Mikivi

On gloomy windy day, I decided to go on a little city trip after getting a haircut. Walking all the way from Punavuori up to Töölö, strong wind from all directions had almost reset my professionally, freshly styled hair.

After stepping in to @mikivi.helsinki, I stood in front of the menu and spent quite a while trying to choose between pork and chicken. Eventually, I decided to take scallion and ginger chicken with rice, thinking that the flavours of scallion and ginger would really warm me up from almost half an hour of walking in the strong wind, but keep it fresh at the same time.

After a few bites, I was almost scratching my head trying to figure out what this familiar taste reminded me of. I searched in my head hard, and finally realised that it was the ginger scallion sauce I love so much from Hong Kong BBQ, or siu laap (燒臘), restaurants. When I lived in Taipei, no matter it was on sunny days or rainy days, at noon or in the evening, I'd always up for a Hong Kong BBQ bento. I would walk a few blocks to a Hong Kong BBQ restaurant at the corner and buy a bento to enjoy at home. Although here I had paprika slices, chickpeas, and marinated soft-boiled eggs instead of my favourite stir-fried cabbages, water spinach, and tofu as sides, the rice bowl still pulled me a little bit closer to my ten-year-ago self in Taipei.

The chef kindly served me a complimentary try-out dish of the Hong Kong BBQ pork, the other option I hesitated to choose between. So I got to taste both after all!