Finnish Culinary Report

let’s go and eat !

A journey of culinary discovery from an Indonesian perspective.

Agrippina Brescia

As someone who comes from the country with the equator line, Finland is the northest area I have ever visited. Thus, there are so many different things to compare and new places to explore.

I believe the best way to learn and understand about one country is by exploring the local food. Every food has a story and every story has its own beauty.

My expectations for Finland dishes was mainly on their fresh produce from the Baltic Sea, and different ingredients from the forest, but who knows what lies ahead on the journey?

8 April 2019, Port of Helsinki

helloHELSINKI

The gloomy weather welcomes us to the port of Helsinki. I suppose our Finnish experience must have started as soon we entered the ferry in Stockholm.

During breakfast, we found an oval curly shaped object looking like a potato, which turns out to be the national dish of Finland. The Finnish Karelian pastry and some salmons that we had is already the beginning of the food experience in Helsinki.

12 April 2019, Chapter Bar & Restaurant

the first

’CHAPTER’ For the first Finnish eating out experience, we visited Chapter Bar & Restaurant. It is basically a cocktail and tapas concept maximizing on local touches with some personalization service. The kitchen is open to see, the chefs are very friendly to talk to and the space and atmosphere is very cozy, warm and a little bit on high-end. Very small portions for the price range, but maybe the concept suits the small portions. Foods are very simple-plated but tastes excellent.

Shout out to the friendly bartender, Masha (not sure with the spelling), who is apparently an alumni from Haaga Helia for showing different local berries, liquors and other cultures. The waiter is a bit lost in service, but everything is ok.

COKCTAIL MENU EXPERIENCE

The Joker

Surprise drink customised by bartender

Alchohol-free cocktail

Seabuckthorns, Orange, Mint

Hartwall Original

Finnish Artisan Gin and Grapefruit Soda

Pulpo

w/ romesco sauce, pickled seaweed & leek salad

Dessert of the Week

Confit Reindeer Heart

w/ sesame mayo, shiitake, ginger, lichen

Lamb Croquette

w/ pickled carrot, mayo, mustard seeds

Extra credits

Really amazing sourdough bread & whipped butter and mushroom dish! (They’re too delicious we keep forgetting the photos everytime we order more)

Rhubarb jam, buckwheat honey and popcorn

Chocolate Malt Pork

w/ caramelised onion & miso sauce, red cabbage & blackcurrant

w/ candied carrot & seabuckthorn sorbet

13 April 2019, Helsinki Coffee Festival

Finns and

COFFEE? We’re not talking about growing coffee beans in Finland, of course it is impossible, but the fun fact is that Finns are drinking the most amount of coffee in the world. Maybe that’s the main reason for a coffee festival to happen in the city. Eventhought all of the coffee beans produce are imported from outside, there are quite a number of good coffee roasters around Helsinki, and huge production of ready-to-go coffees or lattes.

Not only that, we also learnt how finnish loves milk; any produce of milk, even oat milk, as well as oat ice cream! Oats mostly comes from Sweden, and the brand Oatly itself is a Swedish company. Still, it is such a wonderful, tasty and healthy discovery of the Nordic eating habits!

16 April 2019, Finnish Food Workshop

We made

FINNISH FOOD! Before discussing on the cooking process of the Finnish food, a part of my observation is that Finland has also the happiest kitchen in the world. With music around the kitchen, and very helpful lecturers (Sakari and Johanna) the experience of making Finnish food is just way beyond expectations.

Rye, fishes and berries are the major ingredients in the dishes that we make, but my favorite, is the reindeer.

The unique gamey flavour and tenderness of the meat is something that doesn’t exist in Asia. Another fun part is folding Carelian pasties, stuffed with rice grains, adding organic eggs on top makes it even tastier. Finnish cuisine is just different from anything I have had before, but in a very good way. They say the local ingredients are the best due to the long winter meaning new freshness of the soil and ground during the agricultural season. It’s proven!

Can you pair the picture of the food and the names underneath?

