Great Scott's take on the best places to eat in Helsinki

[karen]

I notice a few people have listed Namaskar on Bulevardi as best place in Helsinki for a curry, it may be that I come from an area in east London renowned for its Indian restaurants so was spoilt for choice, but the meal I ate in Namaskar was a joke, I don't know, maybe they had dragged someone in off the street to cook that night as the chefs hadn't turned up for work, but the food we had was absolutely revolting, I wouldn't serve it to a dog!! Any other suggestions where you can get decent Indian food in Helsinki?

Raam may not agree with my recommendation, but I love Curry Palace in Leppävaara. I don't like Namaskar and Maharajah just "tasteses bad" as my kid would say.

[Rosetta]

Ever wondered why chinese restaurant and takeaway food tastes so dammed good? Have a google for the flavour enhancer MSG (Monosodium Glutamate). All major supermarkets and foodservice operators in the UK have in recent years briefed all their suppliers to remove this ingredient from all formulations (this should tell you something). The government always had safety guidelines for what % could be added into factory-processed food. One place where this ingredient is still used? One place where there are no controls for how much can be added into a recipe beyond the wishes of the chef? Yup you guessed it!

Err, not true - here in the UK I see it in so many food products...
So if they are going to remove it, they still haven't even started...

[Karhunkoski]

Have a google for the flavour enhancer MSG (Monosodium Glutamate).
All major supermarkets and foodservice operators in the UK have in recent years briefed all their suppliers to remove this ingredient from all formulations (this should tell you something).

Err, not true - here in the UK I see it in so many food products...
So if they are going to remove it, they still haven't even started...

If you bother to read what I wrote, you will see that I said that suppliers had been briefed to remove MSG (I should fecking know, I was one of those that they briefed! ), I don't doubt that it is still used in some products.

So, with the greatest respect, shut your piehole and read some of this. If you need more, try google.

Marks & Spencer said none of its soft drinks contain aspartame - it uses sucralose in diet soft drinks - or artificial flavouring, while all its soft drinks except colas contain natural colours. It is working to remove the one remaining artificial colour from its colas. It said it had banned more than half the additives permitted by the EU, particularly those associated with concerns about food intolerance and children's diets including monosodium glutamate (MSG), cyclamates and tartrazine.

Asda said aspartame, hydrogenated fat and monosodium glutamate would also be pulled from all own-brand food and soft drink products by the end of the year. It is spending over £30 million on reformulating the products.

In January, Sainsbury's became the first in the market to remove all monosodium glutamate

Since May 2006 we’ve reviewed all our own-brand food and drink products and where necessary, we have reformulated them to remove all artificial colours*, artificial flavour enhancers including mono-sodium glutamate (MSG), the artificial sweeteners aspartame, saccharin and acesulfame k, and the benzoate group of preservatives. What’s more, we’ve succeeded in doing this whilst retaining great tasting products.

[Karhunkoski]

SOME food at Chinese restaurants is good - and it's certainly not because of MSG -

With the greatest respect to you Mr Janiheisk, and speaking as someone who's opinion is based upon 5 years university-level study of food, coupled with double that of hands-on experience in the industry, my gut feel is that whilst you appear to have a genuine passion for food, some of your "shoot-from-the-hip" comments on this boards appear quite innaccurate and plain wrong to me. Sorry.

[mago]

I think I will take Scott's recommendation and try the Turkish place this weekend, let you know how it goes.
My pick for: ....

I just hate it when someone says to me, "yes the meal last night was great, cheap and BIG PORTIONS".

....is Cella (p. (09) 768 430 Fleminginkatu 15). This place is exactly what I like when I want tasty, cheap and big portions.

Big menu, sort of home cooking type of stuff. Mains are 8-15EUR and the surly service from the chef is on purpose and entertaining.

Don't expect much atmosphere, but enjoy the food.

[luckykitty]

Actually, if anyone thinks msg tastes good... I think it has a bad aftertaste, or not taste, but it leaves your mouth and throat dry. That's what I can think of when I think of MSG. Try eating packet noodles, i think i've never found one that didn't contain msg in the soup packet.

MSG is listed in ingredients as E621 or flavour enhancer, and it is said that 'hydrolyzed protein' contains it too. It's actually in most of the stuff you can buy at the supermarket here: soup/sauce sachets, sauces, marinated meat, sauces etc. No need to slur Chinese food for having MSG, as the stereotype has it - regardless of whether it did, a lot of prepackaged food already has it.

