Turku Food Walk 2016 - what to eat, where to eat

Turku Food Walk is a concept that's generated international interest too and a tasty way to explore Turku, one of the leading foodie travel destinations in Finland. 

As has already been established,I have fallen head over heels in love with Turku. Its restaurants, vibe that echoes Stockholm... what's there not to love! 

Now the city, which has already branded itself as one of the leading foodie travel destinations in the country, has coe up with yet another genius idea: Food Walk. So, once again I made my way to Turku and walked the walk.

And walking is something one will do, you know: in 6 hours it took us to complete the marathon we clocked 10 dishes and 13,7 kilometres...

The concept has generated international interest, too, and this is how it works. For €44 you get a Food Walk card that covers 10 restaurants. Out of those 10  you pick 5 and feast on a special dish they've prepared for the event. The card is valid for 3 days from the first stamp and it can be conveniently purchased online. For more details and information on the participating restaurants, please see here.

This is not a gourmet tourné like, say, Turku Food and Fun or Kaartin Kutonen in Helsinki, for obvious logistical reasons. For small and chronically booked-out restaurant like Kaskis it would be impossible to accommodate a steadsy stream of walk-ins. The quality of the participating restaurants ranges greatly, so Food Walks shoudl really have something in store for everyone.

The card has become a popular gift item and why not - I can't think of a better way to explore this lovely city. Though we set out to eat our way through every single of one of the 10 restaurants so towards the end we weren't feeling overly lovely ourselves...

The only one we decided to skip was Cafe Brahe whose dish would have been coffee and cinnamo bun. Their cinnamon buns are rather legendary though, what with their frisbee-like size...

So, here's what you should remember:

- wear comfortable shoes
- start early
- remember the importance of siesta, regular breaks and making sure yu stay hydrated. The terraces along the river bank are perfect for this...!
- check the opening hours - some of the restaurants are not open for lunch for instance
- in case you're a bigger party (4+ individuals), it pays off to book a table

And here's what you should eat:

1. Ravintola Smör: starter of the day made using fresh, locally sourced ingredients

Unequivocal winner. Hands down. 

Restaurant Smör was the clear winner in both of our rankings. A glorious dish, whch today featured salmon marinated with cranberry long drink by Kyrö Distillery and goat cheese and summery leaves.

2. Grill it! Marina: Pulled pork burger

While at first we werent impressed by Restaurant Grill it's dish (pulled pork? burger? Haven't we all seen this so many times before...?) we were after destroying it n record time. Brioche bun was excellent, pulled pork had great texture and taste and all the condiments worked together. 

3. Stefan's Steakhouse: Duo antipasti (two small savoury ones)

From this point on the differences between the remaining restaurants weren't massive and ranking them wasn't quite as easy. Number three was, however this duo by Stefan's Steakhouse. The Jerusalem artichoke soup was very, very good and crab cake with choron sauce and parsley root crisps had excellent texture, too. 

The restaurant (part of a chain owned by Stefan Richter of American Top Chef fame) was a pleasant surprise with its stylish ambiance. 

4. Cafe Art: Coffee by Turku Coffee Roastery and slice of cake of your choice

As far as sweet treats were concerned, Cafe Art was the winner, already because this was the only place where one can actually make their own choices. Great coffee and wonderful cakes. Every single one of them...

5. Pinella: Dessert of the day

Pinella has for long been one of our favourites in Turku and didn't let us down this time, either. Today's pudding consisted of lemon curd, ice cream, meringueand burnt sugar. Lovely dish and not at all too sweet. Though it probably wasn't the ideal choice right after those cakes...

6. Brahen Kellari: Taste of Turku Appetizer

Brahen kellari's dish was a Toast Skagen on dark Archipelago bread. The richness of the prawn salad got a welcome edge from capers. Well executed classic that's hard to ruin. 

7. di Trevi: Tapas board

While Di Trevi's cosy interior might have tempted us to stay for longer, the dish unfortunately didn't. Olives, almonds, limppatatas bravas and tomato bruschetta did not exactly wow us. On the other hand this was one of the most sizeable dishes of the day and also worls for vegetarians. Tomato brushcetta was sublime, though and Peñascal¨s rosado was a perfect match with its intensely fruity tomatos. 

8. Sevilla & Co: Grilled king prawns, toasted country bread and mascarpoe and parmesan foam

Sevilla's dish featured king prawns which got me giddy. The oil that they came with had lovely garlicky toastiness, but the prawns itself had no taste. 

