Monday 20 February 2012

Fisherman’s Friends & Fisherman's Delicacy Buffet

On one of my trips while guiding was to a fisherman’s village. Even if you don’t like fishing, you would like this programme.

We step out from the bus and were by a huge completely frozen lake. A cozy “kota” was nearby and the fishermen were already waiting for us. They all were very excited and smiling, what surprised me, how can someone love so much fishing? After introducing themselves, we put our way out to the lake. Most of the people were quite worried, maybe even a bit scared, because they had never seen such a big frozen lake, and they were not sure about stepping on the ice. Then Tuomo, the owner of the place, standing on the frozen lake asked the children “who wants to go on a snowmobile?”. The children of course ran to him, into the middle of the lake, while all the parents held their breath... I thought it was a very good strategy, because then everybody saw it was completely safe to go on the ice.


We walked some meters, leaving the “kota” behind, and we stopped next to a kind of stick standing on the middle of the lake. Tuomo explained us it was an important part of the ice-fishing, because it points you where you made the hole, and so also prevents anyone to fall in there by accident. Then he started explaining how the ice-fishing is done, asking always volunteers to help him. At the beginning the people were not sure to be so close to the hole, but later everybody wanted to help. We had some nice catch with the net, and then it was time to try the individual ice-fishing.

We could make a hole on the ice and then sit by it and try to catch something with a rod. He said the most important thing was the patience, that sometimes you could stay there for hours and get nothing, but that was what Finns love: the calm and the silence, where they could just relax and think. And be happy even when not catching any fish for hours… We were very lucky with that, because one of the children was very excited about it and following every single word Tuomo said during all the activity, and so he sat by a hole and waited there completely quiet and doing exactly as Tuomo said. And this gave him a prize! He caught a fish, but he was so surprised when it pulled the rod that he let it go. Nevertheless, Tuomo was not angry and we all laughed at the situation.


After the fishing experience, we came back to the kota and it came out it was the restaurant Tuomo and her wife run. It was a very traditional Lappish kota, with the fireplace on the middle and the tables around. Everybody whispered “hmmm!” once we felt the smell of the food and the warm of the kota after our fishing time. Tuomo explained his wife is in charge of the restaurant, cooking with her own traditional receipts, and always served the fish that lake gave. It was really surprising they could get so much fish from the lake, especially because all the fishing was done in a very traditional way. How many hours they would spend fishing? Definitely, they had to love it.

The lunch was a very diverse buffet with all kind of fish prepared in many different ways, different kind of potatoes, salads, vegetables, house-made bread, berry juice and delicious sweet desserts. I’ve never liked fish very much (my mother was always complaining I only liked one kind of and always cooked the same way) but I tried everything in the buffet because everything looked delicious, and I’ll never regret tasting all of it! Everything tasted so nice taste I had to take more!

Many people was asking about the decoration inside of the kota, from wooden sculptures to reindeer and elk horns, and Tuomo was kindly explaining the story behind all of them, always smiling. I really felt like home at that restaurant.

But it is not possible to stay there forever, so when it was time to leave and we step into the bus again, Tuomo and all the rest of the workers went out to say goodbye while the bus was driving away.

Ester

You can find Fisherman's Friends in our Winter Fun! programs and Fisherman's Delicacy Buffet in our Countryside Restaruants selection.

1 comment:

  1. Ester was wondering how they can catch all the fish for the restaurant with these traditional ways of fishing. Well, in the village of Sossonniemi there is a fishing harbour owned by the local fishermen and they catch about 250 tons of fish in a year and supply restaurants and stores in Finland. Some of the fish goes to Restaurat Juomuskota of Tuomo and Marjo Ollila in the same village.

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