Sauna, Sibelius, Sisu and food
Rachel, you gave again very useful tips; evoke something for… I will surely remember it from now on. Yes I have swum in a frozen river many, many times; I did it for seven years on a trot (water temperature is about 1 – 2 degrees Celsius). It made me laugh you saying Crikey. I will tell you that a swim in an icy could water definitely exhilarates, and yes it is crikey.
You also asked me about New Zealand writers, I am sorry it is such a long since those times (20 years), that I am unable to remember. But I admire a great deal Jane Campion as a movie director. I guess many of you have seen the film called Piano. Rachel I am sorry for a second time as I am not able to do my home work tonight. I have to out and I promised to tell everyone about food. As a matter fact I almost feel conked out so pretty much I have to accomplish this evening. But a promise is a promise, and friends you can not let down.
Yesterday I thanked many of you, my list was incomplete, hello Aga, Dusan, Mohammad, Aniko, Dima, Evelin, phil, Babak, Renato, Silwal Kishor, Tiasha…
About the Finnish way of life: Finland is often associated with sauna (a hot steam room) and our famous composer Jean Sibelius. We also like to think that we have extraordinary stamina (in Finnish we call it “sisu”); it is maybe true that we do have a lot of endurance. I am not certain if it requires stamina (maybe only a strong stomach?), but we are a world record holder in coffee drinking.
As the coffee bean doesn´t grow in Finland, it has to be imported. Coffee and fruits are big import items to Finland. Part from coffee we like rye crisps, rye bread, herring, cold-smoked salmon and smoked reindeer meat.
Berries are eaten a lot in Finland as well, we have several types of berries that grow wild in the forest, and we collect mushrooms in the autumn woodland. The forest gives people meat also; wild game and elk (moose) are hunted and a domesticated caribou, reindeer, rambles in Lapland.
In my photo yesterday you maybe noticed that everyone had a red jacket on. While people hunt, they have to wear colorful clothes for safety reasons. As you noticed I also was wearing a red jacket, for safety reason too, as our hide a way place in near the grounds where moose is hunted. We rarely (hardly ever) have any accidents, but it is good idea to dress appropriately when taking walks in the forest.
So what do Finns eat? In the summer time, Finns eat a lot of sausages; they are often grilled on a barbecue. Our Midsummer Eve is a major Finnish sausage festival, each summer we seem to break a previous record in the sausage sales. If you come to Finland during our Midsummer festival (24.6.) it will be difficult avoid eating sausage and visit sauna; there are about half million summer cottages in Finland and each one has a sauna, and any good Finn lights a barbecue. Beef, pork, mutton, lamb, chicken, turkey and lately more exotic meats as well are eaten in Finland.
Fish is eaten in Finland a lot also, I mentioned herring and smoked salmon before, but part from that, we love fish soups. Home made fish soup is very delicious and it is often served at the funerals and weddings as well as other type of get together parties. I like fish, one of my favorites is herring. In the summer time when new potatoes are ready to pick, one very simply lunch can be; slices of Baltic herring, new potatoes, raw onion, fresh herbs (mainly dill) and maybe a knob of butter, I call it a Heaven on a plate.
Finnish crayfish is a delicacy; it is enjoyed at the end of summer just before the time, when lamprey season starts. A few more words about food: Any Finnish man has eaten pea soup. It is made of dried green peas soaked in the water for about 24 hours before cooking for several hours with pork meat pieces and with few onions and black peppers, salt is also added. Why I mentioned that our boys know the soup? Well, it is a stable diet served in the Finnish army. The army tradition is that soup is served on Thursdays, and for dessert pancakes with jam are offered. If you want to make a very good pea soup, it is wise to use leftovers from Christmas ham as a meat part.
As I have been a vegetarian, I am not a big meat eater nowadays either, luckily my husband has very similar taste. We eat lot of vegetable dishes, fish we eat also, soups are served in our household, salads I eat daily at work and we always have fresh fruit at home.
If one wants to eat out, there are many possibilities here in Oulu; Chinese, Indian, Turkish, Italian, Greek and Russian… restaurants come to my mind immediately. All and all, I think that Finnish cuisine is very much a mix of European cooking.