9. Svarte Rudolf: Warm chicken sandwich with blue cheese dressing 

Svarte Rudolf's  dish was the biggest one of the day. The salad featured fresh fruit and was ok and fresh, too, but the chicken was dry and lacked taste. By far the weakest link. 

SO... what was your favourite?

There's an additional bonus: after your card is all stamped out, you can use it to get 15 € off of a dish of your choice at any one of the participating restaurants. 

A little bird told me now Turku is planning a Food Walk that would explore the many ethnic kitchens of the city. And I though I couldn't possibly love this city any more...

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ANYONE FOR SECONDS?

      

SHARING IS CARING!

Food and Fun Turku 2015: Karu Izakaya and Pinella

As tends to be the case during our getaways in Turku, going hungry is one thing we didn't have to worry about. After the glorious dinner at Kaskis, I was slightly worried if our next stop, Karu Izakaya might have too big boots to fill. Especially after learning that The Mane Magician, my date for the evening, didn't even eat sushi (say whaaaaat? Who doesn't eat sushi?!)

While the restaurant might all about minimalism, the service certainly wasn't. We were warmly welcomed and thoroughly looked after all evening.

Their special Food and Fun guest star was Eyþór Mar Halldórsson (nope, not even going to attempt spelling that one...!) from Sushi Samba in Reykjavik, which, according to their website offers einstaka blöndu af japanskri og suður-amerí­skri matargerð. 

Just how drunk would one have to be in order to come up with a language like that?

All the restaurants participating in Food and Fun offered a 4-course meal, which, at €48 was reasonably priced to say the least.

First we were served some snacks. Pig ears. Shisimi-seasoned pig ears with yuzukosho mayonnaise, to be precise.

Liked them. Liked them a lot. Though I would have needed Google translator to keep track of all things I consumed that night...

The starter (scallop ceviche with tabasco and lemon dressing, crisp garlic and spring onions) was beautifully presented, but the dressing, which we were instructed to neck, was so fierce it took a while for our sense of taste to return.

The food was far from typically Japanese - inspiration had been drawn from all over the planet. Next dish was reindeer tataki (divine while at that!), smoked sour cream, Amazu Ponzu, pickled red onion and crunchy Jerusalem artichokes)

Then it was off to a beef slider in a black bun, coriander mayo, shisho and Japanese onion rings.

A great dish, this one too. The onion had dreamily light and crunchy tempura coating, though I did not expect to run into Provolone cheese in a Japanese restaurant...

I also had the wine package. Don't seem to have made any notes, so you'll have to make do with the verdict that they worked as well.

And then it was time for some sushi.

And not just any old sushi...

Tuna nigiri with wasabi ponzu and sekbai popcorn, beef nigiri wth quail's eggs and truffle pork and Rock and Maki roll with langustine, duck liver (!!!), Sriracha mayonnaise and avocado.

"In case this is what sushi tastes like, I've never had sushi before", the date sighed.

I just sighed. And giggled. Incredible. Simply incredible.

The dessert featured more parts that a Swiss clock: yuzu and rosemary chocolate cake, skyr (well  of course...), yuzu and hazelnut. And marshmallows. For me this was a tad too sickly sweet and would have benefited from something salty.

Compared to the streamlined menu of Kaskis the night before, this went to other extreme. Each dish featured various components put together with the perseverance of an engineer, surprising combinations and tastes one would not have expected.

Great attention had clearly been paid to details, which there were a lot of. Some might say there was too much going on the plate, but I'd say they were wrong. What a feast!

The nightfall wrapped Turku and us in a blissful glow. Once more I was surprised by the compact size of this town that is swiftly becoming a firm favourite of mine. 

Everywhere you looked, there were all these charming little restaurants. I  wanted to stop by at each and every single one of them. People laughing, clearly enjoying themselves. Something about the relaxed and cozy atmosphere reminded me of Stockholm. Could it be that people in Turku simply are that much better at enjoying life?

We headed off to Pinella, a picturesque old restaurant located in the most idyllic park lit by millions of lights. It was like a scene out of Elsa Beskow's children's book. 

Pinella's cocktail bar was in good hands: they won the prize for the best cocktail of the festival.

Cocktails here were fresh and herby with lost of bright citrusy notes. The winner cocktail consisted of 1 cl cloudberry liqueur, 3 cl cucumber and dill  gin, 2 cl fresh lime juice and  2 cl simple syrup. 

