#41 FINLAND

I know it's a controversial statement, but I really love the food in Finland! This quirky nordic country often gets a bad rap for having the worst cuisine in Europe, but what's not to love about lots of fish, game meats, and vodka?

In 2001, former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi argued that Finland did not deserve to house the European Union's food-safety agency because "[they] don't even know what prosciutto is!" Former French President Jacques Chirac also insulted Finnish cuisine by saying it's the worst in the world -- clearly, he'd never tried grilled elk steaks or reindeer liver! Then again, that might just be the food anthropologist in me talking ;)

Before arriving in Helsinki in April 2013, I watched Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations episode from Finland and was pretty impressed by the copious amounts of reindeer and vodka he consumed! So, I decided to retrace some of his steps, so once we landed, we headed straight to Lappi Ravintola for a feast of traditional Sami delicacies: reindeer carpaccio, air-dried reindeer, wild mushrooms, farm cheese, reindeer liver, fish roe, salmon tartare, salmon mousse, muikku, reindeer steak, elk steak, and reindeer sausages. All washed down with copious "reindeer's tears," ice-cold vodka paired with frozen cranberries.

Helsinki

First time seeing frozen seas, Helsinki

Downtown Helsinki

Reindeer carpaccio, air-dried reindeer, wild mushrooms, farm cheese, reindeer liver, fish roe, salmon tartare, salmon mousse, and muikku, Lappi Ravintola, Helsinki

"Reindeer's tears" - ice-cold vodka paired with frozen cranberries, Lappi Ravintola, Helsinki.

Reindeer steak, elk steak, and reindeer sausages, Lappi Ravintola, Helsinki

Lingonberry cheesecake, Lappi Ravintola, Helsinki

After gorging ourselves at Lappi Ravintola, we returned back to the ultra-cool Klaus K hotel to relax for a bit and enjoy the sauna. It was through the hotel that we'd also booked a walking food tour of Helsinki that took us to a selection of eateries, ranging from Michelin-starred to simple pastry shops, to sample some of the best foods the town had to offer. Here, we tried Karelian pie, a sort of baked empanada, which is also very suggestive in its sultry presentation!

Helsinki

Sightseeing in downtown Helsinki

Helsinki

Karelian pie, Helsinki

Helsinki

Vodka, beer, gravlax, muikku, and licorice, Helsinki

The last restaurant we hit on this trip was one we'd discovered on our food tour, and when we saw the menu, we knew straight away we had to return alone to try a bear steak! We started out with a selection of appetizers: creamy salmon soup, whitefish baked in rye bread, beet-cured gravlax, salmon mousse, and fried muikku. Then, the bear steak was served with a mushroom sauce, a slab of bacon, and a quail egg on top of winter root veggies with cranberries. It was a hearty meal, to say the least, and though I'm glad I got to try bear meat, it wasn't my absolute favorite meat. Wild reindeer, on the other hand, OMG......!!!