« Happy First Birthday Mercury and Apollo! | Main | In The Land Of The Midnight Sun »
August 14, 2004
Lasipalatsi Restaurant, Helsinki, Finland
Since we're staying at the Scandic Hotel Continental in Helsinki, and it seemed to be within walking distance from a lot of restaurants, we decided to just wander outside and see what we could find. It was in this fashion that we stumbled unto Lasipalatsi Restaurant. I'd been thinking that it would be neat to try Lapland cuisine, and here was a restaurant that serves said cuisine.
The restaurant was nicely decorated, and Todd noticed how much wood was used for interior decorating. I remarked that this seems to be common in the Scandinavian region. Looking at the menu, two entrees looked particularly interesting to me: the grilled reindeer and the whitefish with crayfish pate. August is crayfish month in Finland, or at least, Helsinki. Fortunately, my dining companion liked both of my selections as well, so we decided to get both the whitefish and the reindeer so we could share.
Although the restaurant had an extensive wine selection, I chose not to imbibe. This is because I had so few hours of sleep in the last 24 hours - three, to be exact - that I was afraid I would fall asleep right after dinner if I had any alcohol.
The rye bread we had before the entrees arrived was dense, chewy, and full-flavored. I had read that the Finns were very good at baking rye bread, and I definitely agree with that assessment. For the entrees, we had the grilled fillet of reindeer with baked Lappish potato and cranberry sauce, and whitefish gratinated with crayfish pate served with a black chanterelle risotto side. The reindeer was surprisingly tender. I had expected that the meat would taste gamier, but it didn't, which is a good thing for me. The whitefish was on the salty side, but still good. I thought the risotto was very creamy and tasty.
I'm a sucker for desserts, so I persuaded Todd to split a Tosca cake with me. I chose this dessert because it is served with ingredients which I'm not familiar with, namely, red currants and marinated black currants on top of vanilla sauce. The Tosca cake is kind of a cross between bread pudding filling, cobbler crunchy top, and a nutty tart crust. It was scrumptious. I would definitely go back to this restaurant again.
Posted by Kathy at August 14, 2004 10:24 PM