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!