This is where the first Japanese picture was filmed in Finland was shot. A beautiful, heartwarming movie about friendship, food and cultural encounters, I wholeheartedly recommend it for a slow day.
Tag Archives: japan
Proper Mexican food restaurants worldwide
As you probably know if you read this blog, one of my passions is food, especially of the Mexican kind. Unfortunately, most of the Mexican food you find outside of North America is not really Mexican, so I make a point of testing Mexican restaurants when I’m traveling to make sure they are more Mex-Mex than Tex-Mex so that I can recommend them to friends.
You can find an abridged list after the map below (they’re listed by how far away they’re from Finland, with the first being the farthest out).
- Viva México, Singapore, Singapore. Pretty decent decor. Indian & Pakistani staff wearing Mexican dress. Some of the items in the menu are Tex-Mex as that’s what people know so far away from the land of nopales, but the chef is from Oaxaca so he can recommend what to eat. I had caldo tlalpeño and chiles en nogada when I was there and they were very good (photos). From what I hear, they have to import a lot of the foodstuffs, even the rice (kinda funny as it’s in Asia).
- Fonda de la Madrugada, Tokyo, Japan. A restaurant in a huge basement, descending those steps transports you from Harajuku to an Hacienda. Mexican movies shown in a corner. The chef was Mexican, even if the owners weren’t. The staff speaks Spanish and Japanese (few things cuter than a Japanese girl in a huipil), but no English. While it’s not the cheapest place to eat out, the food was absolutely worth it: we had guacamole, caldo tlalpeño, enchiladas and even carnitas a la michoacana (photos).
- El Mexicano, Shanghai, China. Small place slightly out of town. Mexican owners. The pollo en salsa verde was not great, but the tacos al pastor more than made for it (photos).
- La Palapa, New York, USA. A restaurant that wouldn’t be out of place in Coyoacán, even if the portions are American-sized. Their quesadillas were to die for (photos)
- Tehuitzingo Deli & Grocer, New York, USA. The best taquería I’ve been to outside of Mexico City (no wonder as it’s smack in the middle of Puebla York). Once you get inside past the grocery part of the locale, you will reach a small corner of heaven in Hell’s Kitchen. Tacos de lengua, pastor, chicharrón or suadero, sopes, quesadillas de flor de calabaza… all washed down with a Pacífico (photos).
- Rosa Mexicano, New York, USA. You realise the Mexican food market in NY has matured as they’ve gone from Tex-Mex to Mex-Mex to haute cuisine Mex. A selection of tequilas that will leave a connoisseur drooling, their arrachera & shrimps plate was very good and worth the price tag (photos).
- Barriga Llena, Madrid, Spain. Part of a mature Mexican-owned chain in Spain, the food is close enough to its origins and the sense of humour is a breathe of fresh air.
- Ándele, Barcelona, Spain. I used to visit Barcelona every year for work, and I always tried to visit this small place. The tacos are quite OK and they also sell Mexican foodstuffs and tequilas (indispensable if you live far away like me).
- Anahuacalli, Paris, France. This is the only one I haven’t visited of the restaurants in this list, but everybody I know and trust who has eaten here recommends it. The founder has lived in France for 40 years.
- Mestizo, London, UK. Mexican-owned as well. Also a little bit pricey, but the food was excellent. We had ceviche, tacos al pastor, pato en mole con ciruela, tamales, pozole, flan & crepas and it was all good (photos).
- Taquería La Neta, Stockholm, Sweden. For a while the closest source for proper Mexican food, this taquería was opened in 2009. Their menu is simple: tacos and their relatives, but the results are excellent as they have their own tortilla-making machine (photos). Mexican-owned.
- Café de Nopal, Helsinki, Finland. Recently opened. I just wrote a review about the place. They offer a “comida corrida” lunch every weekday with a choice of two/three main courses and brunch on weekends (photos). Mexican-owned.
Recommended movie: Okuribito
This is probably the best movie I’ve seen all year, and certainly one whose American trailer doesn’t do any justice to. The most endearing, human (& humane) way of portraying death as a part of life I have seen in a movie screen. No wonder it won the Oscar last year.
If you find it somewhere (I stumbled on it on Canal +) watch it. Absolutely unforgettable.
