Terhi Ruuskanen (1978)

Let’s face it: Finnish food is not as world-famous or as tasty as Thai or French food. Finnish food culture has been changing a lot during the past few decades and nowadays the new young chefs like to mix traditional ingredients in a new, interesting way.

My favorite Finnish restaurant in Helsinki is Juuri, The Root in English. They use Finnish ingredients in a new interesting way. They call their appetizers “Sapas” (like tapas, but the first letter is changed to S, because of the word Suomi which means Finland in Finnish).

I took some of my foreign friends there and they were impressed. They especially loved the “Slightly smoked reindeer heart with gelée made of rowanberry wine” and “Horse tenderloin with dark sauce seasoned with sage, 
fried leafeparsley and speltpearls”. I loved whitefish and sparkling wine made in Finland! I wasn’t even aware we made decent sparkling wine, but we do! Next to the restaurant, and as a part of the company, there is a small shop where you can buy organic Finnish food to cook at home.

Kitch is a retro place where the food is good and reasonably priced! They serve pasta, tapas, salads and burgers. During the weekend they have a great brunch. They cook using fresh ingredients. Why don’t you try beetroot pasta with goat cheese and rucola or how about prawns with wasabi-mayonaise? Delicious! The wines are either organic or fair trade products.

The comfortable chairs & couches, tables and dishes are mostly used and recycled. They used very warm and strong colors when they decorated, so the place is very down to earth, yet quite chic.

This season’s Must-Drink is Glögi a.k.a. mulled wine. There are several different kinds of Glögi: wine based, vodka based and of course a non-alcoholic one. My personal favourite is the one with red wine. Kitch, as well as some other restaurant make their own mix, others use the one you can find in grocery store (Marli).

There is only one shop in Helsinki where you can find design, fashion, art, music, books, vintage, gallery and bar under the same roof, that’s Helsinki10. They sell cd’s, bubble gum, expensive clothes from small designers and well-known fashion houses, vintage clothes, bags and shoes from all over the Europe and even weird painted china, like tea cups and pots!

Helsinki10 is a place where you go to wander and touch very odd clothes and accessories, but end up buying something: a key-chain or pair of odd boots. The staff is very helpful and friendly!

Last summer Helsinki10 started to sell Topshop clothes in the store as the only shop in Helsinki. It is a bit sad that they made their vintage section smaller (to make room for Topshop), but I am super-excited about all the new Topshop clothes and it is about the time to have it in Finland as well!

Apollo cafe/ street bar is the coziest place for after work in town. The big cafe/ bar is divided into two spaces: One is a very chilled out lounge and the other one is a terrace indoors where you can watch the shop-goers passing by. The cute cafe is in the Forum mall.

On Wednesdays they organize a fun trivia-game where the teams (from 1 to 4 people) compete against each other. The winning team gets free tickets to the Apollo Night club (next door). It doesn’t cost anything to participate either, so it is good fun after work.

For a Helsinki bar it is quite cheap (to be such a nice place too!). They have excellent offers from Monday to Friday between 16:00 – 19:00: 12 cl of wine for 3 euros or a class of wine or a bottle of beer and a toast for 6,50 euros. That’s cheap for Helsinki!

Carusel “the house by the sea” is a cool café & restaurant in Kaivopuisto. Its round shape and the windows that are all the way from the ceiling to the floor guarantee that you will get a good view from where ever you sit. The place has a chilled out feeling.

In winter I go there for hot chocolate. I sit by the fire place inside and watch the snow falling outside. In summer I sit in one of the wooden couches outside and drink ice tea. The place changes a lot during the season, thanks to the big windows. It is, as the rest of Finland is, the best in summer time though!

There are concerts and other happenings around the year. They serve good breakfast, lunch, café and drinks, but I think the best thing you can eat there is their pizza!