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Ah, finally! Finally I have figured out a way to combine my burning love of opera with my job as a neurosurgeon.

–Väinämöinen’s doctor, during surgery

Poem 4 (Kalevala 1835)

Yes, the whole time he operates on Väinämöinen, he keeps singing about doing surgery.

(via kalevala-snark)

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i’m still not over the linguistic miracle that is the Finnish expression “noni” and its variations

NOni (emphasis on the first syllable): “well now you’ve done it, good job” meaning you’ve majorly fucked up

noNI (emphasis on the last syllable): “I TOLD YOU DIDN’T I” meaning I totally was...

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English: I might or might not increase

Finnish: Enenenen, en enenene.

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I don't remember where it originated, but "pöhnä" is a state of being where your brain and body are not quite functioning properly and you don't really feel like doing anything. Inconvenience is usually attached to pöhnä, but it can also mean a pleasant fuzziness of the senses, e.g. after eating, having a few drinks or going to the sauna.

Also there’s the “lääkepöhnä”, medicine-pöhnä which causes that inconvenienced version of “pöhnä”. It’s something that you could have by, for example, taking allergy medicine that keep you tired 24/7 or be just really drugged up.

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Welcome to Finland by monkeys

— Fan submission, thanks blackoceansbeneath!

(I certainly see myself as Mauri)

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Talvi ja ruoka. Winter and food. What kind of food do you eat in winter? ※I promise I will post the recipe for the sweet buns soon.

I don’t like this winter’s weather ib Turku, Finland. What happened!? Where is snow? Last year, it snowed since October. This year it just rains all the time! So...

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An Introduction to Traditional Finnish Foods and Ingredients - FINNBAY

An Introduction to Traditional Finnish Foods and Ingredients

What is Finnish food? is the question we get all the time. If you ask our neighbors Sweden or Russia what do Finns eat?, then majority of them will say they eat potatoes. However, Finnish food is so much more than just potatoes. In fact, Finnish food is simple and fresh, mostly local and…

Read the full article on http://www.finnbay.com/introduction-traditional-finnish-foods-ingredients/

Christmas in Finland, Finnish food

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BRB, booking tickets to Helsinki.

This is extremely accurate, though I haven’t tried sultsina before (my family is a mix with Northern and Karelian roots, so I guess it’s from somewhere else) and some of these I personally don’t like, such as mämmi and mustamakkara, though I know people who love them.

I would also like to note that elderly people sometimes put pieces of leipäjuusto in their coffee, wait for it to soak for a while and then eat it with a spoon. Pannukakku is generally served as a dessert for hernekeitto; it’s such a long tradition in schools etc that people probably would complain if some place were to serve hernekeitto without pannukakku to go with it. (Well, unless it was a promotion where a store or politicians on their tour served free hernekeitto to people - if they go for something more than coffee, it’s generally hernekeitto or sausages.) Nowadays there is also a vegetarian version of hernekeitto where the meat/fat is replaced with pieces of carrot; I personally prefer that variation. 

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Makkara “in the wild” by SixInHand.

The caption is too brilliant not to share here:

"A Finnish hot dog (Finnish sausage or makkara) being caught and cooked in the wild on a typical Finnish fire grill (grilli) and about to be devoured.

A Finnish hot dog (makkara) is caught and eaten in the wild on a typical Finnish campfire grill. It’s skin has split, revealing the tender meat within. Two others can be seen awaiting their fate on the grill behind. The traditional seasoning of the hot dog is with mustard (sinappi).

The typical Finnish hot dog (makkara) is pre-cooked, requiring only to be heated to the consumer’s preference then seasoning with mustard before being eaten. In some circumstances, they may be eaten cold (not raw). This is different to many other sausages around the world which contain raw meat and must be cooked before consumption. Also unlike most hot dog traditions in the world, it is eaten without a bread roll.

There are some jokes that, according to EU food rules, some Finnish makkara should actually be classed as pastries, as there is more flour than meat. Some makkara brands in Finland are known as “meat eaters makkara” as they have up to 80% meat.

Within Finland, makkara is sometimes laughingly referred to as a vegetable.

Taken during a walk through Nuuksio National Park - a short 30 minutes drive or public bus ride from Helsinki. This BBQ place was on an island, in a lake.”

Makkara is one of those quintessentially Finnish foods - you’re not truly experiencing Finland if you don’t eat makkara cooked over a fire at the cottage! Also Auran Sinappi FTW. -Cecily

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Runeberg torte (Finnish: Runebergintorttu; Swedish: Runebergstårta) got its name from the Finnish poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804–1877). It is a Finnish pastry flavored with almonds and rum or arrack. There is usually raspberry jam in a sugar ring on the tart.

Runeberg tortes are typically eaten only in Finland and are generally available in stores from the beginning of January to Runeberg’s birthday on February 5.

RECIPE HERE (scroll down for English version)

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Today I decided I wanted to make some traditional Finnish food for dinner. The choice fell on porkkanalaatikko, or carrot caserolle, and it ended suprisingly well. Well, I have no idea how the original food should taste, but mine was pretty good. I combined two or three recipes.

