Reindeer (in North America, caribou) is the meat of Rangifer tarandus, the circumpolar deer of the Arctic tundra and taiga. Very lean, fine-grained and dark, almost purple-red, it is the staple game meat of Nordic and Sámi cooking; it tastes cleanly of the wild — savoury and gently gamey with a herby, tundra edge — and, being fat-poor, is best served rare, thin-sliced and quickly seared, or slow-braised.