To start our day, we ventured to St. George's Bakery, but guests from the hotel above it filled the space to capacity. So, we admired the city's geometrically streamlined Art Deco architecture, called Jugendstill (Youth Style).
... as we returned to Robert's Coffee near our hotel.
The smiley blonde barista adored my whimsical "coffee themed" socks (seen here without shoes, alongside Lewis' "rainbow socks").
Lewis drank a freshly-blended juice smoothie. I tried one of their famed "Best Cinnamon Buns". Their website proclaims that the company perfected the recipe throughout an entire year. Alas, my honest opinion was that it was too dry and tasteless.
I didn't expect it to be like the high-calorie over-sweetened American ones that are slathered with icing and gooey syrup (which look like this)...
...but I anticipated more flavor. Lewis and I still recall the ones that we ate in Copenhagen, which were better than these "best". Thankfully, Robert's sublime lattes triumphed again and upheld my faith that most of what they make is very good.
*To read about our trip to Copenhagen, please click this link...
https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2019/04/our-trip-to-copenhagen-denmark-part-1.html
While we waited for our coffee to be brought to our table, Lewis noticed a trio of women from the Philippines opening their eatery. So, he suggested that we have breakfast there. The Filipino recipes were authentic and tasty: crunchy Spring Rolls, crispy pork belly, dumplings, and spicy seafood over a bed of rice.
We suddenly noticed that the capital's streets are extra-attractive because they are void of the typical mishmash of electric wires/poles that clog streets in the The States (as seen below). Such badly inferior infrastructure looks like a third-world country!
Streets in NYC (America's wealthiest city) are marred with low-class infrastructure: power cables zigzagging from poles over the streets (easily broken by falling tree branches), antiquated fire escapes attached to the fronts of buildings; and unsightly water tanks on roofs. Litter is found on every single street in NYC's five boroughs. If the litter wasn't discarded there, it was blown there by the wind. Such circumstances are unseen in Helsinki.
With curiosity, we explored the local supermarkets. K-Market has multiple locations.
Just like in Amsterdam and London, the prices of food in this capital city are less expensive than we anticipated... which made us resent NYC's overpriced "junk food" even more. Oven-fresh quiche, sausage rolls, meat pies, and savory breakfast breads are dispensed into bins that face the customers. Click on each image to make it bigger/clearer. Notice the affordability!
Seen above, €1.00 for each kilogram or package of those items is unbelievable. That's how nutritious foods should be priced in a first-world nation. That is what happens when Universal Healthcare is funded by the government and not designed for profit (as in the USA, which has an abundance of junk food and obesity).
The store was already stocked with mulled wine--a European favorite that we can't easily find in NY, so we make it ourselves. Germanic people call it Gluhwein, and Scandinavians call it Glögg. In Finland, it is called Glögi. Its popularity was evident by the many varieties.
Helsinki has many supermarkets, green markets, and individual specialist purveyors, but not many gourmet markets. To see one, we returned to Stockmann. We had difficulty finding the unmarked entrance for the market.
However, we did notice statues of men with firm legs and buttocks!
Walking around the exterior of the building, we looked in a window and saw escalators going down to the market, but the closest entrance took us in a different direction. Thankfully, we spotted a spiral staircase, which led down to a single door. We turned the latch and pushed it open... and we found ourselves in the middle of the cashier section! Just like at Sokos, visitors have no inkling of where they are going.
The supermarket is vast, with dozens of aisles spreading out around corners and in varied directions.
As expected, we had a challenge locating the Cheese Section. The Dairy Section didn't have it. Instead, it held a huge amalgamation of dairy products... because Finns love their dairy industry. One refrigerated section only contained milk: sour milk, buttermilk (Finland has the most varieties of buttermilk), fermented milk, curd milk, lactose-free milk, and cream. Against logic, that did not connect to the next dairy section, which was around a corner: yogurt and butter. Instead of continuing to cheese, that segued to a charcuterie area. We spotted a single-portion samplers of pâté--something that is unavailable where we currently live: the land of oversized portions of mostly innutritious "food products".
