Lox, bagel and cream cheese

[sammy]

"Ey up, duck! Does thay fancy goin' t'f@cking Helskinki t'get us a bagel...or Tommerolinos f'get knackered?!"

Hmm. One sometimes wonders why exactly do tourists come to Helsinki...

Questions asked by tourists - as recalled by the Helsinki Help tourist advisers, summer 2010:

- Is Lapland open today? I have a couple of hours to spend so I might pay a visit there.
- Where can I buy walking sticks? Where can I see traditional birch burl cups being carved?
- Where are the wooden carved statues of Helsinki?
– Where does the ship to Paris embark from?
– Where is the king's castle?
- Where can I find Finnish girlfriends?
– What's that island called again - the journey there by sea takes two hours...? (A: Tallinn)

...the news story also goes on to say that many ship-brought tourists are not sure if this is Oslo, or perhaps Stockholm.

[Bubba Elvis XIV]

Hmm. One sometimes wonders why exactly do tourists come to Helsinki...

According to some Russians I worked with recently...because it is soooooooo cheap!!!

I used to say Finland is a nice place to live in but I wouldn't want to visit. It does have an exotic appeal to a few people though.

But still, If I have the choice between Helsinki or Stockholm for a day, I'll choose your (our?) funny speaking neighbours, even with the cost / hassle.

[sammy]

But still, If I have the choice between Helsinki or Stockholm for a day, I'll choose your (our?) funny speaking neighbours, even with the cost / hassle.

I want to go to Florida!



Yeah, Stockholm is grand. There's nothing wrong with Helsinki, it's just that... despite what the locals think... it's a very small town. Which suits me, but I'm not sure about "international tourists". Then again, as you said some will find it exotic enough. What a shame they only tend to see the white cathedral, the Temppelinaukio church, the Finlandia house etc. But that's the way it is, and has always been. They want to see what others tell them they want to see...

Maybe the forthcoming Tuulen Bagel Emporium will challenge all those?

[AldenG]

...the news story also goes on to say that many ship-brought tourists are not sure if this is Oslo, or perhaps Stockholm.

Yeah, maybe because they actually signed up and paid for the trip that included 3 nights in Oslo, which is even more expensive than Helsinki in my experience, and the trip arranger figured "What the hell, they'll never know the difference," put them on the boat to Helsinki, and doubled their profit on the savings.

Someone could put a raft on the shore at Suomenlinna and charge admission to see the Kon-Tiki and everybody would go home happy.

[sammy]

Someone could put a raft on the shore at Suomenlinna and charge admission to see the Kon-Tiki and everybody would go home happy.

A few years ago, there indeed was a similar story - IIRC a Japanese tourist stepped off the Suomenlinna ferry, talking about how he had never realised Tallinn was so close. No doubt he was also shown the Soviet submarine over there.

Also the trams that go to Arabia had caused some furrowed brows...

[Bubba Elvis XIV]

There's nothing wrong with Helsinki, it's just that... despite what the locals think... it's a very small town.

True. I only go down for gigs really. But we always have a jolly nice time!

Probably takes a similiar time 'door to door' from Turks -> Hel as Turks -> Stocks. There is a small price difference though. But obviously Stocks being a bigger city the options are greater...And if i am going to sit in a car for 2 hours, then I might as well fly and have the choice of goods and sights. Just my way of looking at it.

My favourite touristy place in Helsinki is actually Uspenski Cathedral. I have a thing for Orthodox churches, icons etc etc...Never been to the one here though! How typical is that? The Lutheran cathedral is very...Lutheran! I was in and out...

[Rob A.]

...Hmm, “pink sauce”... maybe rosolli (see here) which is often accompanied with gobs of heavy whipping cream, colored pink with beetroot and flavored with vinegar and sugar?

Also known as sillisalaatti (“herring salad”) as it originally contains finely-chopped pieces of Baltic Herring. Some recipes omit the herring while some others replace it with tiny pieces of ground beef. Pieces of hard-boiled egg or grated cheese may be used creatively as decoration on top of the serving bowl. (Rosolli is a traditional condiment on Finnish Christmas table, but there are summer variants too.)

Yes....that was it ...the accompaniment for rosolli..... The salad is quite nice...though, I suppose the dressing can be "deadly" if you eat too much of it...
Is there a precise name for the dressing?

[AldenG]

Also the trams that go to Arabia had caused some furrowed brows...

I tell people If they visit Finland without taking the opportunity to stop by Arabia and Iittaly they've wasted some money.

[CH]

Is there a precise name for the dressing?

No, it's just known as the sauce for sillisalaatti as that's what it is. I have never seen it used for anything else. My mother used to make a sallad dressing sauce for summer sallads (either just lettuce or dandelion leaves in the spring), that was more or less the same, but made by whipping the cream much lighter (the sillisalaatti sauce is always whipped pretty stiff) and adding mashed hard cooked eggs to it... and no beet coloring. But no name for that either... just "sauce for lettuce".

