Finnish Food
February, 1999
A Little Finnish Culture: Food
Greetings to all. Sorry I have not been very active but hopefully I have gotten back into the spirit of things. This time around I will tackle the world of Finnish Food, by request:
MAKKARA, Sausage. This is the most favorite basic Finnish food. You can find all varieties available here, however the most popular are the �Blue� and �Red� brands. They are like super size hotdogs. They are best grilled in the fireplace right after spending some time in the sauna.
PIZZA is very popular here. Too bad it is so horrible. They have their own idea about what crust should be like. Too bad. Where can you get the best pizza in Finland, out of my oven, or from Pizza Hut.
SALMIAKI. This is a medicine tasting black licorice. Very popular here, and nowhere else. Foreigners do not seem to appreciate it as much. Salmiaki can also be found in gum, ice cream, mints, and my favorite, liquified in vodka. When served as a shot, it is quite tasty. I truly like salmiaki but not before noon.
There are all sorts of FRESH FISH available in the markets. Salmon is by far the most popular. Another popular fish is the Baltic herring. Each fall, the herring fleet comes to Helsinki for a weeklong herring festival. Salmon Soup is my favorite. Nothing like a bowl of creamy salmon soup while taking a break during skiing. Since it is popular, fish ends up in places you normally do not expect to find it, like tuna fish pizza, fish pies, and fish spread in a tube.
RICE and POTATOES. That is something you can find available all the time and at least the young people are not very fond of it. O.k. it is served for lunch every day at school, and in the army. As my friend Tero said at his wedding, When he becomes president, he will ban potatoes from Finland (he recently rescinded this decree.) Except for �new� baby potatoes, all Finns peel the skin off them. As one of them said, it is barbaric to eat the skin of the potato.
If there was ever a diet that helped you towards a heart attack, the Finnish diet has to be close. MUNAVOI is a spread made of butter (voi) and chopped boiled eggs(muna). Quite tasty. Normally it is placed on a Karjalan Pirrakka. This is a bread pastry with a rice porridge top. Very Finnish, very good.
Many berries grow wild here. Cranberries, strawberries, raspberries, and numerous others grow here in the wild. Berry picking in the forest is a big activity. Almost every meal contains something containing wild berries. Sauces, juices, and liquors are also made from wild berries. Along with the berries, wild mushrooms are another tasty item Finns collect from the forest.
REINDEER is another delicacy. If you are not in Lapland, it is quite expensive. Very tasty, especially when smoked. If you did not already know it, reindeers are not really smart. So far I have only seen them at the zoo. Unfortunately you normally met them in the middle of the road in Lapland. (Collisions with Elk is the second leading cause of highway deaths in Finland)
If you ever happen to be enjoying a meal in Finland, remember not to eat too much. For as long as I have been here, every time I have a meal at a friends house, even the simplest meal is very good. However I normally forget to leave room for dessert. It can be either be ice cream, a home baked cake or rolls. Don�t forget the berries.
Some holidays in Finland have pastries associated with them. You can only get them around that holiday. Some holiday�s are better than others. For example, Runeberg�s day (a Poet) has a small sweet pastry, sometimes laced with alcohol. On Easter, There is a black Fudge like dessert made from grain. Finns make fun of it but most eat it anyway.
I was going to talk about drinks also but we will save that for another
day. Hopefully sometime soon I will be completing another culture
writing on the Finnish winter. If you would like me to write on a certain
topic, let me know.
