Enjoy slow food in Finland –  From decadent meals using locally sourced lamb and other ingredients at Mukkula Manor, and wooden plank-smoked salmon seasoned to perfection at Lehmonkärki resort, to learning how to bake Finnish gingerbread from scratch at Kinnari Farm.

I have to say… Living here in the Nordics has turned me into a teeny-weeny bit of a food snob.

Not the fine dining type that won’t touch a restaurant if it doesn’t have a Michelin star. Far from this.

But rather, the kind that craves simplicity. The kind that wants food to be pared down and bared so we can actually taste their natural organic flavors. And it’s very easy to take this for granted because of just how close to nature we eat here.

Salmon, which is quite pricey in the United States, is much more affordable here and the access we get to fresh seafood is a luxury. This also means eating more seasonal foods like wild mushrooms, berries, and game such as reindeer. One I certainly don’t take for granted.

Finnish food is similar to the Swedish kitchen, except that Finnish cuisine has a lot more influences from Russia. While exploring the Lahti region of Finland on my last trip there, I got to explore some regional specialties and I’ve pulled together my experiences into a short travel video to take you along my culinary journey.

Here is the video as well as photos of some slow food experiences in the Lahti region of Finland – From decadent meals using locally sourced lamb and other ingredients at Mukkula Manor, and wooden plank-smoked salmon seasoned to perfection at Lehmonkärki resort, to learning how to bake Finnish gingerbread from scratch at Kinnari Farm.

Below the video are a few more anecdotes as well as some of my favourite photos while eating my way around the region.[fullscreen]

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Local produce at Mukkula Manor

You know the food is so good when you shamelessly ask the chef to send out a second cut of lamb. We stayed at the stunning Mukkula Manor where, in addition to trying out a variety of winter sports and activities, we got to dig into decadent food using locally sourced ingredients from nearby farms. Think lamb that practically falls apart as you tuck in and duck liver pate so creamy and flavorful.

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Wood-smoked salmon at Lehmonkärki

I have eaten a lot of salmon in my time. Living here in Sweden means eating some form of fish or seafood every single day. But the wood-smoked salmon I had at stunningly rugged Lehmonkärki Resort may be the very best yet.  Dinner was in the log cabin hunting lodge surrounded by taxidermized wildlife… as one would find in a rustic hunting lodge, feelings aside. We got to pick our large fillets of salmon which were fastened to slabs of wood to be smoked. Once ready and spiced to perfection, I lingered over my very last bite of salmon, not wanting the experience to end.

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Gingerbread baking at Kinnari Farms

If we’re friends on Facebook, you already know I suck at baking. So, I knew going to Kinnari Farms and baking my own gingerbread cookies from scratch was going to be a challenge. But by the time I was done, scraping off dough from between my fingers, my cutely shaped cookies looked not just edible, but actually tasted fantastic.

It really doesn’t get any closer from farm to table than at Kinnari farms which has been running in one form or another since 1667.  The farm makes its own organic rye flour and also runs a shop Pioni ja Piironki which sells products such as cheeses, sausages, preserves, spices, and sweets all produced by other local farmers and artisans.

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You can view more photos from Finland in my image bank. I explored the Lahti region of Finland as part of the exceptional Nordic Bloggers Experience (NBE) #NBEFinland where I was also running a blog workshop as a presenter. All opinions, observations, and oddities are solely mine.