pea soup

There are certain traditional Finnish foods that people either hate or love. Those who hate them will forever remember the days when they were force-fed at school and those who love them will take them in tins and cans to their trips abroad.

 One food like this is pea soup. Which I really like. Another one is maksalaatikko (liver casserole), which I also like very much. (I was finally cured from vegetarianism in Africa) The problem with these foods is that they seem to be extremely difficult to make and hence most people would not try to go through the trouble but buy them ready made. My dad makes an excellent pea soup, both normal and vegetarian version and hence every time I go to Finland I ask him to prepare it for me and then I usually find huge stacks from their freezer.

Last week I went to the shop and to my great surprise found dried peas. I could make pea soup in Paris. I bought carrots, I bought onion but I didn’t buy any meat. I ate the carrots. I bought more carrots. I ate those carrots but still had no soup.

Finally yesterday I bought even more carrots and came straight back from school to cook. In fact the preparation bit is easy, it is the cooking that takes long. And it takes really long. After two hours I phoned my dad. No. Two hours was not long enough.

I was getting hungry.

When the soup was finally ready I was starving. But it was delicious. Not quite like the one my dad makes, but good. And there is now more in the freezer. If only I had an oven so I could try to make maksalaatikko (my mum makes a good one and she has taught me how).

After the meal I went to the sauna.

A Finn is a Finn even in France.