Travel For Food

This month, BTSB staff has put together some delicious restaurant tips from around the world for you to enjoy and places to add to your itinerary when planning your next trips!
Lo Stivale d’Oro, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
One restaurant you don’t want to miss in the beautiful city of Amsterdam is Lo Stivale d’Oro, a tiny italian restaurant located in the central area. Getting a table was difficult, but the food made it all worth it: even the bread spread was absolutely delicious and pastas were extraordinary.
The Original Mosque Kitchen, Edinburgh, UK
Edinburgh University lacking an equivalent to UniCafe students are forced to find somewhere else to eat good food for not too much. The Original Mosque Kitchen and its slightly more expensive namesake Mosque Kitchen literally around the corner both offer good basic food sure to fill even the hungriest students. The Original Mosque Kitchen is situated near the campus area and has both takeaway and sit-in options for a very affordable price. For just under £4 (about 4.3e) you get a huge portion of for example Chicken Curry and Rice. The sauce is just spicy enough and the rice on the side comes in such massive amounts that so far I have never been able to finish it all. So if you ever find yourself hungry beyond imaginable in Edinburgh and you don’t mind eating from a plastic plate, The Original Mosque Kitchen is the place to go.
Skinny Pancake, Burlington, VT, USA
Located near the shore of Lake Champlain, Skinny Pancake is one of the crown jewels in Vermont. The state is coincidentally (or not!) the home of the American pancake and reputedly of maple syrup as well. Thus, it is rather surprising that a place serving European crêpes is among its best. Skinny Pancake is cozy with people coming and going the service is nice and the prices not too bad at all. Offering sweet and salty crêpes with a myriad of fillings, the menu should cater to every taste imaginable. Plus, the coffee’s good – which you shouldn’t take for granted in the land of the free.
Sophie’n Eck, Berlin, Germany
Berlin is one of those places where people often fly for a long weekend, thinking it will suffice to get to know the city but end up running splendidly out of time. Well, that’s what happened to me at least. After four full days of storming around Museumsinsel, Kreuzberg, East Side Gallery, and whatnot, I found myself exhausted and horrified: I’m heading home tomorrow and there’s so much I haven’t done yet! In this situation there are two options: you can continue racing around the sights the whole night and get absolutely nothing out of it, or, you can make the most of your last night in this amazing city by enjoying delicious food and wine in a restaurant you’d kill to have next door at home. The place is called Sophie’n Eck, and it is absolutely charming, in the 14th century sense of the word. The assortment of scents that hit you in the face when coming through the door is magical, and one quick glace around confirms this is the right choice – most of the customers are locals and the place is almost packed on a Monday night, which is a very good sign. The place is also a pub, so the selection of beers is impressive, and there’s nothing to complain about the wine list either. For dinner my date decided on the German classic Schweinshaxe, pork shank, with Sauerkrat, naturally. I had roast beef with remoulade and herb potatoes, and both our dishes were amazing. After finishing our tasty meals it was great to just sip some wine and watch all the strangers spending their evenings in this wonderfully cosy place, at the same time digesting both the food and the experiences from the past few days, and attaining total relaxation. Then and there, I started to miss Berlin already.
Tokyo 55, Helsinki
You don’t have to travel far to sate your appetite for good food. In Töölö, there is a small and popular Japanese restaurant called Tokyo55. For sushi lovers, this is the place to go because of the sushi buffet: eat all you can four days a week. It was precisely on one of these buffet days that I ventured there. After gorging myself on sushi, the only complaint I had was that climbing up from the lower floor back to street level was a bit of an effort. So if you want to eat healthy and delicious food, this is a place worth checking out. And while you don’t have to travel very far, your taste buds will go all the way to Japan.

Compiled by Kerttu Kaikkonen

Illustrations by Johanna Ruuskanen

Concert Review: August Grind-down – Horse Latitudes at Nosturi

Horse Latitudes @ Nosturi, August 27th, 2011.

With the approaching darkness of the Finnish fall and winter – the enjoyment of which will be cut short for me should California call in January – I deemed it necessary to take a head start into gloom and darkness by checking out the quadruple doom metal gig headlined by the legendary Saint Vitus in Nosturi, Helsinki. Their historical first appearance will be covered by the well-established metal media, so I decided to concentrate (for personal reasons too) on the opening act, Horse Latitudes.

The Helsinki trio, named after The Doors’ song, has already released an eponymous EP and debut album ‟Gathering” that has been highly appreciated by critics. Consisting of drummer-vocalist Harri and the two bass-players Veli-Matti and Heidi, Horse Latitudes takes conventional doom metal and gives it a distinct, uncanny spin. The slow, heavily distorted drone of the bass-akimbo is combined to march-like low drums, interrupted with violent crash-fills and shamanistic rage of the speedier sections, but one should not confuse apparent simplicity with lack of ideas – for at the level of the idea and originality, Horse Latitudes ruled supreme among the support acts at Nosturi.

