MAKKARA aka Finnish Sausage

Some of you know and some of you don't know that I am half Finnish. My mother is from Finland and I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to visit Finland every summer to see my relatives and enjoy my summer vacation at a lake house.

Summer is short in Finland, so when it arrives the Finns spend the majority of their time outside by their lake houses relaxing, drinking and grilling. What do they grill you ask? Makkara. That's Finnish for sausage. Makkara comes in different flavors, sizes and colors. They even have a blood Makkara made with rice. It can be eaten plain, but usually with ketchup or Finnish mustard. 

Here's what they look like in their packages.

Straight from the grocery store. Two popular brands.

Let the grilling begin.

Some of them have been flipped, others take their time.

Extreme close up. Looks good right?

Here they are almost finished (get it, FINished).

An easy way to tell when they are ready is when the skin cracks open like this.

Here is a typical Finnish lunch in the summer. Makkara, ketchup, mustard, bread, butter, cheese, beet root salad, and cottage cheese. Really really good.

Here are some bonus pictures from another makara grill session at my friends lake house.

Look! Bacon too!

More goodies from Thailand

FRESH coconut from the island of Koh Phangan. I think I speak for everyone when I say that I envisioned fresh coconut to be some kind of elixir of life. Mother nature's finest tropical juice. And drinking it for the first time would be like that scene in Cast Away where Tom Hanks smashes a coconut open and quenches his thirst with a few drops. Not quite.

The stuff just tastes bad. Some thing like old water mixed with chlorine mixed with bleach. Very disappointing. It looks so beautiful in it's carved and cut open shell that doubles as a drinking mug.

At least he looks good with sunglasses on, sort of.

 Now this is good. Traditional Thai soup. The main ingredient is a root vegetable that tastes like ginger. In there are carrots, mushrooms, cabbage and spring onions. It has the consistency of chicken soup without the chicken. Popular and good (like this blog).

Green curry with coconut milk and chicken. I'm going straight back to 1998 and calling this da bomb. Green and red peppers, moist chicken and creamy curry coup. A little spicy and so tasty.

That's shrimp Pad Thai. Tastes just like Pad Thai back here in the states. Noodles, shrimp, cabbage, carrots sprinkled with fresh lime.

Pad Thai and Thai Soup.

This looks basic because it is. It also tastes amazing. Garlic and basil chicken over Jasmine rice. Sometime the most simple meals are the best. 

The juices be flowing.

Here's a shot from a jungle party on the island. They were fully stocked with food stands like this selling fried chicken burger, kebabs, corn, spring rolls, pizza, fruit and sandwiches. Didn't eat any of it though. 

That's all I have from my stay in Thailand. Check out my next post about my mother country of Finland, its guuuuuuuuud!