Next to that was the fishmonger. After that, we found the cheesemonger.
We expected a large variety of local cheese, but most were from other European nations. The cheesemonger showed me several Finnish ones, and I bought a slim €3.58 wedge of firm cow's milk cheese. It was mild and nutty: very tasty.
*To see the "cheese" that is popular in America, please use this link:
https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2017/11/say-cheese.html
Upstairs in the main part of Stockmann, we snacked at the Café Royale. Resembling a Parisian eatery, it is furnished with authentic (not plastic or resin) materials: tile, glass, wood, and iron. Chef Michael Bjorklund is famous in Nordic countries. He was Finland's Chef of the Year, and he won fifth place in the Bocuse d'Or chef championship. That is impressive!
*A couple of years ago, we lunched at the Culinary Institute's cooking school named for Chef Bocuse. To read about that, please go here:
https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2019/02/weekend-getaway-part-1-of-2.html
Chef Bjorklund uses ingredients that are sourced as locally as possible with the smallest "ecological footprint".
Once again, we tried a Princess Cake, but that Finnish version also missed the perfection that we had from Chef Emma Bengtsson's team at 2-Michelin-star Aquavit in Manhattan. To read about one of those meals, please click this link:
https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2018/03/2-michelin-start-chef-tasting-dinner-at.html
This is Chef Emma during this year's Met Gala: a powerhouse.
The cake was filled with whipped cream--without the appropriate layers of spongecake. It lacked custard, the jam was off-centered, and the marzipan was missing the distinctive almond-sweetness that we are accustomed to. The recipe should not be for a creampuff; the inside ought to look like this...
Nonetheless, the pita-sandwiches were delicious: chicken salad with herbs, and shrimp salad with dill. A "power drink" of passionfruit citrus juice perked us up.
More than any place we visited in the world, Helsinki has a plethora of Nepalese restaurants. The cuisine is very popular there. That evening, we encountered one named Old Durbar (durbar means "royal court", because Nepal previously consisted of small kingdoms until 2008). The restaurant is alongside the embassy of Peru. It is quaintly decorated and offers a sizable menu. It was our first time tasting recipes from that Himalayan country. Our demure-but-sweet server made us feel welcome. Eating from shiny metal plates was a new experience for us, too.
The samosas were lovely! Some of the best we ever ate. The naan was fresh from the oven, and its chewiness was perfect. Our stir-fried vegetables were flavorful. Each entree came in a copper pot, alongside platters of basmati rice, yogurt sauce, salad, and dressing. My main course was mutton. Lewis had chicken. Each forkful was tender and a delight for our palates.
*To see when Lewis ate his first forkful of mutton in India, please click this link:
https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2018/10/our-trip-to-india-part-1.html
We strolled south on Bulevardi, and Lewis spotted a spacious, candlelit bar inside the Lapland Hotel. It is named Kulta, which means "Gold". Their logo features the Russian Imperial crown above the city's crest, with a background of gold coins.
We entered with the intention of having cocktails. The ambiance and menu pays homage to the "forests and fells of Lapland", and that reminded us of how Rules Restaurant in London adored the northern Yorkshire dales!
A smiley hostess offered us seats against a window. That allowed us to admire more passersby wearing Halloween costumes: Vikings, tramps, Freddy Kruger, and monkeys.
The bartender displayed an excellent two-handed cocktail shaker method. I always love the lively sound of a cocktail shaker rattling ice cubes with spirits! My first drink included Helsinki Whiskey (single malt), made in a local distillery, circa 2014. They also produce two rye whiskies, made with local grains/malted barley and Finland's pure water. I can attest that their master-distiller, Mikko Mykkänen, makes an excellently-smooth product!
