tags: travel, Helsinki, Finland, licorice
While my fellow Americans slept, I was watching birds from my host's balcony, and nibbling on the most delightfully naughty Finnish breakfast consisting of licorice and chocolate. Just thought you all might wish to know what you are missing.
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Among some of us there is a disagreement that approaches in fervor a religious stance, whether it is the salmiakki diamonds by Fazer or those by Halva which are the "true ones". Myself, I swear by the traditional pharmacy formulation.
Waaaah ... diabetes prevents me from trying out those goodies. :{~
Well, I can't complain - salmon, cheese, and freshly baked bread for breakfast is just as good. I never did see pickled herrings though - maybe next time.
At least now I know what salmiakki is so I won't ask for licorice thinking it was salmon.
My apologies, MadS. I seem again to be displaying my talent for misleading people. Licorice is "lakritsa" (or "lakritsi") whereas "salmiakki" is, strictly speaking, ammonium chloride, and loosely speaking, licorice-resembling goodie where chief flavoring is ammonium chloride.
Long ago I could even buy food-grade pure ammonium chloride to tip my finger in and lick...
i have discovered that some forms of salmiakki lakritsi is a bit .. salty .. for my tastes, but other forms are just fine. but i've not had halva lakritsi before, although i might have eaten it when a child and forgotten this. (i do remember eating salmiakki as a kid).
I remember when we made ammonium chloride ourselves in 8th grade chemistry. :)
And Grrl, it's supposed to be salty. Not too much, though, it does need a bit of sweetness as well (hence the combination with licorice). One of my favourites is Lakrisal, a compressed powder lozenge type of thing. Makes my mouth water just thinking about them... shame I ate the last of my stash a few weeks back.
Another favourite, and more towards the licorice symbiont, is Brunberg's Salmiakkilakritsi. Dunno if someone in Helsinki sells it (probably does), but their factory is in Porvoo. They also do a rather tasty non-salmiakki version.
Thanks for the explanation Juuro. Ammonium chloride is one of those chemicals I would never have thought of tasting. I guess it depends what you grow up with. Everyone has salt these days, and I've had noodles and eggs from China which have ammonia in them.