CHAFF News

The CHAFF meeting on Sunday 4th November was a small affair with Ildikó, Ilari, Burcu, a group of Indians and myself overlapping time between 12:30 and 15:00 hours at The Coffee House.

The CHAFF Meeting next week (11th November 2007) will be at The Coffee House at 13:00 hours next Sunday. As many have committed late night programmes on 10th November, Rotary International, Diwali Celebrations, it may be a rather stunted meeting. But the regulars will be there - rest assured of that.

Ildikó thought it may be nice to have the meeting on Sunday 18th November at the Goreme Restaurant in the Ranta-Kastelli Shopping Centre. Time, as usual. will be 13:00 hours.

I spoke with Hasim and Kasim, the owners, and they are excited to have us there. It is the very best Pizzeria and Kebab Restaurant in Finland and they have excellent fresh bread and great garlic butter.

I will try to persuade Hasim and Kasim to offer us the traditional Turkish Group Meze. (Remember that registration is mandatory.) I will ask them to cap the price at € 7 per head and € 3.50 for children between 5 and 12.)

Watch out here for more news on this.

You can be sure we will be greeted with great enthusiasm as Hasim, Kasim and Mehmet are ardent supporters of CHAFF but their life style has made it impossible for them to attend meetings.

If you have a problem to reach the location, please let Ildikó or me know and we can organise transport to the restaurant. Hasim even said that he can organise a bus to get us there!

It will be a great lunch meeting - that I can assure you.

I hope you do make it to the exhibition of Turkish Glass at the City Library. Although it is a very small showing, and as I was informed by very knowledgeable Turks, not very representative, it was certainly eye-opening to see such wonderful pieces of Art Glass on display.

Annikki and I are lovers of Art Glass and we certainly appreciated the quality of the pieces on display at this exhibition.

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.

Pornpailin Weber with Annikki and me at the Loykrathong Festival.

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.

Taste of Morocco in Oulu

Posted on my Jacob's Blog and the Oulu CHAFF Blog.

When Isaac Sundarajen, CEO of Codenomicon Oy, let me know he was over in Oulu for a very short trip, we agreed to meet over the weekend to have a meal together.

Tony demoing a computer game. Photo Copyeight: Jarmo Kontiainen, Kaleva, 8th September 2007.

I asked son-in-law, Tony, also to join us to get him away from his gruelling schedule of launching his new company, Ludocroft OY. (His new book on the approach to creating games, was also released last week.)



On Saturday evening Tony suggested we go to the Marrakech restaurant, the new Moroccan one opened by an old friend, Sayeed. Tony had been there with Joanna in the summer and he vouched for the food. I had visited the restaurant a couple of times before it was opened and had found the simple decor really appealing.

When we arrived, at just past 6 pm, we found the place packed to the brim. Luckily Sayeed was there when we arrived and he quickly cleared a table for us in the far corner, so that we could eat and talk in peace.

I was quite amazed that in a very short time the restaurant has become extremely popular. The decor is tasteful. There is a real feeling of a north African flavour. The waiters are dressed perfectly in Moroccan clothes. It was obvious that all the customers there were really enjoying their food.

We were each offered a very neatly done menu book (English and Finnish separately). Each of us ordered based on level of hunger.

The service was very friendly, the food arrived quickly and was piping hot and served on crockery suited to the cuisine. I had the choice of having either rice or freshly baked bread with chicken with olives and lemon. I chose rice, but the Chef sent me BOTH!

We were able to eat slowly, each of us enjoying well prepared food, talk at length about many many issues and finally enjoy a pot of piping mint tea served in a siler teapot, a slightly sweetish African version. We even got a refill - free!

We spent a good 3+ hours in this very comfortable atmosphere. When we were leaving, we noticed that Sayeed was still busy with a large group in an ante-room. As he saw us leave from the corner of the eye, he was outside in a flash to bid us goodbye.

From this first experience here, there is no doubt that this restaurant is going to be an outstanding success. It is no wonder that Ildikó would like to have our CHAFF meetings here. I have no hesitation in recommending this suggestion.

Please get a move on and tell Ildikó which day and time you would prefer so that we can get CHAFF meetings restarted!