After setting aside an entire day towards the dreaded task of completing my business tax return I was pleasantly surprised when the job was completed after only 2 hours. The good news was that I have apparently been learning the odd intricacies of the Finnish taxation system over the years and the paperwork is no longer as frustratingly complicated as it once was. The bad news was the discovery that the calculations were so easy because it wasn’t a particularly good year. In any event, I felt that a small treat was in order and decided to devote the rest of the day to having lunch.

Not wanting to dine alone, I decided to send a message to my good friend Jari. I knew he’d be at home and thought that it wouldn’t be too difficult to convince him to come along. Like me, he rarely turns down a free lunch. So imagine my surprise when I showed up to collect him and he claimed to have far too much housework to do. “Are you kidding me?”, I asked. “This place is already spotless”, I lied and covered up some dust bunnies with a stack of week-old newspapers. “And besides, we won’t be long”, I lied again and didn’t mention that his dog was going pee on top of a mountain of laundry.

Jari was still reluctant and appeared not to be moved by my constant pleading. This was a fine father and husband who only wanted to feel the joy of seeing his family come home to a clean and orderly household. In desperation, I did the only thing that I knew would work. I insulted his manhood and then bitch-slapped him until he agreed to come. At least, that’s the story we’ll tell his wife.

So it was that after a short car ride down Highway 6 we found ourselves at the front door of Lohela in Ruokolahti, a popular place with locals that I have passed a hundred times and always wanted to visit, but just never actually got around to doing so. After an absolutely sensational lunch there, I can honestly say that I won’t make the same mistake again. In fact, I have added this to the ever-growing list of ‘Things that must be done in South Karelia’. Indeed, I’m quite sure Jari would even agree that it was worth the insult and slapping.

Lohela is impossible to describe in just one word as it is a dynamic facility that includes a café, shop, dining room, sauna, free-range fish farm and stunning grounds. The central function of each of these activities seems to revolve around the raising, delivery, presentation or consumption of just one thing – the rainbow trout. I can also report that the staff is hardworking, courteous and perform their duties with utmost perfection in all cases.

I should mention that most people would refer to this fish as salmon. There is even some ambiguity in Finnish as the words kirjolohi (literally: spectrum salmon) and sateenkaarirautu (rainbow trout) are sometimes used interchangeably. The truth is that all salmon and trout are members of the same family and many are even members of the same genus. What usually separates them is that salmon tend to live in salt water and trout tend to live in fresh water.

Our lunch included a trout that weighed in at just over a kilo (I admit that this amount could have fed my entire family of 4, but we were a bit peckish you might say) combined with homemade, freshly baked dark rye bread. We could have added one of the many side dishes on offer, but the truth is that we wanted only what the proprietors of Lohela seem to want – for the trout to be the star of the show. In this case, less was most certainly more. The fish was delish! We had a smoked trout that was so tender that I could have eaten it without teeth. And the combination of dill and other spices that blanketed our meal was exceptional. Each bite was incredible. The bread was fantastic too.

We dined leisurely in the pleasant log cabin décor of the Lohela café and speculated about the world in a way that only two middle-aged friends can. As we picked our trout to the bone, it was concluded that there are too few establishments that are specialists like this one. Indeed, we usually buy our fish in the same store as our snow shovel, underwear and toilet bowl cleaner. The result is a slightly better bargain, but a noticeable reduction in quality. And in general, the specialty shops that do exist often cater to upscale customers who can afford something better.

Lohela is a testament to the fact that this needn’t be so. We can find excellent quality, pay fair prices and not be in a hypermarket. We can have our fish and eat it too! We just need to do what we all know to be the right thing – give more support to local specialty businesses like this one. I’m not saying that we should shun hypermarkets altogether. Far from this, I will continue to frequent them for everyday things. I just plan to buy some items elsewhere. I’m going to start with my fish.

Jari and I are both old enough to remember the days when it was normal to go to a variety of shops for different products. Often, they were family-run businesses that operated in our own neighbourhoods. The owners knew our names and we knew theirs. We may have even hung out with their children. These specialty shops (like green grocers, butchers and bakeries, among others) were productive establishments that gave life to our city centres and local neighbourhoods. Far too few of them exist these days as we have been systematically killing them off for the last 30 years so that we can save 15 cents on a loaf of bread or litre of milk. This trend started somewhat later here in Finland than it did in North America, but appears to be quickly gaining ground. The increase in empty shops in any downtown and the appearance of yet another big box store on the highway is all the proof I need of this.

I realized something about my own business after visiting Lohela. Perhaps the answer to my bottom line problem is to be much better at a smaller number of things. I am sure that I am not alone in feeling that there is constant pressure to do more, to reach further, to be faster and to say ‘yes’ when we should say ‘no’. But do we see the result we want in our bank accounts? Why, then, do we work so hard and sacrifice so much?

Maybe bigger isn’t always better.

Maybe less is more.

Maybe happiness and success are less complicated than we think they are.

Maybe the cleaning can wait sometimes.

My wonderful meal at Lohela was more than just great food. It was food for thought.

For more information, see the following link (in Finnish only)
http://www.lohela.net/

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