Category Archives: in english

in english

New Year drunkenness

I had in a previous post written something about Nordic drinking habits. I think that things have gone downhill since I was last time in Finland for New Year (about 6 years ago). New Year’s Eve was spent with friends. We walked to the top of a hill to see the fireworks crackling around the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and then went to a party in town (all in all, a nice evening).

However, when going back to where we were staying around 4:30 a.m. I was stuck not only by the amount of drunken people (after all, it’s New Year, right?), but the depths of their stupor. One girl literally stumbled and fell accross Mannerheimintie, and we came back and lifted her up so that she would at least be safe. That was not the only one, on Jan. 1st after going to the movies we found a teenager sitting in a staircase, completely lost. After some negotiation, we left him there.

What’s wrong with a society if it is widespread that people drink until they lose consciousness?

in english

Yeah, as if you’re going to see this while driving


Yeah, as if you’re going to see this while driving, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

Driving in Finland is a lot of fun. You have lots of signs but sometimes they don’t even get it right. This picture was taken in the summer, now you can imagine how visible is this in winter…

in english

Sometimes marketing gets it wrong…

You’ve all heard the stories about the Mitsubishi Pajero (which is not sold with that name in Spanish-speaking countries because then it means the Mitsubishi Wanker), the difficulties when translating slogans and so on…

Eating in a corporate canteen, I noticed that in a drive to improve service they also changed the names of their different sections, so “World cuisine” became “Be global”, the vegetarian section became “be green”, etc. The problem is that the grill section became “be grilled”. I wonder why it looked so empty. 😉

in english

Tex-Mex is not Mexican food!

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Tex-Mex is not Mexican food!, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

I bump into this issue from time to time (this photo is from Helsingin Sanomat), so I guess I have to tell my audience about it. The long rant that follows simply boils down to this: Tex-Mex is not Mexican food! The first time I saw hard-shell so-called tacos was in Europe. The only truly Mexican brand of chillies on sale here is “La Costeña”, all others are European or American copycats.

Most of the food on sale in “Mexican” restaurants outside of North America (there are honourable exceptions, but they’re few) is unknown to a Mexican, including such things as burritos (which are only found in Northern Mexico, if at all) or nachos with cheese. Those things to us are like a salmon burger would be to a Finn, or mussels with cheddar to a Belgian.

I don’t deny Tex-Mex can be good food, just please don’t call it Mexican. You have no idea how much you’re missing. The funniest thing is that now in the States you can get proper Mexican food, but in Europe we’re still stuck with the Americanised adaptation (just like the differences between rodeo and charrería).