In many cultures it is common to take advantage of all parts of an animal, not only the average meat.  As I had been missing beef tongue tacos (a Mexican delicacy) for some time, I decided to try the same with reindeer when I found it sold in my local supermarket.  The taste was very good, if a little gamy.

Tacos de lengua de reno

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 500 g of reindeer tongue (2-3 tongues)
• 1 full head of garlic
• 1 white onion
• Couple of stems and leaves of hierba buena (or spearmint)
• Couple of stems of dill (or dried dill where available)

Peel the garlic. Cut the onion in 4 parts. Add the hierba buena, dill, and the tongues and boil everything in water for 1.5 hours. Peel the tongues and cut in small cubes.

Serve with warm tortillas.  Salad and rice as good optional sides.  Don’t forget a good sauce (a taco without sauce is a sad taco), we had some salsa taquera but I’m sure some pico de gallo would also work great.

I had heard that a proper Mexican taquería had opened in Stockholm recently, and this week I had the chance to visit.  As in any such places back in the land of nopales and chilangos, they don’t serve any of the elaborate traditional dishes like mole and such (which doesn’t make their food any less good), focusing on the humble taco in its varieties.  They prepare bistec, pastor and a variety of quesadillas, as you can see in their menu and they even have a tortilla making machine.

The reviews have been very positive, and I’m glad as the food is great and the real deal.  I wish them well.

What started as an emergency procedure during my student years has become a more common practice, and every once in a while I like combining Finnish ingredients with Mexican spices to produce something unique.  Two of my more celebrated recipes are below, I hope you like them.

Some of the spices needed can be bought in Meksikolainen.fi or Mexgrocer.co.uk.  I just bring them from Mexico when I’m there

Salmón Pibil

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

• 1/2 bar of achiote paste
• 250 ml orange juice (pressed or otherwise)
• 1 small (100 g) tin of chipotle chillies
• 1/2 small pineapple or 1 orange
• 1/2 red onion
• 500g of salmon fillet

Grate the achiote and dissolve in orange juice until you get a bright orange liquid.  Put salmon in a flat oven-safe recipient and add achiote marinade.  Add the chillies (be sure to rub them with the salmon).  Cut the onion in half rings and add.  Cut the pineapple/orange in slices and decorate salmon with it.Leave in oven at 170 °C for 1-1.5 hour until ready.  It should be crisp but with enough liquid.

Mole nórdico con reno / Manchamanteles negro con reno

(we’re still debating the name of this one)

Ingredients (serves 3)

• 2 morita chillies
• 2 pasilla chillies
• 2 dried chiles de árbol
• 2 guajillo chillies
• 2 ancho chillies
• 4 spoons of cranberry juice
• 125 ml cloudberry juice
• 450g of reindeer or elk meat in small pieces (if using elk, it’s not “reno” but “alce”).

Blend everything but the meat together.  Cook sauce and elk together slowly with a little of added water to give even more time for the flavours to ripen in the fire.  Should be ready in 45 minutes to an hour.

One thing that I couldn’t quite understand before I moved to Finland was the sheer amount of berries in these parts.  You can pick them from the forests, from the hills and sometimes from the sides of the roads, and depending on the time of summer you will see different ones available.

The funniest thing about it all is that I’ve learned their names in Finnish, so I needed to check in Wikipedia what were their Spanish names and lo and behold, most of them were fruits I already knew, but didn’t know what their appearance was.  Some examples below:

Grosella = Redcurrant = Punaviinimarja/Punaherukka

Frambuesa = Raspberry = Vadelma

Mora azul= Blueberry = Mustikka

De acuerdo a información que recibí hoy, ya somos 300 mexicanos registrados viviendo en Finlandia.  Cuando llegué al inicio de la década, éramos 180.

¿Quién se lanza a abrir un restaurante mexicano de verdad, en lugar del horroroso Pirkka/Old El Paso/Santa María Tex-Mex que se encuentra en estas lejanas tierras?

Sunset over Avenida Diagonal

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

I visited Barcelona again a couple of weeks ago to attend an important industry conference. Besides working very hard (so much so that when I came back to Finland I went down with the flu), it was very nice to meet some good people I hadn’t seen in a while.

Speaking Spanish and having some jamón de jabugo were also very much welcome. The pictures of the trip are here.

Suosittelen tätä meksikolaista ruokakirjaa

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

Monta kertaa olen sanonut että Suomessa ei saa hyvää, aitoa meksikolaista, vaan texmexiä. Kun ei täällä ole laatuisia meksikolasia ravintoloja, suomalaiset ovat vaan tavaneet Santa Maria tai Old El Paso, joka on meksikolaiselle ruualle kuin lohihampurilainen suomalaisille.

Sen takia, tämä kirja on minun puolesta hyvin tervetullut, koska puhuu ruuasta jolla olen itse kasvanut ja löydät siellä melkein missä vaan, ei taco-kuoreista jotka vaan tapasin Pohjois-Europpassa aikuisena.

Helsingin Sanomien arvostelu löydät tästä, ja voit ostaa useimmista paikoista.

Taquería

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

Mexican immigration in the US is not limited anymore to the border states. More and more often, Mexicans are to be found in areas of the country they weren’t before. NY, which has had for long a Puerto Rican and Dominican Hispanic community, has received for the past 10 years or so an influx of people specifically from the state of Puebla in central Mexico. They are as inconspicuous in the city as any other immigrant community.

Some joke about Puebla York (instead of Nueva York, as it is called in Spanish). I was glad to have found a decent taquería in a recent business trip (as long as you’re willing to go for some pastor or lengua).

No “Chipotle Mexican Grill” for me.

Cooking on TV

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

I guess after all the stereotype is changing, as I saw this guy on MTV3’s morning show and he was speaking flawless Finnish. From his name only I’m assuming he grew up here and has at least one Finnish parent.

Update: His name is Alex Nurmi and seems to be quite a popular guy, judging from his Google egosearch results.  And yes, his mom is Finnish, his dad African.  We need more examples like him on the media.

McDonald’s localisation

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

And I keep on joking that Tex-Mex is to Mexican food like this is to Finnish food…