Flea market series part 1: Vallila, Helsinki

As I'm a passionate flea market goer myself, I thought that maybe some of you would want to hear of my experiences and recommendations on flea markets! So I decided to start a series of flea market posts and introduce you the flea markets I go to and what there is to know about them. Starting off with my favourite flea market neighborhood, Vallila!


For the past 4 years I've more or less lived really close to the neighborhood of Vallila. It's been seen as one of the "up and coming"-neighborhoods of Helsinki and I'm not surprised! It has a lot of young people and an awesome, slightly rugged vibe. It also has quite a variety of flea markets.These are the ones I've visited the most as I used to live in this neighbourhood. I think this is one of the the best parts of Helsinki for some serious second hand shopping.

Hesyn perintöpuoti 

Mäkelänkatu 34

Small place with a good variety of books and especially good quality china. So if you're planning to buy a full set of some china by Arabia, check this place out. It's not overpriced but not the cheapest option. The money they make will go to take care of homeless animals. They also have another shop with more lower quality items and clothes at the headquarters at Itä-Pakila (Yhdyskunnantie 11). For more info, visit: http://www.hesy.fi/elainsuojelukeskus/perintopuoti/ where you an also find other ways to help homeless animals.

Emmaus Vallila 

Mäkelänkatu 54

A volunteer operated shop with no-profit agenda. All the money goes to support volunteering and for different projects in development aid. It has a christian agenda behind it. Well kept place with relatively good quality stuff and low prices. Wide range of items from clothes to light fixtures but no bigger home appliences. One of my "regulars" and the service has always been good. My best find has been gorgeous cream Max Mara two piece for 15 euros. More info: http://www.emmaushelsinki.fi/fi/kirppu.html

Löytöretki 

Mäkelänkatu 54 or 56

A flea market with self-service. Pretty messy place to be honest. A lot of stuff though and here you get the real excitement of finding something really nice with a low price. You just have to look past all the clutter first. A real "dig-and-find" flea market. And the owners keep their dog here from time to time so if you're totally scared of them, don't go. Only cash accepted.

Samaria-Shop 

Sturenkatu 37-41

Cheap homeware. Not really much to say about this place, quite a "normal" middle-sized second hand shop with some kind of christian charity behind it. Again, quite a range of items, pretty cheap as well. Not very pleasant service from the staff though. I think there are several ones in Helsinki, at least one other on Runerginkatu in Töölö. More information: http://www.samaria.fi/samaria/samaria-shop_kirppikset/

Vallilan Stoori 

Sturenkatu  36

This is a newcomer and oh boy what a newcomer it is! It's a combination between a cafe and a fleamarket, with superb quality on the stuff! Basically it's a normal self-service flea market where people leave their clothes to be sold but the staff here organises it in a really nice and slightly hipsterish way. It seems to be popular among young moms as well. It has had some awesome stuff every time I've been there and it's really easy to get to. You can check out their website on: http://www.vallilanstoori.fi/

Veggies food series: Surprisinly good vegetarian lasagna

I accidentaly came up with quite a good recipe for making vegetable lasagna with some mediterranian inspiration.

Feta-veggie lasagna

White sauce

2tbs butter or margarine
½dl regular wheat flour
5dl milk
100g feta cheese (the real deal, not the cheap alternative!)
sprinkle of white pepper

Veggie sauce

1 can (400g) crushed tomatos
1 can pre-cooked gazbanzo beans
1 can unpitted black olives
1 can precooked mushrooms (fresh ones could work as well if you prefer them)
prinkle of black pepper

Lasagna sheets, depending on how many layers you want to make
Some nicely browning cheese like mozzarella to top it up

Start off bu preheating the over to 200 degrees. Then to the white sauce. First melt the butter in a pan. Put in the flour and let simmer for a while. Warm up the milk in the microwave and add it little by little to the butter-flour mixture, whisking while you go. Whisk until the sauce is of even texture. Let simmer on low for a few minutes. Then turn off the heat and add the crumbled feta cheese. Seasong with white pepper.