Lewis' cocktail was a mixture of Finnish liqueurs that we can't remember (and the website does not list the menu) topped with egg-white foam and garnished with smokey lichen. It was delicious. He drank two!
Deer hides were used to offer soft comfort on ottomans and the backs of sofas. It was Lewis' first time feeling deer fur, and its softness surprised him.
The ambiance was certainly romantic. It made sense why the suggestive lyrics of Let's Do It mention the Finns for sensuality!
I ordered a sumptuous "spiked hot chocolate", flavored with a Nordic liquor that I don't recall. It was superb!
Its potency encouraged me to tipsily "ride" a wooden reindeer! Ha ha!
In the men's lavatory, we were impressed with the hotel's Arctic Pine hand soap and hand lotion. Such a luxurious pairing also reminded us of the lavatory at Rules Restaurant. Both items truly smelled of fresh pine--not the artificial pine scent of an air freshener. Each whiff was revitalizing.
Exuding more luxury, each toilet cubicle was equipped with its own sink... and water hose/bidet.
Back at our own hotel, we joyfully enjoyed our final night in Finland's capital. We slept serenely.
In the morning, after we checked-out of the hotel, we walked to the Central Station and saw the oval-shaped Kamppi Chapel.
It is a nondenominational place for mediation, prayer, and calming. Completed in 2012, it is partially operated by the city's Social Services Department.
Entering Central Station, we valued how taxis had a designated area to congregate, so the main streets were not clogged with traffic. Neither of NYC's train stations have such intelligence. We loved how the entrances were void of panhandlers and peddlers. That's how a first-world city should be.
The timely trains brought us to the airport perfectly on schedule. For our homeward flight, the United States required a "Fit to Fly" COVID test. Indicative of first-world thoughtfulness, the airport was equipped to administer those tests in multiple places. We used the facility on the mezzanine of the FinnAir Departures Terminal. The "rapid antigen test" provides results within 30 minutes (ours was ready in 15) and costs €139 each, but they offer a discount for couples/groups of €127 each. That was a pleasant discount that we hadn't experienced in London, last month.
The airport was immaculate. We noticed a system that disinfected the handrails of the escalators. Unlike the USA, the security screening disinfected its trays. Also unlike the USA, the airport security let passengers keep their shoes on, and we were thankful for that.
The Customs Checkpoint was also efficient--without a line to wait on! So was the representative who refunded the VAT for Lewis' purchase. At the duty-free shopping arcade, we saw canned bear meat, elk meat, and reindeer. Instead, we opted for chocolates, gingersnap cookies, and oat cookies to bring home as souvenirs (they were all scrumptious).
Next, we chose an eatery for lunch. The Finnish one had an abbreviated menu: salmon soup, cheeseburgers, pizza, and ale. We desired something more flavorful. A Japanese restaurant had aromas that beckoned us. The food was cooked by Japanese and Finnish men. Befitting a clean country, the utensils glistened (even at an airport).
We nibbled on two bowls of steamy ramen with shrimp and pork. It was revitalizing.
After such pleasant service, it's no wonder the airport provides relaxing seats for its visitors: leather-padded chaise-lounges and rocking chairs were at various Departure Gates. That was really cool!
Due to the time of year, there was also a Christmas-themed "house" erected in the concourse, with chairs to sit in.
Impressively, the FinnAir team invited everybody to board the airplane early--as soon as it was ready... as opposed to typical regulations of only 45 minutes before takeoff. It made everyone happy. We got nestled into our comfy seats and were served bottles of Villi spring water (made with renewable energy and packaged with recycled materials), sourced in Finland.
Peering out our window, we noticed a sunset forming against the background.
Due to our flight's speed and direction, we "chased" the sunset for a few hours--which was remarkable to see from our window! This was the view of it, as we soared over Iceland.
Lewis and I experienced a very nice time in Finland, and we appreciate what its population is so happy about.
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