I could use that much basil in one week, easily

[cimorene]

In Finland dried oregano is shaken like a topping over finished pizzas the way you might put extra salt on your movie theater popcorn. There are giant oregano shakers available for this purpose, the way you have ketchup or hot sauce bottles in some restaurants in America.

(In Finland you rarely find ketchup bottles even at places that serve burgers. They do put the ketchup on burgers generally, but they do it in the kitchen. However, this doesn't stop ketchup from being a common Finnish plebe/redneck alternative to spaghetti sauce.)

Anyway, the point I was coming to was this: we have two supermarkets in town, and the largest quantity you can buy dried oregano in are little milk carton packages that hold about half a liter (2 cups).

But this does not extend to any other dried herbs, even the to my mind equally or more important basil. The largest amount of dried basil I can buy in town is a little envelope that contains about two tablespoons.

Of course I can still get dried basil - there's bigger supermarkets in the next town and in Turku, and you can have an order from the big supermarket delivered for pickup to its local little sister in the same chain, so I could have all the deli delights stocked in the Turku region delivered if I wanted to go to the trouble to make the online order. And in fact I can order bigger quantities of spices by weight from one of those specialty spices shops, which I started doing during the pandemic and found to be quite convenient, which is how I happened not to notice that I'd finally run out of basil.

But if I've just noticed today that I accidentally let myself run out of dried basil, which I usually keep in a mason jar on the lowest shelf because, unlike Finland, I use it and dried oregano in more or less equal quantities... well, then I have to just fill the cart with a bunch of little envelopes. I wouldn't mind so much if the envelopes weren't plastic, like all the other unnecessary and excessive packaging in our lives.

The other puzzling thing Finnish people put on pizza is fresh arugula (rocket). They put it on after the whole pizza is cooked, like a garnish, so by the time it gets to the table it's all wilted and pathetic.

Comments

[hebethen]

Hah! I guess "wilted [vegetable]" is a thing you see on menus sometimes, I wonder if it's an on-purpose acquired taste.

[james]

Back when I was a kid and had pizza in restaurants there was always dried oregano in a shaker on the table, or in packets. This was 1970s/80s in Oklahoma, so I don't know if it was regional or not. But it was very much a thing! I have not sat down in a restaurant for pizza in years so I don't know if it is still a thing.

[cimorene]

That is interesting! I guess I might have seen something like that in the pizza parlor type restaurant as a kid, although I can't quite place the memory. But I don't think I was aware of ever seeing people use one on their pizzas - maybe that part is regional, or cultural.

[james]

It is weird that Oklahoma and Finland would have something in common like that! We will probably never know why. :-D

[laurajv]

I'm like 80% sure Pizza Hut used to have a shaker of oregano and one of that awful dried parmesan

[cimorene]

I like it in salad, but I don't like any greens wilted. I can't stand that texture! And I'm highly sensitive to texture. That's where almost all my big food aversions come from.

[laurajv]

yeah, mine too, but i don't happen to have that particular aversion. my one kid does, and will eat for example spinach salad, but not sauteed spinach.

[cimorene]

Yes, same. In fact, I didn't know I liked spinach until I reached adulthood because I'd never even seen it anywhere not wilted or sauteed, but it's one of my favorite foods and I cook with it all the time now.

[laurajv]

tbh I love argula on top of pizza

[conuly]

Here in NYC I'd be surprised to be in any pizza place that didn't provide garlic, red pepper flakes, and oregano for the slice.

(Though I draw the line at dipping the crust in ranch.)