Japan meets Mexico, Japan meets Finland
The reactions to swine flu in Mexico (part II)
Roman Catholic masses were cancelled throughout the city, museums were closed and football matches were played behind close doors (my team, Chivas, tied) to avoid the creation of crowds. People have been generally very calm from what I understand, stayed home and there is no panic shopping, but the streets are rather empty for a city of over 20 million people (some pictures here). If you understand Spanish, a great chronicle of the past two days can be found here and here. The city is not afraid, and people still make fun of the situation from time to time.
Video rentals and video stores were doing brisk business yesterday, and schools are closed until May 6th (May 1st and 5th are holidays anyway). Military personnel have been handling masks around the city and now everybody is bracing themselves for tomorrow: will people go to work or will they home office (those who can)?
The Finnish media have complained about the slow Mexican response to the outbreak, but they seem to ignore that even the National University (UNAM) doesn’t have the equipment needed to distinguish this new virus from its old, previously known cousins and with the normal flu season just ending, there was no cause for concern. On the other hand the World Health Organisation has praised the Mexican response.
There are confirmed cases in Mexico, the US, Canada and New Zealand, and suspected cases in France, Spain, UK & Israel (map here). Deaths have only happened in Mexico, and even there two thirds of the 1200 cases have already been released from hospital. According to some information in the Mexican media, vaccines don’t work, but antivirals such as Tamiflu do. Airports haven’t been closed, but there is more stringent screening in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan from passengers coming over from North America.
There are two different hypothesis of the origin of the virus: one points to it having started in a farm in Texas and then crossed over to the border, the other one points to farms in Perote, Veracruz, Mexico. None has been confirmed.
If you want to know more in real time, you can follow @Veratect and @zolliker (in Spanish) on Twitter.
Against the World Music category
Anybody who knows me a little bit (or has seen my profile at Last.fm) has probably realised that my musical taste is quite varied. On any given day I could be listening to raï, ranchera, punk, samba, rock, jazz, metal, classical music, ska, axé, or electronica from Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Algeria, France, Belgium, Israel, India, Canada, Argentina, Egypt, China, etc… which if they’re not your usual Anglo-Saxon pop-rock will usually be clumped together into World Music, with very awkward results.
For example, with the current version of iTunes you have a “Genius” feature that promises to make perfect playlists for you. However, the database they use seems to have been made by the record companies instead of users, so when it does find the music I have (which is less often than I would expect), if I ask to create a Genius playlist out of e.g. one of my favourite Mexican rock bands it will put it together with Mexican & Argentine traditional music too since they’re “Latin”, something akin to lumping James Brown together with Enya because they come from the English-speaking world. It gets even better when I try it with some of my favourite samba artists, as they will be lumped together with salsa, raï, Bollywood and tango acts because they are “World Music”, even if I do have plenty of MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) to make a list with.
David Byrne said it best: he hates world music.
The great economic shift
- The Chinese economy is still expected to grow 7-8% this year
- Islamic banking was relatively untouched by the global turmoil as it’s very risk averse
- The Japanese economy has contracted fiercely as its exports have fallen to historic lows
- U.S. skilled immigrants are going back to China & India
- Many Eastern European economies are in trouble and with them their Western European (mostly Austrian & Swedish) investors
- Latin America will mostly just suffer a slowdown, the Mexican economy is expected to contract this year due to its high exposure to U.S. economic cycles
- Some emerging economies are more vulnerable than others
What does this mean? What we are seeing is the shift of economic power from the United States & Europe to markets elsewhere, and especially China, India and parts of the Middle East are in good shape to reap the rewards. However, since the system is built around the countries of the G7 with the US as the main motor of worldwide consumption, co-operation between all countries is needed, or else the rise of protectionism will amplify the current situation.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in case the crisis lasts long (hopefully not) China ends up bailing the US so that its own economy can keep on growing…
Tototoromoomin
What happens when you mix Finnish & Japanese cartoons?
New York vs. Tokyo
Compare this:
with this:
I'd say that aesthetically the main difference between NYC & Tokyo is that NYC looks somehow less well maintained, and the architecture resembles more the 50's than the 2000's in places. Both are definitely places worth visiting.
Wasabi = guacamole?
Back in the 80's, when sushi was entering the Mexican market, many would pull off a very interesting (and rather nasty) prank on those having it for the first time: they would tell the newbie that the green thing on the side is guacamole and wait for the reaction.
Nasty… LOL.