Pemmican at Fire Lake 

I found out the hard way that you have to choose wisely when to order the heavy fuel concoction of 'small plate' menu items Bison Bone Marrow and Lamb Fritter

when at the Radisson Blu's Fire Lake, a new contemporary northwest themed restaurant

connected to the Mall of America.  At at least fifty percent fat content, marrow, along with a shredded selection of meat, is a bit like eating a solid version of two Red Bulls, no caffeine needed – the protein and fat, even though a small portion, plenty, thank you, to keep a day long shopper moving those feet forward and up and down the escalators.  A good idea...if you ate it in the morning, more smartly, like the Voyageur of old used to.

The French Canadian Voyageur wasn't exactly shopping the fur section at Nordstrom's, but he could use the staying power just the same. He would wake at 2 or 3 every morning, pack up a makeshift camp along the riverbank – blankets and supplies protected under a birch bark canoe or larger York boat – douse the fire coals, gulp some chicory coffee

then head down stream for a standard 14-hour day of rigorous paddling (55 strokes per minute expected by the boss)

stopping only to portage at a shallow turn or for a much earned pipe break every hour.  Because these 'travelers' were neither hunters or gatherers, they had to depend on the prospect of trade with natives along the midwestern Red River Trail or more likely on sources of highly-preservable foods such as salt pork, or pemmican, a Native term for ground meat mixed with animal fat.

Voyageurs would carry their precious pemmican in rawhide sacks known as Tauraux (bulls). When the fat was from the udder, the sacks were known as "Tauraux fins" (fine bulls). But the really good stuff, "Tauraux Grand," was a mixture of meat with bone marrow instead of ordinary tallow.  I hope I don't stand out next time visiting MOA as I walk past Starbucks with my own rawhide sack of animal fat slung over my shoulder.