Food
Finnish cuisine is a combination of the European, the Scandinavian and the Eastern; eating habits are typically Western. The day begins with breakfast, which can be quite a substantial meal. Lunch is eaten between 11.00 and 13.00, and at work the lunch break usually lasts one hour. Dinner is eaten at home at around 17.00 to 18.00. Restaurant menus and home cooking rarely involve dishes that foreigners from the Western world are not familiar with. It is common to consume alcoholic beverages with a meal, although minimally or not at all at lunch. Finns seldom make speeches during a meal, apart from formal functions. A meal regularly concludes with coffee and any drinks served on the side. Finns have a tendency to talk about business even when eating, but foreigners can safely sabotage this by turning the discussion to something completely different. Finns drink slightly over 6 litres of alcohol per person per year — the figure is average for Europe — and mainly in the Scandinavian and European tradition. The modes of alcohol consumption vary by social group and somewhat by location; for example, the Central European wine culture is still typically the province of urban, middle-class or upper- middle- class young adults and older highly educated people. Alcohol is used much less at business lunches today than it was in the past; in the public sector, drinking alcohol at lunch is even rarer. Beer is a great favourite with Finns, particularly in connection with that great engenderer of thirst, the sauna. No-one will be surprised if a guest expresses the desire to drink mineral water or non-alcoholic wine with a meal or indeed at any other time. These drinks have already conquered the lunch table, and they can always be had on other occasions too. Even the law of the land favours the non-alcoholic option, being very strict on drunk driving and setting the legal limit of blood alcohol at quite a low level.
