I’m both a technophile and a foodie, yet I’m not of those annoying people that constantly posts their food pictures on Facebook.

Recently, however, I became a bit of a convert to their check-in feature, which helps me to keep track of my favourite bars, restaurants and takeaways. Google maps is also really handy; when I couldn’t remember the name of this great little dive bar I visited the year before, I only had to do a few minutes of clicking around before – lo and behold – Google informs me that I had visited The Salon 12 months previously – Bingo! So when it came to the nearly impossible task of shortlisting the best places to eat in New York, I did some techno-digging to help jog my memory. The results, as it turns out, are worth sharing, and hopefully worthy of some likes.

You can use technology to keep track of all your favourite foodie finds in a city like New York
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The classic diner is a great place to have breakfast – or brunch – in New York, but it’s a very hit-and-miss thing. The food is not always great quality and some of the more popular places in the centre are very touristy and require a long time queuing outside for a table. Instead, head down to Old Johns Luncheonette for no-nonsense fresh food and friendly service in a quiet side street near Central Park. Most choices include a free shot of wonderfully sweet, fresh Orange Juice (honestly the best I’ve ever had) and the bacon is out of this world good. The only downside is that it’s impossible to decide whether to go for the savoury egg-based dishes or succumb to the syrup-drenched temptation of waffles, pancakes or French toast. The prices are so reasonable though, you might just decide to go for both.

Best Diner breakfast ever!

After probably eating more than is strictly good for you, why not walk it off in Central Park? You can wander around for hours and never run out of things to do. Should you start to feel peckish again there’s something to be said for grabbing a bag of candied nuts or a hot dog from one of vendors, and while I usually wouldn’t recommend the restaurants located inside the park, I’ll make an exception for The Tavern on the Green. Sure, it’s pricey, OK, it’s touristy, but hey, it’s featured in that scene in Ghostbusters where Louis runs away from the giant demon dog, and that’s enough for me. There are tables outside if you just fancy a beer and some nachos too.

The Tavern on the Green is touristy, but it's featured in the Ghostbusters scene where Louis runs away from the giant demon dog, and that’s enough for me
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Who you’re gonna call?

I have an Italian Passport and lived in Milan for a year, so trust me when I tell you that Eataly is the best Italian supermarket you’ll ever find anywhere. Sitting across the road from the iconic Flatiron building, it’s Mediterranean gastronomic Nirvana, and the perfect place to stock up for a picnic – Madison Square Park is right outside if you can’t wait to tuck into your purchases. If you’d rather eat in, head to the rooftop (it takes some finding, as the elevators are hidden away at the back and look like the entrance to a storeroom) to enjoy skyline views while ordering from the menu supplied by the deli below. Needless to say, the antipasti platters are a must-have.

Eataly is the best Italian supermarket you’ll ever find anywhere
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Great rooftop panorama and fantastic Italian produce at Eataly

For most of us, Lobster is the ultimate luxury food. And sure enough, there are plenty of swanky places in New York to enjoy them in the traditional way – as long as you’re willing to re-mortgage your house or sell your firstborn child. Nowhere, however, will you find a fresher, larger, and tastier crustacean than at the Chelsea Market Lobster Place, and although it’s not exactly a MacDonald’s, it won’t break the bank either. After you’re done staring at the mountains of freshly steamed lobsters, walk up to the counter and choose how big you want yours– I spotted one bad boy in there weighing over 7 pounds – and find a place to perch. Somehow, as you dip enormous chunks of delicious meat into melted butter, the fact that there are no seats becomes pretty irrelevant. You’re welcome.

Nowhere will you find a fresher, larger, and tastier crustacean than at the Chelsea Market Lobster Place, and although it’s not exactly a MacDonald’s, it won’t break the bank either
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Definitely would be my last meal choice…

If you’re a steak lover on a budget, you should stay well clear of Gallaghers. Because chances are that if you gaze into its wondrous meat locker (yes, they have a room with glass doors full of meat) you’ll be compelled to go in and spend an obscene amount of money. The cocktails are pretty tasty too. Just don’t look at the bill too long.

As you gaze into Gallaghers' wondrous meat locker you’ll be compelled to go in and spend an obscene amount of money
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Gallagher’s Meat Locker

Should you max out the credit card on some fine Porterhose steak though, you can always turn to another New York classic for the rest of your stay. Everywhere you look, there are Pizza places offering reasonably priced slices. These are not only ridiculously cheap, but also hot, tasty and gigantic. Even a few dollars will buy you a feast, and you’ll be in good company, as the best places proudly display pictures of their celebrity regulars along the counter.

Top tip for a cheap night out? Head to the Village, grab a takeaway at Bleecker Street Pizza and walk a couple of blocks down to 55 Bar, which has a 2-drink per set minimum cover, but actively encourages folks to bring in or order their own food. Sit back, order a beer, and enjoy some fine live jazz with your $1 slices.

