Accessibility of familiar foods affecting dietary changes

Accessibility of familiar foods was one major factor affecting the diet changes in regards of food items and ingredients. The interview participants preferred cooking food from their culture, but sometimes due to poor accessibility of ingredients, some replacements or substitutions had to be made. Some additions from the Finnish food culture were also distinguishable. Interestingly, the additions consisted of foods very common in many Finns diet, such as coffee.

One participant stated it clearly, that accessibility of foods affected diet changes:

“…well of course, yes it has..you can’t find like..for me, like as it is..for me to eat swallow, you know it could be eba, it could be pounded yam, it could be apu (?) it could be

anything..or fufu as they generally call it…you cannot have that, you cannot have that here…you can’t at all the time, you can’t garri, like every time, so you have to

manage..so..obviously when you can’t have the basic things that you have back

home..you’d..you wouldn’t be able to eat it all the time so.. is limited, so of course, obviously your diet must change…”

Replacements and substitutions were rather common, and often it was specific things like replacement of a part of a meal, like yam to potato, or replacements of spices or vegetables used as an ingredient in a dish. However, food made with the correct ingredients was of high value, and when it was possible to access such food, it was clearly very appreciated.

One participant commented on replacements:

“…there is some.. even…certain foods that you can eat in Ghana and you can’t find it here…yea there is this kind of the yam that I say… is like basically just same as potatoes…

but is..it doesn’t 100% taste the same but.. somehow.. and actually now even now they have the.. the yam to..in hakaniemi, in the shops in hakaniemi so.. is kind of easy, but sometimes when I used to live in Lappeenranta and they don’t have that kind of shops there so it was kind of easy to…substitute the.. yam with cas…with peruna…”

And another participant as well:

“…like um…swallow..that’s like ebaa, pounded yam, and all that kind of stuff.. if you can’t have that um…I didn’t know at first, I knew there was something but I didn’t know what it was per se and I don’t think it was from…it was a Cameroonian that actually showed me, it was um…instead of using the normal swallow thing, maybe eba or something like that, they used something like flour, some particular kind of flour..and thers is the way they made it I know it looks like it was fufu although it was different flour …but it almost had the same feeling… that was like, that’s kind of a good substitution… and um…we get fresh veggies back home..everything is fresh..now you have to settle for canned products, which is probably not so good..like some vegetables we have to switch to some kind of…a friend of mine was trying to make egusi here, he came from Helsinki and, he got some..i don’t know what they call that thing, I’m really not good with our leaves but he used the..it was in balls, it was green and it was in balls.. I don’t know if it lettuce or what kind of leaves they call it… yea I forgot the name..and he used it as a substitute to make egusi…”

The properly cooked food using correct ingredients, was appreciated as per:

“…so when u see sometimes…you see you go for a get together and someone cook something you been craving for, man! you gonna kill it that day! you eat everything! if is something that you’ve missed and not been able to have access to…”

As a part of changes in diet, some additions from Finnish food culture recognized. A common change was adding coffee to the diet. Coffee is one of the main drinks consumed in Finland, and has a very established part within the Finnish food culture.

One participant said:

“…and of course I will get coffee *laughter* thanks to Finland!... I don’t use to like coffee, but you know.. now in Finland, I need to stay warm so… and every morning I have to get a cup of coffee…”

For the basic staple foods, however, the general feeling was that it was possible to get the foods needed to get by in Finland. Common foods used pre-migration were products typically part of a West African diet; rice, yam, cassava products, garri, banku, fufu and other similar products, beans, legumes and dishes made out of these, meat, fish and traditional meals such as soups and waakyie, and grain products such as bread and koko. Palm oil was a specific ingredient often used in cooking. The availability of these foods in Finland was considered fairly good, even though they would not always feel or taste the same, one reason argued to be the food stuff were not as fresh.

One participant told about the foods commonly consumed back home:

“…back home? ahh! hmm! the main ones are rice, yam..uhm… cassava, is like uhm.. how will I put it.. cassava flour, yam flour, which is like pounded yam.. and.. um..aaa.. ok I mention rice…then we do eat spaghetti, yea, we do eat spaghetti.. or is not, like that often we eat spaghetti..ya.. then beans.. uhm.. beans.. then.. aaahh…,when we talk about beans ther is this supplement, is it supplement? there is this other food you can create from it..ah, bean cake, which is moinmoin, we call it moin moin…that’s also very good..then uu, another thing that is common for breakfast is ogi, they call it ogi, int my own culture, in Yoruba culture they call it ogi. Ogi is made from uhm,…maize, is like bean…I dunno how…let me.. I need to be specific, I don’t know but I can check.. yea it’s from maize …”

And another one:

“…hmm..like.. waakyie..you have waakyie.. beans…palm oil..and maybe this banku and fufu, banku with some sauce and fufu with some soup and of course rice and chicken...”

About the accessibility of those foods in Finland it was stated:

“…mmmm…yea kind of..we don’t get the original things here but there is some kind of powder that is similar to fufu and.. people use it, but I don’t use it much ..”

and one participant commented:

“…yea we have some.. there is africa shops in…all over Helsinki so.. you find some of them, which are not like as…natural or.. as..fresh as the ones you find in Ghana cuz.. the ones that they bring are normally…they import it here so.. some…some of the ingredients are frozen…

for long time so..so you don’t have that taste of the fresh one but.. we manage with it…”