Finnish food - Suomalainen ruoka

[Just edited this post to include more foods!]

Firstly, because I made it today:

Omenapiirakka = Apple Pie

In South Africa, I HATE apple pie. That horrid pie that's crammed full of squishy warm saucy old apples. Grosses me out...

This ^ I do not like.

So when I was offered Apple Pie in Finland, at first I was reluctant, until I realized they make it completely differently.

THIS is omenapiirakka ja jäätelö (Apple pie and ice-cream)

And it is fucking delicioussss! Cannot get enough of it.

I just made some this afternoon, it was so good, and I am sad that it's gone :(

Some South Africans may find it slightly curious that the ice cream brick is very square. This is because here in Finland, a lot of ice-cream comes in cardboard boxes, which you unwrap and then you have this perfect square brick of ice cream to cut a piece from. We don't get this in South Africa :D

(This was the best picture I could find for now, but I'll take a photo of our half eaten box from the freezer later maybe)

And while we're on the topic of ice-cream; A very common flavour of ice-cream here is liquorice. Which is practically unheard of in SA! I personally really don't like liquorice, and most liquorice here tastes weirder than the liquorice I'm used to because it's more similar to "Salmiakki", a very Finnish type of liquorice that tastes of ammonia (and contains some mixed form of it) and is very salty.

But, for the first time yesterday I tasted Pingviini's (Penguin heehee) liquorice ice-cream and it was actually very good!

This is a liquorice nation for sure. There is just about liquorice flavoured EVERYthing here.

Another unusual thing I just have to bring up:

Verilätyt.... Blood pancakes!!!

Their main ingredient of note is blood... I haven't tried any yet, but I haven't had the opportunity to...

However, I have tasted Pinaattiletut, or something like that. Basically, they are spinach pancakes... And they are GREEN

I've only had store brand ones, and I didn't like them... But apparently home made ones are supposed to be better. I'll try those some day.

Another interesting thing is Karjalanpiirakka "Karjala's pie" (Karjala is a place) and they have a"bready" pie covering with a mushy kind of rice filling. You have them with butter and whatever you want on them. I personally like ham and cheese on mine. I can only eat one or 2 though, coz they're so...starchy and give me a lump in my throat.

Next up:

Lihapiirakka - The meat pie.

When Vesku first told me online that he was eating a "meat pie", I asked "Well, what kind of meat pie?", because in SA we have all kinds of pies with meat fillings. Steak pie, steak and kidney pie, chicken pie, sausage pie, cornish pie, lamb pie and so on.
Here, a meat pie is one thing. And I wouldn't have called it a pie myself. It's a kind of sweet bread, almost like doughnut bread, with a meat patty inside... Unusual, but very tastey with ketchup. And also very unhealthy... But cheap and available everywhere.

Well that's all I could think of for now. I'll surely post more some time!

La ~