Eating well in Helsinki: Chef and Sommelier

The episode about Finland of 'Antoni Bourdain: no reservations' was aired in TV few days ago and gave an unfair gastronomic view of Finland's offering.

Eating 'well' is an understatement today. I guess I should say eating VERY-OH-SWEET-MOTHER-OF-ALL-THAT'S-HOLY well.

The restaurant is called Chef and Sommelier and it is a small (20 people tops) and cosy place. The service is outstanding: very fast without being overwhelming and what's best, they really love what they do.

The menu is seasonal and you can have several combinations of 3, 4 ... or 9 dishes tasting menu. Suffice to say we went for the full option, I'd be regretting so much right now not having done that.

It all started with a glass of cava. The sommelier did put an especial emphasis on the fact that it was from Massís Garraf, the mountains and not the plains, which makes a difference. The cava happened to be Vall Dolina (our selection for our wedding incidentally). Excellent.

You can find the ongoing menu in their website. I'll try to do a quick run through, but I'm afraid that not being a native English speaking person I can't give justice to what we ate. Plus, I do not remember all the detailed explanations that came with the dishes (which were so engaging!).

I won't go into the wines because I don't remember their names and I'm not an expert. We asked the sommelier to recommend us what suits the food best. There were a glass for each pair of dishes: one for appetizers, one for first courses, one for main courses and one for desserts. Two whites, two reds; totally different from each other and absolutely brilliant.

Not-on-the-menu appetizer:
Onion puré, chip of home grown artichoke, sitake mushroom and infused sitake mushroom broth. So much flavor in such small package!

Appetizers:
Tomatoes from Svarfvars farm. These were home grown small tomatoes prepared in several ways and served with flowers from one of their gardens. The slow oven dried tomato was fantastic, as was the tomato jelly. How can tomatoes be this good?

Crayfish soup. In the bottom there's some perfectly cooked crayfish meat with a bit of apple bits salad and then they pour the soup. The soup isn't traditionally boiled, but infused. They do it with the shell, bring it to boil together with cream and tomato and then let it rest at 60 or 70 degrees for quite many hours. It is very difficult to pick the favorite... but this one may be the most outstanding.

First courses:
Whitefish with fennel. From the bunch, maybe the least outstandingly brilliant. Don't get me wrong, it was very, very good but goodness can be expected from siika.

Gumbostrand. I don't understand how pasta with vegetables (beans, sweet peas ...) can be that good. And the parmesan sauce just brilliant.

Main courses:
Lamb from Åland. They actually serve you four different cuts: tenderloin, roast, entrecoté and lamb belly (cansalada!). Good luck choosing the best one!

Mushrooms and roots. Another candidate of star of the night. Different mushrooms done in different ways, including a very earthy dark mushroom and a splendid cep puré. The roots (beetroot, carrots and more) just fit perfectly.

Desserts:
Almond and meadow sweet. Fantastic, especially the cucumber slice soaked in coconut milk that was on top of the almond and meadow cake.

Chocolate and berries. It may sound simple, but it was insanely good. My favorite was the dark chocolate cake with raspberry ice cream on top.

Cheeses. Finnish blue cheese served with crispy rye bread and pear and apple which have been slowly cooked in some special tea.

The bread
They do make their own bread (of course). They served us two kinds of bread: a white bread that it's cooked in different stages so that the inside is soft and the crust is crispy, and a rye bread with rosemary. Next to them came some butter foam.


So, all in all, possibly the best meal I have ever had in my life. And that's a lot to say! And yes, it was in Finland, and yes with local ingredients.

And you'll have to forgive me for the lack of pictures, but it would have been so rude to the food to not concentrate on enjoying it !!!

Pedestrian walks: decorative?

Some of you may know that our household has grown by one! Here's Beni:

In practice this means that we walk more (which is good) and that I pay more attention to other people's behavior while on the streets.

Many times I've been ranting about mopeds using the bike lanes (usually at their top 40km/h speed). That's plain dangerous. There are bikes, pedestrians, people walking with dogs, people with kids trolleys... it's no place for mopeds. But there's hope! (keep on reading)

Today's topic are pedestrian walks, which are places where pedestrians can walk, right? The rules are quite simple. If there are traffic lights, those rule; if there aren't, cars should stop so that pedestrians can change to the other side of the street safely. Do they stop? You wish... But again, there's hope!

