The cuisine of Finland is heavily influenced by its neighbours (see Nordic cuisine and Russian cuisine), the main staples being potatoes and bread with various fish and meat dishes on the side. Dairy products are also important, with a wide variety of cheeses, and milk a common beverage even for adults. Due to the harsh climate, spices in Finland were historically largely limited to salt and pepper, with lashings of dill in the summer. While traditional Finnish food is famously bland, there was a culinary revolution in the 1990s, with a boom in classy restaurants experimenting with local ingredients, often with excellent results. Contemporary Finnish cuisine includes tastes and influences from all over the world, and the dining scene in larger cities has become quite cosmopolitan.

Understand

Christmas buffet in a restaurant setting

As the ingredients make much of the food, in Finland, the agricultural products might suffer of the cold climate, which requires many of them to be imported or grown with little natural light off season. Yet in summer, many products benefit from the nearly eternal sunlight. The fish, while small in size, are tasty.

Meals

In working days locals typically eat a substantial breakfast, lunch (at a workplace cafeteria, a nearby restaurant, or packed), dinner after work, and a light evening meal before going to bed. If eating the dinner out, it is eaten later and the evening meal skipped. In weekends lunch and dinner are often combined. Full board lodging may include the evening meal, sometimes as a basket to eat at your room or in communal areas.

In proper hotels the included breakfast is extensive. In other lodgings, if breakfast is included, it is usually sufficient to keep you going until a late lunch. It at least includes bread with toppings and coffee or tea, often also other fare. In some "B&B"s breakfast isn't included, but must be ordered separately and might be self-service.

Regional differences and influences

There is a traditional difference between "western" and "eastern" Finland, with comparably little exchange of people and culture. Specialities now regarded as "Finnish" are really from specific parts of the country (often on the level of the traditional regions, such as Savonia or Tavastia). Migration, national curriculums and nutrition recommendations, nationwide radio and television, and not least the resettlement of Karelians after World War II have blurred the picture, but the differences remain on a statistical level, e.g. in what casseroles are the most popular, or whether "black sausage" is eaten.

One difference between the east and west is that baking in the east was done in a big stove kept heated for warmth, while in the west a separate oven was used. Thus in the west bread was made to be preserved, while in the east bread was eaten fresh and many Karelian dishes require long cooking times.

The eastern cuisine got many influences from Russian Karelia and Russia. Western Finland instead got more Scandinavian influences, which is obvious among the Swedish-speaking.

In fine dining, influences from western and central Europe have always been there, but since about the 1970s, foreign influences have become much more common also elsewhere: pizza, pasta and Chinese food were introduced, and since the 1990s e.g. kebab and sushi. Such foreign dishes are now commonplace in everyday food, sometimes blended into the domestic cuisine.

Restaurants serving traditional Finnish food are not too common, and even in cafeterias and homes, you'll get pasta or rice as often as potato, and some tandoori may be more common than traditional Karelian stew. Still, some hosts treat their guests with Finnish specialities, in some budget eateries you'll find simple Finnish food, and in proper restaurants, the more or less international dishes may have a Finnish or Scandinavian touch.

Places to eat

Fried vendace as served at Helsinki market square

Finns eat out a lot at lunchtime, when thanks to a government-sponsored lunch coupon system cafeterias and nearly every restaurant in town offers affordable set lunches (lounas/lunch), usually consisting of a main course, salad bar, bread table and a drink, for €8–15, with proper restaurants in the upper end of the range. Cafés might offer a simpler meal with salad, soup, bread and coffee. University cafeterias, many of which are open to all, are particularly good value with meals for outsiders for about €9 (€3 for the main option for students with Finnish student ID). There are also public cafeterias in office areas that are open only during lunch hours on working days. While not particularly stylish and sometimes hard to find, those usually offer high-quality buffet lunch at a reasonable price. Actually, workplace and university eateries may be the best places to sample what Finns actually eat: much of their food is what people cook for normal meals at home.

Eating out for dinner is more of an occasion. In rural localities and smaller towns, such restaurants are often limited to the local hotel; hotel restaurants do welcome customers not staying there, but they may close early (and there may be no hotel around). Dinner is often two- or single-course. It is eaten rather early, sometimes as early as 16:00, but usually starting between 17:00 and 18:00.