At the moment I am very fond of Indian cooking; my daughter bought me a book about Indian cookery. Sometime ago we had some friends over and I made an Indian style dinner. We can always come back to this subject later on, if you want me to be more specific.
Who is the most well known composer in you country and what type of food you like best?
Photo today is again by Katri. What do you say about this tree?
Comments
What tree? ;)
Dear Leila, I positively agree that personal experience is far better than reading but people who live in other corner of world can enjoy descriptive writing what other peoples experiences in real situation. If I am really lucky, I will be able to visit your country and feel myself and get acquainted with lightless day and days without dark. Now I am remembering my school days, and we used to ask our teachers in geography class how people are adopted in such situations. Our teacher was not able to answer that that questions to us up to our satisfaction level. Regarding your query about our service as a military, very few people can join military service and nowadays even women can join military service from last few years. I like photos. You look different in that red jacket. Regarding stamina of person, I like to add that people used to get adopted with climate and surrounding to fit themselves. Certainly people living in polar reasons should drink a lot of hot drinks or alcoholic drink to keep them warm and slowly it becomes natural habit. Your descriptions of general foods of Finish people and way of life are really interesting. Like your peas soup, in Nepal, we used to prepare vegetable soup by mixing about 16 nuts during festival of Janai Purnima which falls around second week of August. In Nepal we have lots of rivers and lakes which are natural sources of fishes. In some part of country, people started pisciculture. But I don’t know much more about variety of fish and way of cooking. Regarding great composer of Nepal, I can’t give name of single person, there are so many music composers but I like Shambhijit Baskota. Our general food includes rice, dal (lentils), and vegetables, pickles and meat. Habit of eating differs in geographical locations. In southern part, it is similar to Indian foods and in northern part of the country is somewhat similar to Chinese food.
Thank you Leile! it seems you had a great day. Katri seems to have a special love towards nature, I liked this photo very much, but I wonder if that's really a tree that has been coverd with snow. Her style of photography reminds me of Adriana. Just like you I also like fish very much, as for dill and fish, I think they are made for each other. You will see dill with fish in Pakistani cooking too. How did you find Indian cooking like? And may I happen to know the name of the Indian cook whose book you have? Would you like me to suggest the names of some indian cooks too? As for your today's question, there are many famous composers but first name that comes to my mind is Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. And my favourite food, I love food and anything that's served before me, I eat that wholeheartedly. I would like to wave hello to Benka and Tiasha and all the friends. Naheed
Hi Leila! Oh, as the topic today is food I couldn´t help myself to look at the tree and think about candyfloss, yum :-). Well Leila, I really love eating vegetables( especially broccoli), fish and wholegrain products. They are delicious and moreover very good for health. Hmm... the question about the most well known Brazilian composer is a bit trick. There are lots of good composers. Anyway, I think Tom Jobin and Roberto Carlos are the most well known composers here( have you ever heard about them?), and in classical music I think the most well known composer is Heitor Villa-Lobos who composed the fantastic 'Bachianas Brasileiras'( What do you think Adriana?). Leila, as usual it was a pleasure to read your blog. I´m learning plenty of things about Finland :-). See you tomorrow, Ana Paula.
It is a kind of tree which has been covered with cotton wool!
Hi again Leila. What amazing image. What could I say, only that if I were a bird I wouldn't like to have my nest in that tree. I have to admit we don't have great composers like Sibelius in my country, but we do have famous piano players, like Claudio Arrau, and singers, like Ramón Vinay, Tito Beltrán o Verónica Villarroel. Talking about food, I like chilean food, of course, and also chinese food. Till next
Hei Leila! How are you today? From your photograph I guess it's very cold now there! You said it's a tree? Where? haha... Thanks for the explanation about the bright colours of your clothes!! About food, I eat typical Argentinian food (asado, tamales, humitas, locro, etc), all kind of pasta, meat, some fish, chicken (not very often) vegetable pies, pizza, fast food, but I have to confess that I have never tried other countries’ food except for some mexican dishes or sushi (which I didn’t like by the way…sorry) It is not that I wouldn’t like to try international cuisine but that I haven’t had the opportunity to do so yet. Salta is a small city that offers mainly traditional food … As far as I know, there is a chinese one, a couple of mexican, an some arabian restaurants and stop counting... You asked about famous composers in our countries but to my shame, I have no expertise in the matter...I can name one composer that comes to my mind in this moment but I don’t know if he is famous outside Argentina or not…He is Angel Mahler (this is not his real surname but he changed it in honour of Gustav Mahler, the Austrian composer, because his surname “Pitito” is s a bad word in spanish and people used to taunt him about it!) He is a composer and conductor and well-known for composing music for plays or films. Well Leila That’s all for today…Have nice day!! Best regards!
