Today I will have a food related post, particularly I will introduce the difference between Russian and Finnish soups.
In Russia, soup is basically the main dish of the day, and it is served for lunch. If you have any space left in your stomach (which I doubt), you can continue with another dish. Russian soup is very fat and greasy, containing a lot of calories. Smatana/sour cream/French cream is added to it, which makes the dish even more filling. Soup is the food for men to get strength from. There are many jokes that a good wife must know how to cook excellent soup. Here on the picture, you can see ‘Borsh’ – a traditional Russian soup.
If soups in Russia are considered as filling food, Finnish soups, on the opposite, are rather light. They are very good as a small meal, like in Southern Europe, so you will need some other dishes as well. Soups in Finland are not that frequent in general, but you will still find them in almost any lunch place. The most popular soups in Finland are the pea soup, which is usually served on Thursday, and salmon soup, which you can see on the picture:
Either filling or not, soups are delicious. If you visit Finland or Russia, you should definitely taste a local soup!
misselenka 
🙂 Russian soups have a lot in common with Romanian soups, also called Borsh (or ciorba). And I am sure you are also familiar with fish borsh, prepared by Lippovans :). I am definitely going to prepare a home made borsh soon!
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I assume it is very common for Eastern European countries, it’s a good meal though 🙂 Enjoy a home made borsh! It must be good 😊
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Delicious ! Thanks, dear. Wonderful post.
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Thank you for the nice comment!
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I suppose in Slovenia we do both kinds. And interestingly, the Slovenian word for cream (both sour and sweet) is smetana. 🙂
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2 kinds? Lucky you! 🙂 It might be called ‘smetana’ in half of Slavic languages. I really enjoyed understanding Slovenian. Although the words were sometimes different, it was still easy to grasp!
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When I was a growing lad my ol’ Dad used to make pea soup. Dried peas and a few other bits and pieces, but he used to swear that it was a traditional recipe handed down from the clipper-ship days … “Wooden ships, Son, and iron men!” … if the soup wasn’t thick enough that a cat might walk across without getting its feet wet, he considered it a failure.
Then he’d stare sadly at the would-be soup and quietly mutter about “… but these days it’s iron ships and …”
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Interesting story! Old recipes are full of stories and legends. Actually, it makes a lot of sense for such a soup to be thick. Sailors needed a lot of energy to navigate the ship.
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Very interesting post! I would also like to add another comparison. One thing I notice is that compare to most European soups, Asian soups are much thinner and more like what most people consider as broths.
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Exactly! And the whole palette of tastes in different, especially when it comes to spices
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Well, now you made me hungry. That salmon soup looks great. Thanks.
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That was the purpose 😉 these soups are great! 🙂
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😊
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