- Tuhansien murheellisten ravintoloiden maa (in Finnish)
However, one of Kolu’s points, among others, is it is embarrassing to sit down at a table in a mid-range restaurant and get charged a stupendous 18 euros for a hamburger whose less-than-inspiring buns and sad processed patty were ordered deep-frozen from a wholesaler, instead of having been made on the spot in the kitchen... and that it’s not only hamburgers that get this treatment, but all kinds of food. While she admits there are some great restaurants too, she finds they’re outnumbered by the bad apples, and there’s a general lack of ambition in the business: all too often, the customer walks out of the establishment feeling angry, sad, ripped off, or all three of those, and people will too readily accept this as the “norm”.
Some of the commentators theorize this might all be because Finns view their food as staple that helps them through the hardships of life by filling their stomachs and keeping them going (come famine, hell, or high water!) — so meals are not viewed as something to enjoy but as mere means of survival — and because we’re all taught to be grateful for the food we get (any food, as a generic rule of polite and reasonable behavior and correct table manners) without questioning its taste or quality. There’s also the note many individuals are now really choosy about the origins of their food, for ideological and ecological reasons, and this seems to be a growing trend, but they still consider the taste and quality only as a second thought, if at all, so this trend isn’t going to help us in getting better food, either.