The band’s set was a minuscule thirty minutes, in their case leaving space for three long, ponderous songs, but the trio had chosen them well. To the poetic ‟Seas of Saturn” and the aggressive, at times almost groovy, ‟Son of the Moon” (both from ‟Gathering”) they added a previously unheard tune that is to be released on an upcoming 12” split with Hooded Menace who were also present supporting Saint Vitus. The patient, titanic grind of the bass guitars painted most of the horrific landscapes, the drums providing variety and shifts within the songs. It was interesting to note how one forgot that the stage was set with instruments usually reserved for staying in the background. Horse Latitudes managed to turn the tables and bring out the distinct character of the basses and the drums, almost as if none was accompanying the others, but rather so that each individual brought its own character to the mix, the result being a discordant, demoniac harmony where the outcome appeared greater than the sum of the components.

Added to the downtempo, dark and discordant musicianship is the clean singing of Harri, who excelled especially in comparison to other support act vocalists on the darkening Saturday night. With a great sense for nuances, he managed to invoke the planetary seas and dark depths, ranging from low growls, to monotonous Jim Morrison -like chants and high-pitched shrieks. His standard singing voice was in good order so that the special effect stayed just that and didn’t become ends in themselves.

In a BTSB interview after the show, Veli-Matti said that the band’s confidence in performance has taken steps for the better and this was easy to see from the Nosturi crowd as well. The trio gave out an air of being in control of the stage, of their respectful instruments and of the massive waves of sound and bursts of piercing metal-attack that left the building shaking and the journalist trembling for the rest of the night. Still, the slightly embarrassing arch-gloom and false seriousness, so common with many metal ensembles, was not present, and the atmosphere remained somewhat relaxed, even if the depths of the coldest space and deep despair remain at the heart of Horse Latitudes’ songwriting.

Even if Horse Latitudes might have squatted in the shadow of their idols, the venerable Saint Vitus, it might not be long that they’re sought after performers at many a venue around the world. Maybe in twenty years there is a country that awaits the steam-driven sledgehammer of Horse Latitudes as devoutly as Finland waited for Saint Vitus pre 2011.

Check www.myspace.com/horselatitudesmetal for more info on Horse Latitudes, their upcoming releases, song previews and tour schedules!

Esko Suoranta
BTSB

Metsätalo Unicafe

Part 1 in a 20-part series

There is a secret hidden in the basement of a building in Kaisaniemi. It is a place where dreams are fulfilled, a place where art meets practicality, where bread meets butter. The building is Metsätalo. The secret is UniCafe.

This restaurant (pronounced yoo-nee-kaif) is a delight to the senses. Just descending the stairs, you can feel the buzz of excitement coming from within- students talking about studying, teachers talking about teaching, workers talking about working. It is a veritable cornucopia of excitement.

First on the list of things to do is to hang your coat. Unlike most places in Helsinki, there is no charge for this task. In fact there is no coatroom at all. The restaurant has gone for the “less is more” approach and provided a pre-post-modern- industrialism style metal coat rack. Just pass the notice board on the right as you walk in, it balances the west wall in a simplistic yet functional manner. Clearly, it is a homage to Alvar Aalto.

But architectural enjoyments aside, this is also a place that serves food; and not just any old food at that. There are delicacies like jauhelihakastiketta, pástaa and juustoraastetta. If the exotic names alone don’t make your mouth water, the sight of them will. Picture long strands of spaghetti-like pasta dabbed with what you can be almost certain was once edible meat, now smothered in the grease from yesterday, all topped off with the freshest cheese to ever come out of a bag. And for the final touch, put it all on a plate. There you have it, good ladies and gentlemen, the crème de la crème, the pick de la litter, the stink de la poop.

But before being able to taste this immaculate concoction, you’ll have to do two things. The first is to prove that you are indeed poor and hungry enough to be willing to eat the steaming mass of sub-divine culinary imagination on your tray. This is done easily with either a student card or a look of extreme deprivation. Then, all you have to do is wait until the employee learns how to use the cash register.

Now you are ready to rest your rear and stun your taste buds. I recommend finding a seat at an empty table because, as you will notice, the café is filled with people staring forlornly at their plates, pushing the food around with their forks with the hope that it will never end written all over their faces. At least, that’s the way this restaurant reviewer chooses to interpret such a sad sight.

In short, the UniCafe at Metsätalo is not the type of place one would go on the first date. The wine selection is appalling and the wait staff non-existent. But the prices are unparalleled. And if you’re able to beat the rush between classes, your stomach may thank you for the attempt at nourishment.

Restaurant: UniCafe Metsätalo

Address: Fabianinkatu 39, 00170 Helsinki

Hours: Monday to Thursday 9.00 -16.00

Friday 9.00- 15.00

Lunch starts at 11.00

Insider’s Tip: To be trés chic, do not choose the white-flavored salad dressing, as orange is the in color of this autumn season.

Up next: Porthania UniCafe

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