Category Archives: in english

in english

Mexican Geography for Europeans

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One of the challenges I’ve had in explaining the security situation in certain parts of Mexico to some of my friends and colleagues has simply been the fact that people don’t necessarily understand the size of the country.


Now, courtesy of ifitweremyhome.com, I found this excellent map superimposing Mexico on top of Europe to prove my point.  Just as people going to the beaches of Greece and Turkey didn’t need to worry about the Glasgow airport bombers, it makes little sense to worry about the security situation in the northern border if you’re going to the beaches of central and southern Mexico.  I certainly won’t, and I go there every year (If you need tips, I wrote a small guide some time ago).

That’s what drives me crazy sometimes about the international news coverage of the country.  I’m not telling you that there aren’t places that are screwed up, but using that brush for the whole place is misleading.

en español, in english

Córdoba, Argentina

I had visited Argentina before in 2004-05 (during their summer) and had a chance to do so again recently.  This time I didn’t have the opportunity to stay in Buenos Aires, beautiful city as it is, but was in the province of Córdoba for work.  The people have always treated me well (even if someone did remark I speak like somebody from TV due to my accent :P), the food is wonderful and the landscapes of such a varied country are very beautiful.

Pictures are more eloquent than words, so some below (more here).

Bombilla de Mate
Mate is an institution.
Lago San Roque HDR
Villa Carlos Paz is the main holiday destination in Córdoba. No wonder why.
Monumento a los caídos en las Malvinas
The Falklands (Malvinas) war is still a sore point.
Bife de Chorizo al punto
The amount and quality of the beef on offer is not for the faint of heart. I can't imagine there being many vegetarians around.
Asado
Not your standard grill.
WRC SS4 El Cóndor
One of the mythical stages of WRC, El Cóndor. We even saw condors there (no kidding).

Rally has a huge tradition (and traction) in Córdoba as you can gather from the ads below (1, 2).


in english, suomeksi

Finland World Ice Hockey Champions

The Finnish national passion is ice hockey, where unfortunately the team hasn’t been as successful as their fan involvement would warrant. The only world championship until last week’s victory was won in 1995, and the party then has become legendary.

I was finally able to experience that this week.  People started to believe in the team after the victory over Russia in the semis, where Mikael Granlund’s lacrosse-style goal has become the centerpiece of many a highlight reel.  Then, the final itself was a thriller: Sweden led the scoreboard until Finland tied at the end of the second period, showing a strength of mind that many of their predecessors lacked (the ignominious 5-6 of 2003 comes to mind) and then went on a roll to win the championship.

The celebrations in Helsinki were wild and kicked off on Sunday night.  The reception of the champions was organised in the Market Square the day after, and over 100,000 people attended (the whole country has 5.3 million people, so one could say almost 2% of Finland was there to celebrate).

The only black spots were the obvious inebriation of many in the team and the not-very-child-friendly music selection for what was a very public party, but in the end it was a shot of self-esteem and unity Finland really needed.

P.S. I think they should use Antero Mertaranta for the listening portion of the Yleiskielentutkinto (the official Finnish language exam).  That’d make it hard enough! 😀

in english

Sardinia

Visited Sardinia for work. Beautiful, sunny place with a climate and landscape pretty similar to that of the coast of Sonora in spring (heresy, you’ll say).

It had been a while since I had been to Italy, which was the first country I visited in Europe back in the summer of 1997.  Funny how I see certain bits of their behaviour with Finnish eyes now, even if I still speak something resembling Italian and can communicate with them.


Visiting the special stages 12 & 13
Visiting the special stages 12 & 13
Visiting the special stages 12 & 13
Olbia beach in HDR
Power Stage Rally Sardinia Panorama
Power Stage Rally Sardinia in HDR
Power Stage Rally Sardinia
Power Stage Rally Sardinia
Costa Smeralda
Costa Smeralda

in english

Finnish-Mexican fusion cuisine part III

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My friends at Café de Nopal have been offering birria tacos (goat Jalisco style) with broth for some time now, so I decided to try to prepare reindeer the same way.  The result was excellent, probably one of the best attempts at Finnish-Mexican fusion I’ve gone for.

Reindeer birria, tacos & broth
Birria de reno, consomé, pico de gallo & arroz a la mexicana

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 16 tortillas
  • 1 kg of reindeer meat without bone (luuton sisäpaisti)
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 6 dried Chile de árbol chillies (without seeds, sliced and diced)
  • 1 dried chile ancho (without seeds, sliced and diced)
  • 2 teaspoons of cumin
  • 4 tomatoes (sliced and diced)
  • ½ onion (sliced and diced)
  • salt
  • Cooking oil
  • Coriander
  • Mexican salsa roja or taquera
  • Green lemons/limes

Warm the oil and fry the garlic, onion and chillies until they’re soft.  Add half a litre of water and the cumin.  Let boil a few minutes.  Blend this mix and then sift it.  Return the sauce to the fire and add4 litres of water.  Cut the meat in small cubes and add it together with the tomato.  Leave cooking for 3-4 hours, add more water if necessary.  Serve the broth separately from the meat.  Warm the tortillas.  Offer some sliced and diced onion with coriander and lemons on the side for people to put together their own tacos.  Serve with Mexican rice and pico de gallo on the side.