Shrimp-party!

Hi guys!

Alright, maybe we did wake up a bit too late to the whole crab season but seriously, no single crab in entire Berlin? And that, my friends, is how we ended up having shrimp party instead of the traditional crab party that we have in Finland during this time of the year. 

As a starter we had wasabi-salmon bread. Super easy to make; you need to mix wasabi with quark (is this a word?) or sour cream and spread it on a dark bread and add a slice of smoked salmon on top. We were generous with the wasabi and it gave a nice kick ;). Sounded something like this: "Yumm, aaaarrGGHH, yumm, ÄÄähhh"

As a main dish we had a fresh salad and king prawns fried with olive oil, dried chili and lots of garlic. We had lots of bread too to dip it in the oil. We also baked a shrimp pie.

As a dessert we had delicious home-made, or Sanna-made, lemon macarons.

Quite honestly, with or without the crabs, the evening was great :)










Ikävästä / about homesickness


Hey guys!


...the English version below...

Ajattelin näpytellä menemään tällä kertaa myös suomeksi. Ja sitten asiaan.

Oon asustellut nyt Berliinissä yhteensä kaksi vuotta. Yhtä soittoa puolitoista, kävin nimittäin välissä suorittamassa kouluni pikakelauksella loppuun Vaasassa. Ennen Berliiniä asuin puoli vuotta Barcelonassa ja sitä ennen puoli vuotta Brisbanessa Australiassa. Oon kuitenkin aina tiennyt, että palaan takaisin Suomeen. Nyt tilanne on vähän eri, kun ei minkään takia "tarvi" palata Suomeen. En tiedä satavarmasti, palaanko enää ikinä Suomeen. Jäätävä ajatus!

Aina välillä joku kysyy, että ikävöinko takaisin Suomeen ja haluanko palata sinne takaisin. No, viimeisimpään saitte jo vastauksen. En osaa sanoa muuta kuin että en ainakaan seuraavan parin vuoden sisällä ole suunnitellut palaavani. Suomessa on liian pimeä liian kauan! Kaikki rakkaimmat ystävät ja perhe on Suomessa, ja olisi ihanaa asua lähellä heitä. Sydän särkyy, kun ajattelenkin, ettei ihana Isla kummityttöni pian muista, kuka se Berliinin täti olikaan! Eli kai se on sanomattakin selvää on että ikävöin toki välillä Suomeen, ja yritänkin käydä kotona niin usein kuin mahdollista mussuttamassa ruisleipää. Tämä on kuitenkin erilaista ikävää kuin ennen asuessani ulkomailla. Se on pientä kateutta suomi-ystäville ja perheelle siitä, että he saavat edelleen seurata läheltä toistensa elämää ja viettää aikaa yhdessä, pelkoa siitä, että jotain kauheaa tapahtuu, enkä ole paikalla, huonoa omaatuntoa siitä, että en vain voinut tyytyä asumaan Suomessa ja tietämättömyyden tunne siitä, palaanko koskaan takaisin.

Oi keksikää jo teleportti!


So I decided to write in Finnish this time as well. I wanted to write few lines about homesickness.

I've lived now in Berlin altogether more than two years. One and a half years ago I did return to Finland for three months though to finish my studies as fast as I could to return back in Berlin. Before Berlin I lived half a year in Barcelona and before that half a year in Brisbane, Australia (everybody knows my fondness to places that start with B...). I always knew that I'd return back to Finland though. Now the situation is slightly different since I don't have any reason why I'd "have to" return. In fact, I'm not one hundred percent sure whether I'll ever go back. That's a weird thought!

Every now and then someone asks me if I miss home and if I'd like to go back. I kind of answered the latter one already. I can only say that I'm not planning to go back within the next two years. It's way too dark way too long back home! All my dearest friends and family live in Finland and I'd love to live close to them. My heart breaks if I even think that my lovely Isla-niece could forget who Berlin-auntie is! Without a doubt I miss home sometimes and I do try to visit whenever I can. This homesickness is a bit different than what I've experienced before when I've lived abroad. It is slight jealousy towards my Finnish friends and family members because they can be so involved in each others lives and spend time together, it is scary thoughts that something horrible might happen and I wont be there, it is bad conscience that I just could't settle for living in Finland and its the feeling of ignorance whether I'll ever return.

Can somebody invent a teleport already!



The breakfast market: every breakkie lovers daydream!

Hi guys!

What an eventful weekend I had! 

On Friday we had a little office party at work and later that night Ben and I got some friends over. Saturday started with a lovely brunch, where else than at Zuckerfree. Afterwards I headed to the opening party of e3 -gym that has a new interesting concept of concentrating on holistic health; mind, body and energy! If you're thinking of joining a gym in Berlin, I recommend you to check them out! They had interesting presentations and the most delicious raw food. In the evening we celebrated Fanny's birthday and we had so much fun!

Sunday's highlight was the breakfast market at Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg. The idea is that people can buy their breakfast there from different street-food stalls. They have everything from green juices to Korean porridge to all-time breakfast classics, like pancakes and eggs benedict. You gotta love whoever came up with this idea. I was truly in a very happy mindset while hunting down the most delicious-looking options.

Ben had a toast with buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes and I had nachos with guacamole. And green juice. And samosa chaat (an Indian street food treat). And a cake. Oh well.


















Fast and healthy burrito, baby!




Hi guys!

I was craving for comfort food today and decided to create a healthy version of burrito. I pretty much just improvised but it turned out to be really good! This is an easy dish to optimize (a natural choice of word for an email marketer...) to a healthier version. The bad brother of my version is pretty naughty with all its cheese. I decided to share this idea with you as a "foodspiration".

For my burrito-baby I used:

Gluten-free tortillas
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Tabasco
Home made chili salsa
A lot of home made guacamole (without cream cheese)
White beans
Boiled brown rice
Fresh coriander
Red onion

Salad on the side

Just pile everything on top of the tortillas and pop it in the oven for about 10 minutes until they warm up a bit. As usual I overestimated my hunger and thought I could eat two of these bad boys but no, one was enough!

Before the oven
Talking about burritos... I tested with a couple of friends a burrito place at Neukölln called Burrito Baby. They had vegan options as well (or maybe all of them were?). The burritos were massive and _so_gooood_. You might explode but I'd still recommend taking the nachos as a starter because WHY NOT (what I really wanted to say is: YOLO)!

Massive burrito at Burrito Baby




Holiday state of mind

Hi guys!

I came back to Berlin couple of days ago from my lovely holidays in Finland. I guess you all know the feeling when everything about your day is so very simple and effortless yet so perfect – perfect weather, your favourite summer activities (or non-activities) and the best company. I had lots of those days in Finland. Layer by layer the Berlin-me was peeled off (literally, I burnt my skin...) and a real suomiromantikko, "Finland-romantic" came out.

Here's a glimpse of what I did...





























 
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