wasn't that good really, but I appreciated all the hard work that went into it.

Finally, we tasted some 7-year-old corn right off the husk. The Hopi have learned to dehydrate corn, which they can store for decades. When they finally get hungry for some, they soak it in water and it plumps right up. This wasn't the yellow corn I'm used to -- but the brown, black and white kernels were sweeter than anything I've tasted on the cob before. And no butter needed! I think these Hopi are definitely on to something.