Like minded foodies and coconut question....

[Salmoriaty]

Geez sorry Onko.
Don't take it so personally.

You just mentioned that you've eaten food from around the world and Finnish food taste the best.
That's fine. But eat noodles from 'Akpsu' doesn't mean that you've eaten food from around the world.

I ate Chinese food today but I ate Finnish chinese food.
Very different.

Look.
You can like Finnish food. That's great.
But I think there's room in Finland for people to like other foods and promote OTHER foods

[Upphew]

I ate Chinese food today but I ate Finnish chinese food.

= non-culture?

Very different.

Chinese done in Chinese way = culture?

But I think there's room in Finland for people to like other foods and promote OTHER foods

Sure... I think onkko got his panties twisted 'cause you dissed, in his mind*, Finnish food culture. Sure you can promote other foods, but if you demote some other, Finnish in this case, be prepared to some backlash.

*and in my mind too

[Pursuivant]

I'lll not break the coconut, I'll just shove it up your arse

[Salmoriaty]

Sure authentic food from somewhere is culture.
It tells a lot about a country and its people.
I wouldnt go and see a beatles cover band or see a bad play based on Le Mis.
And also i wouldn't go and eat non authentic Chinese food.
Not saying you can't.

Many do from where I live but its my personal choice.

Look Finland has culture but I nver thought it would cause a storm when I mention food as my partner whose Finnish and her friends always make fun of Finnish food.
australia doesnt have any culture of their own but i don't care

[jahasjahas]

Look Finland has culture but I nver thought it would cause a storm when I mention food as my partner whose Finnish and her friends always make fun of Finnish food.
australia doesnt have any culture of their own but i don't care

A nation (or other cultural or ethnical group) can make fun of its own culture or politics, but most likely won't tolerate the same criticism from an outsider.

[onkko]

Sure authentic food from somewhere is culture.
It tells a lot about a country and its people.
...
Many do from where I live but its my personal choice.

Look Finland has culture but I nver thought it would cause a storm when I mention food as my partner whose Finnish and her friends always make fun of Finnish food.
australia doesnt have any culture of their own but i don't care

You clearly said that finland dont have food culture, look what you said.
And your claim that australia dont have any culture shows how ignorant you are.

[Salmoriaty]

i mean Australia doesn't have food culture.
We have damper and lamingtons.
The great thing about Australia is we have everybody else's culture, food wise.

How can that be ignorant?????

And some countires have a better food culture than others.

Don't we agree on that?

I doidn't say Finland has none!

Think before you write

[Bavarian]

I doidn't say Finland has none!

You are, of course, lying through your teeth when you write this. Back on February 23, you wrote:

Hammer and a blanket..........

So I guess there isn't really a food culture in the works in Finland really????????

[onkko]

i mean Australia doesn't have food culture.
We have damper and lamingtons.

First you say australia dont have food culture and then give examples about australian food culture? Isnt that ignorance?
And borrowing something doesnt mean it isnt part of culture, most things in world are borrowed and changed to fit local culture. Like your "I ate Chinese food today but I ate Finnish chinese food."
Lets look potato, doesnt that belong to finnish food culture? It came in finland about 1720s with german tinsmiths who got it somewhere in 1600s from spain who got it from south america. Clear loan and not naturally in here.

Finland doesn't have a food culture

Yes you did.

[Wish Fairy]

i mean Australia doesn't have food culture.
We have damper and lamingtons.

First you say australia dont have food culture and then give examples about australian food culture? Isnt that ignorance?
And borrowing something doesnt mean it isnt part of culture, most things in world are borrowed and changed to fit local culture. Like your "I ate Chinese food today but I ate Finnish chinese food."
Lets look potato, doesnt that belong to finnish food culture? It came in finland about 1720s with german tinsmiths who got it somewhere in 1600s from spain who got it from south america. Clear loan and not naturally in here.

Finland doesn't have a food culture

Yes you did.

