eating in heaven-sinki

here's a look at some casual traditional food we had in helsinki. again, i'll let aj cover all the fancy stuff when he's ready.

breakfast ... we picked up some tasty basics from a small local market (juuren puoti) our first day and made our own breakfast. rye bread, butter, cloudberry jam and milk. so good.





and later that week, we also added cheese, squeaky cheese and smoked salmon to the mix. the squeaky cheese is that slice of fried cheese you see, which is actually called leipäjuusto. it's a finnish type of cheese that is curdled and then baked or grilled. it can be eaten cold on its own, but we warmed ours up a bit in a pan and ate it with cloudberry jam. you'll know why it's called squeaky cheese once you chew on some.



we hear that lunch is the main meal in finland. and the most popular lunch item is soup. what, how is a bowl of soup enough for your main meal? because their bowls of soup are massive.



and they come with a surprise ... surprise! tons of veggies on the bottom.



on our last day in helsinki, we went to a spot that is open only for lunch and does only bowls of soup. they have three to choose from, and the seats where constantly being filled.



our two bowls.



my salmon soup was super good.



and again, a surprise at the bottom! there was so much, i couldn't finish it all.



and oh, this soup shop is located in hakaniemen kauppahalli, or hakaniemi market hall, where you'll find butcher stalls, baked goods, prepared foods, fish, etc. here, we have some finnish roast.



and some flintstone bones. people actually buy these, though the butcher slices them up with a bandsaw so they're more manageable. i assume they use them for soup.



we also made a stop at hesburger, finland's largest burger chain. the branding/packaging is fun, but otherwise so not worth it. not at all satisfying. you can skip it.



we had some good meals though. a highlight was the butter at olo. here's my fat pat of butter, which was also super creamy and delicious.



and here's where it came from. our server brought over the mound of butter, scooped out a chunk and smacked it down on my bread plate. the best. more places need to do this.