Sylk's Food Fetish: More about Finland

As you may know by now that i recently visited Finland (previous postings) and I am extremely excited to share my personal experience with you while I was there. Honestly, I love Finland! The people are so friendly and professional. The public transport and facilities are so efficient. The architecture is simply outstanding. Finnish people love healthy lifestyle and they are very particular about environmental issue. I also love the fact that there is no censorship in mass media.

Finland is unlike other tourist destination especially for Asian people, is it the language barrier or less exposure? I am not too sure, but I do notice there were not many Asian tourists there. You might bumped into Japanese people here and there or probable Asian American but other than that they spoke Finnish fluently! My visit was extremely fun as my first stop was in the beautiful city of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. We spent few days in Helsinki and i got to see a lot of interesting places and tried variety of foods. We stayed in this hotel which used to be a prison, called Best Western Premier Hotel Katajanokka. It was truly an amazing experience. If you want to find out more about the hotel, you may visit http://www.bwkatajanokka.fi/en/best_western_premier_hotel_katajanokka/hotel

I am very glad that the hotel included traditional Finnish foods in the breakfast buffet as I love to try local foods when traveling (which you must do). The breakfast was simply delicious. We had fresh Finnish meatballs and Karjalanpiirakat which were small pies with rice filling served with egg butter spread.

We also visited the Rock Church, the Olympic stadium, museums (to name a few) and a lot more. After couple days in Helsinki, we drove south to Tampere, Vimpeli and Seijanoki before we headed back to Helsinki.

While driving to Tampere, which is 2 hours drive from Helsinki, we stopped by at this beautiful medieval castle which was built in 13th century, called Hame Castle (as shown below).

And also the scenic lookout of Aulangonvuori Hill where the local people enjoyed the beautiful weather with an outdoor activity. Absolutely scenic!

Tampere on the other hand is a major market and industrial city, but totally gorgeous in its own way. This is where you can get the original Finnish delicacy, Mustamakkara (as shown below) or black sausage which usually eaten for breakfast with lingonberry jam and cold milk. It may looks rather suspicious but I must say it tastes good :-) . Tampere is the home of the real Mustamakkara and believed to be eaten since 16th century.

My first affair with doner kebab would be right in Finland. For some reason, I really love it. Probably because of the exotic taste which reminded me a bit of home, I don't really know but boy I must say it is YUMMY! You must give it a try if you are in Europe because it is totally different from what you get here.

I also visited the Tampere market. I love the freshness of everything at the market, from flowers to smoked salmon, berries and everything else.

Right at the market place, i was amazed to find a Malaysian restaurant! Unfortunately it was closed and only open in the afternoon. The menus were really awesome, from Malay foods, Chinese, Indian and even Sarawak and Sabah foods. According to my partner, the restaurant has been here since he was a teenager, which probably almost 20 years now.