They call it the Finnish Christmas Fair, but really, who are they kidding? Aside from one table of Christmas ornaments and some obligatory Moomin product, it was nothing but a good old food fair, descended upon by all the Finns (and non-Finns) of London each year to stock up on Finnish snacks and goodies for the coming festive season.
I, for one, am not complaining about that!
We actually went to this event last year as well, but I didn’t take any photos because my hands were occupied carrying food stuffs (I have my priorities) but this year, I thought I’d share the splendour with you guys. Yeah, I totally made Panu carry the basket.
Set up for one week and one week only at The Finnish Church in Canada Water, the Finnish Christmas Fair is basically one large room with a huge table of goodies in the middle, flanked on all sides by well, more goodies.
At the back of the room there’s a bakery (think cinnamon scrolls!) and outside there’s a grill serving up sausages, reindeer meat, salmon and all good things. Up top, there’s also a cafe. Like I said, why’d they call it a Christmas Fair? Call it what it is, people: a Finnish Food Fair.
Considering I’m not a Finn, I can only imagine Panu’s excitement when we enter the place. I mean, God if there was a Malaysian fair like this I WOULD GO MENTAL. And even not being a Finn, I was a little bit crazy excited to fill up our basket with all kinds of goodies.
I mainly targeted the sweets because them Finns, they do chocolate brilliantly (my favourite: wiener nougat)…
… and they do (salted) licorice like no one else…
… and then they combine the two and this salmiakki chocolate coated liquid licorice OMG it makes my toes curl in excitement!
And THEN! There’s the suku laku… *love*… which I am now stocked up on again 😀
If you’re wondering, there is more than just sweet stuff. There’s also meat, like reindeer meat:
Or, if you’f prefer… bear meat. But we didn’t get any of that because um, £15 for 200 grams? Are you kidding me? I bet it tastes like steak anyway.
We did however stock up on a bunch of Finnish style bakes, including liver bakes, sweet potato bakes and swede bakes, which are traditional Christmas fare.
We bought a bunch for Christmas but shhhhh… we already ate one for dinner on Saturday night. We had one of the liver bakes, which is basically like a casserole with rice, served with a generous dollop of lingonberry jam:
In addition to all this, you can also take the opportunity to stock up on pantry products that are less common outside of Finland, such as a variety of flours like rye flour and wheat flour (perfect for cinnamon scrolls!):
And of course, while you’re there, grab a few packs of Moomin cookies and Carneval biscuits!
Now. Once you’re done shopping, you’ll probably be famished. Head on upstairs to the cafe for some cinnamon scrolls and coffee, or if you’re rather (we rathered), head outside to the grill for some sausage, reindeer or salmon, served with a mountain of creamy mashed potato, all for only £3!
So the Finnish Food Fair is on the rest of this week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday noon til 8pm and Saturday from 10am til 4pm, so if you feel like some good traditional Finnish grub, head on down.
Pidä hauskaa!
Finnish Christmas Fair
The Finnish Church
33 Albion Street
Canada Water, Se16 7HZ
£1 donation to the church for entry.
This made me SO home sick!! There’s nothing like that in Sydney, but if there was I’d never had to go back to Finland! Well ok maybe for the snow and all the other cool stuff I would.. Oh yeah and for my family too, of course 😉
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Oh wow this looks great! I don’t know anything about Finnish food… but might go check it out this weekend. Thanks Catty!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE and LOVE Salmiakki!
The Finnish OWN Christmas…no one does Christmas like them!
I was there too! And I tried reindeer stew which was SO delicious. And I came home with a tonne of cinnamon rolls.
Maria: hehehe I KNEW you’d be all over this post 🙂 I thought of you the entire time I was there!
jenny: It’s pretty cool – won’t take you ages there, about an hour is enough, so it’s a good plan for part of the weekend.
Old Cow: SALMIAKKI ROCKS!!! If I knew you loved I would have bought you a block! *doh*
sakura: Oh I didn’t have the reindeer, dammit!
hehe I thought Maria might like this post! I’m showing this to half Finn Mr NQN! 😀
Lots of my kind of food! When I lived in Toronto, I loved going to the Finnish food market. Even the little things feel so special when living abroad. I love the Christmas casseroles. Rutabaga and carrot are my favorite. Looks like a lot of people got help for their home sickness!:)
oh how FUN! Never heard of this before but sounds interesting. I love Scandinavian stuff!
That looks like so much fun! I can’t believe they sell BEAR meat! I don’t think I could bring myself to try it.
Every year we mean to pop to this and we never do but having seen your pics I am definitely going on Saturday to stock up on some Moomin biscuits. I would buy some bear meat for my friend who loves odd foods also but HOW MUCH??!!
Lorraine: Haha yeah, show Mr NQN, it’ll make him miss home!
tiina: Definitely – there were soooo many Finns there, it was like they came out of the woodwork hehehe… great for stocking up on home foods 🙂
samantha: me too! everything’s delicious and healthy and usually very pretty 🙂
thewanderingfoody: I know BEAR MEAT. I would if it wasn’t so painfully expensive!
Anne: Have fun on Saturday!
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Mmmm sounds like such a fun place! I wonder whether I have missed it?