Tastes

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Finland? Reindeer? Snow? Lakes? Forests? But what TASTE comes to your mind when you think of Finland? To me Finland tastes of liquorice (FIN: lakritsi), rye crispbread (FIN: näkkileipä), reindeer meat (FIN: poronliha), squeaky cheese (FIN: leipäjuusto), cloudberry (FIN: lakka) and lingonberry (FIN: puolukka).

Finnish kids grow up eating lakritsi. Supermarkets sell liquorice candies in hundreds of varieties and packages. They put at least some liquorice candies in "normal" candy packages as well, so that tourists (read: non-Finns) would at least try the famous salmiakki even if they've managed to find a package without the infamous "black candy". The Finnish confectionery makers know how to make you eat liquorice. If they are lucky enough they'll make you even eat the salty liquorice (FIN: salmiakki). If not in the candy form then in a chocolate bar, ice cream or vodka. But you'll be definitely tricked into at least trying some liquorice :)

ice cream

sweets

vodka coctail

If that all is not enough then try salmiakki in the form of a powder that you can put into your cake mix or smoothie :) or have some chili with your salmiakki candies. You can have it all in Finland:

something for extremists

When you have tasted the latter, then you can say you know how Finland tastes :)

näkkileipä
Photo: wikipedia

Finns cannot live without rye bread and it's eaten with basically every meal. Finnish kids grow up eating rye crispy bread. They love crispy näkkileipä with cheese (preferably lactose free) on it for their snack.

reikäleipä
Photo: wikipedia

The tradition of dry bread in Finland goes back far into the history. The way bread was made divided Finland into the east side and west side. In Western Finland bread was baked only a couple of times a YEAR. Then it was dried. The bread had a hole in the middle (FIN: reikäleipä), therefore, it was easy to hang it up to dry. So old Finns used to eat stale bread throughout the winter season. Nowadays it is sold fresh, though :) Ähtäri has its own bakery Körkkö that sells the reikäleipä...fresh, made of traditional and old sourdough. It's not difficult to buy a sourdough bread (FIN: hapanleipä) made of 100 year old "starter" dough in Ähtäri. For example, also an Ähtäri organic food store called Gaija sells them. Want to try fresh but old in roots rye bread?

I haven't seen salmiakki bread in stores yet, but I bet it's just a matter of time until you can buy black salmiakki bread :)

poronkäristys
Photo: www.suomalaiset.de

Next to traditional meats Finns also eat reindeer meat. You think poor reindeer...well, people eat horse meat as well, and dogs :) There are people around the world who eat even more weird meat. Actually, reindeer meat tastes as any other game meat. Just don't think of Rudolf the Reindeer that pulls Santa's sleigh, then you're all fine. Have some rye bread, mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam with it. The dish is called poronkäristys :)

By the way, poronkäristys and reindeer meat muffins taste heavenly at Valkeisen Loma tourism farm. I've written about them in my very first post. They have 6 reindeer in their reindeer park. NB! These reindeer are not eaten, they are solely used for sleigh rides in wintertime :)

juustoleipä
Photo: wikipedia

As I've mentioned before then Finns like rye bread. They like it with cheese, but also the weird cheese called "leipäjuusto" or "juustoleipä" (ENG: bread cheese or cheese bread). The cheese is first curdled and then baked in the oven and looks like flat bread, hence the name. It squeaks against your teeth when you bite it :) Beware, you may get goose bumps all over you!

In the past the bread cheese like rye bread was dried and stored for up to several years. How did they eat that rock hard cheese? Well, they used to heat it up by the fire and then it must have softened up enough to bite it.

What's with the drying food up in Finland? The old Finns must have had really good teeth :)

The bread cheese is usually eaten with cloudberry jam or fresh cloudberries. Talking of cloudberries, they grow plenty in arctic tundra but also in the mid-Finland where Ähtäri is. Right by the Karhunkierros road that circles Ähtäri Zoo there is marshland where you can find the sweet yellow cloudberries:

lakka

The forests at Ähtäri Resort are full of lingonberries (FIN: puolukka), the same berries that Finns usually eat with game meat. Both lingonberry and cloudberry are considered "superfoods" as they contain many useful vitamins and minerals, therefore, they are used in many dishes in Finland: porridges, jams, juices, liqueurs, sweets, and what not. But hey, what is better than picking some fresh berries in the forest and putting them straight into your mouth, right there, where they naturally grow. Mmmm...you can't beat that to any preserve made out of them :)

puolukka

You can come to Ähtäri Resort by RV caravan (there is a big caravan camp ground by the zoo) or your car (there are many cottages and a big hotel right across the road from the zoo) and it's easy to book a room or a whole cottage here.

Welcome to Ähtäri with many tastes!