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Finnish Food: Redemption Arc

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Despite all my complaints about Finnish cuisine, it does have its redeeming factors For one, they have the freshest, most delicious salmon, and great seafood in general. The best sushi I've ever had in my life was actually at a mall restaurant in Vaasa called Magokoro. If you ever find yourself on the west coast of Finland, I cannot recommend it enough.  The Magokoro sushi! Please excuse the bad picture; I was too excited to eat to take a nicer one. The baked sweets in Finland were also delicious. A highlight for me was joulutorttu , a traditional Finnish pastry eaten around Christmas, which consists of puff pastry stars filled with prune jam. Joulutorttu made by Kati's family. Photo taken by me. Finland also knows how to do drinks right. Pear juice, blueberry juice, raspberry soda, and glögg (a traditional mulled wine served hot around Christmas) were just a few of the beverage highlights of my trip. These were always the perfect amount of sweetness, enough to be a pleasant tr...
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The Most Traumatic Culinary Experience of My Life

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Happy Thanksgiving! In the spirit of the holiday, I'd like to share a food anecdote from my visit last year, just in case you weren't already convinced by my testimony of the horrors of Nordic/Finnish cuisine: One evening my girlfriend informed me that we would be having fish for dinner. I was very excited at this prospect, as our meals in the past few days at her parents' house mostly consisted of traditional Finnish foods. I was expecting something along the lines of hong shao yu (Chinese braised fish) — something rich in color, spices, and texture. However, when dinner time came, I was met with a glass container of what I assumed was some sort of white gelatin. As a completely genuine question, I asked Kati, "So where's the fish?" "This is  the fish," she replied, "It's lutfisk." I looked at the white gelatinous substance in front of me with apprehension. But not wanting to judge by appearances, I picked up a modest chunk of the fish...
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Reflections of a Chinese-American on Finnish Cuisine

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Finland! Land of saunas, snow, Santa Claus. Also known for being the "happiest country in the world" according to the World Happiness Report for seven years in a row. But certainly, the index must be mistaken. Because nobody could be truly happy with such horrid food. The first time I visited Finland was in the spring of 2022. I was in my second semester at Berkeley, and I skipped a few days of class (to the detriment of my biology class grade) around Spring Break to visit my girlfriend, Kati, who I had only started dating a few months prior. This was a short trip, being only about eight days long, six if you don't count travel time. It was a good trip! I tried reindeer meat pizza (and enjoyed it immensely). But the short trip length meant that my girlfriend and I spent most days eating simple homecooked meals or getting takeout; I didn't get to properly try "Finnish cuisine". My second trip to Finland was in the winter of 2023. Having mentioned me to her pa...
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