Did you ever eat damper and lamingtons? I mean, to me this does not constitute food culture LOL, but I agree with Salmoriaty, it doesn't make me like Australia any less.

I agree on your point that borrowing something and changing it to fit our own countries version though - I mean the national dish of the UK is curry (and that wasn't exactly invented here). But I don't think Chinese food is a good example to be honest, "Chines" food is sold everywhere, but tastes (and is) nothing like actual food from China in most cases.

I suppose (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) that the Finns tend to stick with staple foods that can be grown in sometimes difficult climate and also can easily be stored for long periods. I personally think it's admirable to stick to this type of eating, but does it make for wonderful, tasty food? Hmm well, I guess I'll found out when I start living there, but as a visitor, it doesn't seem to be the case at all. Don't get me wrong, food is fuel at the end of the day and Finnish food undoubtedly does the job, but this doesn't make Finland a culture with food at it's core (again, comparing with Italy and Spain where you feed for love and secret family recipes are passed from generation to generation).

I was in the Supermarket today (in UK) and thinking, I can't wait to get over to Finland and not be faced by the hideous over-consumption culture. I'm hoping this will be true and that the "culture" of finnish food is more about sustainability and local sourcing. In Uk we can buy lamb imported from New Zealand at less than half the price of British lamb - for me this is just screwed up and wrong!

Back to the OP's question about food culture. I love all food and am interested in food history and sharing recipes and ingredients etc There's no such thing as bad ingredients only bad cooking

[Jukka Aho]

I suppose (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) that the Finns tend to stick with staple foods that can be grown in sometimes difficult climate and also can easily be stored for long periods. I personally think it's admirable to stick to this type of eating, but does it make for wonderful, tasty food?

The discussions about Finnish food, especially on this forum (and in no small part because of the native Finns frequenting it), often revolve around the word “bland”. There’s a hint of truth about that characterization, of course, but I’d say it’s mostly done as a running joke or as a self-ironic jest — a repeating gag of a sort — maybe mostly having to do with the sad, uninspiring state of food served in cheap lunch places and school cafeterias and also related to the convenience foods such as a vacuum-pack of ready-to-eat factory-processed meatballs or chicken nuggets you could grab at a supermarket.

With the right ingredients fresh from the nature — be the source of that the woods or the lakes or the fields or the sea, or even your own garden — it’s possible to prepare simple dishes where the subtle flavors and fine aromas of the ingredients itself are allowed to shine through and take the center stage: that is, you’re not masking the taste of whatever it is you have at hand by drowning everything in hot spices and whatnot. And that sort of a thing — the natural, subtle flavors, presented to you unmasked, with not a too fancy sort of preparation — is perhaps what people are talking about when they’re referring to Finnish food culture in a positive sense, and at its best.

Unfortunately, given the demands of the modern lifestyle (and how people value their time, money and effort), many resort to eating in cheap cafeterias or using processed convenience foods, etc. instead of preparing everything from scratch using fresh produce and basic ingredients. Also, food is kind of expensive in Finland, and wages even more so (think of the expenses of hiring cooks, waitresses etc.), so it all adds up and eating out in a “proper” restaurant is done much less frequently here than in some other parts of the world. Not to mention the selection is poorer as well, of course — five million people at the edge of the world in a sparsely populated country like Finland can support only so much in the way of the diversity of international cuisine. So if you’re expecting to sit down in a run-of-the-mill Finnish diner at lunch time and get a great culinary experience cheap, you’re in for a disappointment: you’ll get the basic staple, often shoddily prepared from some inexpensive, bland, factory-processed stuff that was available on the wholesale, with no heart or pride put into it: factory-made food.

That said, it does not have to be that way, of course, and if you’re into cooking and are willing to use other than processed vacuum-packed ingredients off the supermarket aisles, you can do much better than the diners and cafeterias of this country. With authentic Finnish recipes.

