Kiitos Eatos

June 13, 2016June 14, 2016 / Mel_inHelsinki / 6 Comments

I received an email from Eatos Mexican Diner recently asking us to dine as guests, which we were happy to accept. There’s always a risk with these collaborations however and I’ve either said no before or after we’ve tried something as I haven’t wanted to promote it.

But this was a risk I’m glad we took as the meal was good from start to finish. Jonathan began with a Mango Daikiri made from rum, fresh lime juice, fresh mango juice and sugar syrup, while I had a Paloma, made from tequila, fresh lime juice and grapefruit soda.

For starters our waitress recommended the Queso Fundido – corn chips served with melted cheese, pico de gallo (a house-made salsa) and guacamole. Meat eaters can choose chorizo instead of mushrooms to go with the cheese.

Miko and I shared Langostinos en Aguachile, a beautiful dish made from lime and chilli marinated prawns with cucumber and onions. It had a bit of a kick to it, but not enough to keep my four-year-old dining partner away for too long, darn it.

For our mains we ordered three dishes and a couple of sides. Miko and I shared Pescadilla – corn tortillas with cod, chipotle and coleslaw. Each layer of ingredients was individually seasoned, bringing a depth of flavour that doesn’t require loads of Tabasco (something I usually douse my food with at Mexican restaurants).

Jonathan had the Espincea y Feta Quesadilla (feta & spinach) which was super tasty and the Tostadas de Tinga de Berenjena (deep fried corn tortilla with aubergine filling).

For a mainly vegetarian meal it was really nice to not find ourselves limited to just beans, beans, beans.

Another thing I especially liked was the way the bar has been decorated. There are three large murals done by Mexican artist Yordi Lara-Ochoa with not a sombrero or striped tablecloth in sight. This creates a sort of ‘Mexican for grown ups’ feeling, not found at other cheap and cheerful counterparts.

For dessert our waitress recommended two dishes – Churros con chocolate and Flan de naranja y queso. Having studied for a year in Mexico she knew a lot about the menu and ingredients so we were happy to take her advice. The churros came with a beautiful chilli chocolate dipping sauce and the flan was delicious, resembling an orange cheesecake.

After dinner the owners came out to meet us and chatted for some time. Dharma and Rama met after finishing their studies before deciding to open a Mexican restaurant in Helsinki. Their commitment to fresh ingredients is really apparent and they will soon open their second restaurant in Iso-Omena.

While the restaurant was a little quiet when we were there it will only get busier when Helsinki’s new city library opens just across the way. They also have a great position for afternoon sun so I recommend stopping by while you can still get a seat.

We dined as guests of Eatos, who paid for our meals and drinks. We didn’t receive any other payment & all opinions are my own.

Eatos

Helsinki – People Make the City

May 29, 2016May 29, 2016 / Mel_inHelsinki / 12 Comments

As many of you know, I have been working on a side project for the past year with local photographer Laura Iisalo.

Photo: Viola Vertimo

Our book, Helsinki – People Make the City – was launched early May and is available in stores around the city.

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It’s an insiders’ guide to the city and contains interviews with local creative people, sharing insights into Helsinki and the local way of life.

Helsinki People Make the City_Kirsikka Simberg_photo by Laura Iisalo_LOW RES

Kirsikka Simberg at the Winter Gardens – Photo: Laura Iisalo

I wrote the text and Laura took all the photos. She also did a fantastic job with the concept, creating six sections we are very happy to share with you.

Photo: Viola Vertimo

My Helsinki

We interviewed six creative people about their neighbourhoods and they’ve each shared a ‘Day in the Life’ so that you too can explore each area like a local. Neighbourhoods covered are Punavuori, Kruununhaka, Töölö, Kallio, Vallila and Suomenlinna.

Dorit in Suomenlinna – Photo: Viola Vertimo

Alba and Thomas in Kallio & Vallila – Photo: Viola Vertimo

Kirsikka in Töölö – Photo: Viola Vertimo

Makers

Three lovely women have given tips on creative projects you can try at home. These include making your own wildflower bouquet, how to turn a traditional Finnish heirloom into a magnetic keep-safe and harvesting pine sap from the forest to create natural incense.

Justine harvesting pine sap – Photo: Viola Vertimo

Hennamari foraging for wild flowers – Photo: Viola Vertimo

Keepers

Some of our favourite local shopkeepers share their love of what they do and what’s special about the neighbourhoods they work in.