The Finnish word for buffet is seisova pöytä ("standing table"), and while increasingly used to refer to budget all-you-can-eat restaurants, the traditional meaning is akin to Sweden's smörgåsbord: a good-sized selection of sandwiches, fish, meats and pastries. It's traditionally eaten in three rounds: first the fish, then the cold meats, and finally warm dishes – and it's usually the first that is the star of the show. Though expensive and not very common in a restaurant setting, if you are fortunate enough to be formally invited to a Finn's home, they might have prepared a spread for their guests, along with plenty of coffee. Breakfast at better hotels is also along these lines and it's easy to eat enough to cover lunch as well!

Cheaper options are largely limited to generic fast food (pizza, hamburgers, kebabs and such) in the €7–12 range. For eating on the move, look for grill kiosks (grilli), which serve sausages, hamburgers and other portable if not terribly health-conscious fare late into the night at reasonable prices, with local atmosphere as a bonus. In addition to the usual hamburgers and hot dogs, look for meat pies (lihapiirakka/köttpirog), akin to a giant savoury doughnut stuffed with minced meat and your choice of sausage, fried eggs and condiments. Hesburger is the local fast-food equivalent of McDonald's, with a similar menu. Also most international fast food chains are present. The grills and hamburger chains may offer "Finnish" interpretations of some dishes, such as reindeer burgers in Lapland, or substituting sandwich buns with a sour-rye bun on request. Also pizzas are sometimes offered with similar twists.

If you're really on a budget, you can save a considerable amount of money by self-catering. Ready-to-eat casseroles and other basic fare that can be quickly prepared in a microwave can be bought for a few euros in any supermarket. Note that you're usually expected to weigh and label any fruits or vegetables yourself (bag them, note the number at the price tag, place them on the scale and press the numbered button). Green signs mostly mean possibly tastier but certainly more expensive organic (luomu/ekologisk) produce. Many shops tag produce at or near the "best before" date for a discount of 30% or so, often doubled in the late evening. Often there are several brands of the same produce, with sometimes very different prices; when you have found the right shelf, look around.

Seafood

Baltic herring casserole

With tens of thousands of lakes and a long coastline, fish is a Finnish staple, and there's a lot more on that menu than just salmon (lohi/lax). However, most fish found in shops is nowadays imported; most salmon is farmed in Norway. Domestic fish is found at some markets, in shops with a dedicated fish counter, at some lodgings and in some restaurants. Seize the chance when there is freshly caught and prepared fish from the archipelagos or one of the thousand lakes.

Specialities include:

• Baltic herring (silakka/strömming), a small, fatty and quite tasty fish available coal roasted (hiilisilakka), pickled, marinated, smoked, grilled, and in countless other varieties.
• Gravlax (graavilohi), a pan-Scandinavian appetiser of raw salted salmon.
• Warm-smoked salmon (savulohi/rökt lax), fully cooked.
• Vendace (muikku), a delicacy from the lakeland Finland. A small salmonid fish served rolled in a mix of breadcrumb flour and salt, and fried in butter till crunchy. They are traditionally served with mashed potatoes, and you will find them sold at most music festivals and open air market events. The local variety of vendace living in the lakes of the Koillismaa highlands – the Kitkan viisas – enjoys the protected designation of origin (PDO) status in the European Union.

Other local fish to look out for include: zander (kuha/gös), an expensive delicacy, pike (hauki/gädda), flounder (kampela/flundra) and perch (ahven/abborre).

If you're in Finland around September–October, keep an eye out for the Herring Fair (silakkamarkkinat/strömmingsmarknad), celebrated in most larger coastal cities. Other than just fish products there are plenty of other delicacies, handicraft and general market fare for sale in such markets.

