Feasting on Finland

So Jon basically took out the Finnish forest one animal at a time from the floor to the trees, with a few other foods thrown in on the side. To start you on this feast for the eyes, here's a little snack of pulla and tea to tide you over. This is a sweet bun flavored with cardamom and some fruit tea we enjoyed at the Fazer cafe in Helsinki . . . very Finnish (Ok, not really since we didn't have coffee with the pulla, but still). 

Jon started at the floor of the forest by eating some rather good garlic snails (can you believe I tried a bite?) . . . 

He took a detour from the forest to sample the fields with this very tasty beef with some balls of potato, pate, fish and even some dilled cucumbers from a lunch buffet in Porvoo . . . 

He picked up again with a double dose this time of reindeer liver on the left and a combination of moose and regular reindeer on the right. This was on the lunch menu of the Modern Art Museum in Helsinki . . . 
The Finnish national animal is the bear (it's also on their favorite beer) which you'll remember was Priority Number One on Jons To Do list in Finland. We went to a Russian restaurant called Saslik that has a "Bear Party" every autumn by having all sorts of bear dishes. Jon ordered some medallions of bear that were flambeed at the table. . . (sorry about the blurry picture)

He said it tasted like the most tender steak there is. . . I hope it was good with the price tag that came with it!
And last, but not least, he had goose at a Finnish restaurant called Aino. . . 

Since getting back he keeps saying how much he misses Finnish food. He couldn't get enough of the pear gelato at Stockmanns. Me? I ate about 3 gallons of carrot soup, all the rye bread and Karjalan Piiraka I could, with a generous supply of pulla and chocolate thrown in for good measure.