Living in Lahti & thinking of starting a Chinese restaurant

[Hank W.]

If you are very highly motivated then you will learn Finnish in no time.

[Karhunkoski]

Seeing as though you ask for comments, I will take up on your request. First you tell us you don't think the Chinese food in Finland is REAL Chinese

the Chinese food I ate in Finland seems all are not REAL Chinese food

Then you tell us that much of the food here is actually of "South Chinese" style:

Coz most boss of chinese restaurant here are from HK or south China, that's why the type of food is only south china style food,

So is the Chinese food in Lahti and Helsinki "REAL Chinese" or not? I'm confused.

[rinso]

the Chinese food I ate in Finland seems all are not REAL Chinese food,

Indeed, it is downgraded to the Finnish taste.
In Kuopio there are 3 Chinese/oriental restaurants. The one that has adapted to the Finnish taste the best is the only place that is full most of the time. In short; give the customers what they want.

[antstar]

Hi LiLi,

Well i have been here 6 months or so from England and i love my chinese food, but even the so-called best chinese restaurant in Tampere is very poor in my opinion. To give them credit thou it maybe due to the Finnish taste that these places are catering for!! So you may open a wonderful traditional chinese restaurant and find that no-one will eat your food. Maybe a survey/questionaire or some research will help you here.
If by any chance you do get it opened, will you deliver to Tampere

[mCowboy]

In China they use 5 spice, in Finland they use Bland in every food... it completely removes all the flavor from the foods...

As a fan of Chinese food, both eating and cooking, I found that when I cook Chinese, I marinate the meats etc, whereas in many Chinese restaurants here in Finland, they have precooked unmarinated meat (I think they boil the chicken) and then just add the premade sauce and veggies, which leaves the meat tasting nothing... also the selection of veggies looks often to be just some carrots, onions, bell peppers and "kiinankaali", and missing most of the more exotic veggies. I believe this is due to 2 things, the price of the rarer ingredients and the availability of (fresh) rarer ingredients. And not forgetting Finnish preference for bland food.

Interestingly enough, I found this in Thailand too, many restaurants catered for the tourists and I had to add chili powder or request spicy foods or otherwise I'd end up food seasoned with bland..

[antstar]

you know i find all this marinated stuff so annoying
you can only buy a little unmarinated meat, and they want to try have cook it all for you, have you tried buying uncooked burgers? i was in Prisma and you could only buy pre-cooked burgers i ended up having to do it the old fashioned way and buy some mince! talk about being mothered! oops sorry for my rant! i suppose i'm just missing KFC

[mCowboy]

In fact I like bland food too,I don't like too sweet or too salty or too spicy food,maybe that's why most of food I cooked,all Finnish friends like them

so you like boiled chicken without any seasoning?

[EP]

i ended up having to do it the old fashioned way and buy some mince!

I didn´t know it is old fashioned way. That is the only way I have ever done them, and I prefer it that way because I am 100% certain that if they went through some food processing factory they would add all the presevatives, industrial colours, "stabilizers" and the rest. I prefer to know what I eat.

Well, I like Li Li´s idea, and I don´t know why this "Finns prefer bland" claim is told as some kind of truth. Singapore and that place in Hesperiankatu (both in Helsinki) serve more authentic Chinese than the rest, and they seem to be always full. Both Chinese and Finns.

[antstar]

Ah ok then EP, not old fashioned, just the "time consuming way" but i suppose if you love cooking then its a pleasure to chop onions, its just makes me cry

[Salopian]

This restaurant in Helsinki, for those who are interested, do 'authentic' North-East China cuisine: Dong Bei Hu

Interestingly it's got some great reviews on eat.fi too. Definately recommended. Tasty-gorgeous!

[mCowboy]

In fact I like bland food too,I don't like too sweet or too salty or too spicy food,maybe that's why most of food I cooked,all Finnish friends like them

so you like boiled chicken without any seasoning?

No, but I can cook very very delicious chicken wings with Cola,hehe

Sounds more American than Chinese...

[EP]

I meant that Dong Bei Hu with my "place in Hesperiankatu". I just got Hesperiankatu and Museokatu mixed up.

[muddymuddy1]

Dong Bei Hu looks promising....... especially if the "Chinglish" descriptions of the dishes on the website are anything to go by

[tiramisu]

This restaurant in Helsinki, for those who are interested, do 'authentic' North-East China cuisine: Dong Bei Hu

Interestingly it's got some great reviews on eat.fi too. Definately recommended. Tasty-gorgeous!

Yeap absolutely the place if you want real Chinese taste!

[hanj]

dong bei hu serves northern chinese styled food. food tends to be on the salty side...and also spicy. i'd say it's quite authentic for food from that part of china.