The Life and Travels of Mrs Suvi

What an exciting week this has been! My friends like to say weird things happen to me. But I like weird. Weird is what makes life exciting. Read on to find out what I was doing in the kitchen of an Indian family I did not know, how my first blogger meeting went and other things that made this week special.

My favourite breakfast was chia pudding. Are you familiar with chia? It’s a very popular superfood at the moment, as these tiny seeds are said to be loaded with nutrients. My colleagues laugh that my chia pudding looks like frog’s eggs but what they don’t realize is how delicious this pudding is.

To make this pudding – pour 2 dl coconut milk in a bowl, add 2 tablespoons of chia seeds and a dash of maple syrup. Then mix for a few minutes and let the pudding set in the fridge overnight. In the morning, just mix it up a bit again to even it out and top with berries or fruits. The chia seeds will absorb the liquid, swell and transform themselves into tiny gel-like balls. If you are not a fan of coconut milk, you can make this with almond milk instead. Yum!

My favourite happening was Restaurant Day. Do you have Restaurant Day where you live? This was the first time for me, even though it’s been going on for years.

Restaurant Day is such an interesting concept. Anyone can open a restaurant, you just have to register and then cook or bake something to serve. You can research the restaurants in your area from a special map on the event’s website. These pop-up restaurants can actually be anywhere. I visited a florist where a blogger was selling cupcakes. I also bought some Thai food to go from someone’s balcony. My favourite by far was my visit to an Indian family’s apartment for some paneer.

As my daughter was sick at home and hungry, I had to take-away. I sat waiting in the family’s kitchen chatting with the other Indians visiting till my food was packed. How cool is that? Thanks to the cooks, I discovered green chutney – a green paste made from raw mango, fresh mint, fresh coriander, green chillies and cumin power. That’s Indian superfood for you.

I managed to finally get back on track with my aqua running and went three times – to my favourite swimming pool, the Yrjönkatu swimming hall of course.

Tuesday was my favourite day, as so many positive things happened. I had an extempore after work date with a dear friend who I haven’t seen in some time and had my best tea moment. Whilst sipping my tea, I suddenly spotted a friend I hadn’t seen in eight years. Aren’t childhood friendships remarkable? You can pick up where you left off, even if it’s been ages. It was so lovely seeing her and she hadn’t changed a bit, so it certainly didn’t feel like eight years since we’d seen each other.

This week I had two favourite blogger moments, as one of the highlights (again on Tuesday) of the week was meeting fellow blogger Iris of Iris in Deutschland right here in Helsinki. Iris is from Singapore and is going to be spending the next half year in Germany on an exchange. Iris came to Finland because she’s a huge fan of of the Finnish composer Sibelius. I’ve been following her planning on her blog and commenting with tips and ideas.

Iris wanted to try Finnish food. I figured it would be easiest to go to a restaurant called Konstan Möljä as they serve a Finnish buffet. The restaurant is rustic and authentic. I saw quite a few locals there too, who were probably attracted by the traditional, home-cooked dishes. The buffet is very affordable (19 euros) compared to the fancy restaurants with their over 50 euro Finnish menus.

I have to warn you though – Finnish food can be quite strange if you have never tried it before. I was in awe of Iris, as she was very brave and tasted every single thing I put on her plate, even the herring and reindeer.

Iris’ favourite was the salmon soup. It’s mine too – very creamy and tasty.

After our dinner, we made a quick stop to look around Hotel Kämp, as it used to be one of Sibelius’ hangouts in Helsinki. Also, we went up to the Hotel Torni rooftop bar, Ateljee, to enjoy the views of Helsinki by night. No drinks though – I think we were both really tired by then. I really enjoyed hanging out with Iris and I hope she makes it back to Helsinki soon, as she missed some key Sibelius sights due to winter. Iris – I love the Singaporean fridge magnets and pen – and the scarf too, thank you so much!

Hmm.. you may notice that many of my favourite things have to do with food.. That’s the Malaysian in me speaking.

My second favourite blogger moment was when Visit Helsinki shared my post about Café Regatta. Yay!

The week’s best movie was a Finnish documentary “Diving into the Unknown” (Takaisin pintaan) directed by Juan Reina. And I’m not just saying this because I know some of the guys involved in making this movie. It really is impressive. It’s the story of six Finnish divers who go to North Norway to dive the caves of Plurdalen. The dive turns into a nightmare as only four of them make it out. Neither Norwegian or British professional divers are able to retrieve the bodies, so the Finnish divers go on a secret and dangerous mission to try to get their dead friends home. It’s a story of unconditional friendship and courage. For those of you outside of Finland, look out for this one at documentary film festivals. Check out the webpage too, you can read more about the story there.

Lastly, I must admit that my plan to post five times a week has gone well for the past two weeks but I have to be realistic. If I were to continue, I’d fail miserably. There just isn’t so much time to write blog posts now that I’m back at my day job. I think I’ve been a bit too fixated on numbers and days, so from now on I will try to be more laid-back about when my posts publish. Weekly Favourites still feels like a Friday post though – a sure sign of the weekend.

I hope you’ve had a fabulous week – do let me know your outstanding moments!

xx