Meat dishes

Reindeer stew (poronkäristys), a Lapland favourite, served in a potato mash bowl with lingonberries

Meatballs (lihapullat), served with mashed potatoes, creamy roux sauce, salad, and lingonberry jam

• Karelian stew or Karelian hot pot (karjalanpaisti), a heavy stew made from large chops of beef and pork (and optionally, lamb), carrots, and onions. Baked for hours and hours and finally served with potatoes this is an iconic dish, which is unfortunately difficult to find unless made for that special occasion. A version made using shortcuts is common at cafeterias.
• Liver casserole (maksalaatikko/leverlåda), consisting of chopped liver, rice and raisins cooked in an oven. It tastes rather different from what you'd expect — eerily sweet and not liver-y at all. You won't find liver casserole at restaurants, but from any grocery store, as it is one of the most popular convenience foods.
• Sausages (makkara/korv) come in countless varieties and are affectionately called "the Finnish man's vegetable", since the actual meat content may be rather low. Particularly iconic is loop sausage (lenkkimakkara), a large, mildly flavoured, U-shaped sausage; best when grilled, topped with a dab of sweet Finnish mustard (sinappi), and washed down with beer after a sauna.
• Meat balls (lihapullat, lihapyörykät/köttbullar) are as popular and tasty as in the neighbouring Sweden.
• Reindeer (poro) dishes aren't part of the everyday Finnish diet (other than locally), but a tourist staple, easily available in the Lapland and Kuusamo regions. Especially famous is the sautéed reindeer shavings (poronkäristys), served with mashed potato and lingonberries. In addition to poronkäristys also an air dried reindeer jerky (poron kuivaliha) is a known delicacy hard to come by. Looking scary it has an intensive and salty taste. Slightly smoked reindeer beef cutlets are available at all supermarkets though they too are expensive (delicious with rye bread). Both the Lapland reindeer jerky and the Lapland smoked reindeer enjoy the protected designation of origin (PDO) status in the European Union.
• Swedish hash (pyttipannu, Swedish: pytt i panna), originally from Sweden. A hearty dish of chopped potatoes, chopped onions and any meaty leftovers on hand. Fried up in a pan and topped with an egg. Available from many grill kiosks.

Milk products

A quarter of leipäjuusto, the Finnish squeaky cheese.

Cheese and other milk products are very popular in Finland. Large quantities of cheese (juusto/ost) are consumed, much of it locally produced mild to medium matured. Imported cheeses are freely available and local farm cheeses can be sampled and purchased at open air markets (tori/torg) and year round market halls. A flat, fried "bread-cheese" (leipäjuusto) can be eaten cold in a salad or slightly softened and with (cloudberry) jam as a dessert. A baked egg cheese (munajuusto) block is a common delicacy made with milk, buttermilk, and egg. The most common and popular varieties are mild hard cheeses like Edam and Emmental, but local specialities include:

• Aura cheese (aurajuusto/auraost), a local fairly mild-tasting variety of blue cheese, also used in soups, sauces; one of the most popular pizza toppings.
• Breadcheese (leipäjuusto or juustoleipä, depending on local dialect), a type of very mild-flavoured grilled curd that squeaks when you eat it. Very mild in flavour, best enjoyed warm with a dab of cloudberry jam. Breadcheese is an Ostrobothnia-Lapland speciality, which is readily available in any grocery store though.
• Home cheese (kotijuusto), a white, crumbly mass from which pieces are cut. Commonly available in buffet restaurants, especially during the Christmas season.

In Finland it is quite common for people of all ages to drink milk (maito, mjölk) as an accompaniment to food. It is absolutely normal to see businessmen having a lunch and drinking milk. Another popular option is piimä.

Fermented dairy products help stabilise the digestion system, so if your system is upset, give them a try:

• Piimä (surmjölk), a type of buttermilk beverage, thick and sour and contains naturally healthy lactic acid bacteria; nowadays some are often explicitly added ("AB").
• Rahka (kvarg), a dense dairy product halfway between yoghurt and cheese. Commonly used in pies and tarts, but also available ready to eat with fruit or berries mixed in.
• Viili (fil, filbunke), a type of curd, acts like super-stretchy liquid bubble gum but is similar to plain yoghurt in taste. It is traditionally eaten with cinnamon and sugar on top.

Yoghurt (jugurtti, joghurt), often premixed with jam, is commonly eaten. Skyr, a cultured milk product originally from Iceland, has become a popular yogurt substitute. Kefir, a Russian yoghurt drink, is available in many flavours.