Hi Leila, I don't know what tree it is, but I liked your photo very much. Did you know that Leila is a very common nane in Iran? Is it in Finland?
Hi dear Leila , How are you , Thanks for your all wonderful Blogs , like you i 'm a work girl ,so i 'm very busy . I liked all of your Blogs . It sounds that you live in another planet . You live in nature . I love it . And about trees i saw it in one of web page that you have put in the right side aind it 's an very old trees ( millions years ago . have fun and bye
Terve Leila, I wonder if you can get me to swim in to the lake at the and of the month, bŕŕ. I am a fish after all. Hopefuly, all my bone pains and mooving problems disapear, ha ha!
Hello, Leila! I also don't eat much meat, but I eat vegetables prepared in a hundred and one way. I love rye bread and mackerel and sardines cooked, baked or fried and seasoned with onion, parsley and celery. Your pea soup is here made from beans and pancakes with jam are commonly prepared in every house and everyone knows how to make them. So, I would say that as long as a Finnish couisine is concerned, I wouldn't find anything odd with living in Finland. This tree looks more like a whirl at the heart of a tornado than a proper tree. Just looking at this picture makes me feel cold. Expecting more snowy pictures from a Santa Clause's homeland, yours faithfully Benka.
Dear,Leila i am really sorry to put your life a misery and not to reply my answer quickly.i am not bone idle but i needed time to draft my comment before i start to write to you.to answer your question,i am from Korea,precisely South Korea but i live in Lincolnshire where is located in east midlands in England.it is famous for argiculcure and Lincolnshire sausages.it also has one of the magnificent cathedral in Britain.i believe its each stained glass windows are as big as a tennis court. if you have any chance to watch the movie"Dabinci Code" you can see it as the movie was shot on the location.i am sure the ex-England prime minister,Margaret Thatcher was born and Alfred Lord Tenny,who is well-Known his fine poems,was from this area,too(Rachel,am i right?).i don't live in the centre of the city.i live in a suburb of it where it has a racecorce.i am not into horseracing but one of my husband's sister's family possess five good horses for horse racing.they have been won many times and the family is noted the sports.that's enouth for me but if you want to know more you'd better to ask our current teacher,Rachel.she was born near in where i live.to move on army service,it's compulsory to join army when men are over 18 in Korea.they have to service for about 2and half years.i have four brothers and three of them have served army for their country.whenever my brothers joined the army they were the apple for their seniors' eye.Because my brothers have three sisters and the seniors wanted to be a pen friend of them. whenever my sisters and me visited to see my brothers we were treated like celebrities.they really tried hard to meet our eyes and brought lots of food and drinks for us and entertained us many silly army jokes.they wouldn't leave us alone which slicely annoyed us. i like today's picture and my son said it looked like a snow tornado.ps:my son is not happy with your people as they eat reindeer meat.(ha ha ha)have a good day!
In Poland we've a lot of delicious dishes, typical: tripe, dumplings with with cheese/meat/fruit, sauerkraut stew, beetroot soup...We usually eat many vegetables and fruits (mainly: apples,pears and of course citrus fruit). If it comes about composer I don't any idea who is the best maybe Piotr Rubik, Zbigniew Preisner (both instrumental music). I don't see any tree! Perhaps my imagination is very bad.... Regards Majka
Hi Leila again ! Probably you were going to speak about it but just in case …. (I could probably find it too by myself, but asking to you can be read by our community members) … Do you happen to know why the “tango” is so appreciated in Finland ? Antonio
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