Things I Ate In General

The instructions accompanying the KGB Museum tickets were very clear: be on time. In fact, be early. We chose our breakfast spot accordingly: a coffee shop in a mall connected to the Hotel Viru, which houses the museum.

We wandered in to Moon right before closing time and they graciously fed us all of the Russian food we wanted:

A zakuska plate of pickled cucumbers with honey, marinated mushrooms, Baltic sprats, quail eggs, lardo and horseradish-sour cream dip. Borsch with beef and sour cream. Hot buckwheat blinis with whitefish roe and sour cream. And finally, Chicken Kiev.

First up in the Finnish candy review, the Fami Chocolate Bar by Fazer, one of the largest Finnish food brands.

Did I think we would eat barbeque in Finland? No. But it was good.

Arriving in Helsinki on April 30th, we wondered why every person on the street was wearing a white sailor’s cap and why all of the young people were dressed in boilersuits. As luck would have it, we’d come on the eve of May Day, or Vappu, one of the four biggest holidays in Finland (along with Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, and Midsummer)

The sailor’s caps, we learned, are called ylioppilaslakki and are awarded to Finnish students upon successful completion of the matriculation exam. People of all ages wear these hats during Vappu, and having one that has yellowed with age is a sign of prestige. The boilersuits are worn by University students, and different colors and ways of styling the suit are associated with certain fields of study.

We quickly read up on other Vappu traditions in order to join in the fun. We tried sima, a fruity mead that’s drunk on the holiday, ate tippaleipä, these crunchy funnel cakes dusted with powdered sugar, and followed the crowds to Kaivopuisto, a waterside park where tens of thousands of Finns come every May First to have elaborate Vappu picnics. 

Breakfast in Helsinki.

The Karelian pasty -- a little rye flour boat with crimped edges and a rice filling -- was among my favorite Finnish food discoveries. They are commonly served with egg butter, which is exactly what it sounds like: butter mixed with chopped hard boiled egg.

Is it possible to take a picture of a plate of food assembled at a buffet that doesn’t look disgusting? Not for me!

This was Passover 2019. Menu with a few recipe links below:

Matzo ball soup

The spinach, date, and almond salad from the Jerusalem cookbook

Leek and cheese matzah pie

Fesenjan (Persian pomegranate and walnut chicken stew)

Basmati rice with spices

Eater’s shawarma-spiced tofu wraps have quickly become a popular lunchtime food in our house. They’re flavorful, they’re easy to make, and they would even be vegan if you subbed in something for the yogurt sauce. (The yogurt sauce is really good, though.)

I’ve spent the last few years on a quest to find a great butter chicken recipe. The recipe from the May & June 2019 issue of Cook’s Illustrated is the best I’ve found so far.

Do you remember when email was a novelty? When hearing the AOL “You’ve Got Mail!” alert was exciting? I long for those days. 

Being alive in 2019 means being inundated with emails, even if you’re not someone with an email heavy job. I’m ruthless with my inboxes (I have three, unfortunately), and use a combination of Unroll.me plus frequent hand combing. I am always at inbox zero. I couldn’t live any other way.

But! I love getting and almost always read Sam Sifton’s “What to Cook” NYT Cooking emails. They are a joy. Sifton uses food as a jumping off point for conversations, memories, book recommendations. He believes, as I do, that food is culture, and that the culture of food is central to life.