Mushrooms

Rufous milk-caps in lichen

Attack of the killer mushrooms The false morel (korvasieni, stenmurkla; Gyromitra esculenta) has occasionally been dubbed as the "Finnish fugu", as like the infamous Japanese pufferfish, an improperly prepared false morel dish actually can kill you. Fortunately, the mushroom is – according to the Finns – easily rendered safe by boiling with the right ceremonies (you should get instructions when you buy it). Prepared mushrooms can be found in gourmet restaurants and even canned in grocery stores.

Mushrooms (sienet/svamp) are a big part of traditional Finnish food, and the options available extend far beyond the boring old button mushroom (herkkusieni/champinjon). If you can't rustle up a few Finnish friends for a mushroom hunt, the best place to go foraging is the nearest market place (kauppatori/salutorg), where you in season always will find wild chanterelles (kanttarelli/kantarell; Cantharellus cibarius) and funnel chanterelles (suppilovahvero/trattkantarell; Craterellus tubaeformis).

Commonly picked mushrooms in addition to the above mentioned include several species of boletes (tatti/sopp; Boletus), brittlegills (hapero/kremla; Russula) and milk-caps (rousku/riska; Lactarius), and a number of other species, such as wood hedgehog, sheep polypore and parasol mushroom.

The boletes are quite safe for picking. The really poisonous ones are extremely rare in Finland and those that may occur have a distinct look; a few commonly picked boletes need to be thoroughly cooked not to cause stomachache, but their pungent taste as raw acts as warning. The boletes spoil very easily. The cep (herkkutatti/stensopp; Boletus edulis) is popular and has also become an export product (to Italy).

Also the brittlegills are quite safe: there are no known poisonous ones in Finland. Some need to be boiled in abundant water (with the water poured away) to get a milder taste.

The milk-caps often have a very strong taste and need to be boiled in abundant water for 3–10 min, with the cooking water poured away. Some are used only as spices. They are popular in the eastern tradition, usually salted or pickled, less used in the west. Not all are edible; some are outright poisonous.

The right to access allows you to pick edible mushrooms yourself, nearly anywhere. The right is often granted even in national parks and similar protected areas (but restricted to edible mushrooms). As always, don't pick where the soil might be contaminated, and make sure that you know the species you are going to pick and any local doppelgangers. The most common deadly ones are the destroying angel (Amanita virosa), the deadly webcap (Cortinarius rubellus) and its brethren, some mushrooms growing on stubs, and the false morel (edible if the right rituals are observed, according to Finnish research – the Swedish and French disagree).

Most mushrooms need to be cooked before consumption. Allergic reactions are possible, so only minor amounts of new acquaintances should be eaten. If you get ill after having consumed mushrooms, even a few days later, you should tell your doctor about the meal.

Other dishes

The Karelian pie (karjalanpiirakka), a signature Finnish pastry.

• Pea soup (hernekeitto/ärtsoppa) — usually but not always with ham; vegetarian versions usually with cubed carrot. Traditionally eaten with a dab of mustard and some chopped onion, and served on Thursdays with a piece of pancake as a dessert. Just watch out for the flatulence! The Finnish pea soup is greener by colour and much thicker than its Swedish counterpart. Found in canned version in every single grocery store in Finland (the thick mass in the can will liquefy when heated, but usually about half a can of water is added).
• Karelian pie (karjalanpiirakka) — an oval 7 by 10 cm baked pastry, traditionally baked with rye flour, containing rice porridge or mashed potato, ideally eaten topped with a mixture of butter and chopped egg (munavoi). Only pies that use traditional methods can use the proper name, but you may find imitations sold as riisipiirakka ("rice pie") or perunapiirakka ("potato pie") etc.
• Porridge (puuro/gröt), usually made from oats (kaura), barley (ohra), rice (riisi), wheat (in this context: manna) or rye (ruis). Finnish oat porridge (kaurapuuro), a very common dish for breakfast, is typically made with water (although milk is common in Finland Proper) and topped with berries or a pat of salty butter. Sour rye porridge with lingonberries (ruis-puolukkapuuro) is a traditional lunch meal in Finnish schools.

Bread

Finnish rye breads. Clockwise from the top: solid ruislimppu, reikäleipä with a hole, rye loaf, dry hapankorppu and circular Reissumies ruispala.

