March 14, 2004
Look What I Got!
Sometimes it's the nicest and most heart-warming thing to see how well your own personal Maxence knows you. He went on a business trip to Helsinki (in Finland, for the geographically challenged among us, I certainly am one of them) for a couple of days last week. When we got home on the night of his return - after we went to see Air brilliantly playing live at the Zenith -, I was greeted by a small mountain of Finnish goods, neatly arranged on my side of the bar*.
*I'll easily admit - though a little shamefully - that I do feel the need to have half of the bar be considered mine. Our respective mess has to be on the correct side.
My lovely sweet darling had combed the freezing frozen streets of Helsinki, looking for a good grocery store, and had more or less bought one of every product that looked foreign and Finnish and interesting.
And our pantry now proudly boasts possession of a bag of round rye breads (Gululainen Reissumies Täysjyväruis Fullkornsrag), a loaf of pumpernickel bread (Gululainen Real Täysjyvä Vähäsuolinen), a box of rye button crackers (Kinkosuo Wäinämöisen Palttoonnappeja) and a box of onion crackers (Vaasaan Rapeat Sipuli Hapankorput Surskorpor), four jars of herring marinated in different sauces, a box of oats cookies (Pirkka Kaurakeksi Havrekex), and four different chocolate candy bars (Tupla White, Fazer Suffeli, Rainbow Nougatsuklaa, and a Milky Way bar - not Finnish at all but discontinued in France). How cool is that?
And Now, Let The Tasting Commence!
 Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Zucchini |
 Nettle Soup |
 Beet Soup with Anchovy-Walnut Paste |
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Not to be picky, but Helsinki is in Finland, not Sweden. :c)
Whoooopsie! Well, see? I told you there were some heavily geographically challenged among us! Thanks for the correction, Heksje!
Hi Clothilde,
I left a basic recipe for agar-agar in the comments box on raw foods for you. Enjoy!
In the UK, the milky way bar (which in the US is caramel and nouget covered in chocolate,) doesn't exist and is called a mars bar. (Which in the US is the same but with added almonds. Definitely yummy.)
So when my friend wanted mar's bars, he was exceedingly disappointed when I showed up with mars bars from the US which had almonds! He apparently REALLY wanted the Milky Way bars.
So if you want a milky way bar, try a UK mars bar, it should be the same thing.
Confusing, eh? :)
To make it more so, the company which makes mars bars (in the US,) is thinking of discontinuing it, and instead offering up a new snickers bar with ALMONDS instead of peanuts (so you have the same combo of almonds, nouget and caramel covered in chocolate.) The original snickers bar is one of the most popular candy bars here: its peanuts, nouget and caramel covered in chocolate.
Yep. even I'm confused now! :)
We have Milky Way bars in *my* part of the UK! I've never not seen them around. (You can even get tiny ones for 16p each, which is nice if you want a little bite of chocolate or if you don't have much cash on you but need a sugar injection.)
In any case, Maxence is so thoughtful! I think you should keep him. ;-)
Clothilde: Today we find out who won the Bloggies Award.. cross your fingers.
cool, i love foreign foods a lot! and it must have been like christmas to find a bunch of finnish foods on your half of the bar!
boreal >>> no no, milky way and mars are totally different and you can find milky way in the uk, it's almost a staple candy there!
Salut Clo!
la prochaine demande à Maxence d'essayer de trouver des "Yes" ou des "Treets" :)
Mmm -- Fazer MINTS are lovely - possiboly the nicest chocolate mints in the world!
Boreal - Hm. Globalization hasn't done much for candy bars, has it? :)
Jackie - :) I think i will, I think i will...
Desdemona - Thanks for remembering! Not sure when it'll be anounced exactly...
Izan - It was a lovely surprise indeed! Not that I hadn't oh-so-subtly hinted at my interest in the matter...
Nassim - Pour ça, j'ai bien peur qu'il faille une machine à remonter le temps! Ca doit pouvoir se trouver, remarque, tu n'as pas ça dans un coin?
Vanessa - In what country do you find those mints? The Fazer brand was unknown to me...
Fazer is a Swedish chocolate and sweets brand, but you get it in Finland too. Fazer chocolate has a funny outstanding taste, I prefer French, German or Swiss chocolate brands.
@clotilde: I'm sure you will enjoy he brought from his trip. He made some good choices. It would have been cool if he had brought Vispgröt too, but nevermind. BTW "vispgröt" is Swedish, I don't even know the Finish word.
ork >>> no, fazer is finnish but you can get it in sweden. i think fazer (finnish) and cloetta (swedish) merged into one big company a few years ago.
clotilde >>> maybe i could send you some fazer chocolate some time!?
Les harengs marinés dans 4 sauces différentes me font saliver ! (plus que les Milky Way bars !).
Il est vraiment gentil ton Maxence !
Ork - Everything's been delicious so far! And there's that special lovely taste of anything foreign...
Izan - Now *that* is an offer I can't refuse... :)
Maman - Oui, tu as vu, c'est un peu comme les rollmops de chez Goldenberg, rien que l'idée affole les glandes salivaires! :)
Ok, now I'm confused.
The Milky way/mars confusion happened in the Falkland Islands. I saw/opened a labeled bar of mars, and it definitely had no almonds. This was in 99, so I wonder if they either imported the chocolate from south america (uncommon, but happens,) or if things have changed in the UK since then.
But dammit, in 99, there were milky way bars labeled as mar's bars, I SWEAR! :)
Are you sure your milky way bars aren't actually "three muskateers" which is just the nouget with chocolate covering, and no caramel? ;)
@izan: ok, thank you for correcting me. I haven't been in Finland for many years... Sorry for telling nonsense.
BTW, you can get those marrinated herrings and other Scandinavian foods and brands at IKEA centers (Fazer too). They are expanding in France too.
Since there is an IKEA in Strasbourg, my parents sometimes go to IKEA just because of the restaurant... LOL!
mm, fazer. my favourite childhood choco bar... it's truly delicious. have you had any marabou (swedish brand)? it's swell, as well.
Josie - Nope, never had that one! Did you grow up in Scandinavia?
Yes. I'm Swedish. But I do feel a little tiny bit French, having spent every summer since I was one year old in Provence... ;)
Fazer is a Finnish company that was established here in 1891! Careful with the "facts"! Grrrrr....
Clotilde, I have only recently heard of your blog and am having a great time going through your recipes and articles... Thanks for the good time! Now, I am going on a business trip to Stockholm and Helsinki - I love food shopping but it is difficult to get good references in a new country and to find good places when you are pressed in between meetings... Do you have any good reccomendations for these cities?