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Finland Cooking Finland

 
 
Area : 130558  sq.mi - Population 5276571 hab.
Finland

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Cooking Finland

 Gastronomy

Finnish cuisine is inspired by French, Swedish and Russian food. You must taste fish from this fishing country: marinated or grilled herring, pike, vendace, arctic char, devilfish and raw or sea salted-raw smoked salmon. The crayfish season starts in late July. In the Kuopio region, the speciality is Kalakukko, a rye bread filled with small fish and bacon. In the east, you find Karelian baskets with a thin rye dough filled with rice or mashed potatoes.
In Finnish Lapland, you will be able to taste meat and fish. Reindeer is obviously the main dish. The country produces 2.5 million tons every year and exports 3% of it. Some of the farms can be visited. The taste is similar to beef. All or almost all of the reindeer can be eaten, even the tongue (it has a very delicate taste); the liver and the heart are smoked. It can be cooked in soup or in a stuffed stew, and is usually served with mashed potatoes in a sauce or with forest mushrooms, with white bread or stuffed with potatoes. The animal can live up to fifteen years, but breeders think that the best meat (because it is the most tender) has to be eaten around the age of three or four. Additionally, perches, trouts, and roaches are found in Finnish lakes. Fish (and their eggs) are eaten smoked or marinated, definitely worth a try! Local producers organise food events in order to introduce their specialities to travellers. For more information on this topic and the ?food and travel' project, contact the Tourist Office of Finland, see ?Usefull Addresses' in the ?All Information' section. For breakfast, you can also taste fir tree-based lemonade (made with the tree's buds), or Arctic berry jam, slightly more sour than our berry jam.