Tasted every bit as glorius as it sounds, too. 

Ahhhhhh-mazing weeekend. Can't wait for next year's festival! 

Turku, I do ♥ you.

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ANYONE FOR SECONDS?

         

Food and Fun Turku 2015 : Kaskis and Marina Lounge

Turku. Ooooh, Turku. Since I live in Helsinki, I'm genetically hard-wired to think there's no life anywhere else in Finland. But Turku. You just keep proving me wrong... 

For some years now the highlights of any Finnish foodie's culinary calendar have been Taste of Helsinki (I'm telling you - it put even Taste of London to shame!) and Wine, Food and Good Food fair. Now there's a new entry that I will most certainly adopt next year, too. Food and Fun festival in Turku. And my, o my, what a festival it was!

12 participating restaurants 7 cocktail bars. I got to sample the selection already at the press tour earlier this spring. Not wanting to miss out, I made my reservations straight away and I'm glad I did: Kaskis (one of the hottest restaurants in the whole of Finland) for one was sold out months before the event. 

Their special guest star was Fredrik Johnsson from a Michelin-starred Restaurang Volt in Stockholm, whose menu , just so it happens, was awarded as the best of the festival.

Upon learning that the house bubbly was Taittinger (!!!) we wasted no time getting our hands on some of that.

And with Champagne we were served rye crisps with dreamily rich porcini crème.

The first stop of our 4,5 - course menu (€48) was fennel, roe and hazelnut. A seemingly simple dish that kicked every single ass from here to Hong Kong. Roe and hazelnut (who thinks of putting those tow together? A genius, that's who!) made for a great texture.

Next dish: elk, beets and pine (?) was probably my favourite. Juicy carpaccio-like elk with sour cream flavoured with bone marrow and beets cooked on bed of salt. Wowcha.

We opted for the matching wines, too (€34) that, much like the food, were thought through. The wine that was served with this one (lost my notes, sorry..) didn't do much to us on its own, but with the dish... kabooom. 

The main course wowed with its understated elegance. Under the cloud of thin celeriac shavings there was roasted lamb. Finished with pickled elder flowers (yesssss) the dish quite simply melted in the mouth. The sauce had such a wonderful depth to it. And the wine paired beautifully with the food. I could have cried.

But then I almost did. And they weren't tears of happiness.

For a pre-dessert were treated to a plateful of what I until the very last possible minute, kept hoping might turned out to be pixie dust. Or powdered unicorn. Or navel fluff from a Panda. But no - it was what I was afraid it might be: cheese, my Nemesis. And to make matters worse: not just any cheese: goat cheese.

Every now and then Fredrik popped out of the kitchen to see how we were doing (trying to will the stuff to just magically disappear by showing it around our plates with fork). Forgive me, Fredrik. I still feel awful.

Though, my companion couldn't stomach the strangely pungent concoction of fresh herbs and goat cheese either. 

But the actual dessert gets a AAAAA+. Almong milk ice cream, smoked toffee and sweet cicely. Again, seemingly simple yet surprising and insanely delicious. 

And as the post-dessert was Fredrik spiced cake he makes at Volt, too. 

Thank you Kaskis, thank you Fredrik. Amazing night. And though the food was top-notch, I'd have to say that the thing that impressed me the most was the ambiance. One of the most sought-after restaurants in the country, one that only seats 36 people with a Michelin-winning chef in charge of the kitchen and yet...the vibe was so welcoming and relaxed. 

Take it from me, people. Everything you've heard about Kaskis- all true and then some. Make the trip to Turku for them alone. You won't be disappointed!

After dinner we made our way to Marina Lounge, located in the hotel we stayed the last time we were in Turku: Radisson Blu Palace. They had been taken over by an Icelandic Asgeir Mar Björnsson, who, along with his sidekick kept us in good spirits. In every sense of the word. 

We were promised showmanship and that's what w got. Though I think the sidekick might have had a couple of cocktails himself, too...!

The cocktails were great and had lovely freshness courtesy of dill and cucumber and that sorts of things. Liked them a lot. Drank them a lot. 

You think we're done? Oh, no. Next blog post will take you to Karu Izakaya and Pinella. 

(I did tell you - the weekend was an ah-ma-zing non-stop foodie orgy!)

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ANYONE FOR SECONDS?