Kaisa at Pelago Bicycles – Photo: Viola Vertimo

Linda at Ansa – Photo: Viola Vertimo

Taste Helsinki

We ate a lot of cinnamon buns to bring you the best! And some of our favourite local eateries were kind enough to share their recipes so you can replicate their contemporary takes on traditional Finnish fare. This include how to make porridge, rye bread, cinnamon buns, blini, salmon soup, meatballs with lingonberry sauce and a cocktail made with a Nordic twist.

Helsinki People Make the City_Meatballs at KuuKuu_photo by Laura Iisalo_LOW RES

Meatballs at Ravintola KuuKuu – Photo: Laura Iisalo

Photo: Viola Vertimo

Winter Cosiness

Laura and I worked hard to do all our shoots and interviews during summer while the light was good and then realised we also wanted to showcase the best parts of life in Finland during winter. The Swedes have a word for it and so do the Danes (hygge), so we chose the Finnish word kaamos as our description of winter cosiness and give tips on how to create your own warm winter nest.

Photo: Viola Vertimo

Romany and Juha from Aan Tafel created some beautiful Nordic dishes for this and their recipes are included in the book.

Black Book

Finally, we put together a list of our favourite places in the city including sauna, coffee, design and urban nature.

Photo: Viola Vertimo

The book is currently available in Helsinki in Nide Kirjakauppa, Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, Akateeminen, Moko Market and Adlibris.

Weighing 700 grams, it’s a beautiful hardcover book, but shipping overseas can be expensive and it is not yet available to those living outside Finland. If you would consider paying for postage please do let them know at Cozy Publishing, as we’d love to be able to share the beauty of Helsinki beyond Finnish shores.

Photo: Viola Vertimo

Helsinki – People Make the City

Concept & Photos: Laura Iisalo

Words: Melanie Dower

Layout: Viola Vertimo

www.peoplemakethecity.com

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Come As You Are

July 5, 2015 / Mel_inHelsinki / 8 Comments

With the sun hardly setting in Helsinki these days, we are taking every opportunity to enjoy dinner outdoors.

Our favourite places Skiffer and Cafe Birgitta only open in summer and they are now in good company with the opening of Hernesaaren Ranta.

Hernesareen Ranta (Hernesaari Beach) is located south-west of the city, in the redeveloping area of Hernesaari (Pea Island).

Bus number 14 will take you almost to the door, but as always there’s also plenty of parking for bikes.

The area is home to a range of eateries, including Piece & Love Pizza and Mexican Chalupa. There’s also a venelaituri (boat pier) for those arriving by boat.

Once ashore there’s many areas to sit and you don’t all have to order food from the same place.

Unfortunately, some food providers are still learning how to run food events efficiently. The night we visited, the Champagne Bar ran out of champagne and the sushi bar was hand-rolling sushi to order, meaning a 25-minute wait for food after a 20-minute wait to order.

Luckily there’s another bar where you can grab a drink while you wait and there’s also a dance floor for those who stay late.

These guys knew how to kill time, turning up for dinner in a boat equipped with a sauna and sofa up on top.

And we’ll be back. With the area measuring 2000m² and open all week from 10am-2am, there’s something for every man and his dog.

Hernesaaren Ranta

It’s a bit hard to find – continue west from Cafe Birgitta, past the public sauna building site until you feel sure you must be lost. Hernesaaren Ranta will appear as if a mirage in the distance, just as you are about to turn back.

Sandwiches in the Snow

April 20, 2015April 20, 2015 / Mel_inHelsinki / 8 Comments

A few weeks ago after Finnish class I decided to walk to Töölö where I was headed to interview a young cobbler. It started to snow so intensely it was like being stuck inside a snow dome someone had just shaken up.

With an hour to go until the interview I was relieved to spy this cafe and ducked inside, out of the cold.

Stepping inside I was taken back by the size. It was tiny! The floor space was about 2m wide by 10m long.

No one was around but I could understand the sign: ‘Ring bell. We are in the kitchen. Thanks!’

A young guy came out and took my order from the menu on the wall. He said the store had been open since the 1960’s and his family had bought it fairly recently.

Most people, he said, phone ahead and take-away. He went back to the kitchen so I took a seat, admiring the retro Danish posters.

It was great, as though the cafe had been decorated in the 1960’s and hadn’t been updated since.

My lunch soon arrived – a delicious open sandwich with fresh salmon and cottage cheese.

Soon another customer stepped in out of the snow and when his order arrived he made as though to eat it standing up. I invited him to share my table – the only table – and we chatted about a trip he’d made with his wife to Australia a few years before.

