To taste “typical and traditional Finnish food” in Helsinki, I am advised to dine at Sea Horse, the iconic restaurant set up way back in 1934. Going by the ingredients available in the supermarkets in this Scandinavian town that is made prettier by the snow, particularly the oh-so-fresh salmon that can disintegrate if you don’t handle it lovingly, I expect a treat - and get it.
But it is not only tasty food that you get here - this is a restaurant that serves you history, culture, and a little bit of art as well, along with its food.
As quaintly put in the restaurant literature, it is the “home-like living room of this restaurant” that attracts clients as much as its food. Even today, it doesn’t matter if through the door walks in a minister or a regular customer. “They leave their titles with the doorman and are served with equal warmth and friendliness.” The restaurant markets itself on the menu thus: “Finnish food and culture since 1934”.
The Sea Horse looks deceptively small, but can serve 145 people through tables placed in different rooms. Clearly this was not originally meant to be a restaurant. The place gets its name from the back wall of the main restaurant, which has a striking painting of sea horses swinging in the waves of the ocean. And, the Baltic is never far away from you in this pretty city, also known as the Pearl of the Baltic.
Several stories associated with the painting add to the charm of the place. One says the painting was done by a penniless artist to pay for his debt. Another says that one night, some art students broke in and did the painting. A third attributes it to the janitor of the Atenium, the main museum in Helsinki.
Sea Horse’s status and popularity have evolved from its history, ambience, and the stories associated with how it was built. And, of course, its large portions of delicious food. I try the creamy salmon soup - it is simply delectable. Made with chunks of fresh salmon, dil and “plenty of cream”, it is served in a large bowl and can suffice for a meal by itself. I comment on its delicate flavour and Hanneleh, a Finnish friend dining with me, says: “When we were growing up the only herbs we had were dil and parsley. My mother cooked only with these herbs, salt and white pepper. Now of course we import spices and herbs from all over the world. But traditional Finnish food doesn’t use too many spices.”
I find adequate evidence of this in the food I taste here. Sanna Korpela, the restaurant manager, recommends one of the most popular items on the menu — Crispy Fried Baltic Herrings, with mashed potatoes and beetroot. I try it along with Grilled Salmon, also served with boiled potatoes and morel (mushroom) sauce. Both are delicious, but come in such large portions that only a bit of each is possible after the sumptuous, rich soup. For my palate, the delicately flavoured and spiced salmon is a clear winner. The morel sauce is sinfully rich, creamy, and just perfect. The herrings have been fried to the right degree of crispness, and it’s easy to see why they are so popular.
The house was originally built by a blind piano tuner named Herman Walentin Schalin. He proposed to a girl who said “cold-heartedly: ‘no house, no marriage’”. Some things don’t change, do they?
Anyway, by the time he finished building the house in 1902, his “love had faded”. The restaurant was established in 1934 “more as a quayside bar than a gourmet temple” and changed quite a few hands. Its most famous owner was one Mrs Paukku, who in 1959 added the crispy fried herrings to the menu along with another runaway hit — the Beef Steak a La Sea Horse, which is served with fried onions, sour cream, pickled cucumber and fried potatoes.
Like in several famous restaurants across Europe, here too, the several stories associated with the place make your dining experience one to cherish. One of them describes how Mrs Paukku’s mustard was famous, and each day she would lower a bucket full of mustard into the kitchen through a window. In the evening, the cash for the day went up the same way — through the bucket!
As she was a patron of art students, the Sea Horse attracts patronage from artists even today. And, of course, celebrities, “but we like to maintain their privacy,” says Sanna. She is proud of the restaurant’s “most important aspects - the atmosphere and the equality; no matter what your social status or nationality, generation or gender, everybody is treated equally here. It is said that we can fill a small town in one day under our roof”.
Most of its patrons are Europeans, mainly British, French and Italians. The restaurant is getting popular with the Japanese too.
What about Indians? “I think I’ve seen three of them in the last several years,” she smiles.
The food here is not prohibitively expensive either. For €30-40 you can have a sumptuous meal with a glass of reasonably good wine. The portions are so large that if you choose to share, as we Indians love to, it could be even less. But not if you wish to have a fillet of reindeer, served with cranberry and red wine sauce, mashed potatoes, onion and butter - that dish is the most expensive on the menu at €38.50! A wide choice of wines and other spirits is available too at its well-stocked bar.
The Finns eat bear meat too, but that is not served here. I finished a perfect meal with the thought that some animals should be strictly confined to fairy tales and nursery rhymes.