Salmon Soup

"If ever you find yourself in Hakaniemi Market in central Helsinki at lunchtime, you will do well to join the local shoppers in having a bowl of fish soup. If there are no tables left, then perch on a high stool at one of the indoor market’s long counters, where you will be jostled by shoppers laden with bags of smoked salmon and crispbreads the the size of steering wheels. Whether the color of a house brick, or ivory-hued and topped with a sprig of dill the size of a Christmas tree, these soups are made in the market in kitchens the size of a broom cupboard. The best of them in a week’s worth of eating was pale and mild, a beautiful bowl of salmon, rutabaga, and leek, its creamy depths spiked with lemon and cubes of tomato. There were a couple of scallops in there too, possibly as much by accident as by design. The bowls here are deep and generously filled, and they come with slices of rye bread as sweet as gingerbread and a little dish of butter scattered with coarse flakes of sea salt. This is not the classic Finnish lohikeitto but the delicious interpretation I ate in the market...."