Summer in Tampere / Vinkit viikkoon

Morjens Manselaiset ja muut Tampereen tallaajat. Tässä pari paikka, missä kannattaa käväistä jos suinkin aihepiiri nappaa:

1) Aleksis Kiven katu (uskokaa, se Tampereen versio!): Siitä Keskustorilta mars Laukontorin suuntaan, niin vastaan tulee ihania kauppoja kuten Tila&Ihme (mistä osa kuvista on), Putiikki Rannalla, Sisustus ID sekä Domdom. Noista löytyy tuttuja juttuja designin saralta, mutta myös ihan jotain muuta. Ihana fiilistellä uusia trendejä ja löytää uusia sisustussuosikkeja (kuten nuo ekan kuvan kolme erikokoista kattolamppua, oijoijoi!).
2) Laukontori: Niine tohkeiluineen voikin sitten mennä torikahviloihin taltuttamaan nälkää esim. kuvastakin löytyvällä salaatilla, mihin saa itse valita kaksi lempparitäytettä. En mikään salaatin puputtaja itse ole, mutta tämä täytti vatsan tehokkaasti! Maisemat: noh, kyllä kelpaa! HUOM! Saatat joutua jakamaan ruokahetkesi mm. Mikko Alatalon, Salkkareiden Cindyn taikka Hannele Laurin kanssa. Hyvä vai huono juttu, päätä itse!
3) Rauhaniemen uimaranta: Nyt kun vielä himpan verran tuota kesääkin näyttäisi olevan jäljellä, niin käykää toki pulahtamassa tuolla Rauhanniemessä. Sieltä löytyy myös Minetti jätskibaari jos herkunhimo iskee. Ja vaikka nuo järvet tuossa pääsisivät jäätymäänkin, niin ei hätää, avanto löytyy myös. ;-)

If you are visiting Tampere, here is few random tips to go/do:

1) Aleksis Kiven katu (the street, you know): Here you can find beautiful shops like Tile&Ihme (some of the pics are from there), Putiikki Rannalla, Sisustus ID and Domdom. There's a good chance to go nuts with the interior design objects and clothes. It's lovely street to get inspired and find new favorite items (like those three different size of ceiling lamps in the first picture, oh my!)
2) Laukontori: After doing major interior shopping first, you can feed yourself here with e.g. salad (you can see in the pic) where you can choose two favorite fillings. You can also spot some Finnish c-series celebrities. Is it good or bad thing, decide for yourself.
3) Rauhaniemi beach: Since it's still summer, go there to get chilled. If the water is not cool enough for you, eat Minetti ice cream that you can find there too. And don't mind if the waters have already get frozen. There will be also a hole in the ice. ;-)

Restaurant Masu

There has recently been opened a new Asian restaurant called Masu in Tampere, Finland. We tested it as soon as possible, since it seemed to be a bit different concept comparing the existing restaurants here. The interior surprised us right after we entered the restaurant. The amount of details was great; the bar lamps were made of birdcages, the roof had been lowered down with beams that made the atmosphere better, there was decorative items all over the places and the furnitures were comfortable.

Hämeenkadulla avattiin hiljattain Aasialainen ravintola (Hans Välimäen tekosia käsittääkseni). Mentiin tietysti hetimiten testaamaan uus ja vähän erilainen rafla. Tampereella ei oikein kunnon Aasialaista taida ollakaan (vai enkö ole vain löytänyt, i dunno). Sisään mennessä positiivinen yllätys oli sisustus, johon oli oikeasti käytetty aikaa ja vaivaa; esim. baaritiskin lamput oli tehty lintuhäkeistä, kattoparruilla oli tuotu tunnelmaa ja valoja lähemmäs syöjää, pieniä ja vähän isompiakin sisustusesineitä oli ripoteltu mukavasti sinne tänne ja aulabaarin soffat näytti kutsuvilta!

What it comes to food, we started with drinks recommended by the waitress; white wine based drink with cucumber, soda and lime(like?). It was sweet tart drink and tasted excellent! As a starter we shared marinated green shell mussel plate. The mussels were topped with tomato salsa and soy. I had some difficulties to decide whether I'd eat it straight from the shell or with the chopsticks (I chose chopsticks), but when I ate the food it didn't matter anymore. Delicious!