Bread (leipä/bröd) is served with every meal in Finland, and comes in a vast array of varieties. Different types of rye bread (ruisleipä, rågbröd) are the most popular breads in Finland. It can be up to 100% rye, and traditionally mostly sour-dough bread, much darker, heavier, and chewier than American-style mixed wheat-rye bread. Most traditional Finnish types of rye bread are unsweetened and thus sour or even bitter, although Swedish-like varieties sweetened with malt are also widely available. Much bread found in supermarkets include other sweeteners and additional gluten.

Typically Finnish breads include:

• reikäleipä (hålkaka), a round, flat rye bread with a hole in the middle. Typical in western Finland. The hole was for drying it on sticks by the ceiling. Ones made just from rye flour, water and salt are still widely available. A variant with caraway (kumina/kummin) is also reasonably common.
• ruispala, the most popular type of bread, a modern "unholed", single-serving, pre-cut variant of reikäleipä, mostly with additional ingredients. Circular Reissumies ("Traveller") bread is particularly popular and, fittingly, a takeaway staple at cafés and kiosks.
• hapankorppu (surskorpa), a dry, crispy, and slightly sour flatbread, occasionally sold overseas as "Finncrisp".
• näkkileipä, dried, crispy flatbread, traditionally from rye. Thicker and more foam-like than hapankorppu.
• ruislimppu (råglimpa), traditionally made of rye, water, and salt only. Limppu is a catch-all term for big loaves of fresh bread.
• perunalimppu (potatislimpa), rye bread with potato and malt. Quite sweet.
• svartbröd (mustaleipä) and skärgårdslimpa (saaristolaisleipä) are sweet, firm, and heavy black breads from the Swedish-speaking south-western archipelago (svartbröd especially from Åland). These are made through a complicated process. Originally this type of breads were baked for long fishing and hunting expeditions, and for seafarers. Excellent as a base for eating roe with smetana or as a side with salmon soup.
• Malaxlimpa (Maalahden limppu), a somewhat similar archipelago bread from the Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnian coast.
• piimälimppu, wheat bread with buttermilk. Usually sweetened.
• rieska, an unleavened bread made of barley or sometimes mashed potatoes. Like a softer and thicker variant of a tortilla. Eaten fresh. Typical for the Ostrobothnia-Lapland area.

Water

Thanks to its thousands of lakes, Finland has plenty of water supplies and tap water is always potable – except on trains and the like, where this is clearly indicated (see Stay healthy below). In fact, never buy bottled water if you can get tap water!

Soft drinks

The usual soft drinks and juices are widely available, but there is also a wide array of berry juices (marjamehu), especially in summer, as well as Pommac, an unusual soda made from (according to the label) "mixed fruits", which you'll either love or hate. Juice from many berries is to be mixed with water, also when not bought as concentrate; sugar is often already added. Note the difference between mehu (juice) and mehujuoma (saftdryck), where the latter may have only traces of the nominal ingredient.

Coffee and tea

Café in Helsinki

Finns are the world's heaviest coffee (kahvi/kaffe) drinkers, averaging 3–4 cups per day. Most Finns drink it strong and black, but sugar and milk for coffee are always available and variants such as espresso and cappuccino are becoming all the more common especially in the bigger cities. All the biggest towns have had French-style fancy cafés for quite some time and modern competitors, like Wayne's, Robert's Coffee and Espresso House, are springing up in the mix. Most cafés close early. For a quick caffeine fix, you can just pop into any convenience store, which will pour you a cuppa for €2 or so. If you need decaf, you will have no easy time. Tea hasn't caught on in quite the same way, although finding hot water and a bag of Lipton Yellow Label won't be a problem. For brewed tea, check out some of the finer cafés or tea rooms in the city centres.

Finnish coffee, however, is usually prepared using filters ("sumppi"), producing rather mild substance, and Finnish coffee is traditionally mildly roasted, although darker variants are nowadays widely available in grocery stores and espressos & al are found in any modern café. The more traditional option for the filtered coffee in Finland is the Eastern style "mud coffee". In that preparation the grounded coffee beans are boiled in a large pot. Before serving, the grounded coffee is let to calm down, before serving the smooth flavoured coffee on the top. Today, one might not be able to find this kind of pannukahvi in finer cafés (in big cities), but it is available here and there elsewhere. The coffee grounded for this purpose is widely available in stores, marked with a coffee pot ("pannmalet") instead of a brewer ("bryggmalet"). Imported brands are for the brewer (or espresso) and not marked. The pannukahvi is specially tasty with cream, rather than milk, but often drunk as such.

