A Finnish Evening in Coimbra, Portugal
Last December, I offered four friends of mine a traditional winter Finnish supper. I had a bottle of glögi and Marimekko® napkins a Finnish friend had sent me by mail as a Christmas gift, and the ginger cookies I found in a regular Portuguese supermarket, imported from Sweden. I lit a small white candle in the center of my living room table, as is commonly done in Finland during dark winter afternoons, on my computer was playing a CD of Christmas songs. I was presenting my friends with a different and multicultural evening. One of the songs playing was ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas’, by Frank Sinatra; I had always dreamt about singing this song to the passersby in Kamppi shopping center square, with snowflakes falling on my open and hopeful hands.
The ginger biscuits, known in Finnish as piparkakku, literally translated ‘Ginger bread’, are usually really thin, their taste a strong fusion between cinnamon, clove and ginger. In the past, they were baked by Swedish housewives at Christmas time but, nowadays, they are large-scale produced all around the globe. As Finland belonged to Sweden during a big part of its history, ginger cookies are part of Finnish gastronomy.
Glögi is a spicy, sweet and warm beverage made with a combination of berry juices; it can be drunk mixed with red wine or vodka, the latter more traditional in Finland; blanched almonds and raisins can also be added. After a Finnish friend of mine told me she used to drink it every night, I quickly started doing the same; it got me relaxed and inspired. Believe me, once you try it, it’s easy to get addicted!
I think my girls also liked it very much; we wondered where we could find glögi in Portugal: IKEA came to our minds and they do sell it. Actually, we thought immediately we should spend more evenings together around a dining table.
Well, but if I am a twenty-something Portuguese nutritionist, I guess you might be thinking how I found myself in Finland, living, loving and learning. You must wait until I start sharing with you my Finnish journey from the beginning!