Ingredients:

up to 500g of carrots

1 cup of rice

1 cup of milk

butter

salt

3 tbsp honey

2 eggs

Cook the carrots in salted water, then puree. In the same water cook rice until all the water is absorbed, then pour milk and let simmer until smooth porridge is made. Add one tablespoon of melted butter into carrot puree and stir. Mix the rice porridge and carrot puree and let it cool a bit. Add salt, honey and lightly beaten eggs and pour into buttered caserolle dish. Sprinkle the surface with breadcrumbs and dot with melted butter. I baked this for about an hour on 190°C. 

:)

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Traditional Finnish Food:

Karjalanpiirakka (Karelian pastries)

Kaalilaatikko (cabbage casserole)

Pyttipannu (bubble and squeak)

Leipäjuusto (bread cheese)

Lohikeitto (salmon soup)

Kalakeitto (fish stew)

Kalakukko (fish pie)

Mustikkapulla (blueberry buns)

Korvapuusti (cinnamon and cardamon buns)

Joulutorttu (Christmas tarts).

Find more pictures here, and also recipes! :)

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I made lingonberry porridge today so I thought I’d share the recipe. It’s easy and delicious.

1 liter (4 cups) water

1,5 dl (0.6 cups) semolina

1-2 dl (0.4-0.8 cups) sugar

3-4 dl (1.2-1.6 cups) lingonberries (or cranberries)

0,5 teaspoon salt

Bring the water to boil and add sugar, salt, and berries. Cook for 5 minutes. Stir the semolina in and cook for another 10 minutes. Let the porridge cool, and then whisk it with an electric mixer until it’s pink.

Lingonberry porridge is traditionally served with a little milk or cream on top. Or you can garnish it with berries like in the picture.

Photo and recipe are from here. (I used more berries. :P)

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We Finns love holidays (who wouldn’t). Even we’re very conscientious workers we surely try to have as many days off-duty during the year as possible. Easter is a good example. It’s a four-day holiday, when all the places (markets, banks, post offices, liquor stores) are closed. So to speak,...

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Finnish people love public holidays (who wouldn’t). That means you don’t need to go to work and even better, you can spend the previous night drinking and celebrating. One of the best opportunities for this, alongside of New Year’s Eve and Midsummer Fest, is May Day (in Finnish “Vappu”, also...

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'Saaristolaisleipä' aka Scandinavian Rye and Malt Bread

I’m not much of a baker, but I’d like to be! I love baking sweet goods (especially out of chocolate), like cakes and tarts, but savory stuff is not really so familiar to me. The most difficult thing (imho) is to bake bread. I have baked bread rolls, with rather pathetic results. They were more like homicide weapons than something you’d want to eat and enjoy. The same happened with my cinnamon rolls, so now I have decided to take up the challenge and learn how to bake the best buns in the world (I gladly welcome any recipes too!). Baking bread, however, is still a mystery to me. That fluffy, soft, rich in texture consistency…

Some time ago a friend of mine was celebrating her last days as an unmarried woman, and I got a task to bake a bread for the brunch of her bachelorette party. As the bride was about to get married to a Finnish-Swedish man I decided to bake something in the Scandinavian spirit. We Finns love black bread, made of rye flour, and consider it to be the only bread you should kind of eat if you wanna eat healthy. The regular rye bread is relatively difficult to bake and requires at least some baking skills (and more time), which I didn’t have.

This following rye and malt bread doesn’t require much and I don’t think you can ruin it by doing something wrong either. The bread has its roots in the Finnish archipelago, and that’s where it has also gotten its name ‘Saaristolaisleipä’ meaning Islander Bread. The ready bread is dense, almost hard by its texture, and sweet and rich in flavor. If you’re unsure of the ingredients, click their names, they are all linked to some sources of more information.

Serve the bread with real, salted butter. Not margarine, not fat-free products. Butter.

  Malt and Rye Bread from the Finnish Archipelago (makes 3 breads)

1 liter buttermilk

75g fresh yeast

300ml dark molasses

300ml grainy rye (beer) malts

300ml rye bran

300ml rye flour

1 liter all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon salt

+ 50ml dark molasses and 150ml water, mixed

Warm up the buttermilk in a microwave-safe bowl to hand temperature. Melt the yeast in the water, helping with your hands. Once the yeast has dissolved, add the molasses and mix well.

Mix together rest of the ingredients and gradually add them into the yeast-water. Stir well all the time, until the dough is smooth. If you can use a mixer, even better. I didn’t have one at hand, so I just used a wooden spatula and some woman power. Let the dough rest under a kitchen towel in a room temperature for 1,5 hours.

Preheat the oven to 175 C.

Carefully grease your bread pans with butter. You don’t want the breads to stick in them so hard you have to eat them straight from the pans. I used beautiful paper “pans” that I found from a local department store. You can see the wonderful selection of all kinds of bread and cupcake moulds here, on the manufacturer’s website.

Distribute the dough evenly in the pans and bake the breads on the lowest rack of your oven for 1,5 hours. The breads do get a nice tan (read: become black), don’t worry about that! Take the breads out of the oven after 1,5 hours, generously brush them with the molasses & water mixture and place them back to bake for 15 minutes more.

Flip the ready breads on a surface and remove the pans (unless you’re using something that is suitable for serving). Let cool under a kitchen cloth.

This bread is at its best when you let it rest in a plastic bag for a couple of days before eating. It’s also suitable for freezer.