Högsåra - no Christmas posts... yet :)

All the blogs that I am currently following are full of great xmas pictures: gift finding and packing, xmas tree decorating, enjoying glögi and other xmas delies, waiting for snow and listening to the xmas songs. Not in my blog.. yet :D We also have xmas tree already, gifts are almost there, many pre-xmas parties already enjoyed, but still in this spare moment that I got now I decided to dig through the summer pictures and continue the holiday" journey". 

Lately I have been quite silent here, due to all the pre-xmas events at work and in private life. Yesterday for a change we spent an evening in a great company of sailing friends. And that is where the inspiration came for today's post :) 

...So Hanko it was. And from there on a great sunny day we headed to Högsåra. (now in winter it seems almost surreal that this pictures are true :) )  

There was just enough wind to sail and we were not the only boat heading in that direction :) 

For me it was the first time in this island, somehow we always chose other destinations and never stopped there. I was looking forward to one more new place. 

Due to the wind forecast out of the two island harbours (Kejsarhamnen and Lillbacka Brygga) we chose the better protected one and ended up in Kejsarhamnen.  We easily found a place in the harbour and went to explore the place. There is a little shop, where you can find all the first need goods, there is a grilling place with some tables and benches, there is a sauna and a little sand beach (only now I realised to have no pics of those..). 

The place was famouse for the fisher-woman, Kejsar Fina,who became personal friend with the Russian tsar family, that returned to the island for 16 times.

But there is one more thing this island is famous for: Farmor's café :) I have heard some much of this place offering as big cake portions as you are able to eat, that we could not skip it :D

Tea refill is also free by the way :) 

And finally there they were... waiting for me :D Carrot cake, berries cake, mud cake, cheesecake.... and it was real, you can take as much as you want for the price of 1 portion :)

Apart from the food (there is also a restaurant), the place is so cute, that I did not know where to look and what to picture :)

Plenty of different dining areas, terraces, toys and games for kids, domestic animals it is like a little summer paradise. I only have a couple of pictures from the outside, as the weather was not so good and it was raining. 

 After eating the enourmos cake portions, we agreed that a walk would definitely be needed! So we headed to check the other harbour, Lillbacka Brygga. 

It seemed to have all the needed facilities there, including little luxurious service: warm filled pancakes and other saulty snacks. Again as a foreigner I am impressed by the level of trust: the food is there open and available and a little cash is close to it, so that everyone pays for what they take. :) 

Next time we decided we would stop in this harbour, it looked nicer and probably had a bit better services. 

Overall Högsåra became one of the favorite places :)

Night of arts in Helsinki - food for body and soul

Team event with my colleagues happened to be on the same day as the Night of the Arts. The topic of our event could not be more suitable: it started with the food for the soul by visiting the Taidekoti Kirpilä and was crowned with the superb food for the body at Chef&Sommelier.

Taidekoti Kirpilä is actually a little museum in an apartment. In 1988 the owner of the exposed collection died and in his testament left all his art items to the Finnish Cultural Foundation with the only condition: he wanted the collection to be available for public. Now his home is transformed into museum and is open for visiting twice a week. 

Mostly collection represents paintings of Finnish artists, for their admirers this place is a must-see. I did not dare taking pictures of those pieces of art, they should be seen with your own eyes.Overall the collection counts about 350 paintings. But apart from the paintings, there were some sculptures and interesting interior objects, like the ones below. 

We had a guided tour, so had the pleasure to hear the stories of some pieces. Like the one about the monkey statue: whenever guests would ask the collector where his portrait or sculpture was, he would point to this guy :) 

Next stop in our Night of the Arts was little restaurant, that got a Michelin star, Chef&Sommelier. The dining room is really small, tables need to be booked weeeeeeeeeeell in advance, but this was a real experience! For that night I forgot about the diet and just ENJOYED every single bite. 

The menu contains only a few items and from the names you would never know what is the food that you get, you only get to choose the ingredients you want. The ingredients change all the time, as the fruits or vegetable get ripe. Menu is updated every couple of weeks.  The concept is to choose from 3 to 9 courses. The Chef has some land close by Helsinki, where he grows lot of the vegetables and herbs himself. Other ingredients have all their stories, that Chef tells when the food is served.  It feels like you just came to see your good friends, who are happy to make best food for you from the best available ingredients and accompany it by the best drink they got in their cellar. There are no waiters, Chef and Sommelier do all by themselves. 

Sommelier has a great collection of wines, that he orders from all aver the world, so no chance to find them in Alko :( He can help you pick fantastic combination of drinks to your food. 

Of course the bread is also "homemade", as well as butter. 

 The Chef likes to treat his guests with some little surprises :) 

This "bonus" was called "parsley and beetroot". 

 Pike perch and herbs.

 Mushrooms and roots.

 Lamb and tomatoes.

 One more surprise from the Chef: orange sorbet. 

 Cheese plate

 Fennel and apple. 

 And one more surprise: cauliflower and licorice ice-cream.

This meal was all about Art. Both food and service were exceeding any expectations. I am sure this place will be revisited many many many times. The prices are not really cheap, but the whole experience was worth every cent of it!