Bombay Mix in Oulu

Posted on Jacob's Blog, the Oulu Best Buy Blog and the Oulu CHAFF Blog.

Last Sunday, after our CHAFF get.together at the Coffee House, I dropped in to see Indu, Ashesh and little Karthik. Indu served me two varieties of Bombay Mix, one that she had brought from India and the other that Ashesh had picked up from London.

I have a great love for Bombay Mix and I had located that the Secondhand Shop on Isokatu (next to the Hai Long Chinese Restaurant) has a wide selection of nuts and other delicacies, including Bombay Mix at € 7.50 per kg, Pecan Nuts at € 25 per kg and Brazil Nuts at € 20 per kg. Annikki loves all the three, while I confine myself to the Bombay Mix.

Another shop which also has this great selection of nuts is Herkku Rosa next to the Oriental Shop on Rautatienkatu (the road on which the Oulu Railway Station is located). However, prices here are higher here. They have two types of Bombay Mix, spiced and normal, both at € 9,90 per kg, Pecan Nuts is € 29.90 per kg and Brazil Nuts at € 19.90 per kg.

Do remember that at the Secondhand Shop that whenever you buy € 15 at one time, you can get a stamp on the Customer Card so that on the 10th time you get € 15 back, an effective 10% discount on every € 150 of purchase.

As this is also being posted on the Oulu Best Buy Blog, the best buys of today are at the Tokmanni shop, one of which is at Kaijonharju Shopping Centre (near the University) and at Jukkolankuja on the south side of Oulu. Oranges are €0.89 per kg, Bravo ice cream is just € 0,50 per litre when you buy 2 packets, and Beef Mince is € 1.99 for 400 gm which works out at less than € 5 per kg.

On a sad note I have to inform CHAFF participants that the Pailin Restaurant where we used to meet with the wonderful cooking of authentic Thai food by Pornpailin Weber, has finally closed its doors on the 25th of October. We will all miss the wonderful friendship of Pornpailin and also her superb cooking.

The next CHAFF meeting will be on Sunday at 13:00 hours at the Coffee House with entrances on both Isokatu and also the Rotuari Square. Last week the bulk of the meeting was about "Arctic Syndrome" which I had written about on the blog.

Bananas at € 0.95

You can tell that Annikki and I are great banana fans. Today and tomorrow, Euromarket has bananas at € 0.95 per kg.

I usually buy them green and small as we have different stages of taste levels. I like them just turning ripe. Annikki loves them ripe and to give to Hilja, Annikki likes them slightly overripe. The have made a great fruit salad these last few days with diced persimons that I got for less than a Euro per kg last week and served with orange/mango juice blend.

Last week I found a Pirkka brand Orange-Mango juice with no water and also not requiring refrigeration at around € 1.50 per litre. Pirkka is a K-Group brand. So look on the shelves which have the normal orange and apple juices. (There are Orange-Mango juices at around € 1 per litre but these contain water and sugar, plus other preservatives.) The best tasting one is still the Orange - Mango juice blend with milk, which is the closest we have found to Mango Phool!

At Halppa-Halli, I found Metrilenkki Turkey sausages at € 2 per packet. At Tokmanni it is € 2.20 per packet, at PRISMA it is € 2.25 per packet while at Citymarket it is € 2.40 per packet.

Similarly I found Broiler sausage at € 1.50 per packet at Halppa-Halli which is € 1.65 at PRISMA and € 1.69 at Citymarket.

Autumn sales

Posted on the Oulu Best Buy Blog and also on Jacob's Blog.

This weekend has lots of great offers as the autumn sale season has started. And this is not just on clothes.

Stockman, the big department store in Oulu, has 30% discount on many items. PRISMA, which has many outlets in Oulu has a 15% discount on many non-food items.

These are some other great offers for this weekend:

K - Supermarket:
Carrots, Beetroot, € 0.99 for 2 kg
Onions € 0.99 for kg
Leaf Salad € 0.69 for a bunch

K - Citymarket:
Clementine, Honey Melon. Green Paprika € 0.99 per kg
Arctic Salad € 0.79 for a bunch
Whole Rainbow Trout Fish € 3.99 per kg (these fish are usually 4 to 6 kg)

Euromareket:
Polish Apples € 0.99 per kg
Tyrnävä Potatoes € 2.99 for 10 kg
First Price Jam € 0.99 for a 900 g, container

Säästö-kouppa in Haukipudas (about 20 km north of Oulu):
16 rolls of Serla Toilet paper and 8 Rolls of Household Paper Rolls € 7.90 (and you also get a free Hand Tissue box of value € 1.00 when you buy this)
Brazilian watermelon € 0.99 per kg

PRISMA:
Bananas € 0.99 per kg

Tokmanni:
Sea Salmon € 3.98 per kg (these fish are between 4 and 6 kg)

Great buys today

Go straight to any of the K-Supermarkets today as South African Oranges are just € 0.49 per kg. This is the lowest it has hit this year. I bought over 4 kg and if the offer is still there tomorrow, I will probably buy another 4 kg.

