A taste of Finland

An early summer's evening on the Finnish archipelago.

I haven't been asked to do this, but the author is a dear friend of mine and an amazing chef. Finnish cuisine is a bit of an enigma. When people are asked to think of cuisine from Northern Europe/Scandinavia, Finnish food items are rarely mentioned. Proper Finnish food to me is clean, simple and fresh. We have the heavy comfort foods of winter such as kiusaus (similar to potato dauphinoise but with the addition of either salami, ham or anchovies). Summertime is when Finnish food comes into its own, characterised by fresh local(ish) fish, smoked (hot and cold) fish, pickled fish aka silli, accompanied by seasonal vegetables and salads. There is also crayfish season in the late summer. In Finland (and Sweden) we celebrate this time with crayfish parties and Finnish vodka. Although America also has crawfish parties, I think the way the two regions celebrate is rather different, if my quick Google about the matter was anything to go by!

My friend, Sini Kiialainen, currently Chef to the Finnish Ambassador in London, has written and published a cookbook about Finnish cuisine. She has written it so that anyone with an interest in food should be able to try their hand at making some Finnish classics (with her own stylish twist). I got to have a sneak peek at some of the recipes and I'm excited to try them out for myself. You can find more info about Sini and where to buy her cookbook "Kuura" here: http://www.sinikiialainen.com/

She also did a short (10 min) radio interview on Monocle, which you can listen to here: http://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-menu/141/ (from 22:30 onwards).

First day adventures

Foolishly having looked at only the average monthly temperatures of the Chicago area before I came (and not anything more about the actual weather patterns), I blithely assumed that hot = sunny & dry, and packed mostly summer gear. In spectacular fashion, in the 30 odd hours I have been here I have seen the hottest day in 9 months (28C), thunderstorms, almost torrential rain and now temperatures of 15C.

Today’s fun also involved getting stuck between a locked door and an emergency exit. Thankfully someone came to my rescue. Although, I was debating how long I could hold out before risking setting off the alarm and potentially embarrassing my host group (in order to come to NU I needed to have a research group to “host” me/take responsibility for me). Earlier I had been trying to find my host group, only to end up in the wrong building before I gave up and went to the International Office instead.

Successes include getting an extortionately priced phone contract and eating out at OMG. OMG might not seem so special to some, but getting to eat a decent healthy meal for $9 is pretty good in my book. I also got to go to the beach, if only for a quick peek.