Mämmi Time

Today concluded my second Finnish course. The third course will start a week from Thursday. Bring it on. In the meantime, I'll be studying the ins and outs of partitiivi so that it might cease to be the source of 85 percent of my spoken mistakes. But more on that another time.

Since pääsiäinen (Easter) approaches, I decided to celebrate the beginning of my loma by trying a bit of mämmi!

Now, I had heard from Finns and foreigners alike that mämmi is something of an acquired taste. In fact, lots of people never acquire anything much other than disgust for the stuff. We watched a few mämmi-related videos in class today, during which our teacher explained that a good many Finns think that it strongly resembles koirankakka (dog poop).

[Yes, we're in scatological territory again.]

Well, all of these positively glowing endorsements really enticed me. No, really. The weirder something supposedly is, the more I'm apt to try it. And, I thought, what could possible be so awful? Is it the texture? The taste? The smell? It's just some rye flour, molasses, and a few other things mixed to form a thick pudding. Really, what is there to fear?

I decided to go with a small purkki my first time out. I was told to add a bit of cream and not to add any sugar, so I prepared it just so.

What is there to fear? Well, in my personal opinion, not a damn thing. It tasted of just what you might expect: rye, molasses, a touch of orange, and of cream. I found nothing objectionable about the flavor, which was strong and lightly sweet, or the texture, which actually reminded me a little of smooth peanut butter.

Be warned, however, that I very rarely dislike food that I put into my mouth. My feelings can be measured on a three point scale:

1) Oh my god, that is amazing. I would like to eat this for the rest of my natural born life.
2) Mmm. Not bad.
3) Meh. It's okay.

Mämmi was roughly a 2. I quite enjoyed it.