Sated and satisfied I headed back out into the snow, watched by a drummer boy pinned by the front door.

I felt a bit like him as I tightened my coat and set off once more into the swirling snow, my hat and hood piled high upon my head.

Dansk Smørrebrød – Cygnaeuksenkatu 5, Helsinki

Creating Helsinki – interview with cobbler, Juho Erving

The Horse and the Beaver

April 15, 2015April 20, 2015 / Mel_inHelsinki / 7 Comments

Most of our holidays are centred around walking and eating and walking some more so we are hungry again. Riga was no exception. Not knowing what to expect we were really pleased to get off to a good start by visiting Garage, a tapas bar where I had a delicious ceviche salad and Jonny had a small platter of local cheese.

On the prowl that night for some vegetarian fast food we went to Street Burgers, open on Good Friday and serving a hearty portobello burger with a side order of fries.

The next morning, in search of good coffee we headed for Innocent Cafe and found it was brunch time. The table was laden with strips of smoked cheese, pickled vegetables, potatoes, salads and fish.

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To be honest my stomach was not ready for some of these savoury treats but I happily had a couple of rounds of olives, potatoes and cheese on toast.

Later, in the Old Town, I popped into Black Magic cafe. They specialise in serving Riga Black Balsam, a herbal liqueur served in coffee or neat. It wasn’t quite balsam-o-clock yet so some more walking was called for before our next stop.

Looking for lunch we were nearly invited into this den by the Latvian Russell Crowe but pushed on to find restaurant 1221 of which we’d read good things.

1221 was as lovely as described with lots of people stopping to take photos of the painted exterior.

Unfortunately however, the menu was not a good fit for a vegetarian and his vege-quarian companions.

Although for the carnivores there was something for everyone.

We dined that night at our hotel restaurant, which we never do but it was cold and raining so we allowed ourselves the luxury of going downstairs. The food was delicious and came with glasses of birch water, compliments of the chef.

So we managed to eat our way around Riga without resorting to pork knuckles and cabbage as some guide books would suggest. The euro goes a lot further outside of Finland too and we were very grateful to leave feeling so well fed.

Seems the only thing going hungry on our trip were these poor little guys at the airport.

Riga’s Central Market

April 12, 2015April 20, 2015 / Mel_inHelsinki / 10 Comments

A review on Trip Advisor warned that Riga’s Central Market is good but only if you like the same old stuff. Ha! Depends where you come from really, because what’s same old stuff to you, may not be same old stuff to me.

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Housed in what were once Zeppelin hangars, Riga’s Central Market was opened in 1930 and covers 72,000 square metres.

You can smell the first hangar before you even enter. Not in a bad way, but in a bustling, crowded, bouquets of dried fish on the counter kind of way.

We stopped in the walkway to the next hangar to buy a couple of wooden spoons for our kitchen. Local honey and woollen socks were also on offer in this part of the market.

The next hangar was full of sweets. Latvia seems to have a love affair with pastries and, surprisingly, halva, which we found was also included in our breakfast buffet in the city.

Latvian’s are proud of their dairy production and rightly so. We saw beautiful piles of soft cheeses and curds but opted instead for some hard Dutch cheese we could bring home in our luggage.

Then it was through to the produce market. If you love vinegar like I do, then this one’s for you.

Piles of colourful vegetables preserved in oil and vinegar were everywhere, many displayed in huge vases.

Finally we walked past piles of dried goods: pasta, tea, ketchup and rice. Not terribly interesting products in themselves but still worth taking a photo of, because having never seen this packaging before, they are not the same old stuff to me!

Riga Central Market

This post has been shared as part of the Show Your World feature on the Tiny Expats blog – you can find out more here.

Meet me at Old Market Hall

February 7, 2015October 31, 2015 / Mel_inHelsinki / 22 Comments

A short walk from Market Square is Helsinki’s old dame of market halls – Vanhakauppahalli.

Built in 1888,Vanhakauppahalli (Old Market Hall) was recently closed for renovations and reopened in June 2014. The building is a cultural heritage site and protected by the National Board of Antiquities.

On a cold winter’s day, with the wind coming in off the Baltic Sea, it’s a relief to get inside those heavy front doors. Inside, a walkway circles the hall, shouldered on either side by cafes, bakeries and fishmongers.