I'll just go over four cases I've experienced in the last two days while trying to cross a pedestrian walk:

• Middle aged man driving an overpowered estate car (farmari suomeksi, cotxe familiar en català). Did he stop? He didn't even slow down!
• Teenager driving a moped. Did she stop? Yes she did, and nodded back to my appreciative nod!
• Middle aged woman driving an oversized SUV (city-masturi suomeski, 4x4 pijo de ciutat en català). Did she stop? No. She slowed down, and when I started crossing she yelled at me, made some obscene sign with the hand and sped up. (We're fine, thanks).
• Young dude driving a sports car with too loud music and way too loud engine and exhaust pipe. Did he stop? Yes he did. And he waved me to let me know he was letting me cross the street.

Conclusion: I'm worried since the car park in Espoo is vastly made out of middle aged people driving estates or SUVs. However, looking at the new generations there is hope!

And all of you people driving out there: come on, it's not that difficult and you won't loose that much time. From what anyway? Imprinting your buttocks in the sofa some extra seconds? And if you've been a pedestrian, or riding a bike (and the odds say that you have) you've suffered this! Fix it!

The worst sight for me was couple of winters ago. It was snowing a lot (remember, this is Finland) and a guy in his wheelchair was waiting in a pedestrian walk. None of the three cars in front of us stopped. Not kidding. I know it sucks to drive in the snow, but it's still nicer and warmer that being out there (and the wheelchair was just a bonus).

So, be nice to each other. Even if you're behind the wheel. And Beni is the cutest, isn't he?

Nikon in 2n half of 2012: D400, D600... or what?

I am a happy user of a Nikon D3100. I have a couple of lenses: 18-55mm VR kit; 35mm DX f/1.8 and Tamron (for DX) 18-270mm VC PZD. I also have some bags and a couple of tripods.

What do I shoot? Well anything, and nothing. I’m merely an aficionado, not sure if I can call myself amateur or enthusiast, but I do have fun with it! And now I’m thinking about upgrading my camera.

Before I go on, I don’t need anything else than what my D3100 offers, but sometimes it’d be nice to have faster focus, faster burst rate, handy buttons instead of menues and a bigger camera body (the D3100 is tiny). Take a look at Matt Granger’s rant on amateurs buying better (or pro) gear.

Since I don’t have very specific needs, I decided that what I want isn’t in the market yet. I know I want a Nikon and a better camera than what I have today. So let’s try to guess what may happen…

I think it’s best to start with the current line up, the history release, and work from there (the prices are body only). I also have to say that these are not predictions, but wild guessing

Some disclaimers here. I did put the D4 and family there for the sake of having the full Nikon line up. Some will argue that the D800 is not the D700’s successor, and while that may be true the D700 isn’t any longer (26.7.2012) in Nikon’s site.

But what’s gonna happen in the rest of 2012? The D400 has been long rumored to be the natural successor of the D300, but there are even more rumors of the D600, which would be an ”entry level FX” camera, whatever that means.

Let’s start bottom up then:

Entry DSLR DX

We’re at the bottom of DX domain here, and by all looks we’ll get a D3300 in 2013. More than 24 Mp would be nonsense. What then? Maybe another metallic color ...

Entry DSLR DX with tilty-swively screen

Canon has the 60D and now the 650D with capacitive touch tilty-swively screen. I guess 2013 (maybe earlier) it’s time for Nikon to launch the D5200, with 24 Mp, and capacitive touch tilty swively screen. (I don’t like them…)

Amateur DSLR DX

Following the apparent 2 years release cycle, they could unveil the D7100 in Photokina with 24 Mp, some nice video capabilities and (even) better ISO capabilities. That’d be my definite go to! Unless…

Now it gets tricky… I don’t think that a D600 and a D400 will coexist.

If the D600 becomes an ”entry FX” as suggested elsewhere, what we’d have is a D7100 with FX. What would be the price? Would they canibalize each other? To get a current pro body you’d need to spend 3000€ in a D800? What’s between D600 and D800? (And the ”old D700” isn’t the answer here).

If the D400 is just the successor of the D300, we’d get a pro body (big fat magnesium alloy, without silly-looking-scene selector) in DX. That would certainly please wild life shooters: fast focus, plus longer focal length with the 1.5x crop factor of the DX. But… you’d had to spend 3000€ to go to FX?

I’m not so interested in the future of D800 and D4. For one reason they were just released. For another one, they’re way out of my budget.

I’m confused by the D400 vs D600 dilema. I’d rather have a D300-like camera body, but FX is very tempting. It'd be smart from Nikon to release an affordable FX body: they would swim in money coming from FX glass!

I guess we’ll know more in Photokina 2012! It looks to me that whichever option they release (D400 or D600) that will be my camera. If they release both, then I'll have a problem.

