Tag Archives: finland

Mole internacional

Tip para mexicanos expatriados:

El mole como platillo de introducción a la comida típica mexicana funciona a las mil maravillas en Finlandia pero no muy bien en Bélgica (al menos con los belgas).  Eso es simplemente porque para ellos el sabor del chocolate y el picante tienen muy poco que ver, mientras que para los finlandeses, mientras el mole no esté muy picoso, puede llegar a ser en un principio interesante y después delicioso.

Díganmelo a mí, que he hecho mole en la capital de Europa y en el círculo polar, jajajaja.

Tarina peilissä

Sattumaisesti törmasin Ulrikaan blogiin eilen.  Hänen tarina on niin kuin peilin toisella puolella: suomalainen nainen joka muutti Meksikoon.  On tosi mielenkiintoinen lukea minkäläisiä kokemuksia hänellä on ollut siellä, kun tiedän miten minulle sujui Suomessa, ja miten olen kasvannut sen jälkeen.

Hyvä oli lukea että molemmat voimme sanoa, että perisuomalainen- ja a la mexicana tavailla on hyvät ja huonot puolet, mutta tärkein on ottaa vaan parhaat palat niistä.

Finland: Geek Paradise

I have mentioned before that I believe Finland to be the closest thing to a geek paradise.  The reason for it is very simple: given the high esteem Finnish society in general has of education, people are encouraged to be highly educated, which results on a certain level of geekness.

Even though individuals related to IT such as Linus Torvalds are probably the most famous, there are other aspects of geekiness where Finns excell.  I could for example mention the Nuntii Latini, the renowned service of Latin-language news, or the fascination Finns have with Tolkien.  There I have found out that there are not only computer geeks, but history geeks, role-playing geeks, music geeks, art geeks and even food geeks (also known as foodies), and not only are they not ridiculed, they are accepted.

This is one of the reasons why Finland is cool, and why it is thriving in the creative economy.

Finnish Parliamentary Elections (Eduskuntavaalit)

It seems to be the case that what happens in Sweden usually ends up happening in Finland as well. Six months ago, Swedish voters opted for a switch to the right, and in Finland the same happened yesterday, with Keskusta (Centre Party) clinging to its lead, but with big gains by Kokoomus (National Coalition), and big losses for the Social Democrats. The Greens had marginal gains as well. Frankly, not much will change, which in Finland’s case I guess is OK.

What hasn’t so far been commented very much in the media is the proportionally huge gains made by the populist Perussuomalaiset (True Finns), who went from 3 to 5 seats, and their candidate Timo Soini was the third most voted nationwide for his district in Uusimaa (southern Finland). Why do I care about this development? Because these guys are the kind of people that wouldn’t want me in Finland, as they tout a pretty strong anti-immigrant line (á la Jörg Haider, Jean-Marie Le Pen or the Vlaams Belang party here in Belgium). With phrases such as “we want Finland to select who, how and where from do people come to the country”, they show both their complete ignorance of the fact that to get a residence permit you have to go through stringent procedures and their belief that foreigners in Finland are mostly refugees, which is so untrue to almost be comical.

So, to sum up, Matti Vanhanen will probably stay as prime minister, the government will shift a little bit to the right but not much, and we got three more Tony Halme clones in Parliament. Let’s see how the situation develops.

Cross-cultural culinary cross-pollination

We have come to the conclusion, my fiancée (Finnish) and I (Mexican), that she cooks better mole poblano with chicken, whereas my specialty is salmon with dill.

Believe me, Mexican rice and salmon with ginger and dill makes a powerful combination.