Fish, game, forest fruits, mushrooms, cheese, strawberries. . . The Finns have a natural larder to envy. The sea is close by and so is nature, and there’s a ‘right to roam’ meaning anyone can forage regardless of land ownership. Many Finnish restaurateurs spend their days looking for new ingredients in nature. Seasonal eating and wisdom when it comes to delicious fermenting and preserves mean that you can make the most of local food with a low-carbon footprint all year round.
So, what should you be sure to sample when visiting?
1. Karelian Pie
A breakfast pastry unlike any other patisserie, you’ll find this in most cafes and bakeries and hotel morning buffets. It’s a savoury bake, in the form of a little boat with a rye or wheat crust, filled with potato or rice porridge and egg butter.
2. Fish
Head to Helsinki’s main harbour to experience a riot of sights, sounds and colours at the orange-topped market stalls. The Finns love to eat fish, whether smoked, freshwater or from the sea. Pike is commonly eaten in Finland and has a delicate flavour. Elsewhere it sometimes gets a bad rep as it’s very bony, but the bones are no problem when the fish is chopped and whizzed up with onion, breadcrumb and herbs. I had pike quenelles in a delicious, creamy broth at Alexanderplats, a chic but relaxed bistro on Helsinki’s green Esplanadi. They were soft and beautiful.
And of course, with almost one-third of the country above the Artic Circle, salmon fishing is top notch. Finnish Lapland’s epic rivers provide this key ingredient for a particular national favourite: salmon soup. It can be made with cream or thickened with potatoes – the essence of simplicity and wholesome eating.
3. Beef turnover or lihapiirakka
A pastry using a kind of donut dough which is filled with beef, ham, or egg and then fried. It’s a common street food.
4. Traditional mushroom salad
In Finland it used to be common to preserve foraged mushrooms over the winter, packed in brine and layers of herbs and weighed down. These mushrooms can then be chopped and mixed with onions and cream to make a salad that’s still a staple when feeding a crowd. If you’re visiting in the autumn, there are plenty of opportunities to forage your own mushrooms too.
5. Strawberry Cake or Kiisseli
Strawberry season is short but exquisite in Finland, where the long sunshine hours lend extra sweetness. It’s common to find Finns lounging in parks eating strawberries in summer. Strawberry Cake, a sponge, cream and fruit sandwich, is one of the most famous ways to enjoy this ingredient. Or if you prefer something lighter, kiisseli, is a kind of fruit soup or drink, eaten for breakfast and dessert.
6. Rye bread
Rye bread is so much a part of the Finnish soul and psyche that it was voted Finland’s national food in the year of their centenary celebrations. Many households still have a fermentation ‘starter’ or sourdough leaven, known as ‘the root of the bread’, passed down through generations! Less sweet than Swedish rye bread and less heavy than the German or Baltic varieties, it’s not only delicious but high in fibre and good for managing blood glucose. You can even buy a loaf at the airport as a gift!
Something to go with your loaf perhaps? Aura is a semi-soft tangy blue cows’ milk cheese, similar to Roquefort and named after the Aura River. Try it in cheese soup. You’re sure to find this and many other cheeses at the Old Market Hall on the harbour, or cobblestoned Hakaniemi market square.
7. Coffee and a bun?
Finns love a ‘pulla’ or sweet bun (then again, who doesn’t?!) and as you may be realising, they have a bake for every season and occasion. Cinnamon buns (‘korvapuustit’) though, are eaten all year round and traditionally were baked on Saturdays. A bit like that comforting British cup of tea, Finns will turn to coffee and a bun as the perfect response to most events. As a confessed cinnamon bun addict, I found the ones I tried in Helsinki more cinnamon-y and less sticky than the Swedish variety. If you’re on a quest to find the perfect cinnamon bun, Helsinki offers rich research terrain.
Alternatively piglet donuts or the cutely-named possumunkki, are a flat, squarish doughnut pocket filled with jam and rolled in sugar. Two pastry folds form ‘ears’ that make the treat look a little like a piglet. Look out for these too in bakeries and street stalls.
8. Berries and forest fruits
Finland is blessed with forests and swamps heaving with wild berries. Out walking you’re sure to pass shrubs laden with bilberries (Finnish blueberries) – perfect for a Finnish classic: mustikkapiirakka or blueberry pie, which is like the delicious offspring of cheesecake and cake, dotted with juicy berries. Meanwhile cloudberry season usually begins in mid-July and continues until the first half of August. Though it’s a short season, jam-making prolongs the enjoyment, and cloudberry jam is a time-honoured combo with bread and cheese.
Lingonberries too grow in the boreal forests of northern Europe and have a tart addictive taste. You must try the lingonberry Brita cake at Levain, a bakery specialising in sourdough, with appealing industrial decor and pastel colours. To my mind, Brita cake, often served at birthdays and with a layer of meringue, is even more tempting then Strawberry Cake – but hey, perhaps I just need to try more of both before I make up my mind?
9. Liquorice Ice cream
Finns go mad for liquorice, including a salty variety called salmiakki. If you need persuading, why not try it in ice cream form? Jādelino is an artisan purveyor of ice cream to be found at Teurastamo, a former 1930s slaughterhouse that’s been coolly converted into public space. And while you’re there, pop next-door to treat yourself to a bottle of local gin from the Helsinki Distilling Company, so that you can make yourself a Finnish long drink (see below!).
10. Long drink
Not strictly a food of course, but not to be missed. This refreshing gin and grapefruit concoction is served all over, including in saunas. At Löyly, a stunning wooden-terraced sauna in Eira District, I had a dip in the Gulf of Finland then sat by the fire overlooking the sea, sipping a Long Drink. The perfect end to a perfect stay.
