Pintxos. They originally come from the Basque Country in Spain, but Tampere has become a real Pintxo center with its own festival  called Tamperrada – Finland’s biggest food festival. And this is what makes the Tamperrada festival the biggest in Finland: Last year during the five days over 300,000 pintos were sold in 62 restaurants of Tampere!

The name of the festival actually comes from Tamborrada festival in Spain, where people go out and enjoy the small delicacies with some wine. Also in Tampere: restaurants serve these delicious local versions of small Spanish snacks for five days in August.

Yearly I visit many restaurants, tasting different pintxos and choosing my favourite(s). And there is actually a competition between restaurants. A professional jury of gastronomy specialists will always choose the winner, but also people can vote for the winner.

It’s great fun to walk around Tampere, pop into a restaurant and taste their version of a pintxo. With a glass of wine, of course!