food I can't miss

[elymara88]

Hello everyone!!!
I am new to this blog, this is my first post, I hope it's in the right session!
My name is Elisa, I am Italian and I arrived in Finland, specifically in Lapland, a few days ago, to work in a hotel for the winter season.
I found this forum tonight going through websites trying to find out more about Finland! I Always love to learn about the food culture of the places I live in and I would like to do the same here in Finland...the only problem...I am vegetarian so I know my choices are limited...but maybe you can help me make some sort of list of what I really HAVE TO try before I go home. And of course I am also interested in knowing what is really typical here, even though I don't eat it, I still want to know so I can tell everyone at home what Finnish people eat!!!!
I hope you'll be able to help me!
Kiitos!=P
Elisa

[Anskutin]

Karelian pastries!

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9 ... F5lp3YcIug

It is basically a rye/rice pie so no meat. Typically it's eaten with egg butter, so butter mixed with boiled eggs. If you don't eat eggs either just try a bit of butter over a warm pastry.

"Summer soup" is a bit, like name tells, summery dish, but goes well for winter as well. It is basically milk based veggie soup. When I visited Italy, people seemed to think it weird to make soup with milk.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CuCW04AwzD0/T ... keitto.jpg

http://www.pirkka.fi/ruoka/reseptit/23145-kesakeitto

(^ Recipe in Finnish)

Reindeer is pretty Finnish dish as well, especially in Lapland. Also Karelia roast is one of Finnish meat dishes:

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9 ... Rc7n5OfGuw

Xmas table is usually filled with a huge ham and different casserolls like carrot, potato and swede. Also sometimes lutefish (not my cup of tea), different salads and spiced salmon (basically "cooked" by salt as far as I understand):

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w4vo5S2xghw/U ... ioinen.jpg

http://static.kotikokki.net/public_file ... 1297434489

Dark rye bread is also really Finnish:

http://www.vaasan.com/files/images/ruis ... palat2.jpg

[Oombongo]

macaroni with boiled mixture of vegetables, everyday
(yep, I eat to live so taste and stuff doesn't matter much to me)

[onkko]

Lapland and food.
Youll ead rudolph and youll eat blood. Delicious.
You may also eat weird mushrooms. Deadly if done wrong. Not red mushrooms tho, those are for shamans
Dark rye bread? Thats norm so you starve if you want something else.

As you said you are working in hotel, hotel in lapland is mostly for tourists and for tourist they offer traditional food so you can eat most of traditional.

Veripalttu and kampsu are good, kampsu is better. That with lapland potatoes (puikula) and lingonberry (puolukka)is something i do find dear. Kampsu and veripalttu are probably something you cant find on menu because making of those arent fast and food made from blood isnt something general foreign population agree.
We have enough problems with eating rudolph

[Anskutin]

Lingonberries reminded of another delicacy, "bread cheese" with cloudberry(jam):

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9 ... PpPDhVTBCb

[Jukka Aho]

http://finland.fi/public/default.aspx?c ... ture=en-US
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_cuisine
http://www.saunalahti.fi/marian1/gourmet/gl_finn.htm