Hyvää Suomesta

Among Europeans, Finnish food is not always highly regarded, but I have found that it is generally quite good. The cuisine is based on high-quality raw ingredients rather than elaborate preparations; it might thus be considered closer to the Italian tradition than to the French. Here are eleven Finnish foods which I will particuarly miss after I return to North America:

1. Korvasieniä. These are the amazing mushrooms that I wrote about earlier. The first time I had them was from a can; I didn't know what they were but thought them delicious. Since then, I've found them fresh, and have realized that - as good as the canned ones are - the fresh ones are infinitely better, and are among the world's best mushrooms. For me, korvasieniä are right up there with truffles; much as I love morels and cèpes (porcini), these are better. I am in fact already missing them, since they are spring mushrooms and the season has ended.

2. The world's best seafood. This might be hyperbole, as I haven't spent time in Portugal, Norway, or Japan. Still, I grew up in San Diego (home of the tuna fleet and beach-fresh abalone), where I worked one summer for a NMFS scientist studying albacore; I've eaten Midwest perch still alive when it hit the frying pan (the instinct of my grandfather, who is a surgeon, is to keep the patient alive under the knife...); and I now live in Seattle, where Washington's (and, thanks to Queen Anne Thriftway, Alaska's) fabulous salmon is readily available. Still, the Finnish fish surpasses them all. Even the salmon can be even better than the superlative Pacific Northwest product.

3. Kuha merits its own entry. This fish - the English name is "pike-perch" – is without question the best I have ever eaten. The one drawback to being in Finland in the summer is that the kuha spawns in July and thus cannot be sold in stores. Kuha is a dense, meaty freshwater whitefish which has a pronounced, distinctive flavor; Midwesterners compare it to Walleye.

4. Open-faced sandwiches. These traditional lunch foods typically consist of one slice of bread; butter or mayonnaise; vegetables such as lettuce or pickled onions; and seafood such as shrimp, fried herring, or cured salmon. One of these sandwiches, from a reputable café such as the ones at Stockmann or Kappeli, makes a tasty, healthy, and inexpensive lunch.

5. New potatoes. The potatoes available now are still quite good, but the ones from the beginning of the season were exquisite. Even the university dining halls, as institutional as any in the U.S., serve good potatoes. The ones I found this spring were, without a doubt, the best that I have ever eaten.

6. Salmiakkia. The quintessential Finnish candy is salmiakki: licorish flavored with salty ammonium chloride (sal ammoniac). This is a flavor you either love or you hate, and I am among the former. The chewy pastilles tend to have a somewhat soapy taste, but the hard candy (excellent when dissolved in koskenkorva) is delicious, as is the Fazer chocolate with liquid salmiakki filling. This leads me to…

7. Fazer milk chocolate. In general I prefer dark chocolate; my favorite is the "Caraïbe" from French producer Valrhona (which Shelley and I visited a few years ago). However, as far as milk chocolate goes, the ubiquitous Fazer brand is excellent. The half-milk, half-white bar emblazoned with the Finnish flag is my favorite, but the big (100g) milk chocolate is a fantastic value at 1,75 Euros.

8. Hard cider is readily available - Finland is the world's second-greatest cider-drinking country (I am not sure what the first is). I am not a beer drinker, so cider is an excellent bar alternative. Options range from the premium dry cider made by Hartwall to sweeter, fruit-flavored options (cassis, cloudberry, rhubarb, pear, strawberry...) produced in Sweden.

9. Pitsa Nikolai. Most Finnish pizza is disappointing (to put it charitably), but the "Nikolai" from the pizzeria at the south end of Iso Mustasaari is delicious, if a bit unusual. The thin, wood-fired crust is topped with capers, chopped pickles, and sour cream. It may not be Neapolitan, but it is good!

10. Limppua. Finland is a place to eat dark bread, not white bread. The soft rye bread (quite dark, and untainted by caraway) is delicious with butter and jam, and the moist syrup-based limppu from western Finland is the one thing that I have never allowed myself to run out of. In addition to the regular version, I have enjoyed a hazelnut version, Degerbylimpan, from the Åland islands.

11. Jogurttia. The breadth of yogurt options is remarkable. Notwithstanding the cloudberry, arctic bramble, blackcurrant, and lingonberry yogurts and viiliä that are all readily available, my favorite is the metsämansikka (wild strawberry) yogurt from Valio. Imagine eating Berthillon fraise de bois ice cream for breakfast...but imagine that it is actually healthy...and now imagine that it costs only 2,95 Euros per liter!

And five that I will not:

1. Karjalanpiirakkaa. These boat-shaped pastries, made of rye-flour crimped crusts are filled with rice and topped with butter mixed with hard-boiled eggs. Although ubiquitous, they are disappointing, even in Karelia itself. I have had a great karjalanpiirakka, but it was in Seattle, at the Nordic Heritage Museum's annual Finnish bazaar! Here I have been unable to find them fresh from the oven.

2. Lakkaa. Cloudberries are a delicacy from Lapland; many Sámi families supplement their income by picking cloudberries during the summer. To be fair they have their own unique flavor; unfortunately, it is not one that I personally am fond of. Lakkaa look like yellowish-orange raspberries, but have a pronounced tropical taste.

3. Olutta. Finnish beer is, with the exception of Sahti and a few microbrews (Savonlinna's Huvila is one), no different than cheap American beer.

4. Muikku. Not that this freshwater fish, from lake Saimaa is at all bad - but its reputation exceeds its quality. Other fish, such as kuha, lohi (salmon), ahven (perch), and silli (herring) are usually even better options. Muikkukukko, a rye bread filled with layers of muikku and pork, is a traditional pastry from Savo.

5. Jäätelöä. Finns eat a lot of ice cream, but most of it is produced by two large dariy consortia. The only quality ice cream I have found here is from the Ben & Jerry's kiosk in Kamppi. Surely this presents an opportunity for some enterprising ice cream producer...