55 Bar has a 2-drink per set minimum cover, but actively encourages folks to bring in or order their own food
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The cheapest option in NY is definitely a slice

In the mood for dessert? I know just the place. Back in 2009, Douglas Quint and Bryan Petroff got themselves an ice cream van with a difference. It proved such a huge hit that they went on to open two Big Gay Ice Cream shops, and on a busy West Village Saturday night, the well-managed queue winds its way around the block. My Salty Pimp ice cream cone, however, was well worth the wait.

Go on, treat yourself to a salty pimp
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Big Gay Salty Pimp? Yes Please!

Speaking of sweets, one is really spoiled for cake choices in New York, and asking locals what’s the best cheesecake in town is likely to spark passionate debate. Yet for me the Magnolia Bakery is hard to beat. They have a nearly endless variety of cakes, biscuits, ice cream, tarts and puddings, but if you only have one sweet treat while in NY, it should be their Red Velvet Cheesecake. Enough said.

Magnificent Magnolia Red Velvet Cheesecake

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Eating Your Way Around The Big Apple appeared first on Tech Trends.

As a techie, I count Helsinki as one of my favourite cities – It’s a hotbed of innovation and has a vibrant start-up scene – but there’s a lot more to the city than geeking out. 

I regularly visit for events such as Slush – which has become one of the largest tech conferences in the global calendar – and a few months ago was invited to be the city’s resident blogger and cover the Millennium Technology Prize. But one can’t live on algorithms alone, and if the idea of sampling Finland’s cuisine doesn’t immediately excite you, it’s time you thought again. There are plenty of fantastic gastronomic options in town, and I thought I’d share some of them here:

Traditional Fare

“Typical” Finnish food is hard to define exactly. The country has been independent for less than 100 years, so what you get is a mix of influences from its legacy of being part of Sweden, then the Russian empire – think vodka, caviar and beetroot (you see beetroot burgers on a lot of menus). On the Swedish side, if you’re one of those people who go to Ikea to get your meatball fix, you should stop by Café Engel for tasty and very large portions of the stuff, complete with mash, gravy and cranberries (which work surprisingly well together).

Typical Finnish food is hard to define exactly, but Russian and Swedish influences are prominent
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Cafe Engel Meatballs

To see what a typical meal in Lapland looks like, head to Savotta. It’s the kind of place that could feel really gimmicky with the staff wearing traditional attire and a menu featuring things like reindeer stew and bear salami. However, the homely décor comes across as genuine and the staff is friendly, not seeming to resent the uniform in the slightest. We had a selection of entrées which included bear salami (I passed on that but my husband assured me that it was nice enough, although “it’s difficult to tell with salami”. His slow-cooked lamb stew, served in a traditional (gigantic) wooden bowl, was amazingly tender, and the reindeer had a surprisingly delicate flavour, much more subtle than venison. Do save room for pudding though. Not only does the dessert menu come etched on a silver birch log, but the light and sumptuous blueberry cake is a revelation. Blueberry seems to be the national fruit of choice, perhaps because the colour matches the Finnish flag, so you’ll see it featured in many desserts across town.

Traditional Finnish starters at Savotta

Waterside Dining

3 way herring

I enjoyed many great meals in Helsinki, but the beautiful Meripavilionki takes some beating. Located on a pier overhanging the water. It is understandably popular and not very big so making a reservation is definitely advised (we did not get in the first time we tried so booked to come back the next day). The waterside location is ideal for sampling local seafood, beautifully prepared and exquisitely presented. My prawn dish was delicately balanced and the lightly smoked salmon main perfectly cooked. Our favourite was my husband’s starter though, a 3-way mackerel plate showcasing the humble little fish in various cooked and pickled forms. Perfect spot for a relaxed lunch or romantic dinner.

Sushi Buffets

Recently, in San Francisco, my friend (who’s a self-confessed sushi snob) took me to a hidden-away restaurant where we had a meal so extraordinarily good I’m still having trouble believing it was real. That deserves a separate article of course, but my point is that there’s sushi, and then there’s sushi. In Finland the all-you-can-eat buffet options like Konnichiwa, Käpylän Majakka and Kin Sushi are quite popular with those who are not sushi snobs. I feel able to enjoy both kinds of experience, so think the buffets can be a good option for a tasty and good value lunch, although I tend to avoid the more mayonnaise-heavy creations which the Finns seem to be fond of.

All-you-can-eat sushi buffets are a good budget option for lunch in Helsinki
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Local Beers

Helsinki Local Beers – Il Birri

If you’re into that sort of thing (and if you aren’t, what’s wrong with you?) it’s nice to sample some local craft beers in the sunshine when hitting a new town. Most restaurants in Helsinki stock at least a couple of local brews such as Karjala or Lammin, and the city has several lovely bars that and microbreweries where you can get a good variety of different styles on tap. If you’re around in the summer when the days are ridiculously long, you have plenty of time to sample all the different kinds before it even starts to get dark.