There’s this Wikipedia article about Finnish cuisine which lays out the basics. Historically, I think it’s worth noting that Finnish food at its most basic level is peasant food, prepared by farmers and hunters and their wives for their families. Whatever fancier historical recipes there typically originate from the upper (middle) classes — the concept of “upper classes” being thin in Finland — and have been influenced by the Swedish, Russian and German kitchen, even imported wholesale, instead of being invented here. When some other countries boast their fancy traditional foods, the dishes now prepared and presented for the tourists as standard fare might have been originally available only to the kings and the emperors of that country...

I was in the Supermarket today (in UK) and thinking, I can't wait to get over to Finland and not be faced by the hideous over-consumption culture. I'm hoping this will be true and that the "culture" of finnish food is more about sustainability and local sourcing.

There are feeble attempts at local sourcing but if you want to explore that side of the country, be prepared to do some footwork and hone your detective skills.

In Uk we can buy lamb imported from New Zealand at less than half the price of British lamb - for me this is just screwed up and wrong!

It’s the same story everywhere. You can get Brazilian beef at the Finnish supermarkets...

[onkko]

Ok, this is rant.

My first memories are smells, smell of mom when she cooked and smell of granma when she cooked. That with being in sauna and heat and smell of soap are my first memories.
Memories how we picked up potatoes, yes i were with all others or when we picked berries. Smells and tastes of woods and open fires.
Feelings of numb hand on cold autumn when you have to pick potatoes but being happy because everyone was there. It was whole family in potato harvest. Memories about scalding heat when you collected hay on fields and itching of hay and burning on wounds hay made when sweat touched those.
Spring when you could let reindeers to go and sheeps and cows could go outside too. I knew they were a food. Smell of animals and hay.
Times when i cooked or baked with my mom, when i learned how to cook a steak or how to check if potato is ready. Being proud when i actually made a meal.
Smell and feel of cellar where we stored our potatoes and other food, that was cold place even in heat of summer. Bit scary too.

I dont have a doubt that everyone, excluding some city kids, has memories like this and this makes our culture. And food, regardless what it is, is big part of it.

Dont come and tell me that food isnt part of finnish culture or anything like that, shame on you.
I dont care if you dislike your culture but dont try to push your insecurity to us.
Im proud of my culture!

Finland has rich and varied food culture, it may not be something you like but it exists!

[Salmoriaty]

when i said thatI guess Finland doesn't have any food culture??????
Means that its a question.
Not a statment.
i guess we are happy???? Means that are we happy rather that we are happy.
Ok.
Secondly, I just can't be bothered speaking to someone who is patriotic.
A patriot is blinded by symbols and if u ever critisize their culture, they cannot see clearly.
Also even if I dont critisize, they are so insecure about their culture that they see it as a threat.
If you question multiculturaism then, I son't want anything to do with you.
i asked a simple question and if people see it as a threat then how will you progress?
im not saying Australia is great, we have many racist and patriots but they are the ones holding Australia back. For finland any any other society to flourish is to get different cultures to intertwine.
Anyway.
Thanks for the coconut answer and also, if there are people who like food, lets swap recipes.
Im done here and won'r reply to this post anymore as I have heard these patriotic rants before.
Sorry for any spelling mistakes.
i am writing from a Nokia phone.
Ooops sorry about that last remark but it's true!

[Pursuivant]

I'm hoping this will be true and that the "culture" of finnish food is more about sustainability and local sourcing. In Uk we can buy lamb imported from New Zealand at less than half the price of British lamb - for me this is just screwed up and wrong!

Yeah, if you can afford lamb in the first place, local sourced is something you get if you have servants to do your shopping for you Its the same all over, you get frozen chicken from Thailand, beef from Brazil etc... I've wondered what the sense is that you get frozen stuff shipped across halfway the globe, even microwave nuggets and tv dinners and then canned coffee drink from Taiwan... onions from New Zealand... must make sense somewhere.

[Pursuivant]

The great thing about Australia is we have everybody else's culture, food wise.

I think that is very sad. Its even more sad you do not realise what you are saying.

Think before you write

Doesn't help to think you have no brain to think.