Mitä ruokaan tulee, niin aloitettiin tarjoilijan suosituksesta valkkaripohjaisilla kurkkudrinkeillä; aijai miten hyvää! Startereiksi valkkailtiin marinoituja vihersimpukoita, missä oli tomaattisalsaa ja soijaa päällä. Pieniä vaikeuksia tuotti päättää syömistapa, suoraan simpukankuoresta vai puikoilla (valitsin puikot), mutta eipä tuolla enää mitään väliä ollut sen jälkeen kun simpukan sai suuhun. Herkkua!

As a main dish I had a tofu soup. The Menu said it to be spicy and that it includes chili. I had my concerns that would it be too spicy to me, but the waitress described it as a spicy rather than fiery. I had this huge bowl of soup of vegetables and tofu and as a side dish there was rise topped with a spice mix that included eg green tea. It was fine; not mind-blowing, but good. I especially liked the rise. As a dessert we shared a pot of tea. All in all it was a nice experience and for sure I'll be there again. I'm not a specialist for Asian food (nor any other food), but now I have a good restaurant near me where I can engage my taste buds. :)

Pääruokana söin mausteista tofupataa, mihin päädyin sen jälkeen kun tarjoilija oli vakuuttanut sen olevan enemmänkin juurikin mausteista kuin tulista, vaikka chiliä mukana olikin. Tottahan se oli, hyvälle maistui, vaikka pata oli ehkä turhan keittomaista mun odotuksiin nähden. Mukana tuli lisäkeriisi päällystettynä mausteseoksella, mistä löytyi mm. vihreää teetä. Keitto Pata ei ollut mitään tajunnanräjäyttävää, mutta hyvää silti! Erityisesti tykkäsin tuosta riisistä. Loppuun juotiin vielä pieni pannullinen teetä. Kaikenkaikkiaan Masu oli oikein hyvä kokemus, vaikkei hyvää käsitystä Aasialaisista (tai paljon muunlaisistakaan) ruoista oikein olekaan. Tänne on helppo palata harjoittamaan makunystyröitä aina aika ajoin. :)

The Things I've Learned About Food Lately

Last few weeks have been very interesting to me in relation to food. Couple weeks ago I tasted frog legs the first time ever. Unfortunately I have no pics, since the restaurant was so "atmospheric" i.e. dark that it was impossible to get a good photo. The legs tasted like... fried frog legs. It was good, but not exceptionally great or interesting. Fun experience anyway. Last weekend we made snails, also a new experience to me. This was closer to exceptionally good. We also had a wine-tasting with only red wines. I haven't really drank red wines before, but I guess now I'm old enough to start understand/appreciate red wines, too. ;)

This weekend the thing I learned was that the salmon kebab can look like this. I had a little different image of kebabs but this version with spelled was better that I expected. Today was the Restaurant Day and this must have been at least sixth time I've participated it as a customer. It's easy to me since I live in the center of the city so the restaurants are always close. We had a little take away burgers and a dessert cinnamon buns and ate them on the way home, 'cause we were in a hurry to watch Olympics. :-) Now, after one and half free days this week, I'm full of energy and ideas for the next weeks renovation at work. I want to do something very different in our shops comparing to the shops in the same industry in Finland. I cannot wait to get to work tomorrow! Hope you have a good week ahead, too!

Viime viikot on olleet jännittäviä syömieni ruokien suhteen. Pari viikkoa sitten pääsin maistamaan ensi kertaa sammakon koipia. Valitettavasti tuosta hienosta hetkestä ei ole yhtäkään kuvaa, koska rafla oli niin "tunnelmallinen" eli pimeä, ettei kuvista tullut yhtään mitään. Sammakon jalat maistuivat... paistetuilta sammakon jaloilta. Hyviä ne oli, mutta ei mitään superdupererikoista. Hauska kokemus i alla fall! Viime viikonloppuna oli sitten etanoiden vuoro. Ne oli jo lähempänä sitä superduperia! Kokkailtiin niitä kavereiden kanssa ja pidettiin samalla tapas-viininmaistajaisiltaa. Tähän mennessä en ole oikein punaviinejä juonut, mutta nyt huomasin löytäväni niistä jotain juomisen arvoista. Ehkä olen vihdoin saavuttanut sen iän, että osaan jo arvostaa punaviininkin makuja. ;)

