washoku vs. finshoku

The ultimate battle. Once again, I'm torn between the two. And just to clear things up before I ramble on, washoku is a term for traditional Japanese food, and if you google, you'll find countless of examples of what a washoku meal might include. It's often very beautifully presented, but not in the try-hard, master chef kinda style - just so that plain pictures of it make your mouth water. Finshoku, on the other hand, is most likely not even a real word, but you understand what I mean, anyway.

Tempura time, featuring a waiter's ass.

When I think of traditional Finnish food, the images that pop into my head definitely don't make my mouth water. The first thing I think of is just plain boiled potatoes, with a grilled meat or fish side. As for spices and flavoring, salt and pepper will do just fine. And if you're lucky, you might have some lingonberry jam to make it complete, which actually does go well with meat dishes, such as beef or elk. So, when compared to washoku, it's boring, flavorless, and doesn't really require any effort at all.

But the thing is, Finns these days don't really eat like that. Occasionally, yeah, and I do enjoy a Sunday roast with elk steak, mashed potatoes, and lingonberry jam, as long as it's a part of a varied diet with Asian, Southern European, Eastern European, African and American influences. In Finland, we also eat a lot of vegetable soups and different kinds of salads, and one of the trending dishes these days, avocado pasta, was actually developed by a Finnish blogger, I believe. In addition, vegetarianism is a big thing in Finland these days, and even though I eat practically anything I'm offered (well, still have to get used to natto, though...), at home I try to avoid eating meat, especially red meat, mainly for ecological reasons. Plus vegetarian food is simply delicious.

Yesterday, though, we got together with a couple of Finnish girls, and made something that's very Finnish, for better or for worse... macaroni casserole. Macaroni casserole for Finns is like mac and cheese is for Americans, I believe - just a simple comfort food that's inexpensive and easy to prepare. It represents the boring side of Finnish culinary culture, and at its simplest, the ingredients include just macaroni, mince meat, onion, eggs, milk, and salt and pepper to taste. Of course you can spice it up in any way imaginable, and you'll probably find dozens of variations of it if you just google for recipes, but ours pretty much conformed to the traditional style. Most people I know enjoy their macaroni casserole with ketchup, since the taste of the food in itself is quite bland.

Neat, single-serving portions of macaroni casserole!

This time, though, none of us needed any ketchup. To be honest, I quite miss bland food. That sounds funny, but what really mean is that what would probably be considered bland in Japanese standards does not taste bland to me. On the contrary, as much as I love Japanese food, it's often way too salty for my taste, and I just feel bloated all the time, as I'm pretty sure my salt intake has doubled since I arrived here.

Another dearly missed thing is dietary fiber. In Finland, I'd be eating rye bread almost daily - and not the soft, brown kind that I've heard they also sell here, but the chewy, dark bread that's loaded with fiber. Most of the bread they sell here is whiter than the skin of an average Finn, and I could forgive that, if only there were other sources of fiber to choose from. But the thing is, veggies aren't used that much either, since they're super expensive; and you'd think beans, that are also high in fiber, might be a popular product in Japan, but it's mostly just soy beans that are used here, and mostly just in the production of foods that have no fiber content at all, such as tofu or soy sauce. And the rice is the whitest you can find anywhere in the world. So I'm really having a hard time with that, and usually have to content myself with just having an oatmeal in the morning and some muesli in the evening, although that only gives me a fraction of the recommended daily intake of fiber.

So there are pros and cons to both washoku and finshoku. And everytime I spend a longer period of time abroad, it seems that what I miss the most about Finnish food is how healthy it actually is. I'm not saying that everybody in Finland eats healthy - that would be a big fat lie - but I've been brought up to enjoy a varied diet, with lots of vegetables and rye bread fresh from our own oven. When I go back to Finland, I know I'll be craving for sushi and hoping I'd be back here so I could just walk to the nearest supermarket to buy a bento box; nevertheless, for a bit of an effort, I can prepare some at home since the ingredients at least are available at a supermarket in Finland, as well! So in the end I guess it's always the food you've been brought up with which somehow just feels right.