Sometimes I just love this city. Spring has arrived and Helsinki is finally alive again. The people on the streets actually look happy!

There’s always something happening in here, and on the Saturday 22nd of March there was a brand new street food festival called Streat Helsinki.  Over 30 little street restaurants offered everything from oysters to tacos.

It was a fine spring day with a cloudless sky, so naturally the streets were packed with people. Over 10 000 attended the festival! For once we were smart enough to avoid the biggest rush hours and went there at 11 am. Apparently in the afternoon the queues to the food stands were ridiculous.

The food there was well worth the queuing. There were tons of vegetarian options, which was really nice for me personally. At least two stands were selling seitan kebab, but instead I decided to get Tokyo Seitan Burger from Richard McCormicks Burger Joint. It was just delicious. It was with marinaded seitan strips, sprouts, mint and coriander leaves and wasabi mayo. I have a feeling we will be trying to recreate this in the kitchen some time soon…

We also shared a vegan hot dog from Social Food Street. It was also really good, but not as jaw dropping as the burger. Although it didn’t say on the menu, I’m pretty sure the sausage was made out of black beans. It was served with grilled zucchini and paprika, rucola and mustard seeds.

For dessert we shared a Dutch sirup waffle from Flying Dutchman. Unfortunately they only had one waffle maker and although the queue seemed small, we had to wait quite a bit.

What a great gastronomic Saturday we had. I really hope Streat Helsinki happens next year as well!

Tiia