There is a saying that love goes through stomach. I can absolutely confess that I did let my heart skip a beat or two each time I ate great food. I’m thankful for being able to explore different cuisines and restaurants in the past and esp. throughout the last year. I could have never believed that I could fall for some food so much that I just had to keep on coming back over and over again for more. 🙂
I grew up in a small village, while that was a blessing because I was protected at all times and I had a huge freedom of living a carefree childhood, playing for as long as I wanted outdoors, hiding in the forest, just sitting by the sea for an hour or even staying at my friend’s place over for lunch without having to inform my family about it ( there was no cellphones but only phones and after only few phone calls around, my parents would know where I was at ). To some extent, growing up in such a small and closed community, it was a bit of problem for me later on in my life. I was scared of being introduced to new people or go out in a big group of people.
In my newest post of “Visit Helsinki” cycle of articles, I’m bringing you a full-on review of restaurant Bronda! I did write about this same restaurant a little bit less than a year ago and you can read about it here in case you’ve missed it.
Unlike the 1st time, this time around we’ve been testing out Bronda as a lunch spot and it’s set lunch menu with vegan options too. Even though, it’s not pointed out on Bronda’s website, they do serve vegetarian and vegan options as well as a set menu during lunchtime too. You can either call them in advance and pre-order your vegan/ vegetarian options or you can just walk in and let them surprise you. They’re very skilled personnel, in the kitchen as chefs and as a very friendly and quick service.
Today I felt like taking a small break from my usual Monday inspiration posts and do something else instead. I’d like to share with you couple of facts about me which you might find interesting or could relate to. 🙂 I hope that you had a great weekend and are ready to kick off this new week with lots of energy and good inspiration flow. *Finnish text in the bottom.
Good Friday morning my dear readers! I hope that you’re all doing well and that you’re ready for the weekend. We have started weekend bit early here in Finland because there’s a very “important” celebration of Midsummer that people here go nuts about. It’s just a Midsummer, chill-ax peeps, but nope, they really take it seriously and this is also when almost the whole capital city migrates into the country side because it’s very popular to visit summer cottages and have Midsummer aka Juhannus celebrations there with the families and relatives.
It’s been a little bit over 8 years since I have moved to Helsinki. No matter where I go, to known or the unknown cities/ countries, I always love to wonder around and discover new, exciting and interesting spots. I was so happy when I found out that even after 8 years of living here, there are some undiscovered places in Helsinki which I was more than happy to visit and find out what makes them so special. One of those places was the island Tervasaari! I took a walk from the city center all the way to Tervasaari ( it’s easily accessible via small bridge ) and it took me about 30 mins of nice and slow paced walk. I believe that with the car, getting to Tervasaari, even in the worst of traffic it wouldn’t take you longer than 15 mins.
Time… Accepting it or not, the fact is that our time is limited. Our time on this planet, in this lifetime is limited and we’re never promised tomorrow. We have today, but we limit our “today” and make our time even more shorter than what it could be by the stress, worries, work overload, failed plans, too high expectations, disappointments… What is it in our nature that makes us most of the time, waste our time?
I will never forget my grandma telling me that to people work is important, things are important but what you will bring with you to your afterlife are none of those…
If you do follow me on Instagram, you have probably noticed that I’m back to Helsinki. The temperature/ weather difference came to me as a shock, it’s at least 10 degrees less than in Croatia and it’s been raining like crazy for the past two days. If it continues like this, I can kiss my “olive skin” tan away. 😀
Anyways, Croatia was amazing, the sun, sea and people made my soul and heart filled with happiness and gratitude. I didn’t knew how much I needed to recharge my batteries until I have arrived there and on the very first day have realised that all I wanted was to sit by the sea, in peace and just “be”.
My dear readers, whenever you can, go and travel, you will always return back home a different person than you were before you left on a trip. Travelling always makes you richer and gives so much closure on some things that are so important as well as make you dismiss those that are of no use/ good for you anymore.
