Foodie shopping

As I already wrote in a previous post that I would write separately about my holiday shopping not to clutter the holiday photo post too much. So I'll introduce here some of the food and kitchen products that I brought with me from Finland to the UK. I didn't have the time to use any of them much yet, but they will surely become handy, tasty or amusing in no time.

My absolute favourites were the hedgehog tea towels by Lapun Kankurit that I got in Helsinki. I already have some other tea towels from the same makers, but these must be the best ones ever. I'm not revealing them fully in the photos, as they will be making many appearances on the blog in the future.

Then I purchased also from the Lapuan Kankurit shop an interesting tea in a retro tin. It's called Kyläkaupan Teesekoitus (tea blend of the village shop) made by Metkatuote, and it's a blend of green and white tea flavoured with lingonberries, vanilla and lotus flowers. I'm sure the tea will be tasty, but don't you just have to love the tin!

My mum gave me this lovely coffee tin with cute animal artwork on it. There is also good Finnish coffee and a wooden measuring spoon within. This makes a great addition to my coffee shelf.

I love using healthy berry powders in breakfast bowls and baking. The dried powders are a convenient way of storing some of the berry goodness of the Finnish forests. Now I filled in my dry cupboard with new ones and am going to taste the lingonberry one soon. Lingonberry was somewhat a theme here, as I also bought sugar with added lingonberry flakes. That should be good for baking too. I'm not quite sure yet where I will use the sea buckthorn syrup, but I'm sure I'll think of something. Dried chanterelles were also a mandatory item on my shopping list as usual. In the background there's a dried nettle bag hiding.

I can't get enough of mentioning my local Napue Gin by Kyrö Distillery Company and of course had to bring a bottle with me, so good times are ahead.

Herra Hakkaraisen Täysksylitolipastilli are tooth friendly dragees in strawberry and pear flavours. They are good for after meals and in between.

This Kasviskeittokirja is a Finnish translation of the German original Vegetarianisches Kochbuch für Freunde der natürlichen Lebensweise by Eduard Baltzer, the founder of the first German vegetarian society. The original was published in 1869, if the info that I found was correct. It's from around that time anyway and contains old vegetarian recipes and nourishment info flavoured with the attitudes of the time. It's quite funny to read at times, but many nutritional facts haven't changed from those days. Maybe I'll cook something from this book soon and then I'll make sure that I'll post it here.

I always buy lovely napkins where ever I go and this time I took with me Kirsikkapuisto (cherry park) by the Finnish fashion designer Jukka Rintala and a white horse napkin Nøkken som hvit hest by the Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen from Ateneum's The Magic North exhibition, which by the way was truly magical.

I also bought my favourite cheese Oltermanni, rye nachos and crisps, some dried soya and pea protein products, chocolates and rye bread. It seems that I only bought food! Well isn't that quite important anyway? Have you done some interesting food shopping lately, on your holiday or at home?

Your VegHog