Meatballs are all packed in my suitcase

I'm definitely packing meatballs to take with me on our trip, like a good Finn that I am. Why, some may ask, but if you are a fellow Finn, born before 1970s, you might even understand why I would do such a silly thing. Let me explain the history of packing meatballs in your suitcase when you go on a trip.

When the Finns, from the 1970s on, started really traveling to the south, like Spain, Italy or Greece in the middle of the harshest and darkest winter time, they quickly realized when arriving to these countries that the cuisine was not like at home. The food was spicy when they were used to bland. There was a lot of weird food that they had never even seen, like squid or octopus or olives. Now who could ever put something like that into their mouths, let alone survive a week with it.

And this is where the meatballs entered many suitcases that traveled to the holiday destination for decades.

There they were, common housewives cooking in their "condominiums", cracking open a can of meatballs (yes, you can buy meatballs in a can in Finland) and happy husbands in their hangover stupor would devour the most common Finnish food stuff during their lovely "Roman Holiday". Heaven forbid if they were going to try something different and extraordinary. You might get sick or even like it.

Because I couldn't find meatballs in a can in our grocery store, I opted for granola bars and beef jerky. I think 3 people can survive India for 7 days with that...and Pepto Bismol.