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What to eat in Finland. From Salmiakki to Salmon to tiny potatoes and more! There are so many great foods to try in Finland whether you are at the lakes by Tampere or in the capital Helsinki, you can get some good food in Finland.
They love their mushrooms and you can't beat their cinnamon rolls either.
Traditional Finnish Food
Filmed in Turku, Finland
Copyright Mark Wolters 2022
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0:00
Hey there, fellow travelers! Mark here with Walter's World and today we're here in Turku, Finland
0:03
talking about what you should eat when you come here to Finland. And I know if you're traveling around the world, you probably haven't seen too many Finnish ravintolas or restaurants
0:12
because Finnish cuisine isn't known to be the most popular in the world
0:16
However, that doesn't mean there aren't some really great treats for you to have when you're here, okay
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So we're going to go through some of the best foods to have when you're here in Finland and also let you know how to eat here in Finland as well
0:27
so you can have a better time filling up on some of these fun snacks. And I think one thing you'll see, and you'll see it whether you're on the train coming from Helsinki to Turku
0:34
or you're going to see it on the breakfast buffet at your hotel, are Corellian pies
0:38
Or Corellian Piregacca, which of course I am totally butchering the name
0:43
But basically what it is, it's like about the size of your hand. And it's like a rye dough bready crust kind of thing filled with like a rice pudding
0:52
And then I don't know how else to better explain this, but like a egg butter on top of it
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I know it sounds crazy, but it's actually fantastic. You get them warm
1:00
It's so good. But that's like a great snack, but also something you'll see for breakfast a lot of times at restaurants
1:05
But that's one of my favorite things. When I lived here, that was one of my survival snacks for breakfast every single day, okay
1:11
Now, another thing you really have to have, and if you're here in Turku and you're just walking up and down the river, the Awa River, which is beautiful
1:18
or if you're on the Esplanadi, the Esplanade in Helsinki, sit at a cafe and have a korva pusti, which is a cinnamon roll
1:25
honestly, Finland has the best cinnamon rolls in the world, hands down. Cinnabon can go drop off
1:32
the side of the earth because here they're incredible. Whether you get like a cheap one
1:35
from a store or a fantastic one from a cafe or a bakery, but honestly, the cinnamon rolls are so
1:40
good. When I told my son I was coming here, Liam's like, dad, you have to have a cinnamon roll for
1:45
me. So Liam, I've had the cinnamon rolls for you, buddy. You're welcome. Okay. But that's something
1:50
you're really dying to have. And what's cool is you can have that with coffee because the Finns
1:55
love their coffee and you have great coffee when you're here. Strong coffee so grab a coffee and a
2:00
cinnamon roll and you'll be happy for a great snack okay. Now another thing you're really going
2:04
to like when you're here is actually rye bread. Yeah I know I'm totally butchering my finish. It's
2:08
been so long since I lived here. I mean it's been about 25 years since I lived here so like my
2:13
skills are not so great but honestly the Finns love their bread and you'll see that in the morning
2:18
where people have tons of bread options at the hotel and the thing is a lot of times for dinner
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Finns don't have big meals at home. At dinner, they might just have some bread and some butter on it or some cheese on it
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but they have fantastic bread. But the best bread here is the rye bread
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Have some of that when you're here. It is wonderful. And if you can't have that, just get some of the normal, like, homemade bread
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You won't be disappointed. Now, when I told people I was coming to Finland, they're like
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Finland, is that near Sweden? And then they think, oh, IKEA meatballs
2:46
I like look Sweden has their Swedish meatballs but Finland also does meatballs okay And the meatballs here are fantastic and what you gonna do is you have meatballs with mashed potatoes and then lingonberry jam on the side or mixed together however you want to have it
2:59
but that is kind of like a staple kind of thing you'll see in restaurants
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especially Finnish restaurants, obviously, when you go there. Another staple you'll have is salmon, and I'm talking salmon in any kind of way you can have
3:10
You can have a salmon filet, you can have a whole salmon, you can have salmon soup. I know when I went to school here, one of my favorite school lunches was salmon with little potatoes
3:19
It was fantastic. And the Finns and their potatoes here, it's incredible
3:23
If you go to somebody's house, they'll make these little tiny potatoes. And they stab them, and they'll peel them like, phew
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You're like, wait, where'd the skin go? Like, they're that good at it. It's hilarious. But you will have salmon, salmon, and more salmon when you're here if you can
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because they do such a good job with it. And honestly, probably another thing you want to have
3:39
and one thing that really changed for me when I lived here in Finland was my love of mushrooms
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When I came to Finland, I hated mushrooms. I didn't want mushrooms on anything
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But here in Finland, they love nature. They go out hiking and they go mushroom hunting
