Finnish Food Adventure

Place Eerikin Pippuri at Myyrmanni PRICE lunch set 9.9 eur, with soft drink, and tea/coffee RICE Rice is thin and long, oily. Not salted. KEBAB Kebab meat has some salty taste, but doesn’t have much umami, but definitely the taste of pepper! Now I understand why this restaurant chain is called Eerikin Pippuri / Eerikin(it’s a abbreviation of the street name "Eerikinkatu") Pepper! Kebab meat is thin. Oily but not juicy (maybe because it’s thin) Maybe because of the strong pepper taste, somehow it reminded me of the taste of a beef jerky. On top of the kebab was thick tomato sauce and some creamy sauce.  SALAD Salad: lettuce leaves, 2 slices of tomato, slices of onion, two jalapenos White and reddish-white sauce CONCLUSION The pepper is adding a nice extra taste, but I wished there were a bit more tomato sauce on top to add the umami to otherwise flavor-less meat. But then again usually kebab meat in Finland are flavor-less, and considering that, the added pepper taste is makin

I eat “riisikebab” (or “kebab riisillä”, kebab with rice) very often. I have a stomach problem and I should be following the FODMAP (Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Mono- saccharides And Polyols) diet, otherwise my stomach goes crazy. But riisikebab, is almost always a safe choice. No gluten, no onion, no beans, no broccoli, no cabbage, no jalapeno, no garlic, no coconut, no blueberries (although I’m in Finland!), and the list goes on. But riisikebab, is almost always a safe option. There is rice, kebab meat slices (which is made of… beef I guess, in Finland at least*), and a salad consisting of lettuce, and often tomato slices, and onion slices with one or two jalapenos, with some sauce on the kebab and on the salad. I do have to remove the onions and jalapenos, but otherwise it’s mostly safe for me. A riisikebab meal is often affordable, from 8 to 12 euros, but mostly just below 10 euros. And, if you order it as a take out meal, and often I would become full eating two-third of it, so the

"Atria Japan Tonkatsu -Maustekastikkeella". It’s claiming to be pork with “Japan Tonkatsu seasoning sauce”. So how is it? Interesting Package Pushing Gimmick I cooked it following the direction on the package. The folded two-part package (meat part and sauce part is separated) was interesting. You have to unfold the package and push the sauce part hard, so that fresh meat will meet with the sauce. Then you leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes to marinate. Then fry the meat for 8 minutes. (photograph taken after the "push") I'm not sure if it is a gimmick to just get people’s attention, or if it would be beneficial for the company as in it required less facility space or equipment than making a product that is in the package already marinated, or if this way of packaging actually benefits the taste of the cooked food compared to those marinated-and-packed ones. (-30% for a reason?) Either way, it was fun to press the sauce, it was a bit like pressing a huuuge bu

Hartwall Original Long Drink Gin & Ginger. 4.5 %. "Less Sugar - White Label". I don't think it's worth the money. I was actually excited to see the can said "less sugar", I thought it would mean that it's "less sweet". Instead, there is an artificial sweetener, Aspartame used in it. Just like a dog cannot replace a human being although both have a brain and four limbs, replacing sugar (well not completely, it contains sugar as well. but "replacing sugar partially") with a sweetener doesn't work. Both are sweet, yes. But the quality of sweetness is different. And, I think, by adding sweetener they somehow ruined the Lonkero-ness of the drink. Its taste surely resembles Lonkero and it's fun to have a ginger taste in it. But this sweetness which you can only feel with front and sides of your tongue... It feels as if there's a big chunk of vital taste information missing, that you would feel in the back of the tongue. In o

I and my wife ordered Hesburger's Juusto-Veke-ateria and Veke-ateria. Juusto-Veke-hamuprilainen / Cheese-Vege-burger Inside of a Juusto-Veke burger, you'll find a vegetable-made-patty, onion? , a sheet of cheddar cheese, and pickled cucumbers, with vege-mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard. The patty is made of pea and wheat. It lacks texture in my opinion. This vege-patty is not my favourite among vegetable substitute meat products I have tried. I felt that the taste itself is helped by the ketchup. My wife said the onion is being a positive element regarding the taste. If you order just the Juusto-Veke burger, it only cost 1 EUR. My wife was impressed by its price, especially compared to McDonald's 1 EUR burger. At the moment, meal-set is only 4 EUR. It comes with French fries and 0.25 l drink. Veke-hampurilainen / Vege-burger This one has a breaded soybean-made-patty, a slice of tomato, a slice of onion, a lettuce leaf, with vege-mayonnaise.

Food. I love food. I love eating. Who doesn't, unless you are dead. Hello everyone, I'm a Japanese living in Finland, and I love food. On this blog, I review Finnish food. I would like to tell you a bit about my background, to give you perspective on my taste buds, and my eligibility of criticizing food. I grew up in Japan. That's all I have to say. PS: But if I have to add to that, Japan is a country with delicious food, and rich food culture. PPS: Japan historically had wide variety of natural ingredients, and a long history of offering delicacies (and other gifts) to the people of ruling classes, combined with the tradition of (sometimes inhumanely) hard apprenticeship in mastering skills (please refer to a documentary about a sushi master Jiro Ono), Japan became a country with high standards for tastes. In the old days you could have tasted those master class food making skills only if you are among the privileged few. But as the time went by and the