Hoi again!

Again such a long delay with my posting...I have spent a bit too much of my days in the work lately and thus haven't had the urge to get a grip of myself to write something. But here are some short bites from our food life like orange-fig salad and pulled pork burgers.

Borage in flower

Orange-fig salad: oranges, shallot onions, figs, pepper mix, sea salt flakes, olive oil and borage flowers as deco

A visitor

Basil

Red mangold stems

A nice side dish for grill food: red mangold au gratin. I separeted the stems from the leaves and blanched  them before placing them into a casserole. Then I fried some onion, chorizo and garlic in butter-oil mixture, added some mascarpone cheese and poured the mix over the mangold. For the top of the whole thing I grated some pecorino cheese. We gatinated this in the oven because we already had many things on the grill but of course you can use grill as well.

Red mangold leaves

This will be gratinated red mangold served as a side dish for spare ribs.

Another friend...or maybe it's the same one

Smoked bell pepper and garlic...I made garlic dip out of them

Our World Cup Final 2014 food: Pulled pork

Which we served as burgers. I wanted to make buns (something with caraway and orange peel) but unfortunately I never came to that...too much time spent at the work last times.

Tomato plants are growing. This picture is about one and half month old so they are much bigger now.

Tomato flower

Here they come...

Just took this picture today...this is the first red tomato. Let's  hope it's as tasty as it looks :D

Sympathetic cafes in Finland

Summer flowers

I don't have many food photos from Finland. We mainly visited some cafes in the region where my family is living. Before holiday we had many plans: day trips to Helsinki, Lahti and maybe Tampere...eating out and having some drinks somewhere nice while enjoying the lovely Finnish summer. Well, it didn't quite turn out that way. The weather in Finland was so bad and cold (the coldest Midsummer in 30 years!!) that it kind of killed our lust for the day trips. So no great restaurant stories this time. Sorry! I also wanted to visit some farmer's and week markets to make some photos of the amazing and great food products but that didn't happened either. If we are ever gonna be in summer in Finland again, I will try to be a better foodie ;D

Canal of Vääksy

But I do want to give a short roundup about the cafes we visited because we found them absolutely charming. The first place is called Ranskalainen kyläkauppa ("French village shop") and it is situated in the old part of Vääksy village. I was surprised when I saw the building: it was pink! The stone building has existed as long as I remember but it had always looked a bit shady and broken. Downstairs used to be a flea market before. But now it looked great! The owner of the place is a French guy who has moved to Finland from the French Alps and is apparently married to a Finnish woman. The place is not only a cafe but also a clothes store and has got a small delicates corner as well. We also heard that there are some plans to extend the cafe into a restaurant. 

Ranskalainen kyläkauppa "French village shop" in Vääksy

We went to Ranskalainen Kyläkauppa in search of some real (cappuccino, espresso) and good coffee because the Finnish filtered coffee isn't my favourite and it also gives me stomach problems...and sure enough, here we found some good coffee :D There was also a nice selection of some petit fours and chocolates along couple of salty bites available. The cafe also has got a Facebook site. Check it out! The place is a lovely small French island in the heart of Finland.

Inside the Ranskalainen Kyläkauppa

Perfect morning sun and very good coffee

The French flair was followed by horse racing atmosphere in Loviisa, a small city on the coast of Finland. The cafe at the track is in service during the horse racing evenings...some good buns we had there!! You can check out the horse races in Loviisa at Loviisan ravit but unfortunately only in Finnish.

Horse racing in the city of Loviisa

Some coffee and buns in the horse racing

The next place is wine and berry farm Pihamaa in Kalkkinen. They have a farm shop where they sell their own products and local products like fresh vegetables, berries, berry wines, berry ciders, marmelades etc. The cafe is open every day and there you can also taste their products before buying them. The farm has an event local, an old, nicely renovated, cowhouse, which can be rented for smaller and bigger celebrations like weddings or birthdays. Before there also used to be a Sunday lunch because I remember visiting the place once with my grandparets for some good down to earth home cooked food. Now I couldn't find any information on Sunday lunches so maybe they don't have them anymore. Pihamaa also has got a Facebook site.

The shop of Pihamaa, wine and berry farm in Kalkkinen

The old cowhouse of Pihamaa now used for caterings

In Kurhila we found another nice cafe which is like a time machine back to days gone: Vanha Kevar. The place has got some real old time atmosphere. It isn't only a cafe but you can also stay overnight in their old granary or rent their sauna. The place can also be rented for smaller events and celebrations. We had some tasty waffels with berry jam and whipped cream. Vanha Kevar is also in Facebook.

Sign of Vanha Kevar, cafe and event location in Kurhila

The old main house of Vanha Kevar

The entrance to the cafe

Inside the cafe Vanha Kevar

On our second last day in Finland the sun got the better of the clouds and this was good occasion to make a short trip to Lahti. Even though I grew up in the Lahti region and even went to upper secondary school in Lahti, I had never managed to visit the ski jumping towers. As it turned out, neither had my mom nor my sister so we decided to get touristic and take a trip to heights. Great view over Lahti and lake Vesijärvi. And we also saw Janne Ahonen!!

Ski jumping towers of Lahti

From the centre of Lahti we walked around Pikku Vesijärvi ("small Vesijärvi") through the park to the harbour. In the old days there wasn't a lot in the harbour to see, just industry etc. In the last years Lahti has really been putting an effort for the harbour area and nowadays it's a lively place with Sibelius concert hall, restaurant boats and cafes. Next to it is also one of the most affluent living areas of Lahti. We think that it's the best place in Lahti to enjoy the sunny summer and to just linger around. We had early dinner at Kaunis Veera and afterwards some coffee and buns in Kahvila Kariranta.

Cafe Kariranta in Lahti harbour

Cafe Kariranta in Lahti harbour

Summer flowers