Would You Like Fries With That?

I used to think that my usual diet meant that I was Italian in another life, but I am amending this to culinarily, I am a Finn. Firstly, like table water, coffee in restaurants and cafes is on the house. Unless you want an espresso coffee, and then you may pay but don’t worry about dietary preferences – lactose free and oat milk are both standard. The filter coffee, that’s not really filter in the American sense but is very much made in a commercial filter, is something you can drink by the litre without getting headaches or hyperactive (I have tested this), it’s also weirdly something you can have two cups of and not go into withdrawal (I have also tested this).

Cinnamon buns (kanelbullar) are readily available in an array of sugary to cardamon-y options and ergo the perfect accompaniment to the mornings litre of coffee. Bread is more than simple white or wholegrain but every kind of rye you can imagine – limppu (a round rye-sourdough), hole bread (picture a bagel but made of rye), saaristolaisleipä (kind of sweet) and korppu (a rusk like we eat with chocolate sprinkles in Holland). AND BUTTER, but also margarine and hummus again for the dairy challenged among us are also on the house.

A decent restaurant has a complimentary salad bar – so yes, your coffee, pastry, bread and salads are all included in the price of your meal. Salads often feature a potato dish, a roasted veggie dish, chickpea dish, cucumber (sometimes pickled) dish, and a rice dish. There’s also usually soup – a vegetarian one like paprika and a fish one (usually salmon). Although if you like fish, Atlantic Salmon and Char (from Norway) are readily available along with all the river Trout, Pike, Perch and Pike-Perch you could ever want. Mushroom soup is in a league of its own and is found in the entree section of the menu. Mushroom soup in Finland is what I imagine onion soup in France must taste like – just better somehow. It’s so earthy and creamy – argh, amazing.

So mostly it’s been easy to stick to vegetarian options which I have been doing for a while back home and still eat really fricking well. But whilst in Rome [Saaraselka] you must try the local delicacy, and this is reindeer. A reindeer herd is 95% does/cows and only 5% stags/bulls so most of the meat production comes from the excess boys, unless they are trained to pull sleighs or work in tourism (i.e. have a massive rack). Reindeer meat is produced twice a year during the times the deer are coming into the fences. Herders can butcher for their own consumption but a co-op is usually formed to fund the commercial meat works that is sold to the public. Most reindeer meat is sold frozen because of the limited production windows but the whole animal can and is used for production. I am told that heart makes the best biltong but I was only brave enough to try shoulder meat. It has a strong gamey flavour that’s also a bit umami.

I have seen moose and bear (stroganoff) on a menu but I just have no desire to eat a bear and I’m told reindeer is nicer than moose.

So that brings you to desert where ALL THE ICECREAM IS LACTOSE FREE. Which is a game changer for me – I found cinnamon bun flavoured ice cream which is next level amazing. I also ate a shit ton of tiramisu. And did I mention all the fresh berries?