A fun bus or bicycle trip to one of Tampere’s nearby suburbs can be full of flavour, if you visit Mustamakkarabaari in Lielahti. This is where they make the local delicacy of mustamakkara, or blood sausage. And this is indeed a very authentic place to taste it.
The production of black sausage had started already by the end of the 19th century. The extremely tasty and healthy sausage is a mixture of pork, pig blood, crushed rye and flour, and can be eaten as it is or with lingonberry jam. Usually, you order the black sausage by the amount you want to spend on it, or simply by showing the pieces you want.
Black sausage is something you eat with milk. There is also lactose-free milk available, and every Friday they serve gluten-free black sausage, too.
The restaurant itself is a modest lunch place, but especially around lunchtime (starting already at 10am) there is always a short queue. Here you can see construction workers, farmers, local people and men in suits, so pretty much anyone. It’s worth seeing.
People from Tampere are very proud of this sausage, and it has won many international competitions, too. Everyone eats black sausage here: infants, kids, teenagers, moms, dads, grandparents — so why not taste it also, and in a very special place?