For the veggie sauce just pit the black olives and then mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Season with black pepper.

Assemble the lasagna by starting with a layer of the veggies sauce on the bottom of the pan/oven pot/any oven-roof dish you want to use for baking it. After layer of veggies sauce put a layer of the white sauce. Then put a layer of lasagna sheets. Do the next layers the same way until you reach the top layer. The top layer should be just a layer of the white sauce, topped of with some of the cheese like mozzarella. Bake in 200 degree over for approx. 50 mins until the top has got some nice browning going on.

Veggie food series: How to make seitan

I realized I've never posted this even though I already wrote in in October, so here you go:

Anyhow, I just wanted to share my love for SEITAN. What an incredible thing it is.

Inspired by the "no-alcohol January" which is really popular in Finland, I have "no-meat October" every year. The main goal for myself is to shake up my dinner routine a bit and try to find some good veggie recipes I can then use throughout the year. This year I found it a bit hard to start with just basically because time just flies and October was here way too soon, haha. But now I've been rocking my new veggie diet and I am even trying to push it towards more of an vegan diet than a lacto-ovo-vegetarian which I normally do on Octobers (lacto-ovo-vegetarians are allowed to eat egg and dairy products).

So, every October I try to find some new veggie things to try out and this year I was really tempted to try making seitan. I tried it for the first time oevr the summer and I was pretty amazed how good it was. I've always had an impression it's really, well, labour-intensive to make (the economist inside of me couldn't come up with a better expression). But with some advice from my friend Krista and with a little googling, I found out it's incredibly easy. So here's a simple recipe for you:
.

Basic seitan

Makes about 12 patties

Ingredients

2 dl gluten flour
1dl soy flour or kikpea flour (gram), I prefer kikpea
1,5dl Water or other liquid
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons chilli or smoked paprika, ground
Pretty much any seasoning you wish, in the ones pictured below I used some tumaric

For cooking stock

1,5l of veggies stock or 2 stock cubes and 1,5l of water
Soy sauce
Balsamic vinegar


Start off by mixing all your dry ingredients (gluten flour, soy/kikpea flour, dry seasonings) in a large bowl. Mix the 1,5dl water with 2 teaspoons of soy sauce on a small bowl. 

Then mix the liquids and the flour together in a bowl and knead. Not a lot of kneading is required though as the gluten flour builds the elasticity up like really fast.

Knead the dough to a longish roll and then cut to pieces  and form to shapes to your own taste. I like making patties.

Next thing you have to do is to cook the patties. My cooking broth was a combination of vegetable stock, vinegar and soy. It's very much recommended to season the broth well as it will give the most of the taste to the patties. So get your stock to a slight boil and drop the patties in one by one. Then let them simmer for about 20 minutes.

The finished product

After cooking, you can also cut some of the "steaks" to smaller pieces: they can be used in multiple ways to substitute meat in sauces and stews! You can freeze seitan and then just thaw it when needed. Freezing should make the consistancy slightly softer.

First time at a flea market as a seller!

Looks like this is turning out to be a very flea market oriented blog, but hey, I guess it's no problem!

Today I had my first experience in actually be a seller at a flea market. Kallio-liike, a neighborhood movement from the Helsinki neighbour Kallio, organized outdoor flea markets in parks during summer. They have broadened the concept and today we saw the first indoor winter flea market. I have to say it was great!  The idea is that the flea market doesn't cost anything for the seller as it normally does but the people can just come and sell whatever they happen to have on. Everything happens either on blnaket on the floor or if someone (a myself) had racks/tables their own, one could use them.

Anyhow, for me, it was a success and I had a blast! I sold almost all the stuff I brough. I basically was only left with my graduation dress but I guess it was too fancy for the flea market after all.