Here’re few photos to roundup the final days of my trip. It’s FRI-YAY and I’m happy for the weekend to be here, some quality time will be spent with my daughter and close friends.
Have a great weekend sweethearts!
Croatian gastronomic scene grew tremendously in the past 2-3 years and many already “established” restaurants such as previously written about Pelegrini, took their service, food philosophy and presentation to a whole new level that meet the worldwide standards of fine dining.
Unfortunately, there’re still way too many tourist traps, restaurants with endless menus which are always very convincing about freshness and quality of their food… That is until you’ll possibly fall for it, order your food and that’s where the romance will stop because you’ll realise that food is not freshly made, fish wasn’t caught “this morning” and most of the owners and restaurant managers couldn’t care less about what people are going to eat, as long as the portions are huge, prices are low and endless pasta, pizza and meat prepped in million ways with the grande finale of pancakes for the dessert are on the menu, tourists and locals will keep on returning.
On the other hand, there are people who are world travelers, people who are true foodies, people who don’t see food just as a fuel and who are taking a visit to restaurant equal to a mini trip to another “world” which will give you an amazing experience that you’ll gladly share with your certain special someone, family or business partners. Food is more than just a gas for your body, food is the best and most hedonistic way to enjoy your life, socialise… Food is a cultural thing and just like with fashion, I take a very sophisticated approach to it and see the whole picture, from how much love, time and effort it’s needed to just start a restaurant, all the way to how much nerves, smarts and once again appreciation for food and believing in what you’re doing is needed to present you with only ONE plate of perfectly homemade pasta with the best truffles and a glass of white wine specific only for the a certain part of the country or region…
This was the case with a charming restaurant in the middle of Zadar’s old town known as Poluotok among the locals. Pasta & svasta is the name you should mark down if you’ll be visiting Croatian coast this Summer since it’s worth taking a small d-tour even if you’re not planning to stay in Zadar.
Pasta & svasta opened it’s doors about two years ago, back in Spring of 2014 by it’s masterminds and true foodies Mr.Ivan and his lovely wife Ivana. Ever since the opening, Mr. Ivan, together in collaboration and agreement with his kitchen staff have been creating a wonderful crossover kitchen of traditional Croatian food/ cuisine presented with a modern twist. Whilst the authenticity of taste is “spot on”, the presentation is far from traditionally known in Italian/ Mediterranean restaurants. No big portions of everything and anything on the plate, but carefully presented, simple but bursting with the taste dishes are about to blow you off if you haven’t or have tried this cuisine before.
Just when I thought that I can’t be impressed by “yet another” bruschetta, pasta, etc. I was completely proven wrong. Mr. Ivan, who has a phd in costumer service and hospitality is very strong driven restaurant owner, meaning that he has a clear vision of what he wants to offer to his costumers who come from all over the world. One of the most surprising facts is that his restaurant has a Kosher food certification which is to me “unheard” of in this part of the country. He is the only one who has such certificate on Croatian side of Adriatic coast and that def. sets Pasta & svasta highly apart from any other restaurant nearby.
As a starter, we were presented by a home wine, bubbly Krauthaker sauvignon which comes from a certain vineyard in Istria of which Mr. Ivan is being part owner. Warm, crunchy and perfectly salty bruschetta with marinated sardines on the bed of arugula were divine “appetite opener” for everything that was about to follow up.
For the, so called 1st plate we were served home made, wonderfully al dente tagliatelle with hand de-shelled prawns in tomato sauce with big slices of truffles. I must say that I was having a very high expectations for this dish because I’ve been told by the owners that if I ever try this same dish somewhere else, it must taste the way it did at Pasta & svasta or better if possible but def. nothing less than what I was about to taste. Only one bite was already enough to understand what they meant, it was a perfect marriage between al dente pasta, sourness of tomato sauce and taste of the sea via the most delicious prawns I have ever tried anywhere. To top it all off, the truffles were like eating pure gold, absolutely prime ones, straight from Istria which is famous all over the world as the region for some of the best truffles.