Most pubs and breweries also serve food with a laid back and cosy atmosphere
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Most pubs and breweries also serve food, and the atmosphere is usually cosy and laid back. My favourite find was Bier Bier which – as you’d expect – had a fantastic selection of beers in bottles and on tap, plus some of the most comfortable pub furniture I’ve ever sat on. I like a place that makes it hard for you to leave. Other central options include Il Birri and Bryggeri Helsinki, but if you’ve got a couple of days to look around, it’s definitely worth taking a short boat trip from the market square to the fortress island of Suomelina. Once there, just follow the signs to the brewery for more local delights. After a bracing walk you’ll have earned a pint or two.

Street Food

Street Food is definitely a thing in the Nordic countries, and Finland is no exception. Helsinki hosts a huge extravaganza in March that lasts for several days, but there are celebrations of street food culture happening throughout the year. When I was there in May every square in town got taken over by one such event where anybody is allowed to sell their food wares without a specific licence. There’s something really nice about the organized and good-natured chaos it generates, not to mention the cloud of delicious smells as you walk through. Some of the setups are quite elaborate and professional-looking, while others constitute of little more than a Tupperware dish on a folding bench. What brings it all together is a philosophy that the act of cooking and eating food is a joyful thing to be shared with friends and strangers alike.

Helsinki hosts regular street food extravaganzas
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Coffee and Pastries

Finns REALLY love their coffee, and per capita they consume more than any other nation in the world (a whopping 12 kilos per person per year) which might have something to do with those long months of darkness they have to endure in winter. In Helsinki there’s no shortage of the sort of upmarket craft roastery setup you’d expect to find in places like London or San Francisco, as well as some pretty decent chains such as Espresso House and Robert’s Coffee providing a quick and classy alternative to your usual Starbucks (which inevitably also has a presence in town). Karl Fazer is a nice option in the centre mainly because it offers an array of typical pastries. My favourite of those was a sweet (which I can’t recall the name of, would welcome input in the comments!) looking a bit like a pig’s nose and made from potato flour. You also get a free chocolate with your coffee, which is always a plus.

On the quirkier side, I’d recommend trying Andante, a hybrid of coffee house and flower shop, which means the place not only smells wonderful, but looks beautiful. My barista was Japanese, and a perfectionist bordering on obsessive. My coffee took a long time because he made it again after not being happy with the first try. Worth the wait though.

Finns REALLY love their coffee and consume more per capita than any other nation
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Plootu Furniture shop and Cafe

That mind-set of s “why have one shop when you can have two?” also applies to my favourite Helsinki find, a little place in the design district, Plootu, is a furniture shot/ café. Choose your poison, and then sip it while perching on the wonderful designer and vintage wares. The only downside is that you might be tempted to buy some pretty expensive and large items. I for one was thankful that my own suitcase limitations saved my credit card from a taking a serious beating. It reminded me of a passage in Paulo Coelho’s book The Alchemist, where the owner of a shop selling crystal glasses is convinced by the book’s protagonist to serve cool mint tea to passers-by, thus vastly increasing his sales as customers swear the tea tasted better when supped from the beautiful crystal. That concept that beautiful objects can also be practical, and that are meant to be used, is at the very heart of Finnish design.

The idea that beautiful objects and furniture should be practical - and damn comfortable - is at the heart of Finnish design
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Liquorice

Liquorice, like Marmite, tends to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it things. Although I’m very much on the ‘hate’ camp, I felt that it was such a big part of local gastronomy that I ought to give it another chance. At Graniittilinna I had a liquorice-infused Crème brûlée and at Savotta I tried their liquorice ice cream. Both, to my surprise and delight, extremely tasty and not at all overpowering. I’m still not a convert to the actual candy, but I do urge doubters to come to Helsinki with an open mind towards the black stuff.

Liquorice, like Marmite, tends to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it things
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Liquorice Creme Brullet at Graniittilinna

Sauna Sausages

Yes, you read that right, and no, it’s not a euphemism. Yes Finns go to sauna naked, but it’s just not a thing, except for foreigners, since locals use them regularly pretty much from the time they are born. Because they’re also seen as places to socialize, it is common to eat and drink during a sauna session, and there are usually break areas outside the actual sauna (Sauna Hermanni is one of those) where you can have drinks – not unusual to have beer, and many places let you bring in your own, up to a reasonable limit – and snacks. And that’s where the sausage comes in (get your mind out of the gutter please!) because traditionally you’d roast them on top of the coals in the stove, either wrapped in foil or hanging from a string on top. Clearly that works out better in the traditional wood-fired setups rather than the more modern stoves, but you can still find those around if you look.

Yes Finns go to sauna naked, but it’s just not a thing, except for foreigners
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Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Finnish Your Food appeared first on Tech Trends.