There are also greengrocers selling seasonal produce from Finland and overseas. It’s a great place to go for specialty mushrooms and berries, as well as big suolakurkku (gherkins) you scoop out of an open bucket.

For lunch I usually head straight for Soppakeittiö (Soup Kitchen) where the menu always consists of one meat soup, one vegetarian and their delicious seafood boullabaisse, served with lemon-infused sour cream.

On my most recent visit however I stopped at Story, where the food counter is sure to whet your appetite. I had a cappuccino (equivalent of a NZ flat white) and lohileipa (smoked salmon on bread).

After lunch I walked the circuit, marvelling at the number of things you can do with salmon. In my mind I always hear the southern drawl of Bubba from the movie Forrest Gump (salmon bbq, salmon cocktail, salmon pie…..).

There are other forms of protein on offer for the more adventurous too, like Russian King Crab and Spanish jamon.

As well as traditional Finnish offerings there is also a vegetarian cafe and a stall selling Vietnamese filled-rolls, spring rolls and salads.

And there’s an Alko, the only store in Finland selling wine and spirits. This one is touted as being ‘the world’s smallest Alko’ (which is a little bit like American teams winning the ‘World Series’ in a competition only open to American teams).

There are other Market Halls in Helsinki but this is one of my favourites. If you get a table by the window you can watch the ferry to Suomenlinna making it’s way past the huge cruise ships churning up the frozen sea.

Go with a friend or go on your own – just make sure you go. I’ll be the one making my way from coffee, to soup to dessert and back as I make my way around Old Market Hall.

Vanhakauppahalli – Eteläranta, Helsinki

Ravintola Story

Note: I was approached by Meetings Booker to write about my favourite meeting place in Helsinki. This is not a sponsored post and all thoughts are my own (as was that open salmon sandwich, which I cannot stop thinking about). www.meetingsbooker.com

Restaurant Day (Ravintolapäivä)

May 20, 2014May 8, 2015 / Mel_inHelsinki / 3 Comments

Established in Helsinki in 2011, Restaurant Day is described on the official website as ‘a worldwide food carnival when anyone can set up a restaurant, café or bar for a day.’ People can sell their wares to the public by setting up a food stall wherever they like: at home, in a park, on the street or at the railway station. They are only limited by their imagination and their cooking skills.

Setting up in Vanhan Kirkon Puisto (Old Church Park)

Restaurant Day is now held four times a year in 27 countries around the world. We were lucky enough that the latest was held last Saturday on a bright and sunny spring day. We headed down to Vanhan Kirkon Puisto (Old Church Park) quite early and watched as the first stalls were set up.

The girls at Cafe Tivoli

My first purchase was from two girls who had set up a stall of home-made baking called Cafe Tivoli. Their chocolate brownie was delicious and a good accompaniment to our morning kahvi (coffee).

Some of the goods on offer at Cafe Tivoli

Jonny’s brother had a good looking falafel roll from another stand and Jonny bought a wrap from Soul Mamma’s Kitchen. It advertised itself as a vegan stall but he chose a goats cheese wrap from the menu. It came without goats cheese so was at least true to its vegan claim if not the menu.

Soul Mama’s Kitchen

Apparently food in Helsinki has come a long way in recent years but there is not as large a selection as we have at home. So it was really exciting to see offerings from cuisines as diverse as Korean, Moroccan, Dutch and Russian.

Cakes served with tea from the samovar

There was also a Brazilian barbecue offering a World Cup special of a main plate with a grilled banana and guarana. The boys were firing up their large open grill with a huge piece of meat on it as well as little chicken hearts on skewers.

Traditional Finnish fare was represented too; one of the most popular stalls we saw was run by a Finnish women’s assocation selling kahvi and pulla (coffee and pastries).

We saw the chef from the Mexican restaurant we had eaten at the night before setting up a stall; apparently Restaurant Day is a good way for people to try new recipes out on the public. I read one interview where a woman who was hoping to open her own Indian restaurant planned on using the day to gauge the popularity of various home-cooked dishes she hoped to put on her menu.

My only regret on this day was having breakfast before we came out. We had to head out to another event around midday so I didn’t quite have the appeptite to try as many things as I would have liked. But I’ll know better for next Restaurant Day, which will be held in mid-August.

Hey Helsinki

A New Zealand girl in Finland

food

Kiitos Eatos

Helsinki – People Make the City

Come As You Are

Sandwiches in the Snow

The Horse and the Beaver

Riga’s Central Market

Meet me at Old Market Hall

Restaurant Day (Ravintolapäivä)

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