Actually, I can't see why its always Chinese food which gets a bad rap about MSG, its a bit racist. MSG was invented in Japan actually, and its just as commonly found in Thai, Japanese, and American food, among many others, but no-one ever mentions that. Ps. it depends how much prepackaged food you eat too, but you could say its common here too. You don't have to deliberately add MSG to food, it could be already in your food. I was eating at someone's grandmothers house, here in Finland and the prepackaged brown sauce she put on the meatballs has heaps of MSG in it, I could tell... I still ate it though . I guess the meatballs themselves also contain small amounts of msg... Do you see my point here? Any kind of pre-made product you get from supermarket might have it, whether you're in a restaurant or at home. It's a world wide thing, not just some kinda evil 'Chinese restaurant conspiracy'.

Free glutamate ions, also occur naturally in "tomatoes, fermented soy products, yeast extracts, certain sharp cheeses, and fermented or hydrolyzed protein products (such as soy sauce and soy bean paste)" (from Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate. If Chinese food uses alot of soy sauce, which it often does, then it could likely resemble the taste of msg, though I don't get a dry throat from moderate amounts of soy as I do from msg.

[JohnWatson]

Main thing is to get to the bottom of 'phoniness' - and I think MSG is a candidate for being in with that group - if it occurs naturally then let it be in 'those things' but don't add more

[JohnWatson]

btw - has anyone got a post to UPDATE the original posting of the 5 places on post #1 - changes?

[enk]

btw - has anyone got a post to UPDATE the original posting of the 5 places on post #1 - changes?

I agree with the first two, but IMO the other 3 are the pits.

-enk

[JohnWatson]

Has Mtt. Everest deterioated or was it never good in your opinion? (u've never been there). Santa Fe has always been troublesome IMO. And don't know anything about Eerikin Pippuri as stay away from kebab places* (btw - the redness of tomatoes implies NOTHING about whether they taste any good!)

* Not a kebab fan in Finland as almost always based on some chopped up inferior meat (often manufactured by HK) - anyone know of a place using QUALITY meat? The other way fo kebabs is to use whole meat - usually preferable as one can pretty quickly determine what they're eating.

[Karhunkoski]

Actually, I can't see why its always Chinese food which gets a bad rap about MSG, its a bit racist.

FFS (and no apologies for the bad language), but this board seems to be thriving with this word recently.

No wonder immigrants sometimes get a bad rap if they chuck it around willy nilly

[enk]

Has Mtt. Everest deterioated or was it never good in your opinion? (u've never been there).

Mt. Everest can be good, but overall I've had very inconsistent service
and food there, which leads to me not wanting to go try it again. I used
to work a couple blocks away, so I've been there a number of times,
both at lunchtime and later on in the evening since my co-workers
thought it was great.

-enk

[mCowboy]

Has Mtt. Everest deterioated or was it never good in your opinion? (u've never been there).

Mt. Everest can be good, but overall I've had very inconsistent service
and food there, which leads to me not wanting to go try it again. I used
to work a couple blocks away, so I've been there a number of times,
both at lunchtime and later on in the evening since my co-workers
thought it was great.

-enk

It used to be the best, imho, but coincidently I went there to get some dinner. I chose Chicken Tikka Masala and it was marked very spicy (2 chilies). Very pricey, 16e, with the takeaway discount,it ended up 14 something euros. VERY DISAPPOINTED. There was maybe 5 pieces of chicken, it didn't taste much of anything and Naan felt like it was reheated. Won't be going there anymore.

The one opposite from Tennispalatsi has always served me with good food, and you get the same dishes almost half price with lunch specials. Only problem there is that they tend to want you to eat really quick and then leave, so it leaves a little time for socializing.

Raamv, what's the name of that cold brown/green bean sauce/side dish, they tend to serve with Raita?

[mCowboy]

* Not a kebab fan in Finland as almost always based on some chopped up inferior meat (often manufactured by HK) - anyone know of a place using QUALITY meat? The other way fo kebabs is to use whole meat - usually preferable as one can pretty quickly determine what they're eating.

'

whereas most places in Finland use ground beef, authentic Kebab meat is slices of whole meat, with layers of ground beef mixed with flour and other ingredients. These layers are put on the bottom of the big skewer, middle and top to keep the whole meat slices from falling out. And Döner has lamb, whereas your "normal" Kebab is made of beef.

Ata bar in Kamppi/Hietsu/Ruoholahti apparently has more authentic kebabs than your average local. Köfte and Turkish skewers are available also in the other Turkish restaurant close by, but the name escapes me now.

[hackoff]

i went last week with my family to bemböle its in espoo ( i think north )
vry nice place ( old cotage build in 1730 ) with very delicious steaks , it was just 13 euros .
i forgot the name exactly but it seems to be a known place amongst the Finns i was the only foreigner there