[CH]

If people in New York City will pay big money for the best salmon, then people in Helsinki will, too, because everybody wants the best!

Tuulen, this is Finland Forum, not France Forum.

When it comes to buying food the majority of Finns care about 2 things. Firstly, the food has to be produced in Finland. Secondly, the food is cheap. The majority of Finns do not pay 'big money' for good quality food. There's even data out there to support this.

Can I ask how much time have you actually spent here? You seem to have a very romanticized view of Finland and Finns.

Yeah... good thing I wasn't drinking anything when reading that... I would have needed a new keyboard. That is just... that is not what everybody wants here. Seriously! If you think that you have absolutely no idea about what Finland is or isn't.

I buy actual salmon for Christmas, because, well, I will splurge a bit then... and I want gravlax, but the store bought is just waaaay to expensive for something I can make equally well at home and it's pretty easy to do anyway. But otherwise I buy rainbow trout as that is almost as good as salmon, unless it's very fatty. Sometimes you can get salmon cheap, almost at the same price as rainbow trout, so then I might actually buy salmon instead. But expensive wild salmon... .

At least I buy expensive when I really, really want it, and cannot make it myself or find anything that comes close to it for cheaper. But if I can find something comparable for much cheaper... hell no I will buy the expensive stuff. I come from a poor family, who were even poorer in the earlier generations (all the "swedish finns are all rich" people can go stuff it as far as I'm concerned)... I can afford a bit of luxury now, but I rather save my money where I can so I can actually afford the stuff I really want at the #!#"#"" prices I have to pay. And I assume that is the reason behind the mentality here... most of Finland has been really, really poor. When you had to worry about how to make it through the winter, getting the best value for whatever money you had was important, not getting the best.

The romanticized view of times gone past here foodwise is not some sumptious feast of food... it's pettuleipä (bread made out of flour extended with the inner layers under the bark when people were runnig out of food), people working hard on kaski to get land to make into a field, baltic herring, and various foods that is hardly eaten now as we don't have to eat them anymore (most, including me, have no clue what most of those foods actually are). It's poor man's life and poor man's food.

Oh, do you know what the older generation calls "the spoiled younger generation"? Pullamössö-sukupolvi. I do remember pullamössö... pulla mushed into coffee (I made it into O'Boy cocoa) until it's all soggy, and then you eat the whole thing with a spoon. Because, to the older generation, that is what the "spoiled generation" got for a treat. My generation and younger are actually spoiled waaaay beyond that, we actually got candy! Now they get it every week! When I'm old and grouchy I'm going to start to complain about the spoiled lauantaikarkki-sukupolvi.

[Jukka Aho]

Kermajuusto is cheese used as sliced on sandwiches ie..Arlan edam

Hmm? I’m no cheese expert but I’d say kermajuusto usually has a quite different texture than plain run-of-the-mill edam. Arla’s kermajuusto brands include “Pohjanpoika”, “Kermajuusto” (duh!) and “Eva”. Some other locally well-known brands are Valio’s “Turunmaa” and “Oltermanni”.

[sammy]

I was also thinking in the lines of Turunmaa, not Edam... but anyway they're quite different I believe from what people in the US know as "cream cheese".

Mind you - Turunmaa, yummy! (not the 'lite' version though)

[Rosamunda]

Someone could put a raft on the shore at Suomenlinna and charge admission to see the Kon-Tiki and everybody would go home happy.

A few years ago, there indeed was a similar story - IIRC a Japanese tourist stepped off the Suomenlinna ferry, talking about how he had never realised Tallinn was so close.

And I've heard they take tourists to "Russia" up in Lapland. Take them in snowmobiles up to a "Checkpoint" in the middle of the forest so they can have their photos taken with a Russian border guard... one foot on the other side of the fence (probably about 50km from the actual border!)

[sammy]

When I think of kermajuusto I think of "plastic" no matter who the producer is..

Hmm, you might be interested to know that Turunmaa is not similar to those "plastic" Edam cheeses (and even Edam can be good although naturally it's very mild)... just do not go for the lo-fat versions, they're not very tasty at all.

Yum, I like old Gouda as well That reminds me, just recently I noticed Valio has introduced a "black label" Salaneuvos (Gouda-type) cheese... that might be worth tasting. At least the "black label" Aura is noticeably different from the regular one... not that Aura isn't fine by itself, these black-label ones have been ripened longer.

Oltermanni isn't bad at all, it's just a bit of a... children's cheese.

[sammy]

And I've heard they take tourists to "Russia" up in Lapland. Take them in snowmobiles up to a "Checkpoint" in the middle of the forest so they can have their photos taken with a Russian border guard... one foot on the other side of the fence (probably about 50km from the actual border!)

You mean there are fake checkpoints? Well, people do think it's the real Santa Claws in Rovaniemi... or that Rovaniemi is the real "Lapland" for that matter...