Read before you eat?

Sometimes life goes by too fast and a good intention suffers. I was determined to understand everything on the packages containing the food that I ate in Helsinki, and I dutifully got out my dictionary or Google-translated all those interesting words beyond what I could already identify. After all, I sort of pay attention to what's on the food packages in the US. I wouldn't think of consuming something I couldn't identify with certainty. So if I was planning to eat something here, I found out just exactly what was included. A clear picture on the package was great, but not all manufacturers felt obligated to illustrate their foodstuffs. But my good intention to translate words on food packages suffered after only a couple of days because I started to go hungry. Now I'm not talking about translating the fine print and the list of ingredients; I don't even bother with those in English. I'm talking about those big words, sometimes in all caps, that you see on packages…such as the one on the side of my yogurt:

UUTUUS!

Finnish words like this are basically easy to translate because they are being used in simple ways (that's to say, not in a sentence where syntactical demands just complicate the word -- such as using it as a direct objet! and forget about direct object and plural!). So "uutuus!" is nothing more than "new!" and is found on about 50% of the packages in my local grocery store, on a rotating basis. But then there are those words that appear prominently on packages containing food you can identify (there is a picture, and the packaging is transparent), yet the words do not match what you have learned to associate with the food. Such as cheese, which is "juusto." On the cheese package I just bought tonight, I read emblazoned across the front:

SYDÄNYSTÄVÄ

I knew that "ystävä" was "friend," but what was this package trying to convey? After I ate some (oops! there goes that intention again), I looked it up to find out what kind of friendly cheese I consumed. It meant "bosom buddy." Which, for me, is now strangely associated with cheese. So I have to confess: I have started to look for pictures, prefer transparent packaging, and trust the good intentions of food manufacturers (after all, they can't be out to sicken the public they depend on, can they?). Besides, the cheese package told me that it was "parempi valinta" (better choice), and my bosom buddy would not mislead me. Maybe someday I will figure out what the "10" means.

Tomorrow morning I am going to toast some bread whose package screams:

NYT ENTISTÄKIN HERKULLISEMPI!

I don't care if it means "NOW WITH MORE REINDEER PIECES!" -- I can see a picture of the bread, I can see the actual bread, and who makes bad-tasting bread in Finland?

Author's note: "NYT ENTISTÄKIN HERKULLISEMPI!" means something close to "NOW EVEN MORE DELICIOUS!" I finally broke down and looked it up.