The covered market at Hakaniemi has food on the ground floor and upstairs is an engaging jumble of handicrafts. Stockmann department store and its adjacent bookstore claim to be the largest of their kind in the Nordic countries. The famed Arabia ceramics and Iittala glass companies have a large store on Esplanadi, and an extensive outlet store and museum reachable by tram. Helsinki is renowned for its Russian restaurants, which range from relaxed to near-czarist formal. Finnish cuisine has taken on a nouveau bent recently, and the city abounds in restaurants concocting new ways of serving old standbys such as reindeer and herring.
Finnish beer comes in several strength levels.
To go native, top off the night with a glass of salmiakki, a salt-licorice liqueur that makes many pull the blanket over their heads when the alarm clock rings the next morning. The Cincinnati Enquirer , a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper.