September 24, 2005
How I learnt Swedish......
If you'd asked me about Finnish food before our visit to Finnish lapland you would have drawn a blank. Pushed, I might have actually come up with some vague ideas based on fish, bread and potatoes. Not very flattering ideas. As it was, gastronomically, Finland was a very pleasant suprise.
Jacques Chrirac obviously ate elsewhere than us. In the north where we were for our two weeks, menus revolved around Salmon and Reindeer. I can see that this could get a bit boring after a while but they were both soooooo delicious! The salmon in Finland is different to the salmon we're used to from Norway and Scotland, but what struck us most was the difference it makes to be back in a country where produce is just-dead-fresh (not to put too fine a point on it). The dishes we had were delicious whether they were in restaurants or roadside eateries.
Besides the freshness of the produce the other distinguishing feature that really made some very basic dishes special was the reliance on fresh herbs, berries and other forest and field products. Salmon lasagnas, salmon BBQ's, salmon cooked with dill sauces, berry sauces, reindeer goulash, reindeer goulash, reindeer goulash, but always delicious. Reindeer I has assumed would be a bit gamey, but was basically like beef but lighter. Very tasty! And have I mentioned the salmon? The salmon was just sensational, we ate it almost every day for two weeks and I could go on doing so for a good while longer without any sense of hardship whatsoever.
Of course Everyman's Right in Finland means there is an abundance of fresh berries available to everyone in season. It was wonderfully decadent to walk every day through forests that were literally carpeted with all sorts of berries that normally you would only see in very-small-expensive-boxes at the market or Albert Heijn in the Netherlands. What was done with berries for dessert, berries for breakfast and berries with already delectable salmon and reliable reindeer was just heavenly and only possible in a country with an extravagant abundance of the things. Berry heaven!
Another nice, but rather prosaic, suprise, was a sort of Finnish porridge. I'm not sure what the Finnish called it but many places served it at breakfast. Now, 'pap', the Netherlands version, is usually quite tasteless. I do love porridge, real porridge made with tasty oats. I can't remember the list of grains used to make the Finnish version but together they made a very tasty porridge and best of all, it being summer, it was served with an absolutely delicious strawberry sauce. Strawberry sauce for breakfast no less! So impressed was I that I bought a packet of what I hope are the main ingredients for us to experiment with this winter. Anna Manna Mannasuurimoita Mannagryn As soon as I have worked out how to translate any of the 4 unidentifiable languages on the back of the packet I'll be serving brekky!
Another favourite of ours on the trip was Tansongon's Lemon Cookies. These were absolutely delicously lemony. Perfect with a cup of black tea! Maybe we'll be able to find more at Ikea?
At several places we stayed a home-made non-alcoholic beer was served. Our first experience with this was not good but later on we tried it again at Simo and discovered the perfect refreshing drink for an afternoon's lingering on the terrace while Jacob ran laps around the staff. It was such a nice drink for a BBQ or warm afternoon that I ended up asking for the recipe. Instead, I was given a box of the makings, Koti Kalja (enough for 17 litres!) and a translation of the instructions, which in this case were in Swedish. The cook tested my memorising of the relevant Swedish words until I was word perfect from the back of the box so as soon as I work out how to make room in the fridge for 17 litres of non-alcoholic beer I'll be working on that as well. (And now I've found this, it will be even easier)