Friday, January 16, 2009

What do finns eat?

Somebody gimme suggestions on what to cook.
Click on the comment below and tell me.. haha

Finland seriously has a lack of fresh produce.. maybe its a winter thing but still..
The few vegetables around are cabbage, lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, capsicums, carrots, cucumbers, leeks and a few others.. seriously.. what happened to all the more common spinach, Kailan, Xiao Bai Cai.. And to make things worse.. there are only 2 kinds of mushrooms i can afford. The canned button mushrooms and the huge white ones.. All the common brown ones we see in Singapore.. We seriously take for granted. The Oyster sauce i brought to fry vege now seems a bit redundant haha..

They do have meat i guess.. one comment.. Finns like to eat like boneless meats.. eg chicken breast. So one prepacked box of chicken breast compared to a box of chicken thighs of the same weight can be 4 times more expensive. Imagine paying S$24 for 5 chicken breasts.. Stress!

Some things that i have taken for granted..
1) That when i go to the supermarket.. i'll know how to read the labels and know what i am buying
2) That in kitchen, i'll have whatever condiments i need.. like salt, pepper, soya sauce etc..
3) That the kitchen will be clean before and after i use it

Having said all these.. i must add that SCHOOL CAFETERIA FOOD never tasted this good. It's wonderful to have good food at only 2.60 Euros. We get to choose from 2 main courses daily.. usually as much rice/potatoes you want.. however much salad we can pile up.. unlimited water/milk/juice and unlimited bread A/B C. I say A B C coz i have no idea what the breads are called.. there are different kinds of different sizes and colour. Every meal in the sch canteens are really value for money. If only the canteens (that look like ikea restaurants) open after 5pm.

My wish is that after winter.. we'll have more variety in the things i can buy in the supermarket

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

haha...get used to it man...green leafy vegetables are either very expensive, or not available!! the spinach they hv is not like ours, it's more for salad.
i use cabbage & da bai cai quite a bit (at least in uk, da bai cai is quite readily available & cheap). some simple fare:
stir-fry cabbage (or da bai cai) & carrots with garlic & oyster sauce. add some pork if u want.
fried egg omelette, with onions, capsicums or whatever u want!
for cold weather, there's always noodles. rembr the chicken stock i told u? debone the chicken thighs & use the bones to make a stock. just need boil for abt 15 mins, with a slice or 2 of ginger. sieve & pack into small freezing bags. add ur vege & meat to stock & throw in noodles. simple & nice for cold weather.
pasta!! prob easiest to buy, just need some ham, sausages or minced meat & the fresh mushrooms & capsicums. can use some carrots ^ celery too, diced small.
basically, just experiment & hv fun!! if u feel like eating anything, just let me know, i'll try give u some simple ways of improvising & making it! :D

juls said...

wah chai...
you're so knowledgeable sia
reminds me of the recipe you gave me for kiam beh hahaha

Anonymous said...

Erms.. i can't cook... But potato salad always makes me happy.

Potatoes, Miracle whip, and bacon chips. Or you can throw in some of those shredded smoke fish?

ok...think that didn't help much.

Last resort... can "da bao" from the school cafeteria? Haa....