Thursday 23 July 2009

Vintage Thingies 34 - Bowls

Earlier this week I told you about my favourite summer food. My favourite summer snack is a vintage meal of viili , a yoghurt type fermented milk product, served with sugar and possibly fresh berries or an even more traditional and vintage thing called talkkuna, which is a flour made of roasted barley, rye and peas. It is like a Finnish version of Müsli, very nutritious and easily carried to remote fields or forests for a meal. The bottle or jug with sour milk was kept cool in a spring or inside a wet wool sock. It was easier to transport than viili, and tastes almost the same.


Viili is thick like this, when you take a spoonful. If you mix it with the talkkuna flour, it will be more liquid and "ropy". What has this with Vintage Thingies Thursday to do, you may ask.

Well, earlier, viili was made at home simply by adding a spoonful of viili from your last lot to a bowl of milk, letting it stay in room temperature covered with a tray or a plate until the next day to thicken. Then it was kept cool in the cellar. The new portion was ready to eat when it was nice and cool, and could keep for several days. When my kids were little, I used to make viili in these bowls my mother had painted in 1946. I'm showing them upside down, because the decoration is on the outside only:


Each bowl is different. My mother probably had enough of repeating the same pattern for every dish after she painted her dinner service.


You can click the pictures to see the details. The manufacturer is Arabia, a Finnish porcelain factory which once was the biggest in Europe. - In the bowls you had a lot of the creamy, velvety viili surface to sprinkle with sugar. Therefore it was better than from the shop!



Vintage Thingies Thursday is hosted by Coloradolady Suzanne. Happy VTT, have fun seeing all the vintage treasures.

12 comments:

  1. lovely bowls.. i like the flowers on them.. pretty.. Happy VTT

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  2. You have such special treasures. Beautiful bowls. I love learning about new things to me and you're always so descriptive.

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  3. Beautifully painted bowls with such lovely colors, I would have liked eating my snack from them too.

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  4. Whenever one member of my family is in Finland they bring viili for me. I just love it (I take cinnamon and sugar with it..mmmmh!). And every time I have a tub of it, I try to make it myself. I am successful as long as I take spoons of the real, original viili. Otherwise it doesn't function. Your Arabia bowls are beautiful, this flower design I never saw before here in my country (my mother also has her breakfast porcelain from Arabia, the old form yellow, dark green and white.)
    Wishing you lovely summer days!
    Barbara

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  5. You teach me something new most times when I visit, I do so love those bowls your mother painted. They are just gorgeous. How wonderful that you have them. Happy VTT and I wish you a most wonderful weekend.

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  6. Your bowls are just beautiful...so colorful and cheery still after all this time and washings!

    I see your aunt isn't the only talented painter in the family :)

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  7. I like the size and shape of the bowls. I have a few Arabia pieces too. I have never tried viili. My son did when he was in Thunder Bay at the Hoito restaurant.
    Please drop pop over to my blog and pick up your award. I have gifted you with the Karma Award.
    Take care, Dolores (Typy)

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  8. Wow, what wonderful charming bowls. I don't think I would use them, for fear of the paint coming off. They look to be in wonderful condition.

    Very interesting post today...I would think this might be like Yogurt here in the States.

    Have a great VTT and a wonderful weekend.

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  9. The bowls are so beautiful- Summer throughout the year. :-) I think the nearest we have to viili would be to eat fruit with natural yoghurt in the UK but even then this isn't a common breakfast. I like it as a supper thing as I don't eat breakfast.

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  10. Great blog - I am now a follower- found you thru Loft Creations.I will enjoy reading and seeing your pix - my grandmother was Finnish.

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  11. Your summer treat sounds like something I would really like, Ulla! I adore the bowls - the painting is wonderful - such a fantastic treasure to have!
    Cheers!

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  12. Hi Ulla, I just popped over here from Loft Creations. What a pretty blog you have, and so nice to hear something about quilting in Finland. Nice to "meet" you!

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