PS: few pictures in Flickr taken with my loved D3100

Trying to get a job? Guide on what NOT to do. Part II

I recently wrote a post on what not to do when writing your CV. Here's also another interesting post on CVs and CVs in Catalan. Now let's assume you followed my advice, or you didn't, but nevertheless got invited to an interview.

You got your foot on the threshold! They want to meet you! You are already in the top 20% of their choices, well done! Let's now go through in how many ways you can still screw up.

There is an advantage of interviews compared to the whole CV-sending business: you can see their faces (or at least listen to them if it is a phone interview). This means that you can assess the situation and adapt.

Let's now go through a list of interview NO-NO situation. Unfortunately I have to tell that all these examples are based on real experiences. Tough.


Don't be late
You managed to give a good enough impression so they want to meet you. This is the fastest way to ruin it. Managers love to feel busy and it pisses them off to waste time. Because of somebody else that is.

Don't miss the building
The candidate calls me telling he's waiting in the lobby, so we went to pick him. But the lobby was empty so we called him back. He was in a wrong lobby, that means a wrong building, which means wrong company. Not a great way to cause a good impression.
In the meeting invitation the address and company name were written in three different places, but he went to the wrong place, and I quote, "because my friend told me it was here!" and he was upset with us. Not good.

Not knowing your own CV
...so that you need to check the interviewers copy to explain your own experience. This is actually a specific case of the main rule of trying to get a job: don't lie.

Don't check check your mobile phone continuously
I hope it doesn't require an explanation, but I'll write anyway: you were trying to impress them. Checking your phone continuously screams "I don't care. I don't know what I'm doing here". There is an acceptable exception though, if your partner is about to go into labour.

Don't stretch, yawn or spend more time looking through the window than the interviewers
Of course, there is the chance that you are actually bored, and not interested any longer in the job. That's actually OK. Say it out loud, and you'll save some wasted time for a bunch of people.

Don't whisper or yell
It just makes the conversation very awkward and in occasions not understandable. The best interviews are those which feel like a conversation, rather than an interrogation.

Don't stare at the chest (to put it nicely) of your female interviewer
This happened while doing an interview together with a female colleague. The result? It was a very uncomfortable situation, and I felt ignored. Labelling yourself as a pervert won't get the interviewers interested, it will scare them!

Don't be scared :)
This is easy to say from this side of the table, but you have to remember that it is a two sided road. You need to impress them, but they need to impress you as well!

Don't ignore the interviewers
If they start yawning, sighing, checking their phones, staring at the screen longer than looking at you the chances are that you're boring them. And you don't want that. You can see how  they react, so you can adapt.
Of course, most of them will be better than you at this game and reading body language, so remember: adapt, but don't lie!


Will these advises land you a job? No way. But at least it will give interviewers less reasons to reject you.

Good luck!

Trying to get a job? Guide on what NOT to do. Part I

Being a recruitment manager is part of my job. What does that mean in practice? That I have to say no to lots of applicants.

Put in numbers, for each position I have to fill I will receive around 50 applications and we will interview around 10 of them. That means that I have to reject 4 out of every 5 applicants based on their CV. And that’s the focus of this post.

What is the purpose of the curriculum vitae then? It is not to describe to the last detail of every position you’ve held. It is not a collection of meaningless acronyms. The purpose to cause such impression that the recruiter wants to meet you.

There are several ways to fail there. If the following questions/thoughts pop into my head when going through an application… bad sign.

Why are you applying?

Now there are several ways to solve that. You can enclose a cover letter, or write your motivation in the same email where you attach your CV. You can even write your motivation in the CV itself.

You need to introduce yourself and make it interesting. A factual list won’t do that.

Who sent me this!?

Funny addresses like funnyboy_xxx69@veryhotmail.com or lordoftheshadows@mordor.com don’t inspire lots of trust. It is easy, and free, to get proper email addresses and I can tolerate numbers.

john.smith1988321@geemail.com is ok. Lucky dude the first John Smith to land a google account!

To whom are you writing?

Don’t misspell the name of the company where you’re applying to. It is not much different from a neon sign saying “I don’t care about you guys!”.

I can’t breathe!

Don’t write…. unreadable-text-that-it-is-very-long-and-there-are-no-pauses-and-all-the-stuff-is-explained-in-there-but-it-is-impossible-to-get-a-good-picture-and-it-is-so-long-that-the-one-paragraph-uses-the-full-page-with-single-spacing-and-font-eight-and-there-are-almost-no-comas-or-dots-so-it-is-very-difficult-to-read-to-the-point-of-loosing-your-breath-and-faint.