Tällä viikolla opin puolestaan sen, että lohikebab voi näyttää tältä. Pikkaisen oli erilaiset mielikuvat kebuista tähän mennessä, mutta tätä kyseistä versiota kera speltin voisi syödä uudemmankin kerran. Tänään on taas vietetty Ravintolapäivää, kuten jo monesti aiemminkin. Itsekin olen käynyt täyttämässä kupua näissä kinkereissä varmaan jo ainakin kuusi kertaa. Helppo noihin on osallistua, kun keskustassa asuu, niin ravintolat ovat yleensä ihan kulman takana. Tällä kertaa napattiin mukaan take away burgerit ja jälkkäripullat Tammerin kulmilta ja syötiin kotimatkalla, kun oli muka kiire katsomaan Olympialaisia. Nyt sekä ruoan että yhden ja puolen vapaapäivän voimin oon ihan täpinöissään suunnitellut ensi viikon remonttia liikkeellä. Siitä tulee niiiiiiiiin hieno, toivottavasti jotain ihan muuta kun meidän alalla on totuttu näkemään! Ei millään malttaisi odottaa huomiseen, että pääsee muiden kanssa suunnittelemaan ja valmistelemaan remppaa. Hyvää viikkoa teille kaikille! :-)

Salmon kebab & tulips.

The tulips I bought to home to brighten up my days. They have done their job quite well. Great work tulips!

Succeed Having A Day Off (And Today I'm Snacking)

Wohoo, a proper day off! So far I have had a long walk with the dogs and eaten a lunch. Maybe I'll go to see if I'm able to find new pair of shoes, since my old ones are pretty worn out. This week I bought a new spring jacket, I'm sure you'll see it later here, too. My lunch was a chicken salad with avocado and cashews. Nothing special, but after all the burgers and beefs it was nice and fresh!

Oh and HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! <3

JESS, onnistunut vapaapäivä! Tähän mennessä ollaan kipastu pitkä lenkki koirien kanssa ja syöty. Pitäis varmaan käydä tsekkailemaan kauppojen kenkätilanne, kun tällä hetkellä käytössä olevat popot alkaa olla tiensä päässä. Aiemmin tällä viikolla ostin uuden kevättakin, se on aika makia. ;) Tulette mitä luultavimmin näkemään sen täällä hieman myöhemmin. Lounaaksi oli kana-avokadosalaatti cashewpähkinöillä. Ei uutta auringon alla, mutta kaikkien hamppareiden ja pihvien jälkeen salaatti maistui tosi freessiltä!

Ai niin, HYVÄÄ YSTÄVÄNPÄIVÄÄ! <3

Restaurant Huber

I love food. I especially love good food. Shocking news? I know. Recently I had a proper dinner in Restaurant Huber in Tampere, Finland. The place itself is decorated nicely. The interior is quite ruff with lots of concrete and you can find there one of my favorite piece of design objects, Work Lamp by Design House Stockholm. The roof is filled with these lamps. Not only the decoration is good, also the staff there is grate! We got such a good service. The waitress recommended us good wines, meats and sides. The combination was perfect.

Meikä typy rakastaa ruokaa. Ja jos oikein uutispläjäystä havittelette, niin voin kertoa, että rakastan erityisesti hyvää ruokaa! Jonkin aikaa sitten käytiin Ravinteli Huberissa Tampereella. Paikka on sisustettu mukavan raffisti; betonia on käytetty paljon ja täältä voi bongata myös katon täydeltä mun lemppari designesineitä, Desgn House Stockholmin Work Lamppuja. Sisustuksen lisäksi myös henkilökunta on ihan mahtavaa! Meininki on rentoa, mutta asiantuntemus ihan huipputasoa! Viinit, mitä suositeltiin oli ihan törkeen hyviä ja eipä noita ruokiakaan voi mennä moittimaan.

Here is what we ate: As a starter I chose ox tartar. I was a bit skeptic but 'cause the waiter recommended it I tried it. After all the tartar with capers and egg was the best starter I've ever had. There was eight of us so as a main course we shared four different chunk of meats so we wouldn't have to stick to only one meat per person. The sides were served separately and I had three time fried french fries and bone marrow. It was soooo good! As a desert we had a chocolate mousse.

As you may notice from the menu, this place is a steakhouse as it's best. They use only the best meats from the nearest breeder possible. They also choose the beers and wines carefully. I know nothing about beers but the wines we had were tasty and completed the dishes well. I can highly recommend Restaurant Huber. It's not the cheapest place but it's worth it. Go there if you can!

