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Pint and burger: Summer was here

20.05.2018 / Kirjoittaja olutpostimestari / Kategoriat: Olutposti

— Temperatures have stayed above average for almost three weeks now, but this is not a permanent situation for sure. Warm weather brings all the ”I’m normally inside with my problems”- fellows outside.— As temperatures inched into the 20s, many people headed outside with adult beverages, when it was close 30 (yes, Finland was the warmest country in Europe one day), reality changed, everybody acted like someone else, like Lahti would have been some poor man’s Miami. I noticed while bicycling a lady who lied on the pavement. She wasn’t hurt, I don’t know if she just relaxed a little bit or has fallen down, but she soon got her cider back in her hand and sat up. Convertible cars, ugly capri shorts, neon color t-shirts, sandals with long socks…. I could go on and on with these ”funny things”, but I guess you got the point. Finns are like foals first time out in field at the spring.
A huge barbecue fever is going on, almost every corner you can smell grilled food. Well, it is nice and I do like seasons, after a cold winter it’s nice to have spring and … cold summer. Yes, summer is not any guarantee of warm weather here. Now this heat wave have settled down, but it’s still warmer than usual, whopping 22 degrees now and sadly I’m not even joking, this is unusual this time of year.— 

A short ”vacation” to Helsinki. I live in Lahti and don’t get me wrong, this is wonderful place to live, a great— compromise, I wouldn’t live here otherwise. All services are near, I can walk to city centre or to woods, see horses and lambs while walking there. When I’m bicycling to work, every morning same old man with dogs says good morning to me, that’s nice, isn’t it? But at the same time it’s frustrating. I’ve born in Helsinki, used to be unrecognizable after 20 steps from my block, I like the sea. So I really like to go to Helsinki now and then. It’s an hour trip by car or train, bus will take 1,5 hrs, but it stops very near my house, so I use usually bus.— 
This time I wanted to go—  Watch Show Finland and had afterwards a burger and couple pints with my friend, who lives there.— 
The Watch Show was very stressful thing, I was so near—  to go, but finally I didn’t. I read beforehand about it and it seemed to be some hipster or upstart dandy people happening. A ”how to keep your shoes in Mint workshop”, what a hell? My wife couraged me to go (she stayed at home and watched Royal Weddings), she said that I should go even for a little time, to see what kind of fair this would be.— I was already decided not to go. What if people are watching me, what if I’m not blending to the crowd? I was totally borderline with this, when my friend said that earlier time would fit his schedule better, so I hadn’t time to go. I quite happy with this, somebody made the decision for me.— 

First stop: Naughty Brgr. This burger joint is very famous in Finland right now and it’s all because of owner’s TV show ”Burgerimies” (Burgerman), unfortunately not because of quality burgers. Don’t get me wrong here, I can’t find this good burger from Lahti nowadays, but still this is far behind Helsinki’s and world’s best offerings. The show was quite lame, I watched it mainly because of funny sidekick, Ossi.— 
It’s been a while since I’ve actually eaten here. I remember that burgers were little disappointing, but I thought that maybe I remembered wrong. At TV show celebrities were telling how good these burgers are and same man has won local Master Chef of similar.

I ordered the Back to bacon brgr, that is described as— Finnish— 100% beef patty, double matured cheddar, bacon, bacon jam. I asked for ”double trouble”, 2 patties. There were two nervously smiling customer— service women and both said ”I’m on my first day of work, sorry” . That’s ok. I don’t blame them, not even for that I paid wrong amount at the first place and after manager had guided correction through, my friend noticed that he didn’t get his drink. What I found little peculiar— was that they changed all salespersons at the same time. I would think that Saturday is a busy day there and if those women struggled with 3 customers, rest of the day probably— was hell. But as I said, that’s ok, no hard feelings.

Regarding my qualifications as a good burger, it had to have some sort of greens in it. This one hadn’t. Nothing, not even a pickle— or onion. Bacon, very salty, and bacon jam, sweet. Ok, I know that some people like this combination, I’m not against sweet & sour, but this was too much. If you really like Snicker bar or those sugary sweet toasts with bacon, maybe this is for you, but it wasn’t for me. My friend took same burger and liked it, I didn’t. Again, remove the bacon jam and put some pickles— and slice of tomato instead and you have a decent burger. Not best, but let’s say, in top 20 or so.— 

And as almost always, I went to Rotterdam Pub at Kamppi. I had so much ”funny beer with funny names” lately, that I opted to drink Severin IPA, a beer that I know well, made by Plevna brewery in Tampere. I always go there (Plevna pub), when I am at Tampere.—  Actually I don’t remember a visit to Tampere without visit to Plevna and my daughter lives in Tampere, so I’m not visiting there like once in decade.

Severin IPA is quite basic IPA and I like it that way. If I’m buying IPA, I’m waiting certain kind of drink, not some experimental brew with orange or blueberries. The idea that if you are not drinking—  much beer, why don’t you drink beer that you like, is really something I can relate. Same goes with burgers. Ok, it’s nice to try something new now and then, but I’m not some testing guy who rates as many products as possible. You can easily found dozens of those rating blogs, but my strengths are— broken english and … well, that’s about it.— 

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