“Food in a war drama? That won’t be too
exciting, will it?” I hear you say. Well, in a way it isn’t at first.
Zacharias Nielsen, the hero of
In Search of a Revolution gets no real
taste of Finnish cuisine when he arrives from Denmark to join the
Finnish Civil War in 1918.
He is young and full of enthusiasm and
doesn’t mind the Army rations of fish, potatoes and bread, clearly not
cooked with much love. For the sake of ideology, he can put culinary
pleasures to the back of his mind and happily goes days without much
food at all. His idealism easily survives that first crucial test.
After
the war he lives with Raisa, a Finnish nurse, who finally introduces
him to more traditional Finnish, Karelian and even Russian dishes.
Finland had been a Grand Duchy and part of Tsarist Russia which
influenced and enriched her menu. In Raisa's hands, Zacharias gets to
eat a wide selection of dishes, most memorable are spicy meat stews and
grilled black pudding with whortleberries. The cuisine however remains
basic, since they are struggling with money.
When there’s no prohibition, they like their drink: beer, wine and vodka.
Raisa
uses both, drink and food, to entice Zacharias and try to make him fall
in love with her and her wonderful country. He is tempted, but it’s not
enough.
All the way through the novel Zacharias misses the Danish pork stews.
“I
miss the [Danish] bread the most,” Zacharias laments to one of his
Danish friends in exile. “Your mother made the most amazing rugbrød
topped with leverpostej,” he added. [That’s rye bread with liver pate].
“We had a cook but she always bought bread, and it was never quite as
good as your mother’s.” Home sweet home begins with food and you can
take the boy out of Denmark, but not Denmark out of the boy.
When
he moves to Karelia the food there doesn’t impress him either (and nor
do the politics and circumstances). It makes you wonder why Zacharias
stayed in a foreign country with so many political changes and personal
problems, and no leverpostej to speak of.
Somehow, however much you adapt, your mother’s cooking is always best.
Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, Christoph!
Christoph Fischer was born in Germany, near the
Austrian border, as the son of a Sudeten-German father and a Bavarian
mother. Not a full local in the eyes and ears of his peers he developed
an ambiguous sense of belonging and home in Bavaria. He moved to Hamburg
in pursuit of his studies and to lead a life of literary indulgence.
After a few years he moved on to the UK where he now lives in a small
hamlet, not far from Bath. He and his partner have three Labradoodles
to complete their family.
Christoph worked for
the British Film Institute, in Libraries, Museums and for an airline. The Luck of The Weissensteiners was published in November 2012; Sebastian in May 2013 and The Black Eagle Inn in October 2013. Time
To Let Go, his first contemporary work, was published in May 2014, and Conditions in October 2014. His medical thriller The Healer was
released in January 2015.
He has written several other novels which are in the later stages of editing and finalisation.
You can find Christoph here:
