Category Archives: in english

Ruokala lokki / かもめ食堂

Posted on April 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

This is where the first Japanese picture was filmed in Finland was shot. A beautiful, heartwarming movie about friendship, food and cultural encounters, I wholeheartedly recommend it for a slow day.

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Posted in in english

Tagged finland, japan, movies

Authentic Mexican Restaurant in Finland: Pueblo

Posted on April 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

The proper Mexican food invasion in Helsinki continues. After Café de Nopal opened at the end of 2010, a separate team set up Pueblo in Eerikinkatu 25 during 2011.

I know some of the Mexican staff personally. Their tortillas are excellent and they have my favourite beers on offer, but the food is sometimes a little too salty for me (I cook without salt, so that might be the problem). Regardless, it is very nice to have an alternative open during lunchtime in the heart of the city.

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Posted in in english

Tagged finland, food, mexico

HIFK vs Jokerit

Posted on March 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

I read somewhere that the Helsinki ice hockey derby between HIFK & Jokerit is the most fiercely contested in the Nordic countries. Even if I don’t cheer for either team, as a neutral it was nice to attend a match with a nice atmosphere and chanting, not only clapping.

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Posted in in english, suomeksi

Tagged finland, ice hockey, sport

Blog post avalanche

Posted on March 26, 2012 | 1 Comment

You know that horrible feeling when you start writing drafts you haven’t finished and they start piling up? After four months I have finally freed this blog’s backlog, with the list of newly-published posts below:

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Posted in in english

Tagged blog

Maybe Mexico is indeed quite misunderstood

Posted on March 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

A couple of European colleagues joined me in my last business trip to Mexico and they seemed genuinely surprised by what they saw. It was not as unsafe as they were led to believe, the people were more ethnically varied than they expected, it was not as poor (even though of course they did see a cross-section of Mexican society from wealthy city denizens to farm hands in the hills) and the food was better than they thought.

Also at some point I spent some time with a group of Finnish gentlemen who had a lot of questions about the country, which I did my best to answer in the little time we had together (personal favourite: why do all houses have water tanks in the roof?).

Maybe the place is indeed quite misunderstood as I’ve been saying all these years. I’m not saying it’s better or worse, it’s just not what people abroad without previous experience of the country think.

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Posted in in english

Tagged culture, europe, finland, mexico, security, society, travel, united kingdom

Beans = Kryptonite

Posted on March 13, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’m allergic to beans. Maybe that’s why I had to flee so far I ended up in Finland . Take the delicacy above, called huarache, for example. It happens to have beans inside the dough, and made me sick the whole night after I ate it. At least I didn’t end up in hospital with serum like the time before that.

It’s ridiculous. It’s akin to a Finn being allergic to potatoes or a Japanese being physically unable to eat seaweed.

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Posted in in english

Tagged food, health, life

Rally Mexico

Posted on March 13, 2012 | 1 Comment

Spent a little over a week in Mexico for work. Visited Mexico City for a few days and then drove all the way to León, Guanajuato for the Rally Guanajuato Mexico. A picture summary below, the rest of the photos here.