Alcohol

An Alko store in Seinäjoki

Alcohol is very expensive in Finland compared to most countries (though not to its Nordic neighbours Sweden and Norway). Basic beers start from €5–6 in bars or pubs, or around €2 in a supermarket. While beer and cider are available in any supermarket or convenience store – between 09:00 and 21:00 – the state monopoly Alko is where to go for wine or anything stronger.

The legal drinking age is 18 for milder drinks, while to buy or carry spirits (above 20%) you need to be 20. Providing alcohol to somebody underage is a crime. Bars and restaurants are allowed to serve all alcohols to customers over 18 within their premises. ID is usually requested from all young-looking clients (nowadays all looking to be under 30). In practice, the age limit of 18 applies also to entering nightclubs and other premises where serving alcohol is central, and many of them maintain higher age requirements of their own, sometimes flexible, such as at quiet times or towards customers seen as attractive.

Despite the unusually high cost of booze, Finnish people are well known to drink heavily at parties and many Swedish-speaking share the Swedish culture of drinking songs.

While Finnish people tend to stick to individual bills in the bar, when you get with them into the summer cottage, things usually turn the other way around and everyone enjoys together what there is on the table. Abstaining from alcohol is socially acceptable and alcohol-free drinks are increasingly popular.

The national drink is not Finlandia Vodka, a brand invented for export, but Koskenkorva viina (or just Kossu in common speech). Kossu has 38% ABV while Finlandia has 40%, and Kossu also has a small amount of added sugar, which makes the two drinks taste somewhat different. There are also many other vodkas (viina) on the market, most of which taste pretty much the same. As a rule of thumb: products with word vodka in their name are completely without added sugar while products called viina have some.

A uniquely Finnish speciality is Salmiakki Koskenkorva (Salmari), prepared by mixing in salty licorice, whose taste masks the alcohol behind it fearfully well. Add in some Fisherman's Friend menthol cough drops to get Fisu ("Fish") shots, which are even more lethal. In-the-know hipsters opt for Pantteri ("Panther"), which is half and half Salmari and Fisu. Other famous classics are Jaloviina (Jallu in everyday speech), a mixture of vodka and brandy, popular especially among university students, and Tervasnapsi ("tar schnapps") with a distinctive smoky aroma. Both Salmari and Tervasnapsi are strongly acquired tastes and the Finns enjoy seeing how foreigners react to them. Marskin Ryyppy is a spiced vodka which was the favourite schnapps of the marshal and president of Finland C.G.E. Mannerheim. Marskin Ryyppy should be served ice cold in a glass which is poured as full as ever possible. Spilling the schnapps is, of course, forbidden.

Beer (olut or more softly kalja; Swedish: öl) is very popular. Finnish beers used to be nearly identical mild lagers, but import and the microbrewery trend has forced also the big players to experiment with different types. Big brands are Lapin Kulta, Karjala, Olvi, Koff and Karhu. Standard Finnish beers are 4.5–4.7% ABV, and in grocery stores you will not find any drinks with more than 5.5% alcohol (but you will find some 0%-beers). You may also encounter kvass or kotikalja (literally "home beer"), a dark brown beer-like but very low-alcohol beverage. Kotikalja is popular especially at Christmas time but may be served around the year (cf the Swedish julmust and svagdricka). Imported beers are available in bigger grocery stores, most pubs and bars, and Czech beers in particular are popular and only slightly more expensive than local ones. Some microbreweries (Laitila, Stadin panimo, Nokian panimo etc) are gaining foothold with their domestic dark lagers, wheat beers and ales.

Sahti is type of unfiltered, usually strong, top-fermented beer. Traditionally it is brewed without hops but is flavoured with juniper instead. Commercially available sahti is usually around 8% ABV and therefore available in Alko stores only. Sahti is often considered as an acquired taste. Some villages in Häme and Satakunta provinces have a prominent sahti tradition.

