Mai wrote:Caroline wrote:It is hard to convince the average Finn, for whom a bowl of porridge, a slice of black bread coated with butter and a slice of ham, and a cup of coffee is a meal fit for a king. However, in the few years that I've been here, I've noticed more diversity of products, both grown produce and prepared or processed foods.
I strongly disagree with your view on average finn diet but i understand it must feel as only truth if your in-laws and their friends all behave like that. However, i personally think that even if your whole neighborhood would eat like that, it's not your job to convince them to do otherwise. I rise my eyebrown for such a diet too, but if they like it, let them eat it. It is their own business what they eat and not eat.
Why not cook healthy and yummy vegetarian meals for yourself and set a nice example for your surroundings instead of criticism?
Mai, I don't see anything in my post that was incendiary or criticizing. I simply said that the average Finnish diet is very plain, which is true.
I do prepare my own meals, and I even bring my own supply of food when we go to visit my inlaws, because there is little I can eat there. For holiday meals I always prepare a vegetarian dish, which I make big enough for everyone to try. If no one else wants any, I just appreciate that there will be all the more left for me
It is their own business what they eat and not eat.
I think you misunderstood something here. Never did I say that I want to convert any Finnish people to vegetarianism. I have never done and I do not do that. My husband is an omnivore and he cooks his own meals. (did I say cooks? I meant, "unthaws") I did mean that it is hard to get Finns (especially where I live) interested in trying new or more diverse meals. Most people I know are terrified of beans (which have recently been declared one of the healthiest foods), they gag when they taste fresh spinach, etc, and they consider the afore mentioned meal (porridge, black bread) to be an abundance. I do not see how that could be understood that I was being mean.
I should mention that I myself am the target of a lot of teasing and criticism here because of my diet. When my husband mentions my diet to his friends and coworkers, they ask him when is he going to introduce me to the pleasures of meat, my sasquatch father-in-law taunts me with invitations to go skin a rabbit, and when my husband's grandmother heard that I don't eat fish either, she asked "what does she eat then, those grasses growing over there?" My sister-in-law once said "father would prefer it if you ate meat". Ignorance is a universal trait, I'm afraid!
It seems that you should direct your comment
It is their own business what they eat and not eat
to the Finns whom you are firmly defending. It is they who are trying to make me feel like an outcast for being different.
There are more vegetarian options in southern Finland, but I have eaten many a meal in Helsinki, Turku, and Tampere, and I am still of the opinion that there is a general lack of variety everywhere. Another point that I meant by my comment, is that in Finnish culture a meal is just nourishment, made to fill you up...it is not a taste experience, or a celebration of life like it is in other cultures. Again I don't see anything mean or criticizing in this comment. I think we'll just have to "agree to disagree".
Mai, people brutally criticize Americans, it has happened once on this thread, but I don't see you stepping in to be diplomatic for us. Is Finland the only perfect place in the world that does not need any improvements or suggestions?
Former expat in Finland, now living in New Hampshire USA.
Especially fruit and veg eg: 4-5 euro for one litre of strawberries.... that's nearly 30 marks!!!!! Somebody is making a vast of amount of money and somehow I doubt if it is the producers.... the retail sector is screwing the consumer and the government does nothing to control prices.
To balance that comment, I am currently eating a fantastic peach bought at the kauppatori yesterday. 
If all the people would think like him (about writing to shops and ask about products you miss) i think many would have lot less to complain.
