Eating
Breakfast is usually eaten at home, and has traditionally been quite heavy as breakfast is considered as the most important meal of the day.
It has traditionally consisted of hot porridge and milk, and eggs and bacon or ham have not been unusual as breakfast either but more and more people nowadays only take coffees-to-go on their way to work in the morning.
Lunch-hours are commonly between 11 am and 1 pm, and your normal lunch is about one hour long. Restaurants make special lunch offers that are available only during the lunch-hours.
Dinner is eaten between 5 and 6 pm either in a restaurant or served in the homes and most commonly it consists of hot food.
People also tend to have a late-evening meal or snack of tea and sandwiches or something similar between 7 and 9 pm.
With the busy life-styles of today unfortunately many Finns tend to make less and less food in their homes as they used to before. More commonly people nowadays buy something ready to microwave or heat up in the oven, which is quite unfortunate as the Finnish cuisine is not a t all as bad as people tend to think. There is more about that in the Finnish food section.
Booking a table in a restaurant
Keep in mind, if booking a table at a restaurant late in the night, that many restaurants close their kitchen and stop serving food earlier than they close their establishment.
Table-manners
Guest are normally served first or asked to begin to take the food first if served from a buffet.
If you are unsure about how to go on about eating one dish strange to you, watch the others or ask your neighbour about it, as a foreigner you are excused for not knowing.
The Finns normally eat with both fork and knife in their hand at the same time. The fork in your left hand if right-handed and the knife in your right hand. The spoon is also held with your right hand. And of course vice-versus if you are left handed.
After you have finished eating the cutlery is left together side by side on the plate to sign that you are ready.
If you have taken the food yourself, and not been served, you are expected to eat it all and leave nothing on the plate. It is polite to ask for more food but not to leave any. If you have been served the food, it is ok to leave some of the food. Of course you are not expected to eat things that you are allergic to.
And, if asked about some food you just had to eat and hated, do not lie about it and praise it to the stars, but be polite and truthful instead and say something similar to that it was unusual or maybe not quite to your accustomed taste.
Some things are to be eaten by hand, like crayfish or shrimps served with their peels on. Have a look on how it is done, and ask if unsure.
Eating on informal occasions in homes you should not be surprised if you are served boiled potatoes with their peel on, as potatoes are supposed to have best nutritional value when boiled with their skin on. Just pick the potato up with your fork, peel it with your knife and put the peel on the side of your plate and when finished peeling put the peels in either the bowl provided for them on the table or the trash.
If you are served unpeeled potatoes at someone’s home you should be proud as you are more considered like a family-member or a close friend and not anymore considered as “a guest that you have to out up a façade to” by your hosts anymore. By this time you are probably on first name basis with your host and not “Mr Smith” anymore.
Formal dinner-parties
The seating order is normally decided upon in advance at formal dinner parties and written on cards on the table, if not small enough a party to be announced by the host upon sitting down at the dinner-table. The guest of honour is always seated on the right-hand side of the hostess, and this is the place where most Finns try to avoid to be placed, as the guest of honour is expected to keep a brief speech and thank the hosts on behalf of all the other guests.
Do not begin eating before everyone at the table has been served, but if it is a hot meal, and you are more than five persons seated at the table you can begin before everyone has been served. Normally you wait for the hostess to begin eating but on bigger occasions with several tables you just wait for everyone else to be served.
The host normally makes a toast at the beginning of the meal wishing you “Bon Appetite” and you are not supposed to drink before his toast.
Speeches are rarely kept during a meal but on formal occasions and then they are usually kept between courses, as the Finns consider hot meals best to be eaten hot.
If smoking is allowed where you are dining, the smoking is allowed when the coffee is being served, not sooner. More about smoking in the smoking section.
When leaving the table after the meal, you are supposed to briefly thank your host when you are given the opportunity to do so.
Alcohol
Alcohol is normally not served with lunches in Finland and during working hours you are supposed to stay sober and the use of alcohol is not so widespread during the working days.
Dinners are a completely different thing. Nowadays wine is getting more and more commonly served at dinners, even in homes on weekdays but most of the alcohol in Finland is consumed during the holidays and weekends.
The Finns traditionally drink quite a lot of beer and Vodka and similar liquors, either straight or mixed. Recently Ciders have also made their progress in Finnish drinking habits and especially women like to drink Cider as there are also special low-calorie Ciders available.
When making a toast you raise your glass and make eye contact with the person you are making the toast with, and if a general toast is been made with everyone present you should try to make eye-contact with each person at the table. Once you have tasted your drink, eye-contact is to be made again before the glass is put back onto the table.
Mind that the glass should never rise above your eye level when making a toast, and you are not supposed to toast in non-alcoholic drinks.
Somehow abstinence and not drinking any alcohol at all is considered as a peculiarity by many Finns although it is completely normal to not want to have alcohol for what ever the reason maybe.
Especially in the Christmas-season parties you might not be able to explain not-drinking-alcohol without one of the “acceptable reasons”: that you are either pregnant, driving, or using a medication you’re not allowed to drink alcohol together with.
Drinking and driving
And remember, in Finland you are not allowed to drink and drive, so make sure you leave your car parked for the night if you’re drinking alcohol! Better go by either bus or call for a taxi!
bravenet.com