Crystal Burton of Hungry Hungry Arrow (Photo by Jay Paul)
Crystal Burton of the Mattaponi tribe grew up with cooking at the center of her world. The William & Mary grad launched Hungry Hungry Arrow, named for her son, Arrow, after working in corporate management. Serving fry bread, Native American tacos and seasonal specialties, Burton aims to preserve and proudly showcase both her heritage and the stories that come along with it.
Richmond magazine: When did you found Hungry Hungry Arrow?
Crystal Burton: I started in 2016. The business is under Firefly Foods LLC, which gets its name from my born-native name, Firefly, which my grandfather Jacob Vincent Thundercloud Custalow gave me. He was the assistant chief of my tribe, Mattaponi, based in King William County, where my husband and I live about a mile from the reservation. Very rural, [you] don’t see any other food trucks here. My main staple is homemade fry bread. There’s a great amount of pride representing my tribe and my family.
RM: What is fry bread?
Burton: It’s a recipe that goes back hundreds of years and is essentially only made from a few ingredients. It’s derived from a state of oppression, when ancestors were pushed onto reservations and given rations of food from the government, or what is now our government, and they made the best of what they could from it. I make my fry bread from eight different ingredients. [It] goes through [a] rising process; my mother has helped me make several batches of fry bread dough. So has my aunt. They are the ones who taught me. People say, “Oh, my gosh, I haven’t had this since visiting the Midwest,” and know exactly what it is and love it and order like 10 of them.
RM: Can you also explain what Native American tacos are?
Burton: Traditional Native American tacos would be made in bulk, like a big giant chili of ground beef, beans and canned tomatoes scooped on fry bread with toppings. Mine gets a little more special treatment. Some days [we] may have pork, but most days chicken, slow-cooked for about 10-12 hours, always [a] fry bread base and then a combo of beans with green chiles, diced tomatoes and seasoning, all topped with lettuce, cheese, scallions and a sour cream drizzle.
RM: Where did your foundation for cooking come from?
Burton: My passion came at a very, very young age. As soon as I was eye level with the stove, [I] always wanted to help. My great-grandmothers and grandmothers on both sides of the family both loved to cook. I used to come home every day after school and help them with dinner. My mom’s side was [the] native side, so I went to powwows every year and ate native foods like fry bread, succotash and Indian tacos. I knew I didn’t want a brick-and-mortar, so [I] had my own trailer built.
