"ArcticCircle" news and stories

I hate the cold, so I have a hard time seeing why anyone would want to move to the island of Spitsbergen, about 300 miles from the northern tip of Norway. However, that is exactly what Kazem Ariaiwand did, and he had a very good reason for making the move.

Mr. Ariaiwand is an Iranian who had been seeking asylum in Norway. His family had been accepted, however, he was denied. As it turns out, Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago, doesn't require pesky paperwork or residency status to live there. So Mr. Ariaiwand moved there as a temporary solution and promptly opened his kebab shop. It's become so popular that it has challenged traditional foods, like whale meat and seal meat, for superiority.

I can understand this man's motives, and I certainly see why a kebab shop would be so popular in the arctic circle. I've never had the pleasure of seal or whale meat, but it seems like a kebab would win me over pretty quickly!

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Utah has a claim to fame other than Mormons and The Osmonds. It's fry sauce. The pinkish concoction has been around for more than 50 years and is the states condiment of choice for French fries.

The stuff is so popular at home and in fast-food spots that there was a fry sauce pin made for the 2002 Olympics. The basic recipe for fry sauce is simple: one part ketchup to two parts mayonnaise. Of course there are numerous variations on the coral-colored condiment. Some restaurants add salt, spices, garlic, relish, horseradish and even pickle juice.

As with many flavors that have captured the public's palate, there's a secret recipe. Gary Roberts, president of Arctic Circle restaurants, which claims to have invented fry sauce in 1948, keeps his fry sauce formula in a safe.

Utah, however, no longer leads the country in fry sauce consumption. Washington and Oregon now consume more of the stuff than the state where it originated. Go figure.

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