Oct 28, lunch. Salad. At Spektri cafeteria in Helsinki.
October 28, snack. At the office in Helsinki (really: Espoo), a bit of cake with some chocolate icing. About what you'd expect.
October 29, breakfast. At the Hilton Strand in Helsinki. Salmon, some pineapple, and some camembert cheese to spread on the bread. Good. Grapefruit juice, from a box. OK. Cappuccino. Fine.
October 29, lunch. Salad.
October 29, lunch. At Spektri cafeteria. Flounder with pesto and cheese. Pesto-juustokuorrutettua kampelaa. OK. Not as good as the fish cakes from the day before. But still within the limits of acceptable cafeteria food.
October 29, snack. A bit of sweet roll. At the office in Espoo. Good!
October 29, dinner. No dinner for me, but they put a bag of these chocolate (dark!) buttons in my hotel room as a welcome gift and so I ate some of them for dinner. Very nice. And Finnish. At the Hilton Strand in Helsinki.
October 30, breakfast. From the buffet in the Hilton Strand in Helsinki. All good selections; now that I've been here for 3 days I know what's tasty. Note that this does not include the eggs. Urgh.
October 30, snack. Cup of coffee.
October 30, lunch. At Spektri Cafeteria in Espoo. This is Thursday, and in Sweden (and Finland, where there is a big Swedish population), they have pea soup and pancakes on Thursdays. The soup was very well done, with smoked ham and a nice flavor mixing both the peas and the ham. The pancake was very "cakey," a thick cut out of a huge piece. Served with preserves and whipped cream (optional), a combination of dessert and lunch all rolled into one formerly-healthy (before I put the whipped cream and preserves on it) lunch). Plus a cucumber salad.
October 30, lunch. At Spektri Cafeteria in Espoo. This is Thursday, and in Sweden (and Finland, where there is a big Swedish population), they have pea soup and pancakes on Thursdays. The soup was very well done, with smoked ham and a nice flavor mixing both the peas and the ham. The pancake was very "cakey," a thick cut out of a huge piece. Served with preserves and whipped cream (optional), a combination of dessert and lunch all rolled into one formerly-healthy (before I put the whipped cream and preserves on it) lunch). Plus a cucumber salad.
October 30, lunch. At Spektri Cafeteria in Espoo. This is Thursday, and in Sweden (and Finland, where there is a big Swedish population), they have pea soup and pancakes on Thursdays. The soup was very well done, with smoked ham and a nice flavor mixing both the peas and the ham. The pancake was very "cakey," a thick cut out of a huge piece. Served with preserves and whipped cream (optional), a combination of dessert and lunch all rolled into one formerly-healthy (before I put the whipped cream and preserves on it) lunch). Plus a cucumber salad.
October 30, dinner. At the Diesel Fuel restaurant in Helsinki. I started with a prosciutto and melone appetizer. This is all they give you---wow, no complaint about overly large serving here! And a "green sauce" which was not pesto but was a bit like basil pesto. Overall, not kissed of summer goodness, but still tasty.
October 30, dinner. At Diesel Fuel in Helsinki. With a big group of other geeks. This was a seafood pizza, mostly smoked blue mussels and something that I think was tuna. While it tasted pretty good when I ate it, I have to say that this pizza gave me the worst indigestion I've had in my life. I literally couldn't get to sleep, it was so bad. Maybe a bad mussel or ... well, I don't know. It shouldn't have happened, but man was I in pain all night.
Oct 31, breakfast. After horrible indigestion, some bread and butter.
Oct 31, snack. A piece of bread. To settle my stomach. At the office in Espoo.
Oct 31, lunch. Reindeer and wild mushroom soup. At the Spektri Cafeteria in Espoo. Really quite good.
October 31, lunch. Salad. To go with the Reindeer and Wild Mushroom soup.
Oct 31, dinner. A beer and some nuts. At the Hilton Strand in Helsinki.
Oct 31, dinner. Some shrimp bisque. OK. Not great. At Hilton Strand in Helsinki.
Oct 31, dinner. A chocolate for dessert.
November 1, breakfast. On flight from Helsinki to Amsterdam. A really small sanwich (cheese and butter, lettuce) and some water. As you would expect. Thanks, KLM. At least they didn't charge me.
November 1, lunch. Aboard Delta flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta. Nuts this time with raisins. Unfortunately, I really don't care for raisins. I'm not sure why. My dad didn't, but I also just don't like them too much. They're OK when plumped up in something like greens, but by themselves like this I can do without.
November 1, lunch. Smoked salmon with Creme Fraiche. This is Finnish Smoked Salmon which is like 10 times better than your average garbage lox from the grocery store. Two thumbs up.
November 11, lunch. Salami, havarti cheese, tomato, and gherkin. Aboard Delta flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta. Also quite good. If the cheese is the right temperature and a good cheese, it makes a huge difference. The salami was also well done, not over-plasticized which is so common.
November 1, lunch. Aboard Delta flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta. Fruit with a weird cinnamon yogurt dip. The dip was not good. The fruit was.
November 1, dessert. Glass of Champagne, aboard Delta flight Amsterdam to Atlanta.
November 1, lunch. Aboard Delta flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta. A chicken salad and some fruit.
November 1, lunch. A piece of tasty chocolate (Lily O'Brien) "Created with Passion." Thanks, Delta!
November 1, snack. In Crown Room in Atlanta. Some pretzel balls. Not everyone knows that pretzels have balls, but here's clear evidence that they do. If bull balls are "Rocky Mountain Oysters," then I guess these must be something like "State College Shrimp Nuggets." Or maybe not.