Mon 03/02/09 (Day 30) - American Company

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Dave survived the weekend, kind of. I saw him and his wife at breakfast this morning. They informed me that Dave took a spill during the weekend in Helsinki and has either a severely sprained or broken ankle. He still made it to the Prius though, just with a heavy limp.

One of our Finnish coworkers, Taisto, brought us in some Mämmi today. It's a traditional Finnish dessert mostly eaten around Easter, but you can find it all year. It's made from water, dark molasses, rye flour, rye malt, barley malt, salt and sour orange peel. You serve it cold with cream. Let me tell you, it tastes much better than it looks; Dave was less of a fan. An interesting fact from Wikipedia: Originally mämmi was eaten during lent; its laxative properties were associated with purification and purging. The attached pictures have nothing to do with the purging so don't worry.

After a typical Monday at work (save for the Mämmi) we rolled back to the hotel and met up with his wife. She'd had a fun day walking many, many kilometers exploring Tampere. It sounds like she enjoys it as much as I do.

Since Dave's a gimp now we planned to stay close to the hotel for dinner. Ranintola Myllarit is just two blocks away so we hobbled that direction. We got there and damned if it's not closed on Mondays! After some debating I headed back to get the car to save Dave some pain. I made a such a quick dash into the Bat Cave (what we call the parking garage because of its sliding door) that I was able to walk in and leave in the car without having to reopen the door. It's the little successes in life that make the difference 😉

I picked up Dave and his wife (Laura) and we headed to the Finlayson area since there's plenty of restaurants in the vicinity. We landed at Bella Roma, a chain Italian restaurant that proved tasty. I started with a grilled goat cheese salad. Yes, I know I've had one of those before, but this one was different. Enter olives, sun dried tomatoes and other such Italian flair to make it rather unique, even though I eat that salad nearly every night. For the mains I chose a bacon and salami spaghetti with pesto, Dave had a chicken pasta and Laura had a baked pasta dish with ham that was enormous and cheesey.

Not bad for a Monday.

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Photos

Looks Yummy, Right?
Mämmi, traditionally plated with cream.

Huvää Ruokahalua! (Bon Appetit!)
Dave enjoys his Mämmi. Or is he just acting like he enjoys it?

My first taste of Mämmi.
It tastes better than it looks! I actually enjoyed it, despite the expression.

The Bat Cave
The Prius is safe behind the doors of the Bat Cave.