The summer cottage

This wardrobe at our family's summer cottage has just the perfect color! I love it! Too bad my mom happens to share my taste so she has a "reservation" for it since it originally used to belong to her god parents. Well it's gorgeous anyhow!

Great Italian coffee in Helsinki

My favourite place to have a cup of espresso or cappucino has to be this: Cafe Gran Delicato on Kalevankatu in Kamppi. Unfortunately it's not really on my hood but I try to pay it a visit every time I'm nearby and have a craving for great cuppa. Definitely an authentic atmosphere: the staff speaks Finnish with an accent and you pay when you leave which is really not the common practice around here. And of course most importantly, the coffee is superb as well as the baguettes and paninis you can have if feeling a bit hungry. A def. recommendation from me! Just keep one thing in mind: if you happen to be one of those who prefer their coffee "the Finnish way", lightly roasted and tasting like the rainwater, you better order tea or latte here.

I just wanted  to share some random  stuff you might come across while visiting drift stores and antique shops. I did end up buying something as well but more about that later.

Second-hand finds

So, I went to the Valtteri Flea Market the other day and this is what I found:

Isn't it just the most adorable little bag ever? Good condition, genuine leather, a Finnish manufacturer... and best of all, the price was 4 euros! A real find there!

As I really like the design of the purse, I googled a little bit more about the brand, Three Bags, and I found out there was a couple of bags by the brand on internet auctions. And that's where I then found this baby:

I've been looking for a bag that would accomodate my other baby, Asus Zenbook laptop I bought a couple of months ago and now I found it! How didn't I come to think of traditional suitcases before? And the colour is just to die for.

Another colourful second hand gem I purchased with the first bag:

Isn't it cute? Can't wind it up though as it makes such a noise I can't sleep, haha. :D

Belgium/The Netherlands

Actually, before showing you the second-hand shopping goodess, I'll share some totally random pics from my trip to Belgium and The Netherlands a couple of weeks ago. Good times meeting up with dear friends!

And yeah, these are just some random pictures with crappy quality of cameraphone as I couldn't find my camera when I was packing.

Oh look, it's me! And Thiago being kind with his photobombing victory mark. :D The name sign was an awesome present, thanks Senna! We all got matching ones with our names on them. :) Apparently it's the Belgian car licence plate design.

 And btw, the dress I'm wearing is the one that was featured earlier in the blog! I love love love it! It's  just the perfect travelling piece because of the versitilily, fast-to-dry fabric and the loose fit.  Totally recommend you guys get a similiar piece for travelling use!

 

 

Oh well hello there, the wall of interenet memes... (Brussels)

This is a ratio I'm talking about! The picture is an information add for what's coming thanks to a renovation on a Dutch railway station (Breda, I guess). Translation: Places for 16 trains, 20 busses, 4200 bikes (!) and 720 cars. Helsinki city officials, learn something from this!

 

A very cool catherdal-like hallway on the airport of Copenhague. You wouldn't really guess it's an airport, would you?

"Welcome back to Finland". The weather was so bad hey almost didn't let our plane to fly from Stockholm to Helsinki...

I had an awesome trip seeing all my friends! Thanks for Thiago, Wolney and Daniel for hosting me in Brussels and for Britt and Danielle for hosting me in The Netherlands! Hope to see you guys soon!

The Flea Market Valtteri, Vallilan makasiinit

Living in Vallila, there's probably one flea market I've heard the most about, Valtteri (http://www.kirpputori.com/valtteri) . So of course I had to pay it a visit the other day. Even with all the rumours I didn't really know what to expect. This is what I came across with:

It was huge and packed! (And just for info, this is only one half of the indoor space in use plus there's also an outdoor space for more tables and furniture when the weather is better)

The selection here is rather impressive, it covers basically anything and everything. Most notable "genre" of stuff on sale was still young women's clothing so for that kind of pieces, this is a good place. No chance for fitting anything properly on though! But of course you can buy so many different things here as it's based on rented salestables so the items vary based on whatever people want to sell: I saw everything from fake "chanel" purses and used mobile phones to antiques and children's utilities. There's also a fixed antiquariat and cafe in case one gets a bit thirsty going through this massive hall of re-usable goods.