No mitä me sitten syötiin? Alkupalaksi valitsin tarjoilijan suosituksesta härkätartarin - ruoka, mitä en olis itse koskaan valinnut. Kapristen ja hifistelykeitettyjen kananmunien kanssa se oli paras alkuruoka, mitä olen ikinä syönyt. Pääruoaksi sitten, jälleen tarjoilijan suosituksesta, valkkailtiin neljää eri lihaa isoilta tarjottimilta tarjoiltuna. Kaikki kahdeksan ruokailijaa sai niiltä sitten napsia lihaa niin paljon kuin napa veti. Lisäkkeet oli kaikilla omat; valitsin kolmeen kertaan paistetut ranskalaiset sekä luuydintä. Vieläkin kuola valuu, kun ajattelenkin näitä. Jälkkärivaiheessa oltiin jo suhteellisen täynnä, mutta kyllä tuo suklaamoussehässäkkä hyvin silti upposi.

Niin kuin varmaan jo päättelittekin, niin Huber on pihvirafla parhaimmillaan. Tyypit valitsee tarjoiltavat lihat tarkkaan ja käyttävät vain parhaimpia kasvattajia mahdollisimman läheltä. Myös viinit ja oluet on käsin valittu parhaimpien joukosta. Oluista en ymmärrä hölkäsen pöläystä, mutta viinit meni kyllä ruokien kanssa niin nappiin kuin mahdollista. Voin siis lämpimästi suositella Ravinteli Huberia. Ei ehkä halvin paikka, mutta hintansa väärti. Käykää!

Starting Christmas Season

It was the first day of December so I had to do something related to Christmas. The winter lights were up already in November but today I started the Finnish mince pie season at home. I also did some present shopping and bought Christmas decorations to the shop. I also happened to find the most adorable wall piece to my hallway. The best things are always found by accident. You'll see it later. :-)

Joulukuun ekan päivän kunniaksi piti tehdä jotain jouluista; siispä joulutorttuja leipomaan! Naapurin Siwasta oli torttupohjat loppu, mutta seuraavasta kaupasta löytyi onneksi laarikaupalla. Käväsin myös lahjaostoksilla ja löysimpä muutamia joulukoristeita myös liikkeelle. Saadaan sinnekin vähän jouluisempaa fiilistä. Kotonahan aloittelin valojen ja tähtien virittelyn jo marraskuun puolella. Kotiin kaupoilta löytyi sattumalta myös söpökkä seinäkoriste, näätte siitä varmasti vilauksia myöhemmin. :-)

Today I'm Snacking...

...chicken blue-cheese pizza with rucola with white wine and good friends.

Today I'm Snacking...

...take away sushi from Watami. The order was quite unimaginative as you can see, only one type of sushi on the plate. But it was a good Sunday lunch. :-)

Plate by Klaus Haapaniemi, Iittala.

Restaurant Day

Today was The Restaurant Day. (The last one was in May, as I said here.) This time the weekday was Sunday, so we had time to visit many different places. The first place we tried to go had sold out their main dish after 45 minutes, so we hurried ourselves to the next place called Meatlovers United BBQ. There we had the greatest pork sandwiches and soda. After that we went to the riverside in center of the city. There was restaurant called Cafe Malami. We ate tomato feta pie and had blueberry cake as a desert.

After queuing a while we got to buy our first meal. / Mirroring ourselves from the glasses of the door.

Queuing. / Pork sandwich - tasted gooooooooood!

I don't even like Pepsi. :-)

Blueberry cake. We shared it since we were full after many meals.

Today I'm Snackin...

...strawberry cheese curd salad. Perfect summer dish.

Today I'm Snackin...

...fruity salad with taco chips and red berries cider. The salad was very all-over-the-place but delicious.

 The cup is Verner Panton's. Glass Villeroy & Boch.

Grill Party

I hosted recently a minor grill party. I had friends over and we cooked all the dishes together. We had salad and french loaf with cream cheese as a starter. The main course was pork tenderloin skewer with halloum cheese and pineapple. As a dessert we had vanilla ice cream and strawberries. The evening was relaxed and fun and the weather allowed us to hang at the yard until night. We should do this more often!

Today I'm Snacking...

...french bread with prosciutto & tomatoes. Tastes awesome!


Have a nice weekend!

Monki Sweater

Yesterday I had a Helsinki Day with my workmate since we had a meeting with one of the suppliers there. We maximized the benefit of the time we had, which meant shopping and having a good lunch. Hanko Sushi did satisfy our hunger and Monki offered some quality rags. I bought this white sweater for a chilly summer day like today.

