RESTAURANT DAY

Saturday 17 May was Restaurant Day, so Professor M and I headed to the park where local residents set up their stands for the day. The weather was nice, almost like summer. Well, sunshine and anything over 18 °C / 64 °F is warm enough to pass for summer and thus qualifies as picnic weather…

Everything I’m wearing is old, except for the necklace (Banana Republic): dress (Phase Eight), cashmere pashmina (bought in India 13 years ago), sunglasses (Tom Ford), watch (Viceroy), bangle: my mother’s. ring: custom-made from my grandmother’s wedding ring.  (Photo by Professor M)

If you look at the picture above more carefully, you see some old tombstones and an old church in the background (upper left corner). The park used to be a cemetery in the 18th century, and some of the old stones are still there. That’s why the  park has a rather grim nickname, “Ruttopuisto”, (which could be translated as ‘Plague Park’) because victims of the 1710 Plague were buried there. The church was build much later, in 1826, and it is very popular for weddings and christenings.

Restaurant Day started in Finland in 2011 and has since spread all over the world. The idea is simple: anyone can set up a restaurant or a cafe in their own home, in a park, on a street corner, on the beach, practically anywhere, for a day. And you can serve anything you want (except alcohol, there’s a state monopoly on that here…), so there was quite a selection to choose from: all sorts of pastry and cakes, Vietnamese and Thai food, African dishes, Cajun, Mexican, blinis and roe, barbeque…Of course, we sampled some of the delicacies on offer…

Photo by Professor M

Saturday was the warmest day in May so far, and as it is set to get much warmer in the next few days, we could say that summer is finally here…

Enjoy the summer sunshine, 

Tiina

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