“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.”
―
Where can you buy it?
The choices of Asian food here in Finland are not as many compared to your home country. But it’s sufficient. Most of the Asian markets are located at Hakaniami, where you can take the metro. I would like to introduce three of them where I find Asian foods really accessible and where I usually enjoy food from my home country!
P.S. This is not a commercial advertisement but based on my experience on mainly buying Chinese food. The order of names does not mean rankings.
Jiahe Market
Since it is the newest Asian market, their options are more diverse that you can even find the most updated version of Chinese food. For instance, instant hotpot and mixed spicy noodles. Also, you can find the ingredients including sauce, soup paste, dumplings, instant noodles, frozen seafood, Asian vegetables etc.
P.S. Student can avail the 5% off discount!
Aseanic Trading Oy
There are so many options of Asian food here. The food selection is cheaper but you cannot find many options if your looking for the soup paste.
Oriental Supermarket Oy
Sometimes I can easily find rare Asian food here such as the Taiwanese noodles and Asian mangoes. Most of the basics such as sauce and other ingredients can be found here too. But you may find that it’s a little bit messy.
P.S. Student can avail the 5% off discount!
Affordability
Finland is one of the Northern European countries so the price is more expensive comparable to our home town. The following table will show some of the Asian food price so you may have some idea. Please see below.
| Food | Price |
| Soup paste for hotpot | about 5€ |
| Fish balls and other meat balls (500g) | about 5€ |
| Korean instant noodles | about 1.2€ |
| Soy sauce (500ml) | about 2€ |
| Vegetables (Depending on the type of vegetable) | around 5-6€ per kg |
| Frozen seafood | around 10€ |
Quality
It is without a doubt that fresh food tastes better than the frozen ones. However, we should be thankful that we can eat Chinese food here and the restaurants are accessible.
Normal supermarkets also have some ingredients
Some Asian ingredients for cooking can be easily found in most of the supermarkets, including Lidl, K supermarkets, S markets and Prisma. The Asian ingredients such as ginger, garlic, matcha powder and even fruits such as lychee. It is more convenient than before.
Students, you don’t need to worry about how you can get access to any Asian food whenever you feel really homesick. However, you can also try the Finnish food. Finns mainly eat yogurt, bread, salad and meat, which does not contain any heavy flavors like spicy or sour.
Of course you will miss the local food in your country. But it’s worth to try food from other countries like in Finland.
Text/Photos: Clara
More student stories and blogs here!
