Finnish food is simple, seasonal and better than its reputation. Rye bread, fish, berries, root vegetables, a lot of dairy, and coffee at every turn. This page decodes the supermarket and the year.
The daily diet
- Breakfast: porridge (puuro), rye bread with butter and cheese, coffee.
- Lunch at 11 or 12 is the main meal for many, eaten at a workplace canteen or a lunch restaurant for a fixed price with salad, bread and coffee included. The lounas is one of Finland's best deals.
- Dinner is early, around five or six, and often light.
- Coffee twice a day at work, always offered to guests.
The supermarket decoded
| You see | It is |
|---|---|
| ruisleipä | rye bread, the national food, dense and dark |
| piimä | buttermilk, drunk with meals |
| viili | a thick, stretchy cultured milk, eaten like yoghurt |
| rahka | quark, high-protein, in every flavour |
| leipäjuusto | squeaky cheese, eaten warm with cloudberry jam |
| makkara | sausage, grilled at every cottage |
| kaalilaatikko, maksalaatikko | cabbage casserole, liver casserole, ready-made in the chilled aisle |
| mämmi | rye pudding at Easter; try it once, with cream and sugar |
| salmiakki | salty liquorice; Finns love it, newcomers mostly do not |
| pulla | cardamom sweet bun |
| karjalanpiirakka | Karelian pie, rye crust with rice, eaten with egg butter |
| lohikeitto | salmon soup |
| hernekeitto | pea soup, on Thursdays, with pancakes |
Meat and fish are expensive; vegetables, dairy, bread and frozen berries are not. Lidl is cheapest, S-market and K-market everywhere, Prisma and Citymarket the big ones; the loyalty cards are worth having. See shopping.
The seasonal year
- Shrove Tuesday: laskiaispulla, a bun with almond paste or jam and cream.
- Easter: mämmi, pasha, lamb.
- May Day: sima and tippaleipä.
- Summer: new potatoes with dill, herring, strawberries, grilled sausages, crayfish parties in August.
- Autumn: mushrooms, game, lingonberries.
- Christmas: ham, root vegetable casseroles, rosolli salad, gingerbread, glögi.
Drink
- Coffee: filter, light-roast, constant.
- Milk with meals: adults drink it. Nobody will judge you either way.
- Alcohol: beer and cider up to a certain strength in supermarkets until 9 pm; stronger drinks only from Alko, the state shop, which closes early on Saturdays and on Sundays and holidays. The drinking age is 18 for mild and 20 for strong. Prices are high by design.
- Water: the tap water is among the cleanest in the world. Nobody buys bottled.
Three recipes for a rented kitchen
Lohikeitto (salmon soup): fry a chopped onion in butter, add cubed potatoes and water with a stock cube, simmer until soft, add salmon cubes for five minutes, then cream and a lot of dill. Twenty minutes, one pot.
Puuro (oat porridge): oats, water or milk, a pinch of salt, five minutes. Butter and lingonberry jam on top.
Pannukakku (oven pancake): whisk 4 eggs, 1 litre of milk, 300 g flour, a pinch of salt and a spoon of sugar; pour into a buttered oven tray, bake at 200 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve with jam and whipped cream. The whole building will smell of it.
Food Finnish
| Finnish | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Hyvää ruokahalua! | Enjoy your meal! |
| lounas, lounaslista | lunch, lunch menu |
| Onko tämä laktoositon? | Is this lactose-free? |
| Olen kasvissyöjä. | I am a vegetarian. |
| Saisinko laskun? | Could I have the bill? |
| Kippis! | Cheers! |