General information and eating habits
Covered with 75% of forests and with a climate that is at best cool, if not cold, even polar in places, Finland is a land that is not very conducive to agriculture, but which has, on the contrary, managed to draw wealth from its nature. Wheat is traditionally quite rare here, and rye is preferred, as it is more resistant to the cold. Potatoes are also very popular, along with beets, turnips and other kohlrabi. Cereals, legumes, but also dairy and pork are common in Finnish cuisine. Not to mention mushrooms and other wild berries. Game is also popular: reindeer (poro), elk (hirvi) and, more rarely, bear meat (karhu
) are available alongside the classic pork, beef and chicken. Fish of course is an integral part of Finnish cuisine, as well as seafood and crayfish.Dairy products are very common, with Dutch-inspired cheeses, not to mention the milk (maito) that Finns drink at every meal, especially at dinner, and the strange piimä (fermented milk), a cross between milk and yoghurt, reputed to promote good digestion. Don't miss the leipäjuusto
(literally "cheese loaf"), a cheese that is usually eaten warm, heated on the grill, with raspberry jam or lakka. This rubbery cheese squeaks when you bite into it.The arrival of summer is marked by the season of berries and red fruits, both cultivated and wild: strawberries, raspberries, red currants, blueberries, lingonberries and many rarer varieties such as cranberries, lakka (cloudberry) or gooseberries. They can be eaten straight from the bush or with cream or vanilla ice cream. Rhubarb (raparperi
) is also part of the celebration. Autumn is the time of mushrooms, and everyone has the right to pick them in the forest, as long as they are familiar with the species, some of which are poisonous. From June to September, stalls selling fresh berries, berry fruits, mushrooms and peas are springing up all over the capital. Traditionally, Finns start the day with a hearty breakfast and hotels offer their Finnish version of the Scandinavian smörgåsbord with a rich buffet where guests are treated to a wide selection of marinated fish, cold meats, scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit and porridge. Lunch is taken between 11am and 2pm depending on the formula but a common snack break is around 3pm-4pm. Dinner is usually taken early, from 5pm. Later in the evening, night owls can also eat on the go in the food-trucks that abound in the capital.The king fish
Many methods of preparing fish are used, including frying, poaching, drying, salting, fermenting and cold smoking. Salmon is an obvious favourite, and can be either kylmäsavustettu lohi , i.e. cold smoked, or graavilohi, i.e. served half-cooked after an overnight stay in a mixture of salt and sugar (gravlax in Swedish). And it is common to smoke all kinds of fish in general, including, in addition to salmon, pike-perch, perch and Baltic herring. A popular dish among the ethnic Swedish population is smoked herring (in Finnish savusilakka, in Swedish böckling). Pickled herring is a common appetizer and is also served around midsummer with small potatoes called uusiperuna which literally means "new potato", usually the first potato harvest. Whitefish roe is a Finnish specialty served on toast or with blini. Crayfish can be found in many lakes and streams in Finland. Finally, lohikeitto, a delicious creamy soup of salmon, potato and leek, is one of the most popular Finnish dishes.
Meat and game
On the meat side, you can enjoy lihapullat, Finnish meatballs, often with cream sauce and cranberry compote. Otherwise palvikinkku and palviliha, respectively ham and smoked beef, while mustamakkara is simply a kind of black pudding from the Tampere region. This ingredient is also used for rössypottu, a pork and blood sausage and potato stew. Mykyrokka
is a traditional soup from central Finland (Savo region). It is made of blood and barley flour dumplings cooked in a broth. Game, in this forest-covered country, is obviously popular. Elk, deer, grouse, duck, hare, etc. However, Finland has extremely strict health regulations and this type of meat is rarely available in mainstream restaurants, but rather available in some guesthouses. Reindeer - because it is bred - is more common. Its meat is used both as sausage and as stew. This is the case with poronkäristys, perhaps the most famous traditional meal in Lapland. Reindeer meat is cooked for a long time with beer and cream and then served with mashed potatoes, pickled cucumber and raw cranberries crushed with sugar.Vegetarian options
Traditional Finnish cuisine does not necessarily appear to be very suitable for a vegetarian or vegan diet. Nevertheless, there is a wide variety of restaurants in the major cities offering alternatives for people who do not eat meat, eggs or dairy products. Hapanvelli is a peasant dish in the form of rye and pea porridge. Hernekeitto is a pea soup that Finns strangely associate with sweet pancakes, especially for Mardi Gras. It has been a popular dish for centuries and it is believed that King Eric XIV of Sweden, who also ruled Finland at the time, was poisoned by pea soup containing arsenic. Other vegetable dishes contain some meat, such as pyttipannu, a stir-fry of potatoes and ham, or kaalikääryleet, stuffed cabbage. There are several types of salads similar to what you can eat in Russia, such as rosolli salad, a creamy salad with beets, potatoes and carrots. Otherwise, discover the karjalanpiirakka