Long drink (lonkero)

A modern development (from the 1980s?) is ciders (siideri, Swedish: cider). Most of these are artificially flavoured sweet concoctions which are quite different from the English or French kinds, although the more authentic varieties are gaining market share. The ever-popular gin long drink or lonkero ("tentacle"), a pre-bottled mix of gin and grapefruit soda, tastes better than it sounds and has the additional useful property of glowing under ultraviolet light. At up to 610 kcal/litre it also allows to skip dinner, leaving more time for drinking.

During the winter, do not miss glögi (Swedish: glögg), a type of spiced mulled wine most often served with almonds and raisins. Although it was originally made of old wine the bottled stuff in grocery stores is usually alcohol free and Finns will very often mix in some wine or spirits. In restaurants, glögi is served either alcohol-free, or with 4 cl vodka added. Fresh, hot glögi can, for example, be found at the Christmas markets and somewhat every bar and restaurant during the season.

Finnish wines are made of cultivated or natural berries instead of grapes. The ones made of blackcurrant form a fruity alternative for grape wines. Elysee No 1 is a fairly popular sparkling wine made of white currant. Alko stores have quite an impressive selection of foreign wines, and these are much more commonly drunk than their few domestic rivals. Due to Alko's volumes and to taxes being mainly on the alcohol content, premium wines are actually relatively cheap in Finland. The largest selection is in the range €10–15/bottle.

Quite a few unusual liquors (likööri) made from berries are available, although they're uniformly very sweet and usually served with dessert. Cloudberry liquor (lakkalikööri) is worth a shot even if you don't like the berries fresh.

Home-made spirits (pontikka, Swedish: hembränt): you have been warned! More common in rural areas. It is illegal and frequently distilled on modified water purification plants – which are subject to import control laws nowadays – anecdotal evidence suggests that those are occasionally played as a prank on unsuspecting foreigners. Politely decline the offer, especially if still sober. Kilju refers to sugar wine, a fermented mix of sugar and water with an ABV comparable to fortified wine (15–17%). Manufacturing this for one's own use is legal (as is "homewine", basically the same thing but with fruits or berries added), selling isn't.

Finally, there is traditional beverage worth looking for: the mead (sima, Swedish: mjöd). Sima is an age-old wine-like sweet brew nowadays usually made from brown sugar, lemon and yeast and consumed particularly around Mayday (Vappu). If you are lucky you might encounter some varieties of sima such as one spiced with meadow-sweet. Try them!

Seasonal specialities

The Runeberg torte

The Runeberg torte (Runebergintorttu, Runebergstårta) is a cylindrical pastry with a patch of jam surrounded by a ring of sugar paste on top. It is a strictly seasonal pastry available only during a few weeks in February, close to Finland's national poet J.L. Runeberg's Day.

There are no Mardi Gras parties in Finland, but the occasion is celebrated with a lunch of pea soup with a pancake and jam. This is also the season for the laskiaispulla/fastlagsbulle, a bun filled with whipped cream and either jam or almond paste, sometimes served with hot milk.

Around Easter keep an eye out for mämmi (memma), a type of brown sweet rye and malt pudding. It looks famously unpleasant but actually tastes quite good (best eaten with creamy milk and sugar). Another Easter delicacy of Russian origin is paskha (pasha), a sweet but sour-ish quark-based dessert. A sweet speciality for May Day is tippaleipä (struva), a palm sized funnel cake traditionally enjoyed with mead.

During the Midsummer celebration in late June it is common to serve the first potatoes of that years' harvest with herring. From the end of July until September it's worthwhile to ask for crayfish (rapu/kräfta) menus and prices at better restaurants. It's not cheap, you won't get full from the crayfish alone, and there are many rituals involved, most of which involve large quantities of ice-cold vodka, but it should be tried at least once.

Around Christmas, a baked Christmas ham (joulukinkku/julskinka) is the traditional star of the dinner table, with a constellation of casseroles around it. Some restaurants serve Christmas buffets for some days before the holiday.

During the winter months, blini's are often available in restaurants. These are small, soft, pancakes of Russian origin, eaten with fish roe, sour cream and onion.

