What is in season in Helsinki. and what to order when the market changes.
Spring
- Mämmi: The dark, malted rye pudding eaten at Easter, served cold with cream and sugar. It looks alarming and tastes mild and treacly; spring is its only season.
- Sima and tippaleipä: For May Day (Vappu), Helsinki drinks the fermented lemon mead sima and eats funnel-cake tippaleipä, sold at stalls and bakeries around the start of May.
Summer
- New potatoes and herring: Midsummer means the first new potatoes with dill and butter, eaten alongside pickled or fried Baltic herring. It is the most Finnish plate of the year.
- Finnish strawberries: Short, intense and prized, Finnish strawberries pile up on Market Square and Hakaniemi stalls through July; locals buy them by the litre box.
- Fried vendace (muikku): Tiny lake fish floured and fried whole, sold from summer market stalls by the cupful. Eaten head, tail and all with a squeeze of lemon.
Autumn
- Chanterelles and wild mushrooms: Autumn foraging fills market stalls with chanterelles and funnel chanterelles, which turn up in soups and on the menus at Grön, Nokka and Skörd.
- Baltic herring: The October Baltic Herring Market brings salted, pickled and spiced herring to the harbour, the autumn event Helsinki has kept since 1743.
- Lingonberries and cloudberries: Tart lingonberries accompany game and meatballs, while rare amber cloudberries from the north top leipäjuusto bread cheese and desserts.
Winter
- Reindeer (poronkäristys): Sautéed reindeer with mashed potato and lingonberry, a Lapland dish that warms Helsinki menus through the dark months from Savoy to Nokka.
- Joulutorttu: The Christmas star pastry of puff pastry and prune jam appears in every bakery through December, alongside glogi mulled wine and gingerbread.
- Salmon soup (lohikeitto): Creamy salmon soup with dill and potato is a year-round comfort, but it comes into its own in winter, ladled hot in the market halls.