Btw at the antiquariat section I found something curious:

 Note it's the second one of the series, I just wonder how many of these there are in total....

 

  Anyhow, I really liked the place and made some pretty awesome finds too but more about them on my next post. I think I'll definately visit Valtteri again but I'll wait for a while before so the selection changes a bit.

And of course after tiring second hand shopping, I had to treat myself with some Laskiaispulla and hot chocolate at Kulmakahvio at Karhupuisto, which I can highly recommend, the staff was super friendly!


UPDATE: The flea market has been closed.

For more environmentally cleaning

One product which has bothered me lately is dish washing liquid. I've been wondering why all the liquids, even the ones meant for sensitive skin, have the labelling to be "irritating". I'm not sure either if my dishes ever get so dirty I would actually need to have any kind of superstrong detergant to get them clean on a daily basis. So finally when I ran out of my last washing liquid, I went on and got this Ekologinen Ole Hyvä washing liquid:

The ingreditients list is gratifyingly short:
INCI: Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Alcohol, Sea Salt, Citrus Limonum Oil, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis Oil.

So far it has worked well enough for my daily use and the citrus smell is really nice! And probably the best thing is that when I eventually run out of it, I can always go to fill up the same bottle in a retailer shop! So nice eco-saving in the materials too. :) To accompany my new purchase there's also the cute dishcloth made of hemp&cotton by a local producer Kierti.

And talking about retail shops: I got these from a relatively new eco shop called Eko Vintti, located in Mannerheimintie 98 next to Yliopiston Apteekki. The store is quite small yet they have rather good diversity in produce and really good service! I got a really warm welcome and spend a while chatting with the owner and she gave me some good tips for some eco beauty products. More about those in my next post though. :)

A new dress

I was supposed not to buy any new clothes anymore but earlier this week I realised I might need just another party dress as most of the ones I have I either can't fit into or aren't really suitable for all occations (family parties etc.). And that's the excuse I convinced myself to buy this dress today:


ANGEL S/L MINI DRESS

I think it's sooooo cute! Perfect combination of classic classyness and cutesy girliness. :D Can't wait for the spring to come now.


Ok, I have to admit it's not the only dress I bought, this one found its way to my wardrode a couple of weeks ago too... (Picture from hm.com/fi)

Pub Magneetti, Mäkelänkatu 20

I've been living in Vallila, an ex-working class neighbourhood of Helsinki, which despite of turning more into a middle class neighborhood, still has some rough ends to it, for 6 months now. I really love the neighbourhood, it has most of the services you need on a daily basis and also nice variety of fleamarkets and corner bars with decent prices. However, I still hadn't found the bar I was expecting this place would have: a nice, cosy, not too posh place for young people. Well folks, last night I found it: Pub Magneetti. It's a small place located on the main street, Mäkelänkatu, and still it's rather hard to find if you don't know what to look for. No neon signs, just the name on the window and an entrance which raises the question "am I really aloud to go in?" (At least on Finnish standards as we prefer everything to be if not super tidy, at least not as dingy as this small entrance) Anyhow, once you get in, you don't regret: the bar is superb. The decor is, well, eclectic to say the least and the whole place was lit up with just candle light and a rather kitsch, yet interesting fixture of Christmas lights. The walls are packed with a strange mixture of memorabilia, mainly donated by customers, I heard. And the music was really good too, just perfect for a chill place like this.
Last night, a regular wednesday evening, all tables were full of lively, young crowd and no wonder as the regular tap beer is only 2,8e/0,4l. Very reasonable for a bar in Helsinki. Not that much of beer variety though, but still some choice in case you totally detest the Karjala beer on tap.
So, if you want to have a cosy beer with friends or a place to start a long night out, this bar is a total thumbs up. At least in my case, I'm sure last night won't be my last night there. :D So muchos gracias for my lovely friends for inviting me there last night!

