Local dishes

Supermarkets and the country's many indoor and outdoor markets give an authentic picture of eating in Finland. The quality conscious shop is found in covered market halls or outdoor markets in just about every town in Finland. Usually it is a market hold every saturday in larger cities, the Helsinki market square is open every day except sunday from ca. 9.00 to 14.00. It is also worth visiting the Helsinki indoor market square close to the outdoor market squere. Here you will get to know all the Finnish locl food. At the local markets you will find local and seasonal delicacies. In Tampere, you can try the local black pudding with lingonberry sauce. In Turku market hall you will find 'raisin' or 'onion' sausage. The autumn speciality at the Pori market is grilled lamprey, while Pieksämäki and Oulu both have their own versions of rieska flat bread. At markets in Lovisa and Kotka you will find the Viipuri twist bun. North Karelia is the birthplace of Karelian pasties. Although they are eaten throughout Finland, the Joensuu version, spread with real butter, is the genuine article. The thin rye crust is filled with rice and shaped 'like a moccasin', as a visiting tourist once described them. Karelian pasties are common at all hotels breakfast tables in Finland as on the boats cruising in the Baltic Sea.

Pies and fish pasties came to Finland from Russia. The kalakukko fish pie is a well known delicacy from the province of Savo. The market place in Kuopio has mobile stalls selling these round, loaf-shaped pasties filled with fish and fatty pork. Vendace, perch or rainbow trout, and pork are wrapped in rye pastry. Baked slowly at low heat, the fish will be as soft as sardines and the filling nice and juicy. Lapland has had a strong influence on Finnish cooking. Lapp dishes are exotic even to southern Finns and come into their own when you are on a skiing or hiking trek in Lapland, but there is nothing to stop southerners from enjoying the basic Lapp dish, reindeer stew, on a weekday either; besides it's as good a reason as any to make mashed potato, always a hit with Finns. Salmon, reindeer or willow grouse, followed by golden cloudberries for dessert, are the heart of the Lapp menu on special occasions.