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And they find fantastic mushrooms to put in all kinds of stuff
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So if you see something on the menu that has mushrooms on it or a mushroom sauce
4:00
oh my God, you've got to have it. Mushroom soup, so good, okay
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So definitely have some mushrooms with anything when you're here. Now, the favorite candy for people here in Finland
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and the one reason most tourists run away screaming from this country, is called salmiaki
4:15
and salmiyaki is basically black licorice candy and you can get it in all kinds of forms i mean
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they'll have the hard candy like the original like hard candy version which is just evil okay
4:26
then you can have like the licorice kind but it'll come in like an ice cream salmiyaki ice cream yes
4:30
black licorice ice cream hell does exist my friend that's why the helsing airport is h-e-l i think
4:36
it's because the salmiyaki ice cream that was like the thing that said no no this one deserves to be
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hell. Alright, but Salmiaki, if you like black licorice, like salty black licorice, it's for you
4:46
And you'll see it in other things aside from candy. Actually, they'll sometimes, if you're at
4:50
somebody's house, they might melt down some of the hard ones and mix it with some Koska Korova
4:54
So pour a Salmiaki Koska Korova. And you can't always get Salmiaki Koska Korova. So you might
5:00
see Salmari at bars where that's the black licorice shot. You can have a shot of liquor
5:05
There's also one that's like a little bit creamier version of that that's not as black licorice-y
5:10
that's doable, but just know that salmiyaki is a thing here. And if you want to make your
5:14
Finnish friends happy when you go visit them, bring them some salmiyaki as a gift. You go to
5:19
their house, okay? Because, yeah, they love it here. It's horrible. It's really horrible. And
5:24
then there's another thing, the Turkish pepper. It's not actually from Finland, but it's another
5:28
can that's really popular here. That's another one that foreigners tend not to like when they
5:31
come visit. But it's weird because there's actually so many candy stores here because
5:36
You have Fazer candy, which is from here, and that is some fantastic, if you like gummies
5:40
if you like chocolate, oh my god. Finland has such good candies when you here It kind of surprising how healthy and in shape the people are looking at all the candies they actually do have but that is one thing go to one of the candy shops when you here and believe me you will see the candy shops there candy shops you
5:55
know plenty of them out there to go get some so you have some stuff now let's get away from getting
6:00
ourselves cavities to getting ourselves full another thing you might see is reindeer yes
6:05
reindeer they're not santa's reindeer no no they're safe up in up in roviniemi in the in the
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north not the north pole because santa claus is the northern finland not north pole very different
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okay but reindeer is something you can have and sometimes it'll be a meatball sometimes it'll be
6:17
like how do i say like a stewed reindeer kind of kind it's actually pretty good so you can have that
6:22
um there are also a lot of soups you can have because i mean it's cold here a lot of the year
6:27
okay so those soups are really hard and they fill you up and there's lots of different soups you can
6:31
have like i said mushroom soup salmon soup pea soup uh sausage soup mincemeat soup i mean there's
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just a lot of different soups you can have when you are here and they do really help out and it
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makes a good starter and if you're looking to kind of lower your budget going with the soup and the
6:46
bread just like a starter kind of thing for for your meal can actually save you a lot of money and
6:50
the soups do fill you up now remember when i told you about that cinnamon roll you need to have well
6:54
if you're going to a cafe another thing i think you should look for is blueberry pie or just any
6:58
kind of berry pie and i'm going to tell you don't think of it like in the american you know apple
7:03
pie mode. Think of it more as a, not a crumble, but more like a dense cakey kind of thing. But
7:10
you'll have those berry pies, those blueberry pie kind of cake pie things. It's just, I don't know
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what the exact technical word is. It's not a tart. It's not a torte. It's not a pie. It's not a cake
7:19
but they call it pie here. But the blueberry pie, the berry pies, it's really nice. And the thing is
7:24
a lot of the berries are coming from here in Finland. Another thing you have to realize is the Finns really love nature. They love organic stuff. And so you do have a lot of organic options. You
7:31
You do have a lot of vegetarian and vegan options when you are here, which is really nice
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And the thing is, is when you're eating, you'll see different things that are out there. And a lot of traditional foods sometimes don't show up on menus
7:41
You might want to have it at somebody's house, or it might be kind of like a starter or an appetizer kind of thing
7:45
So you really need to look through the menu at different places. For example, you have the bread cheese that's here
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It's kind of like a fresh cheese kind of thing you can have