Annikki makes great orange juice with that, better than what you can buy in those packets as she serves it with the pulp.

Also, at the K-Supermarket today, the Spanish Persimon, which is very much like the Sharon Fruit from Israel, which is usually over € 3.00 kg. The Persimon is only € 1.99 per kg.

The Mango-Orange, which also contains milk, drink which is an excellent ready drink is € 1.95 for a litre at the PRISMA shops, while at K-Supermarkets it is € 2.05. This drink is very close to what we call Mango Phiool.

I noted that there is an 85% Orange Juice with 15% Mango, without any Milk, and it costs € 2.75. If Mango Phool can be made from this it could work out cheaper than the ready "Mango Phool".

Antiques and Migrating Birds

Posted on my Jacob's Blog and the Oulu Best Buy Blog.

Sunday before last I met Ilari's aunt, Lizzy, at the CHAFF meeting.

Victor and Lizzy

Lizzy told me that she and her Dutch / English husband, Victor Glazer, had moved from Pudasjarvi to a neighbouring county south of Oulu, Liminka, and they had opened an Antique Shop, Viliga Oy (Address: Kauppakatu 6, 91900 Limika; Mobile: 050 5566069; 040 7608503; Fax: 08 3113151).

Ilari Sohlo was Joanna's colleague when studying for their Masters in English Philology at Oulu University. Ilari then became a close friend of Jaakko, our elder son. Subsequently, Ilari and his now wife, Ildikó and Annikki and myself have become good friends, bridging the generations!

Annikki and I are looking for some old fashioned chairs for our old fashioned dining table. Our present set does not have all the characteristics we desire.

Last Sunday, after the CHAFF meeting, we headed out to Liminka, for a dual purpose. To see the new antique shop and then to visit the reputed Liminka Bird Park where migrating birds are said to stop over on their way south.

An interesting signboard

Room filled with antiques

Annikki browses for her interests

Dolls galore

More antiques

The antique shop rambles through three large rooms and some connecting spaces. You look and you may find what you want. There is no one pressuring you. There is no one making a hard sales pitch. If you want clarification, ask Victor, who will tell you what he knows.

As this building was also used to serve as a bank, it has an enormous safe vault. Victor is using it to store some antique deactivated guns.

The concept of Lizzy and Victor is not just to have the run of the mill antique shop. They intend to make it a cultural centre which will host the work of artists, have performances by musicians and make the experience of visiting their centre a real experience.

Lizzy and Victor are visionaries. Annikki was taken by this effervescent couple. They could bring much character to the County of Liminka.

If the County authorities can stretch out their hand to help them develop their unusual ideas, we can predict that this small venture could make history. For instance, the dairy opposite the shop is lying unused. They want to use this for their cultural centre.

Annikki suggested to Lizzy that it may be interesting to leave all the dairy machinery intact, putting the exhibits in that setting, making the atmosphere unique and unusual!

The shop was well filled with customers on this Sunday afternoon. What was surprising was that people were also ringing in to ask about various antiques they have.

The shop has its own web page. Victor told me that this is undergoing a major upheaval.

Beautiful metal candle holders find their place at Kampitie.

Annikki found these really beautiful metal candle holders and they were quickly in their right place at Kampitie when we returned home!

Well done Lizzy and Victor.

Annikki and I wish you very well and we give it high marks on our Oulu Best Buy Blog.

After the visit to the antique shop we set out to visit the Bird Park. We found a large signboard pointing to the Bird Park. I drove in that direction. About 5 minutes later, we turned up at the main road again, where there was a sign for the Bird Park pointing back along the road we had come.

We thought we must have missed the turning to the Bird Park.

On this road there were two side roads, but both turned up blank - no Bird Park to be found.

Finally, after about a half hour of driving around we came across a young lady out for a brisk afternoon walk. Annikki told her our dilemma that we were looking for 200 swans who were supposedly in the Bird Park and we could not find this Bird Park despite the signs.

I do not know whether this young lady thought we were drunk.

She said we were driving in the Bird Park which is a residential colony and some migratory birds do settle down somewhere in this area. However, she had never seen any swans around here!

We gave up our attempt to find the Bird Park and swans and laughed all the way back to Oulu thinking about what that lady would be thinking about us!

Oranges and mandarins

Oranges are € 0.99 per kg at Valintatalo and € 1.00 per kg at the all the K Supermarkets in Oulu.

Yesterday, Mandarins were still € 0.79 per kg at PRISMA, but select them carefully. Hopefully they are the same price today. Look for firm ones rather than ones with a loose skin.

The Turkey Metrilenkki sausage is € 2.25 per piece at PRISMA. Look for ones with the longer Best Before date if you intend to buy a few to keep in the fridge or deep freeze.



Annikki got a large candle which was in a coconut shell for just € 1.00 at Halpa-Halli. Great buy as a decorative item, even if you are not intending to burn it.