We drank perfectly matched white wine, Galic chardonnay with our 1st plate.
2nd plate was slow roasted lamb with baked potatoes and pancetta. The meat is slowly roasted for many hours on a low temperature. This is one very traditional dish known to be prepped in Dalmatian households for generations, but the sophisticated and the most delicious version ever has been right this dish at Pasta & svasta. This is very manly dish which is perfect for all of the meat lovers. The meat was so soft that it’s been falling off the bone as you start to “dig into it” and it was beautifully matched with the crispy pancetta and aromatic potatoes. To maximise the ultimate experience of this dish, we drank red wine Skaramuca Plavac mali premium .
By this point of our dinner, we have already become great buddies with our hosts, Mr. Ivan was happy to see that his food philosophy was understood and appreciated, so we have already made agreements to come and visit him again sometime soon to try couple of more dish-gems that he has hiding up his sleeve. 🙂
No ending of any dinner is good without something sweet, so we couldn’t resist the calling of deconstructed cheesecake with berry sauce and warm, melty goodness of chocolate suffle! Yum!
It was one of the best traditional, Mediterranean food experiences I’ve had in a long time. Without any doubt, I’ll be back again to Pasta & svasta. 🙂
*This collaboration has been made in agreement with Pasta&svasta. All of the opinions are my own.
*Thank you to Mr. Ivan and Mrs. Ivana for the warm welcome and for making this collaboration possible.
*Photography by: Natali K. photography
I’m a person who barely ever watches TV. If I do watch TV then it’s usually Netflix. I never buy newspapers and I usually never read any even if I happen to see some newspapers at the cashier or at a favourite cafe.
I guess that thanks to FaceBook and my active friends, I do stay quite informed about what is going on in the world, but I take everything I read with a grain of salt and a “distant viewer” approach, meaning that I don’t take everything I read to be true, important or as dramatic as media tries to portray it to be.
Media is a powerful tool, I would say that they have the power to ruin and build the world. That is one of the reasons why I filter every news I come across and don’t allow big amounts of unnecessary information bother me. I like to live in “my own world” the one where I’m aware of what is going on around me and I do fulfil my “duties” but I also prefer to stay in that part of my own world which is ruled by love, goodness, inspiration, creativity and music. I live by the rules of heart and commands of the soul and I don’t know for better… No matter how many times I get “screwed” over for giving too much, loving too much and feeling everything so deeply… I end up hurt and upset quite many times, but I can’t live differently… I can’t “harden” my heart, be more thougher, distance myself from who I am by birth.
Ever since I was a little child, I have been led by my holy trinity of three : love, sea and music. If I had those three surrounding me, I was happy. To love and be loved in return is my motto and the biggest blessing and curse in my life. I always love too much, but so often stumble upon “closed” and hard hearts… In the past couple of years I’ve dealt with those kind of hearts too often and it all made me ask myself: “Where is the love?!” Even by filtering all of the media and information that reaches me, I can not understand all of the shootings and bombings going on all over the world. When was the spilling of blood an answer to anything? Who gives the right to a human to lift his/ her hand over the destiny of another person(s)?
Dear people… Hate, envy and darkness aren’t the roads to be followed… We all have the goodness, love and light inside of us, so the more you nurture them, the more they will prevail the dark side of us, which we all have. We are all made of yin and yang, it’s up to us which side we will choose to be. We can’t and won’t be another Mother Theresa and we don’t need to, that’s not what this article is all about, but I can not but not to realise that people have never been more as distant from each other and the source of goodness and love as they are in 2016. Situation needs to change immediately or we’ll be as good as robots and look more of a Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Terminator movie than a beautiful, sensitive and loving human race that we are supposed to be.
Peace, love and understanding… It’s not so hard to remember, acquire and spread these three words/ actions/ feelings. Let’s start today!
My heart goes out to all those affected in Beirut bombing and Florida shooting.
