Finnish Fare: Simple, Sophisticated - and Delicious

Sophisticated doesn't have to be the same thing as over-elaborate, and when it comes to the Finnish food available in Helsinki markets and restaurants, the less complicated the better. Fresh, in-season ingredients cooked with flair and care make for a whole range of surprisingly subtle and memorable culinary experiences. Try these:

• a wicked slab of butter on an oven-fresh slice of rye bread
• new potatoes simmered with dill and enlivened with pickled herring
• a salmon steak grilled or fried and garnished with a helping of crisp green salad
• shredded, stewed reindeer poured over mashed potato with a lingonberry sauce
• grilled fillets of Arctic char, whitefish or pike-perch on a bed of fresh spinach
• chanterelles and cep (boletus) mushrooms fried in butter and sprinkled with black pepper
• a plate piled high with crayfish and messily negotiated with a bracing shot (or five) of Koskenkorva schnapps
• a dessert of vanilla ice cream studded with strawberries, blueberries, yellow cloudberries, lingonberries and raspberries.

Find out how and where to eat all this in our Helsinki Guide.