Rakastan suomalaisia ​​kaloreita

that means "I love Finnish calories".

This week is "American week" in the school cafeteria. Today I ate familiar gluey mashed potatoes and "chiken" nuggets. Tomorrow is hot dogs and gravy, and Friday promises "Mama's Meatballs" with a side of "Big Apple Surprise". Everyone is looking forward to the end of the week, mainly because Mama's Meatballs is a fun alliteration and a distasteful joke all in one.

Shitty school food feels like home...if American kids were forced to eat the usual cafeteria food here (water, boiled potatoes, roasted meat and dark rye bread) they'd probably riot for their right to processed sugars.

Pulla

Sweet Finnish specialties are definitely around, though. European candy bars? Killer. Last week, a friend and I made lettu - basically Finnish crepes - and managed to finish off a box of icecream in the process. The next day, I went berrypicking with some Rotarians and filled a very large bucket with punaherukka (redcurrants). My host mother makes a mean red-currant pie...it disappeared extremely quickly. Luckily, she thought this was a compliment and not evidence of American greed. She has also promised to make pulla (sweet coffee rolls) with me in the near future.

That brings us to the most misunderstood Finnish culinary celebrity: salmiakki. It's everywhere. At ice cream parlors, next to the chocolate syrup and caramel sauce stand big bottles of "salty liquorice topping".  The sweets come in portable little boxes like this, and I've already fallen into the habit of popping a few every couple hours. (I guess I like to think I get Finn-points for that.) If you don't take your salmiakki straight, perhaps you'd prefer ice cream with sumptuous salmiakki swirls or salmiakki-filled chocolate bars. Okay, so it's an (extremely) acquired taste. I think this sums it up nicely. The first half is foreigners, the second, natives.

It is my new personal mission in life to introduce banana bread to Finland....it may end up being an invasive species though. The one I made last week was briefly exclaimed at (my host parents have never seen chocolate chips) and then even more quickly devoured.  I've also got 3 boxes of Duncan Hines Double Fudge Brownie Mix, just biding their time....


P.S. In case you were wondering, I have not eaten reindeer. Yet.