Regional specialities

There are also regional specialities, including:

• Kainuu's rönttönen — a small open faced pie consisting of a crust made of barley or rye dough, filled with a sweetened mashed potato and berry (most often Lingonberry) filling, typically served as an accompaniment to a coffee. Has a protected geographical indication under the EU law.
• Savonia's kalakukko — a bread-like rye pie filled with small whole fish (often vendace). The pie is baked slow and low so that even the fish bones become soft and edible. Has Traditional Specialities Guaranteed (TSG) status in the European union.
• Tampere's black sausage (mustamakkara) — a blood sausage canonically served with lingonberry jam and a pint of cold milk.

Grill kiosks also like to put their local spin on things, ranging from Lappeenranta's vety and atomi ("hydrogen" and "atom"), meat pies with ham and fried eggs inside, to Lahti's spectacularly unappetising lihamuki ("meat mug"), a disposable soda cup filled with the cheapest grade of kebab meat, your choice of sauce, and nothing else.

Desserts

An assortment of pulla straight from the oven

For dessert or just as a snack, Finnish pastries abound and are often taken with coffee (see Drink) after a meal. Look for cardamom coffee bread (pulla/bulla), a wide variety of tarts (torttu), and donuts. Traditional Finnish deep-fried doughnuts, which are commonly available at cafés, come in two varieties: munkki, which is a deep-fried bun, and munkkipossu, which is flat and roughly rectangular; both contain sweet jam. A slice of giant oven pancake ((uuni)pannukakku) is a common accompaniment to pea soup on Thursdays.

In summer, a wide range of fresh berries are available, including the delectable but expensive cloudberry (Finnish: lakka/hilla/muurain/valokki, depending on location; Swedish:hjortron, Sámi: luomi), and a number of wild berry products are available throughout the year as jam (hillo/sylt), soup (keitto/soppa), candy (makeinen/godis), and a type of a gooey, clear pudding known as kiisseli (kräm).

To get fresh berries, unless you pick them yourselves, check the local open-air market. There are often stalls also outside some supermarkets. The berries can be used as such, with some cream (and sugar, depending on species and your taste), with vanilla ice cream, on a pie, as jam, or any way you like them. Lingonberries are usually mashed, mixed with sugar and used as jam with a meal, but can also be eaten as such, like the others. Crowberries have big seeds and are mostly used as juice or jam, with the seeds removed.

Usually there is a wide selection of salmiakki candies in kiosks and markets.

Finnish chocolate is also rather good, with Fazer products including their iconic Sininen ("Blue") bar and Geisha candies exported around the world. A Finnish speciality is the wide use of licorice (lakritsi/lakrits). The Finns are particularly craving for the strong salty liquorice (salmiakki/salmiak) which gets its unique (and acquired, be warned) taste from ammonium chloride.

After a meal it's common to chomp chewing gum (purukumi/tuggummi) including xylitol, which is good for dental health. Jenkki is a popular domestic brand. Many flavours are available.

Dietary restrictions

Traditional Finnish cuisine relies heavily on meat and fish, but vegetarianism (kasvissyönti/vegetarianism) is increasingly popular and well-understood, and will rarely pose a problem for travellers. Practically all restaurants offer vegetarian options, often marked with a "V" on menus. Some cafeterias have a separate line for the vegan and vegetarian dishes. Take note that egg (kananmuna or muna/ägg) is found in many prepared foods, ready meals and baked goods, so vegan meals are not common outside selected restaurants, but the selection of raw ingredients, speciality grains and health foods is adequate for preparing your own. Likewise gelatine (liivate) in yoghurt, jellies and sweets is common. Both will always be indicated on labels.

Two ailments most commonly found among Finns themselves are lactose intolerance (laktoosi-intoleranssi, inability to digest the milk sugar lactose) and coeliac disease (keliakia/celiaki, inability to digest gluten). In restaurants, lactose-free selections are often tagged "L". Low-lactose products are sometimes called "Hyla" or marked with "VL". (Notice that low-lactose VL has nothing to do with vegetarian V.) The gluten-free options are marked with "G". However, hydrolysed lactose (EILA, or HYLA brand) milk or lactose-free milk drink for the lactose intolerant is widely available, which also means that a lactose-free dish is not necessarily milk-free. Allergies are quite common among Finnish people, too, so restaurant workers are usually quite knowledgeable on what goes into each dish and often it is possible to get the dish without certain ingredients if specified.

See also

• Nordic countries
• Russian cuisine