Happy holidays everyone!

Grocery shopping at Kannelmäki

My parents left for a holiday trip and left me with a car for Christmas (and my dog although he's nice and cosy at my grandsparents' at the moment) so after dropping them at the airport hotel I decided to use this gained feedom of travelling and went to check out my old hoods at Kannelmäki. Actually it was for buying some more windshield washing liquid for the car but any case, I ended up visiting Kannelmäen Prisma, a HUMANGOUS supermarket they have built there in last couple of years. It was now twice the size it was when I lived next to it (it's now the biggest supermarket in the metropolitan area) and to be honest, I find it ridiculous (it has 41 checkout counters for christ's sake). I can't imagine someone would actually enjoy shopping there. I do understand the strategy in trade perspective as people get hungry by the time they even reach the food section...
Anyhow, being there I recalled someone had mentioned they had some speciality considering the organic food stuff so I decided to check it out. It turned out to be (when I found it after walking a mile from the car section) a shop-in-a-shop for Eat&Joy Maatilatori, a succesful local/organic foodstore business which just had opened an organic megastore in the restored mall of Kluuvi. So my expectation where quite high at that point. I checked out the stall and I was pleased by the variety of organic meat (although freezed) and the flour section. On the other hand, I have to admit I was quite disappointed for the fact everything had been put for display like in a tourist shop. I mean, when I go grocery shopping, I really don't care if my jar of jam has a bow tied around it or not. It's cute, sure, but the fact is, I don't really want to buy organic local stuff for the fact the packaging looks crafty, I buy it for ethical reasons. It pisses me off so much how local food is so often marketed in this cutesy way as it's just food after all. It's never gonna be the everyday choice for people if you always have to pay extra for the time put in to making the products look extra pretty. It's of course good for products which are meant to be given as presents but I would love not to see it when it comes to regular foodstuff.
All in all, I think it's good they have the stall at Prisma, yet it's really not a reason for me to go there ever again. :D I hate supermarkets (although I have to admit I kinda had some strange love-hate relationship with Colruyt next to VUB in Brussels... Must have been the free coffee).

Finland, the country of snowy winters

Not. It's almost Christmas and this is what you can see from our balcony. Just wanted to share this as it's ridiculous.

Long time, no blogging

Lately I've been incredibly busy as I started a new job at Elisa (one of the major mobile phone and internet operators in Finland). Working every day with phones I've realised how fast the industry goes: I thought I was relatively good with technology but in the matter of fact, I'm quite clueless from time to time. So it's time for me to get modern: this is my first mobile update ever. Although even this is a bit of a cheat as I'm not on the go but at home. Anyhow, I'm really excited with my new phone I got from work (htc desire z or something) and I can't wait to start blogging more random stuff on the go.

Stress releaving meditation

I'm a huge stresser myself. Actually, I'm the queen of "I should". There is no better way of making me feel all stressed out than my own thoughts going aroung, telling me what I ought to do: "I should wash the dishes" "I should clean up" "I should be studying" "I should already have studied so much more, the test is coming next week". So basically, I should do this and I should do that instead of whatever I'm doing (which normally is "nothing at all"). I end up being so stressed up I finally manage to do nothing at all. I know it's just the way of my head going and talking to my friends, I'm obviously not the only one suffering from this. But there's a cure for this cancer!

Meditation. I'm not a huge fan of following different "schools" when it comes to these kinds of mental things. I know a lot of people find their peace while doing yoga, cleaning up the house or going to the church. I think part of the traditional "holy experience" is just the fact when going to church, you slow down and just let your mind set. There's some much information and courses about so-called "mindfullness" around at the moment and there are so many methods taught (sometimes with a hefty pricetag on them). But I think basically anything will do to get the same effect, as long as it's something simple enough and something you have to focus on. For me the normal tricks are, well, clearing the fridge (yeah, it's tad strange, I admit) and going to pick mushrooms.

