Christmas food

I've survived the Sodexho Christmas menu 2011, and soon I can stab my knife and fork into real Christmas feast. Christmas food is something you really anxiously wait for, and eventually you'll eat more than enough, and don't want to have any of that until the next Christmas.



My perfect Christmas menu would include

- Graavilohi (salmon matured with salt)
- Mushroom salad
- Rosolli (beetroot-herring salad)
- Karjalanpaisti (Karelian stew, made out of beef or venison and pork)
- Macaroni-egg-casserole
- Carrot casserole
- Venison
- Carrots, potatoes, peas
- Rye bread and butter
- Cranberries

That's about it, I'm happy with that. Of course I'm happy to have more dishes than those on the list, but anything in addition is kind of extra. Many Finns have a lot more fish on their Christmas menu, but somehow I prefer fish more in summer time. Also, venison is maybe not that traditional as a Christmas roast, but as a daughter of a moose hunter I'm a bit spoiled in this matter.

If you want to have turkey on your Christmas dinner table, you should order it well in advance, because turkey is not the thing in Finland. Stockmann (their website seems to be down at the moment when I'm writing this) or Citymarket (and they don't seem to have English web pages at all) usually have good selection and service at the meat counter, so those are the places to ask for a turkey. In Finland pork is the turkey. We call it joulukinkku, a Christmas ham, although it tastes more like turkey than real ham.