or Karelian pie as a snack. It comes in the form of a tray of thin rye or wheat dough filled with barley, potato or rice porridge. There are many breads in Finland made from grains such as barley, oats, rye and wheat, or by mixing different grains and flours. Dark, high-fibre ruisleipä is made from rye, while sihtileipä is a combination of rye and wheat. Other examples are Savonian barley grain ryynirieska, barley flour läskirieska with pieces of bacon and potato perunarieska.Many delicacies
For dessert, gingerbread cakes and plum pies are the perfect end to the pikkujoulut (little Christmases) season, when friends and colleagues celebrate throughout the month of December with a glass of glögi, a hot wine. The rest of the year, you can enjoy pulla, a cardamom bun, or korvapuustit (cinnamon rolls) similar to American cinnamon buns . In the same genre, laskiaispulla (sometimes called semla) is a small bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream. The runebergintorttu is an amazing cylindrical almond cake flavoured with rum, recognisable by its white icing and raspberry jam decoration. Munkki (doughnut) and tippaleipä (fried doughnut) are delicious unless you prefer a slice of mustikkapiirakka, a tasty blueberry tart, or rönttönen
, a tart with cranberry puree filling.Porridges are often eaten with milk, sugar, butter or kiisseli - thick syrup - with berries. The Christmas season features the milk-based rice porridge (riisipuuro), sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and often topped with prune kiisseli (luumukiisseli). There is also a semolina-based porridge flavoured with fresh or frozen cranberries called vispipuuro. Mämmi is a traditional Easter pudding made of rye malt, baked and served with sugar and milk or cream. Pasha,
a fresh cheese dessert with candied fruit from Russia, is served at Orthodox Easter in Finland. As for sweets, Finland is a big consumer of liquorice(lakritsi), a speciality of the town of Porvoo, which makes small rolls of it in all colours and filled with all sorts of flavours. But the great particularity is the salmiakki, a salted licorice candy. Soft or hard, filled with chocolate or pepper, there is something for everyone. You can find it in every supermarket in the country. There is no diplomacy in its appreciation: you either love it or hate it, the main thing is to taste it. The Finns like it so much that they have made it a national drink: Salmiakki Koskenkorva (more familiarly Salmiakki Kossu), a daring mixture of these sweets distilled in vodka: the result is a strong drink with a black colour, 32° but which goes down well because it is so sweet.Finnish beer and other spirits
In this Nordic country, beer (olut) is king and flows freely, especially on drunken weekend nights. It is not surprising that theseolut lovers have made it a habit to quench their thirst with a can of Lapin Kulta, Olvi or Koff (they are often 50 cl in size here) after the sauna, just to refresh their ideas! Not as strong as its Belgian or Irish cousins, Finnish beer is also generally less alcoholic. Cider does not have quite the same flavour as the cider of our countries, but is very popular, sometimes flavoured with pear and other flavours. Others produce their own beer (sahti
), which is stronger than the commercially available beer.Among the spirits, the famous Finlandia vodka, but also Salmiakki Koskenkorva, lakka, a liqueur made from the fruit of the same name, resembling an orange raspberry, and minttu, a peppermint liqueur produced in Turku. It should be noted that some wines (especially sparkling) are produced locally from berries: this is the case of small productions, such as in Lepaa. At Christmas, it is traditional to prepare a mulled wine with spices (glögi
), which also has a non-alcoholic version for young people. Please note that the most alcoholic beers, wine and hard liquor are only sold in the state-owned Alko stores, to strictly control domestic sales. Otherwise, of course, there are various drinks with little or no alcohol, such as sima, a fermented honey-based drink similar to mead, flavoured with lemon and grapes, drunk for Vappu, celebrated on the night of 30 April to1 May. Other drinks include viili, a fermented yoghurt-like dairy product, or piimä, which is more like buttermilk. As for hot drinks, coffee (kahvi) is king! Finland is by far the biggest consumer of coffee in the world with more than 12 kg per year per inhabitant! Although there are now dozens of cafés serving cappuccinos and espressos, traditionally the Finns tend to drink a classic black coffee throughout the day and anything with a pastry for a snack. In comparison, tea consumption, although growing, remains much more modest.