Here's the result from this friday morning's "mindfullness". 2,5kg in total, I'm never going to finish these...

Instead of telling everyone to go to pick some mushrooms (which I do recommend though), I want to share some easy methods of relaxing which I regularly use.

Pick the room for this exercise where the temperature is warm enough so you don't feel like freezing while staying still. If the floor is cold, feel free to put some kind of matt, a towel or a yoga matt underneath you (but nothing too comfy though, the point is not to feel like lying on a bed). If you feel chilly, you can use a blanket to cover you. Make sure the clothes you wear are somewhat comfortable on you.

Lay down on the floor, facing up. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath once and after that, just inhale an exhale normally.

Now there are a couple of options how to make your body and mind settle.

1. Think that you're breathing through your whole body. Every part in it takes part in the breathing. You can start it from the toes up by imagining how every time you inhale and exhale, the toes are doing it too. You can also try to intentionally relax your toes every time you exhale. Then, moving up from the toes, go through your whole body ending up on the top of your head. When getting there, you can imagine the whole body at once, inhaling and exhaling and every time you inhale, the top of your head moved further away from the tips of your toes.

2. A variation of the previous, which can be done also after it. Start with imagining the head moving away from the toes while inhaling. Do the same imagination with the tailbone and head. Then move on to thinking how your limbs are spread out in a shape of a giant starfish (or a star, if you find starfish gross :D). Every time you inhale, think of all your limbs moving away from the middle where you're lungs are and relaxing again towards the centre with exhaling. Like a pulsating star. If this feels hard to do at once, you may also start with just the legs or the arms separately first.

3. Another trick to relax your body is to think about the floor you're lying on. Feel the points of your body that are touching the ground. Let all you weight fall on these points and let the floor bear you. You can go even further and imagine the ground underneath the floor and eventually, imagine the whole Earth supporting you instead of your mussels doing it.

4. If you have trouble to let your mind go and you still have all the thoughs in your head flying in circles, I recommend imagining them actually flying. Let go yf them and think of them outside of your body (you will have all the time in the world after relaxing to think about them again). Every time a thought pops up in your head, you can think of it as a balloon you release from your lap to the skyes to fly. Or the thoughts being clouds, just hoovering around in the sky above you. The point is, don't get stuck on any thought, just BE there. Doing all the previous exercises helps you to think of the present instead of the "actual" thoughts.

You can do these exercise just to wind up after stressful day (or in the middle of it) or use them as a "warm up" for some deep streching or light yoga. I do have to warn you that they might work too well: I've found myself more than once sleeping on the floor... Talking about power nap there! I always feel superrelaxed after doing this and also more happy with myself, my life and the world in general. It kinda puts your stress into the right perspective.

Toxins in clothing etc

 Here's an interesting German documentary how toxic substancies end up in Europe eventhough they are banned here:




 http://areena.yle.fi/ohjelma/1674023

Unfortuantely this can only be viewed in Finland... But still, very interesting documentary, made at least me think about my consumption choices.

Organic chicken

Good news for everyone who's been wishing to be able to buy organic chicken. After 10 years without domestic organic production of chicken in Finland, we are finally getting a producer willing to take the chance.

According to Yle Morning news Studio, we are getting some organic chicken in the market this autumn. Unfortunately first it's only available around Tampere, but I'm hoping the demand is big enough for the producers are able to broaden the coverage.

Here's a piece of news on Aamulehti some time ago about the production: http://www.aamulehti.fi/Pirkanmaa/1194692491401/artikkeli/suomen+ensimmainen+luomubroileri+kasvaa+pirkanmaalla.html


More information about organic chicken and the possible salmonella threat: http://yle.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/2011/09/luomubroilerin_tautiriskit_hirvittavat_tehotuottajia_2859679.html