You don’t want to give them a headache, do you?

…that’s it?

I had an applicant who wrote: ”I meet the requirements. I want 2500,00€/month, after taxes”.

That was it, nothing else, no CV, no information. If there’s nothing to tell, probably there’s nothing that I want to hear about either.

Oh no… another one

You need to make your CV stand out. Three pages with the same font, all black and white, all same size, booooriiiiiing.  Add a picture, add some colours, have a decent layout. Remember, you’re trying to get my attention.

Why didn’t he send me a PDF?

When I open a MS Word file, the first thing I want to do is edit it: it’s the same with your CV. A plain text (yes, *.txt) file is as ugly and boring as it gets. Wow, that dude send me a zip file! What is he sending so that he needs to zip it, really?

Eight pages, really!?

One page is ideal. Two are acceptable. You need very good reasons to go beyond that. I don’t understand a 22 year old undergraduate with an 8 page CV. Nor I want to read through all the details of all your projects of your career. That will bore me, so I won’t be interested, so we won’t meet. Too bad.

Try to avoid the recruiters from getting those thoughts when reading your CV and applications, and while I can’t guarantee you and interview, you’ll have a better shot!

The Left Shoe Company (I also got the right one)

In Finland there is the tradition of the huomenlahja. The newly weds, after the wedding night (that is the morning after) give presents to each other. The origin of the tradition comes from far, when the husband's gift would secure the widow's life in case of death of the husband; that could be money, or a cow.

Nowadays however, they are just presents. Or, are they?

Presents always feel nicer when there is a surprise element, they are unique or the receiving end really likes what he or she gets. Well, I happen to like shoes; and personalized items; and I had no idea what was I getting as a huomenlahja from my, now it's official, wife :)

And there she hands me an envelope that read The Left Shoe Company. It was a gift card. For those who are puzzled now, let me explain.

They are a Finnish company established in 1998 with stores in Finland, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Japan and they make shoes made to measure. So how it works? In the store they will make a 3D profile of your feet (both of them) by using a 3D scanner. Then you'll enter your personal information, and your customer profile is ready!

You can order then your shoes online, or in the stores. They say they are ready in seven weeks, but in my experience it takes just three weeks, and that's just fantastic service!

There are over thirty (30, three-zero) different models, and in each one of them a range of colors (15 to 30 different leathers, suede or nobuck) and soles (4 or 5) to combine. Choosing was tough... but I did it.

Unsurprisingly the shoe fits to perfection. That matters especially when it isn't easy to find shoes. People out there with 46 or bigger size know what I'm talking about. And I have extra flat feet... so since I don't have arch at all, many shoes bother there. These are just perfect. Let me say it again: made to measure.

So, we've got the surprise element. We've covered that I do like shoes (plus they're difficult to find for me).  And they are definitely personalized! And still, there was another amazing detail.

Not only my name, but also a reminder of the occasion!

Best. Gift. Ever!

Practical BBQ ribs in the oven :)

I wrote not long ago a great recipe to do BBQ ribs in the oven. I believe that some of you have been trying them, please comment on the results!!

That recipe has a big drawback though: it takes quite lots of time. Preparing the meat, the spices, let the meat spice for 30 minutes, cook it in the oven for 1h 40m (minimum), finishing it about 30 minutes more. Easily it goes to 3 hours of preparation. And if you were successful, about 5 minutes of eating.

I bring you a solution now. You can do the big work, froze them and whenever you want, just finish them off! How does that work? Let's just add some steps to the original recipe.

If I don't add anything, just follow exactly the original one.

Just start with: 1, 2, 3 and 4. No changes there.

4.1 Freezing the ribs

Let them rest for a while so they are not hot any more. Put them in a hermetic plastic bag, juices included and to the freezer they go!

Couple of weeks go by, now you feel like having ribs!

4.2 Unfreezing the ribs

Take them out of the freezer the day before and let them unfreeze in the frige.

5. Finishing off (just minor differences here)

Preheat the oven at 150 degrees. To place the ribs you can use here folio, or just a normal oven tray. Folio is practical because you need to do less cleaning afterwards. 

All the juices are probably in jelly form (because of the cold). Don't let that disgust you. Spread them on the ribs! Add some bbq sauce as well and spread it, and to the oven they go.

Keep them there for 10 minutes at 150 degrees. Then crank it up to 200 degrees and that's it!

Remember to keep an eye on them at all times.

PS: actually, the pictures of the ribs before finishing and ready in the original post are done following this method of freezing them :)