Friday, August 10, 2007
On Blueberries, Beers and Saunalahti
Blueberries & the law of the forest:
One of the reasons that I love this place: You know those things you could pay $5 or more for a tiny little punnet of back home? They grow here. Wild. Pretty much everywhere. Any you can pick them and eat them. Free.
One thing that I like about Finland are the laws surrounding the picking of things in the forest. Provided it isn't a national park - anyone can wander into pretty much any forest, pick some berries, mushrooms or whatever, take them home and eat them (or just eat them on the spot, as I tend to do).
My uncle's girlfriend-partner Anne-May made the most amazing blueberry pies with the 4 or so kilos that we picked the other day, and an equally fantastic mushroom sauce with some mushrooms we collected to go on the elk-meatballs we had. Mmmmmm. For the record, elk is very tasty.
Beers:
I haven't evern noticed it in the bottle shops back home, but I will look for it when I go back (although I am sure it will be hideously expensive) but Finnish beer is, by and large, very good. As good as most other European beers for my taste. Lapin Kulta and Koff seem to be the main brews, of which I prefer the Koff. There are also a range of 7-8% beers, which (as you would imagine) have a much stronger flavour, but sure would get you hammered. Overall, Finnish beers gets my seal of approval.
Saunalahti & drinking ettiquette:
If you are going to get hammered, my uncle's beverage of choice is a clear liqour called Saunalahti. It looks, smells and tastes a lot like Vodka (I belive it is actually made from wheat though) and it is correctly imbibed by giving a 'Skall' (cheers), tilting your head back and tipping it down the hatch. It's perfectly fine until about the 5th one (during a meal) when you start thinking about slowing down and the person opposite you pours a fresh one, raises their glass and gives you a hearty 'Skall!' It would be rude not to, right?
On the plus side, I have not noted any particularly bad hangovers as a result of over-indulgence, which is always a good thing!
One of the reasons that I love this place: You know those things you could pay $5 or more for a tiny little punnet of back home? They grow here. Wild. Pretty much everywhere. Any you can pick them and eat them. Free.
One thing that I like about Finland are the laws surrounding the picking of things in the forest. Provided it isn't a national park - anyone can wander into pretty much any forest, pick some berries, mushrooms or whatever, take them home and eat them (or just eat them on the spot, as I tend to do).
My uncle's girlfriend-partner Anne-May made the most amazing blueberry pies with the 4 or so kilos that we picked the other day, and an equally fantastic mushroom sauce with some mushrooms we collected to go on the elk-meatballs we had. Mmmmmm. For the record, elk is very tasty.
Beers:
I haven't evern noticed it in the bottle shops back home, but I will look for it when I go back (although I am sure it will be hideously expensive) but Finnish beer is, by and large, very good. As good as most other European beers for my taste. Lapin Kulta and Koff seem to be the main brews, of which I prefer the Koff. There are also a range of 7-8% beers, which (as you would imagine) have a much stronger flavour, but sure would get you hammered. Overall, Finnish beers gets my seal of approval.
Saunalahti & drinking ettiquette:
If you are going to get hammered, my uncle's beverage of choice is a clear liqour called Saunalahti. It looks, smells and tastes a lot like Vodka (I belive it is actually made from wheat though) and it is correctly imbibed by giving a 'Skall' (cheers), tilting your head back and tipping it down the hatch. It's perfectly fine until about the 5th one (during a meal) when you start thinking about slowing down and the person opposite you pours a fresh one, raises their glass and gives you a hearty 'Skall!' It would be rude not to, right?
On the plus side, I have not noted any particularly bad hangovers as a result of over-indulgence, which is always a good thing!
# posted by Nils @ 12:40 AM 