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That's really nice. The thing is, is when you're eating here in Finland, it is one of those things that the locals, they like their organic
8:01
They like from Finland and nature, but actually they like international cuisine. Okay, so when you're here, you'll notice that your friends will ask you
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oh, do you want to get sushi? Do you want to go get Indian food? Do you want to go get some Thai food
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They won't say you want to go get some Finnish food. They very much like to go and have international fairs
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So if you want to have something non-Finnish, you will have plenty of opportunities here
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whether you're here in Turku or Helsinki or Sala or Tampere or Rovaniemi. There's plenty of options out there
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And if you've got your kids here, there's also, they have kids many years a lot of times too
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But it's one of those things that you have a lot of options, which is nice as a traveler
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because sometimes when you're having the local food, you know three weeks in a row you get a little tired of it and you can have some international fare when you here And for my fast food loving friends and it not just Americans because people go to eat fast food all over the world Finland has its own version of McDonald and that Hesburger
8:48
which is a thousand times better than McDonald's. Oh, my God. It's an insult to Hesburger to compare it to them
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But if you go there, they have the Keroshamperleinen, which is like their version of a Big Mac, but it is fantastic
8:59
And what's great at Hesburger is they have their own mayonnaise. I always get the Paprika Mayonesi, which is the..
9:06
pepper mayonnaise, which is like a little bit of spicy in it, but they have like all kinds of
9:10
different ones you can try, but it's all so good with the fries. But honestly, if you want a fast
9:14
food thing, that's really good. Also, you'll notice there's a lot of kiosks that will sell
9:19
like little fry-ups like hot dogs or makura pernut, which is like a mansion having french
9:24
fries and chopped up hot dog together and they just fry it together and they'll have that. So
9:28
there's a lot of like drunk snacks late at night if you want to get some of those things, but they're
9:31
also available during the day so that's nice one thing i will say is when you come out to finland
9:37
you're eating at finland finland is not a cheap place okay it's someplace like helsinki is very
9:42
expensive okay if you're coming to turku it's a lot easier like i actually tell people like look
9:46
i mean the trains are actually pretty cheap here you could you know do a day trip to helsinki from
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turku because there's trains early in the morning to late in the evening and you can save the money
9:55
on your just the plane train ticket in your hotel okay so something to kind of think about but when
10:00
you're looking at your meals, you can go to the supermarkets to get, there's plenty of supermarkets
10:04
here to grab foods. Look for our kioski. If you're looking for like little snack stuff or maybe a
10:08
sandwich or something, if you don't want to spend a lot of money, they have a lot of like quick and
10:12
to go kind of foods, you know, for you. Or you can get one of those cinnamon rolls there as well
10:16
You get coffee there too. And that's going to be cheaper. And if you go to a cafe or restaurant
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so that could be some way to kind of help your budget when you're here. Another thing I would
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say is if you're looking at going out to eat service, it's not bad. It's just not fast. And
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you don't tip okay because they already get paid a nice way so there's no tipping here in finland
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that's not like incentivizing people to like work faster or do anything so have some patience when
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you're ordering your food and getting your menu just because it takes a little bit longer but the
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thing is the service is professional so if you're not sure what you want or if you have allergies
10:46
the thing is people here speak english really well so if you have an allergies to some kind of flour
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and you want to make sure it's not in your food you can ask them in english and they'll be pretty
10:55
helpful with that so that's really nice and i really have found that here they were very
10:59
accommodating when it comes to cuisine. Okay, so I hope this helps you know
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what to eat when you're here. I know I'm going to go have myself a lovely, lovely, lovely
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cinnamon roll and enjoy the rest of my fine day here in Turku. And I'm going to head actually
11:11
over to the castle now and have a good time there. So I wish you all the best. Have a fun time eating here
11:15
in Finland. If you want to learn more, maybe the don'ts of visiting Finland or the don'ts of visiting Turku
11:19
check us out on our website at waltersworld.com. We're also on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
11:23
Pinterest, you know all those places. And if you want to help us make these honest travel
11:27
videos, go to patreon.com slash waltersworld to find out how you can help support us. Thanks and
11:33
moi moi from here in Turku, Finland
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