Carelian pasties with organic eggs and smoked roe of Rainbow Trout • Marinated Baltic Herring with onion sauce on rye bread • Perch-tartar and pickled cucumbers on crispy bread “näkkileipä” • Fried vendace with malt bread and dillmayonnaise • Reindeer pastrami with horseradish sauce and turnip chips • Blueberry mousse with oat crumble • Lingonberry pie with vanilla curd “rahka”.

19-21 April 2019, Lapland

the wonders of

LAPLAND! Âą 1000km north of Helsinki, Lapland is the northest area I have stepped on. A drastic difference in comparison from my origin country where we have the equator line crossing. Planning to explore the life in Lapland, we found a beautiful house to live in Lohiniva with Jukka Ylisuvanto as our host. As it was easter weekend, we enjoyed several different meals from lambs to the famous traditional easter sweets, mammi. Check out the gallery on the next page for the activities and food that we had in Lapland.

19-21 April 2019, Lapland

Being one with nature, experiencing real farm, old firewood stove is one of the craziest experience I have ever been through as someone who grows in the city. It is one of the most Finnish thing apparently, to do sausage bbq in the forests or parks. We also did some ice fishing, although we did not get any catch of the day. It is amazing imagining how people started cooking with what’s around them long time ago, and how industries and cities changes everything. These are real survival life skills that some people, including me might have forgotten.

Home-made Nettle-Crepes and Ice Cream For me, it is interesting how ice cream is so important all year long for the Finnish, if in other places ice cream is only associated with summer, in Finland no matter the weather, no matter old or young, everyone eats ice cream anywhere and anytime. In the middle of nowhere in Lapland, in a house with a traditional kitchen, Jukka has an ice cream machine. We served them with nettle crepes, cloudberries and mint jellies.

Mämmi Despite of the weird texture and color of Mämmi , this eastern delicacy which is traditionally made out of rye flour, powdered malted rye and dried powdered Seville orange zest pairs and tastes amazing with cream and sugar, it is like nothing we’ve ever had before, but it has a pleasant taste. It was actually consumed for Good Friday since long time ago, when cooking was against religious custom, for preservance reasons.

Roka Street Bistro In Rovaniemi, we found a street bistro serving a Nordic platter consisting of fried vendace, salmon spread, rye bread, pickles, smoked salmon and reindeer sausage.

It is a platter I have never seen before, as the Nordic flavours are very different from what I have had before.

I find the salmon spread and the reindeer sausage very flavourful and unique, as well as how well it goes with the rye bread. Other parts are still commonly found in Asia.

An extraordinary meal Stored potatoes, Lamb ribs, Minced Moose and some other sides, we enjoyed the wonderful easter meal. It is not very traditional finnish, but as it comes from a local Finnish who understands cuisine, especially local cuisine better than us, it is still an amazing meal. Shout out and huge thanks to Jukka Ylisuvanto for being such an amazing host; for the local experience, guide, sauna, excellent meals, music jam session and many more!

21 April 2019, Lรถyly, Helsinki

Lรถyly Last but not least, we experienced the Finnish Sauna in Loyly, Helsinki. The unique architecture, interior and great atmosphere gives us a relaxing day. The most interesting part is jumping into the baltic sea and feeling the cold stinging the skin, and getting comfortable in the saunas again. It is something unexplainable with logic until you try them on your own. So refreshing!

the

CONCLUSION The experience earned is incomparable and I am out of words to describe it. It is such a wonderful surprise to learn and analyze the local ingredients, eating habits, different types of delicacies, and many more. In comparison to Indonesia, Finland is very rich in its natural foraged ingredients; berries, herbs, mushrooms, etc. While in Indonesia, we are very agricultural and we cultivate mainly rice, corn and cassavas. There are several similarities in terms of cooking techniques for the seafood, smoking and deep frying are also one of Indonesia’s famous cooking techniques, although the products were mostly very different due to the ecological difference.

Also, I am impressed by the system of Everyman’s right where everyone can go to the nature and pick their own food, which does not happen in a lot of countries and is not very righteous for the people.

In conclusion, I fell in love with the whole Finnish culture. Either it is the Sauna, the stories and myths of the country, the museums and of course the most important part, the food culture itself. I would love to come back again next time for another culinary journey in Finland.

Kiitoskia!