I've been to the Kauppahalli, which is a very sweet indoor market type thing. It reminded me of Covent Garden market, but with more food. Most of the kioskis and baby sized shops were selling fresh cheeses, bread, meat etc, and there were also some foreign shops and delis, such as Chinese, Indian, and British!
Kauppahalli is where Little Britannia, the British food shop is. My timing is perfect because it only opened last month. I've actually been in Turku longer than the shop has! Oh my god, it was lovely! I only got Lucozade and Walkers Salt & Vinegar today, but that was enough to put a massive smile on my face. They also had Monster Munch! But no pickled onion flavour today. They had loads of Cadburys products, including Dairy Milk and Whole Nut, shortbread biscuits, and lots of other British sweets. They also had canned haggis, custard and corned beef. Not for me.
I'd like it if they had more things like canned soup, but as they're new they probably don't have a full product range yet. The downside is the price - two bottles of Lucozade and a packet of crisps cost €16, as opposed to about £2 in Britain. Maybe it's not a surprise as everything is directly imported. However, it was so nice to see some familiar products and brand names, and really nice to have some comforting food from home.
Tamsin, just found your blog. I am living in Turku too and there's a group of us English women who have an unoffical club called the Ladybirds. We meet about once a month to talk and go e.g. to the theatre, Naantali Spa, bowling etc.
ReplyDeleteanyway if you are interested in finding out more leave a comment on my blog and I can email you more details.
PS we also put free books (bookcrossing) in little Britannia if you are in need of something to read in English.
regards Lorna Koskela (my penname over at the blog is stf)and the website (since I'm signing in here via google) is http://stfeyes.wordpress.com/