Last week, besides working, I've been studying for entrance exams to School of Economics. I also managed to catch a cold, so fever has hampered the studying quite a lot. The studying could have gone better all in all. I started the reading in last December with a good tempo, but it slowed down to zero for months. So few last days have been filled with some heavy reading... The exams were today and the results will be published after a month or so. I'll be waiting!

Today I'm Snacking...

...rye chips with salmon salad and a bit of rucola. Very simple but, just because of that, perfect!

Egg Salad

Today's lunch was an egg salad. It was supposed to be a chicken salad, but somebody forgot to buy the chicken... Anyway, the egg salad was just as good in the end. The salad included lettuce, pepper, rucola, nuts, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Just threw them all together and that's about it.

In addition I had french bread with prosciutto and blue cheese. The prosciutto ham is one of the best things I know when cooking something cold. You can upgrade many dishes with it. The flavor is so strong that there is very little ham needed to get for example the bread just right. And the taste - it's pure perfection!

City Day

I participated the Restaurant Day yesterday, just as I said here, but not exactly as I planned. There was some delays at work so I had to work some overtime (thank god not too long), and that caused a little problem for me to get to the restaurants on time.

Some of the restaurants were closing earlier than other ones, so there was no time to get picky of choosing the restaurant. Luckily there was one in the same building where I live selling milkshakes. Naturally I hurried to get one of them to get my tummy filled. It was tasty and the restaurant 'owners' were nice (well, obviously - they are my neighbors after all ;))!

Today we had a city day even though all the 'real' shops were closed. There was a fashion flea market in Pakkahuone with all the stylish people selling their stuff away. I didn't really find anything to buy, but neither was I looking for. It was more interesting to see the people and enjoy the summer feeling of the city.

The most important thing to me was to find something to eat. It's starting to be a tradition for us to have a Sunday lunch in pizzeria Napoli every now and then. I've been there like hundred times and never been disappointed. This time I had pizza called Montagna. It included parma ham, pesto sauce and goat's cheese - yummy!

Loyal Customer Days

Huh, what a workweek! In a good way this time, it was just amazing. We had Loyal customer days and it was reeaaally busy. The whole work group was working their best and it was worth the effort. We are having the loyal customer days two times a year and every time they have been bigger. We have arranged them since we opened in February 2011, so altogether five times this far. It's always great to have good feedback from our customer but every time it's kind of suprising. You don't get used to it. It's like winning in sports, you just can't get enough and that's what makes you work even harder.

I'm blessed to have the best work group in the world. The collaboration is seamless when we are working, that's great! As a thank you for the employees we had a dinner together later on saturday evening when the loyal customer days were over. I ate inter alia Risotto al mascarpone e code di gamberoni (Mascarpone risotto and king prawns) and Semifreddo al lampone (Rasberry semifreddo and raspberries). They were delicious.

All in all the week was fantastic though tiring. Tomorrow we settle ourselves back to everyday life and I'm happy for that. The amount of work is huge when you organize this kind of event. It's great, but two times a year is enough. ;)

Chicken Pie

I bake/eat pies every now and then. There is two reasons for that. The first one is simply that they taste good. The second is that they are easy to make. You can't really fail with pies. You can add almost anything in it, so it doesn't matter whether the ingredients are specially purchased for the pie or leftovers from yesterday. It's perfect meal for an entrepreneur like me who doesn't always have time to make a gourmet dinner for herself. I often take the rest of the pie to work next day, so also lunch problem solved. Just add a little salad and that's about it.

This time I made chicken pie with blue cheese and tomatoes. I added also the normal ingredients like eggs and curd there and on the top some grated mozzarella. All the components worked well together and the pie disappeared quite quickly.

Cheese&Wine

As I wrote here, we had cheese&wine theme evening with my friends last weekend. We had quite good variety of different cheeses served and many of them were unfamiliar to me. Sure there was the old favourites: gouda, brie, pepper cheese and blue cheese. But in addition there was also wasabi, safari and smoky cheese.

The wasabi cheese is the green one in the pic and it tasted softer than I imagined. It was actually quite nice - I'll add that one to my list of favourite cheeses. The red/orange one is the smoky cheese. It tasted smoky, so no suprises there. Anyway, it worked well with grapes. The safari cheese was the most vibrant by flavours. I believe there was bit of chili, olives and pepper in there. The safari cheese was fun experience, but is it consolidating its place on my cheese plate? Unfortunately no.

Here is my top 3 list of cheese & garnish:
1) Blue cheese & rye bread chips
2) Wasabi cheese & pretzel
3) Pepper cheese & grapes