Bite Me

There are lots of little differences about the food here that combine to make it significantly foreign, but still quite good and not too weird. One thing I miss about America is the cheese, though. The cheese here is all so mild! It tastes kind of like lightly flavored rubber. I even bought gouda cheese at the store and it was extremely mild, though of course not labeled so. That's just what everyone is used to. They also do not sell cheddar cheese. Oh yes, the labels say cheddar, but it all tastes like that gross Kraft American cheese. So to someone who wishes they were a cheese connoisseur, there is a lot lacking over here.

One thing that surprised me the first day I came was when my host mother pulled out a jar of peanut butter. I thought Europeans hated peanut butter! But she had been to the states before, and she was prepared for me. Though the peanut butter sold here is all less oily and sugary. I miss the oil. The Finns also like to point out that they do not like spicy foods or adding spices very much, although earlier today my host father made one of the spiciest pasta sauces I have ever eaten (one of the boys was sure it was really chili). And there seems to have been a national memo sent out that everyone should stop eating real butter. I don't think I've even seen it sold in the stores... or if it is, it is hidden. It is all margarine and vegetable fat here, with a dozen different brands to choose from. I don't mind it much but it is less salty than margarine in the US. Everything is less salty. Even their salt. I'm not kidding! Their salt is less salty... its flakes are less heavy and less uniformly shaped. Somehow this leads to a teaspoon of salt in your soup tasting like 5 flecks of normal USA salt. I don't know why I notice this stuff. It is also amusing to watch the Finns put pineapple in everything that is foreign. Something called “American Pizza”? It is lathered with a bunch of different meats and cheese and pineapple. A burrito in a “Mexican” restaurant? The three staple ingredients are beans, cheese, and pineapple. Not to mention this “Mexican” restaurant has pictures of Native Americans like Sitting Bull and Native American headresses all over the place, mingling with the pinatas and cacti. And yes, this was supposed to be a purely Mexican restaurant. Quite amusing.

As for their overall diet, I've never seen anyone drinking milk higher in fat than 1%, and they eat way less processed foods than Americans do. They also are obsessed with the fat content of cheese and butter, and it is usually advertised in big numbers on the front. I don't miss the fat, but I also don't think it is so important to be obsessed with counting calories in foods that are naturally high in fat. In that way, I guess a lot of their food IS processed... just processed to remove things rather than add them.

There is this one yogurt dish called melja made by danone that is sooo good, it is better than ice cream to me. But then there is this other kind of yogurt dish called viili that is like stringy sour yogurt and I did not like it. They also like to eat this kind of super dark licorice that I did not enjoy the taste of one bit. And they have more boring ice cream flavors. Well, I think that is enough espousing about food for one night. I didn't realize I had accumulated so many opinions on foods here already!