the winter roses

One my way to the hairdresser today - where we continued the longterm work with embracing the greys not fighting them... - I spotted these lovely roses. Or wait, roses? No no, they are indeed flower cabbage, styled to look like roses even more than they do in themselves. On my way home I decided to treat myself to a trio.

The ones sprayed with colour (yellow, orange and red) did, on closer inspection, look a bit tacky. But I decided to get one of them anyway, just to remind me of unexpected possibilites and the beauty of the all natural.

vegan food in helsinki

So. I've been enjoying a fantastic array of vegan food here in Helsinki. The Yelp-app has helped in finding those gems that didn't exist when we were here in 2012. And I have rekindled with old favourites. Yes the food has been great. The cakes not so much alas, but the odd cinnamon bun thrown in has been fabulastic too.

I have yet to write reviews on Yelp for most of the places, but I can still give you a hint on where to go for a kind and great meal if you find yourself in Helsinki! (And be sure to check out my When in Helsinki-list on Yelp, I will slowly add things to it. These have been my favourite food moments over the long weekend:



Classic vegetarian - vegan restaurant Zucchini was just as good as I remembered it from 2012. Old school, healthy and very flavourful vegan and vegetarian food. Kind staff that speaks both Finnish, Swedish and English. (This was a potato cake with tofu and spinach plus a great salad and ratatouille.)



This is a wonderful vegan meze plate at Just Vege. Lovely textures and flavours, the pita bread is fab. Mostly organic stuff and just as the name says, an all vegetarian (mainly vegan apart from the halloumi) place were they make their own bread and falafels. The owner got so excited about the bobbaloos he took a lot of pictures too - myself I politely declined to be in them. M had a seitan kebab plate which he enjoyed a lot.



Remnants of a, surprisingly given the looks, good vegan pie at cafe Bergga. Simply filled with great, firm tofu, carrots and onions in a flavourful gravy. Their cakes weren't nearly as good, quite the opposite, but this savoury pie, mmm...



A simple falafel from Fafa's - which is a chain of falafel bars that, unfortunately, offers some meat dishes too - which wold have been rather nice (but of course not as lovely as the falafel at the Stockholm place Falafelbaren) if M hadn't said yes to extra chili and we'd gotten it as takeaway...



At another vegan fast food place Soi Soi, situated in the same street as above Just vege, we had these vegan burgers and sweetpotato fries that was quite heavenly according to at least me. Mine is a tofu burger in oat bread and M's is a hot chili tofu in pita bread. I really really enjoyed the texture of the tofu here too, in Sweden the tofu despite claiming to be firm often is to soft, not in Helsinki obviously.



This was the nicest, by far, breakfast (brunch) I had in Helsinki. The popular (amongst all ages and walks of life) cafe is called Tin Tin Tango and they have different breakfast menus of which this is the vegetarian. I don't eat egg, so M got that one, but I fully enjoyed the rest, including a strawberry smoothie, orange juice, an apple, two rolls, cheese and veggies. Plus tea of course. Who knew there was such a thing as a heart shaped roll, too cute!



We shared this freshly baked cinnamon bun too - it was delicious. All and all we shared three different buns at three different places, they were all very very good in their own ways. Conclusion: Helsinki knows how to make a most pleasing bun for a discerning Swedish fika high liver.

window display happiness helsinki

There are a lot of window displays in Helsinki that get my juices flowing -

and others that certainly don't given that Finland is the 3rd largest producer of fur in Europe (3,8 millions per year compared to Sweden on 5th place with 1 million and that is really really heartbreakingly bad enough)... -

these wonderful Moomin lamps are certainly on my top five list of those! Pretty fantastic, wouldn't you agree? Especially on a dark winter night. Instant happiness.



Marimekko's collection colours for 2015 are just up my colour alley, a lot of pink, red and orange - which obviously the average dull Swede is afraid of, but I love love love -

And I have been oogling this fake fur coat, also from Marimekko, since I saw it on their website. It's adorable and fluffy, but also quite expensive. I don't think that will be the reserve winter coat for my darling happy coat alas.



And some cute cups seen in the Design Quarters shop's window display, shop was never opened when I went by though. Which probably was a good thing. Window shopping should not be underestimated. Still inspiring but also good for the wallet and the planet.

my little pony shoes

I may prefer comfort AND style over high heels like this, but I can still adore the quirky prettiness that is a pair of My Little Pony shoes by Finnish shoe designer Minna Parikka. I love her sense of style, but I've never contemplated getting a pair since they're simply not me. 

