Food food food

My eating experiences in Helsinki have been a little sporadic to date. Despite my self-acknowledged status as a foodie, the crazy-high exchange rate with the Euro ($1.38 to one Euro) compel me to save money wherever possible.

So, I have been buying lots of groceries, scavenging food from the substantial repositories kept at work, and otherwise avoiding restaurant meals entirely. (To date: three real restaurant meals eaten with coworkers at lunchtime, one take-out pizza and two rather-mediocre takeout Thai meals for dinner.)

Despite the not-quite-monklike asceticism of my new eating habits, I find the scavenging options suit me well here. Smoked fish is delicious, salad makings are easy, and even the smallest of kiosk-like grocery stores carries a plentiful and varied supply of yummy delicious cheese.

A typical meal is below: Arugula mixed with "slightly salted" smoked trout, and served with these delicious whole grain rye crackers that not even the most whole-earthy of US grocery stores seems to deign to carry. I love them. What you don't see is the thick layer of cheese I am about to dab on those crackers.



Unfortunately, the second picture shows the reason why I will not be returning to the US a sprightly 20 pounds lighter. The chocolate here is fantastically better than US chocolate. In this case, they wedged a full fruit-filled chocolate on top of a shortbread wafer and marketed the whole thing as a typical cookie. I choose to keep secret the number of these so-called cookies that I ate in one sitting...