The theme of Tallink Silja’s buffet is Lapland

Lappish raw materials include reindeer, wild fish and lacquer. Tallink Silja

Reindeer, lacquer, bread cheese, whitefish – that’s a few ingredients that are part of Tallink Silja’s Lapland theme that started in January.

Kitchen manager on the Baltic Princess ship Riku Alho has designed a themed table intended for both domestic and foreign travelers.

The idea is to offer foreign tourists an exotic theme, especially if they don’t make it all the way to Lapland. According to Alho, tourists look for cleanliness in Finland and Lapland.

– For us Finns, it is a matter of course, although it should not be considered as such, Alho states.

According to Alho, the idea of ​​a Lapland themed table has been brewing for several years, but now was the right time to implement it.

Winter is a good time of year to bring Lapland to the fore, because it’s a big season in the north and there are a lot of foreigners.

Alho couldn’t even think of a Lapland-themed table without two raw materials: reindeer and lacquer. Cramping is a must, as is varnish in some form. This time, the northern superberry can be found in lacquer panna cotta and lacquer jam served with bread cheese.

Reindeer, on the other hand, is in sausage, in reindeer liver mousse, as a filling for a risé roll and in a crunch.

The last year’s increase in the price of reindeer meat and its poor availability brings to the theme of its own difficulty, because reindeer meat is no longer bought in Russia.

Tallink Silja’s reindeer meat is supplied by Lapin Liha.

– Already at the beginning, we knew that reindeer would be a challenging raw material in terms of its availability. We were also aware that the raw material is expensive, but we decided that this is worth it.

Alho says that reindeer have never before been so prominently displayed.

– Sometimes a long time ago, some individual products have been in the buffet and of course there have been more in the ala carte dishes, but not so much has been brought out before.