Mammi Tasting

Finnish rye pudding, or Mammi is a tradition Easter dessert in Finland. I’m not really sure how to describe it without sounding insulting. The thing you have to know is that it’s not that bad. The problem is that it looks pretty bad and the ingredient list isn’t something that sounds very appealing. It’s primarily rye flour, syrup, spices and dried Seville orange zest. It doesn’t appear to be baked at all, but is instead a very dark brown blob of goo, almost like eating a bitter cake batter. Again, while this is an accurate description, it’s not really a representation of how it tastes.

From what I can tell, from the internet as well as the selection of Mammi I was given, it’s most common to have Mammi with custard or something sweet and creamy. Of the three that we (Allison, myself and two Finnish friends) tasted, two of them came with some kind of sweet cream, one of them was on its own. while I appreciated tasting it on its own, it’s not something I would do again or recommend. However tasting it on it’s own gives me the opportunity to tell you how Mammi tastes without anything added.

The flavour of Mammi is fairly bitter, almost licorice like. I might have been projecting as most of the time anyone Finnish seems to offer me something it has licorice. However in this case I think the astringent flavour came from the Seville orange zest. For those unaware, Seville oranges are super bitter and most often used to make jam, when mixed with lots of sugar. Mammi on its own however doesn’t seem like there’s much or any sugar added. The texture is actually much better than you might think. It’s a little gritty, but actually kind of smooth. There’s also an aftertaste of the rye, so at least the gritty texture makes sense.

As for the toppings, apparently the tradition is to simply add a vanilla custard. One of the Mammis we had was just that, and it was by far the best one. The vanilla custard sweetens and smooths out the astringent flavour of the Seville orange a bit, but not so much as you still can’t taste it. It’s not like this custard covers everything up, instead it just makes it a bit more palatable.

The other Mammi we had was a little less conventional, in panna cotta form. I would say that this was far less successful than the classic vanilla cream, but I appreciated that the Finnish dessert manufacturers were willing to play with their classic Easter dessert a bit. I’ve been told there are a few other methods/versions of Mammi out there as well.

I would suggest that you try Mammi if you have the means. I’m pretty sure it’s an acquired taste and works much better if you grow up with it, but it was at the very least very unique and interesting.

International Retro Candy Commercials - Part 4 - Finland

I love a good bag of random candy, it's guaranteed to both satisfy and disappoint.  A few commenters on this commercial mention that they feel this advertisement is both creepy and racists.  Without understanding a single word said I can really only agree about the creepy part, but only a little.

All this week I'm posting videos featuring retro candy commercials from all over the world.

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Greatest Treats You May Have Never Tried - Lontoo Rae

There are many different treats to be found, all over the world.  Each corner has their own idea of what's good, and it can vary a great deal.  The thing is, many of these treats aren't available everywhere.  In fact, some treats are only available in a very small area of the world.  Some of these hard to find treats are treats you really shouldn't miss as well.  So this week, I'm going to highlight a new treat every day, that I've reviewed, and that I think you should really try... that is if you can find it.

There are many European cultures that love licorice, however I think the Finnish people are the licorice kings.  They love putting licorice into just about anything you could imagine.  This bar, by Karl Fazer, is the perfect example of a licorice pairing that worked very well.  I'd never thought of putting licorice together with chocolate, but I was even more surprised at how well it worked.

Click here to read our review.

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Post Easter Treats From Friends

Before I start this post, I want to clear a few things up.  First of all, I'm in Greece right now, and Greek Easter just finished this weekend.  Secondly a lot of my friends have other plans this time of year, but we like to get together after this kind of holiday.  I say all of this because after a recent get together celebrating being friends, a few of my friends brought me some Easter treats, after the holiday.  I could hold onto this treats and write about them next year, but frankly they'd go bad and I might forget about them.  So I present, some great post Easter treats that I received this weekend.

My friend Outi from Finland brought me an amazing package of eggs from here home country.  Made by the famous Fazer brand, these eggs look so amazingly real.  They look so real, only because they are real... well sort of.

The white shell of these treats are in fact real chicken eggs.  The eggs are emptied out and filled with chocolate.  You can kind of tell where they're filled from, but it's still an amazing feat.  The chocolate is the regular high quality you'd expect from Fazer and it's solid.

My friend Michal came back from Israel with a couple of bars.  At first I thought that they where a couple of my favorite Israeli chocolate bars Pesek Zman (Time Out), and they are... well sort of.  For Passover each year the folks at Elite, who make these bars, make a special run of these, but Kosher.  So some of the ingredients are changed in order to suit the dietary needs of the community.  This is amazing, and something no one ever thinks of in many countries.  I tried it out and it was pretty good too, the only difference I can sense is a slightly less crunchy wafer.  Easter treats are so great, even after Easter.

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Finnish Candy = Finnish Candy Review-A-Thon

I just got a monstrous amount of Finnish candy, and I plan to taste each and every piece.  Thanks to my great Finnish friend for setting me up with all of this, it should be noted that she insisted I don't pay for it because she wanted to make sure Finnish candy was well represented in the world.  What a patriot!  I plan to review many of these pieces, and to make things interesting, next week we shall have a Finnish treat review-a-thon.

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