And not just because many are high heels, she unfortunately uses real fur trimmings and such too. Never okay.

If you are a shoe lover you should definitely check her website out, it may inspire in new ways.

hello helsinki

A belated birthday trip has taken us to neighbouring Finland and its beautiful and inspirational capital Helsinki, hooray!

For a long weekend of walk a lot, tram hopping, design, culture and architecture spotting, 

not to mention great vegan food and fabulous fika. 

And possibly a Moomin-ishly stylish dress or shoes.

Plus if you are a small sized woolly, everyting is huge and exciting. Even a rawfood chocolate cake. Or two.

Happy weekend!

organic braintree socks

I discovered Braintree Clothing - where I got the two recent organic sweaters - through their organic bamboo/cotton socks, that was a few years ago and before I wore them I didn't realise there was such a difference between socks and socks. It may be the bamboo, it may be the quality of the cotton, it may be a combination of both, whatever it is they are far comfier, softer and nicer than any other socks I've ever worn.

And they come in many cute colour/pattern combinations AND at a very reasonable price. For both men and women. The ones to the left are mine, the right ones M:s.

Yay for great and thoughtful socks!

the perfect little lint remover

Same same but different. This is apparently how little lint removers look like these days, bobbalooish.

It's been years and years since I last used one, the look has certainly improved. And yes, it works pretty well too. Win win.

diy foot or bath salt

Seven years ago (!) I attended a December event at Rosendal's Garden to learn about how to make your own natural skincare products. It was lovely, but admittedly I have not practised a lot of the things we learnt. Apart from a few foot and bath salts I've given as gifts.

It had been a long long time since I last made one when I suddenly realised I had every ingredient home already to make a jar of it - it's basically, as I remembered it, the same ingredients in both foot and bath salt depending on what you want them to achieve and which herbs and essential oils you use.

I gave this jar as a little homemade, sweet-scented birthday gift to my friend over our brunch and this is what ingredients I used:

:: sea salt
:: dried mint
:: dried rose petals
:: drops of organic essential oils - orange, ginger, cardamom

Mix in a pleasing to the eye way in a clear jar (glass or plastic) with a secure lid. It smells wonderful, and with these essential oils very Christmassy. 

Happy pottering!

the wilfa blender

Remember how disappointed I was about the so-called-powerful blender I bought some months ago? 

It was promptly returned but I haven't gotten around buying another one until now. I got several tips on great ones on Twitter, but as I'm not the least bit interested in buying a blender for several thousand sek I went for the most affordable one (with great reviews) and it was this one, from Norwegian brand Wilfa.

It has been properly admired by small sized woollies. And photobombed by little redheads.

But most of all, it's pretty high-tech and has a fantastic ice crush. The frozen banana needs to be in small pieces, or anything frozen of course, for it to work effortlessly. But other than that, fantastic machine so far. And easy to clean. It is pretty load on full speed (like a jetplane) but I guess you get used to that. Have granted only made one smoothie so far, but looking forward to making many many more.

vegan cheese platter

What could be more appropriate than trying all these vegan cheeses on World Vegan Day?

I've never been a cheese-person, there are so many nasty cheeses of weird texture and flavours out there. But when I tried my first vegan cheese - Jeezly from Astrid och aporna - I was amazed at how similar to dairy cheese it was, but without all the negative aspects. It has been my faithful breakfast sandwich topping ever since. Alongside the very similar cheese from Violife.

Oatly has now released a vegan cream cheese too. No flavour, which makes it a bit dull. But I enjoy the texture. Although it does contain certified palm oil, and I'm very sceptical about that so called sustainable 'certification'.

Not really positive about the Cheesly cheddar (Astrid och aporna), odd texture and flavour.

The soft deli cashew cheese from Ultuna mejeri has been raved about, so I was really looking forward to trying it. But it was such a disappointment alas, nasty texture and tang. Sure am glad I only bought a little piece.

The vegan parmesan cheese from Violife, Prosociano, on the other hand was a really lovely surprise. Excellent both in texture and flavour, just as cow's milk but without the cons. 

And that's why I try odd (or rather not my cup of tea) vegan food, because now and then you stumble over fantastic products which make you really happy. It's amazing what clever food producers can create.

Happy World Vegan Day - may the world be a kinder, healthier and tastier!