If you are a fan of Italian ice cream, gelato, check out this small ice cream parlour on Damnern Kasem Road in Hua Hin.

They serve the real thing; thick, creamy and tasty Italian ice cream. Available in several flavours and sizes, also in cones, the ice cream is just delicious. There are not many seats inside and the ice cream tastes better in hot weather — at least for me. Just remember to eat it quickly, as it will melt fast.

Il gelato italiano, Damnern Kasem Road, Hua Hin, Thailand

If you happen to be in Helsinki for the Eurovision Song Contest and are in need of some advice how to get the best of Helsinki, do not despair.

Check out these places, reviewed and found good by yours truly.

Shopping
Academic Bookstore, Diesel, Iittala, Ivana Helsinki, Maranello, Nanso, Nina’s, Stockmann, Union Design, Zio

Having a cup of coffee
Café Ekberg, Café Esplanadi, Café Strindberg, Café Succes, JohtoCafe, Wayne’s Coffee

Eating
Bar Tapasta, Chez Dominique, Coloroda Mts., Demo, G.W. Sundmans, Havis, Ichiban, La Cocina, La Famiglia, Mecca, Postres, Santa Fe, Sasso, Zetor

Drinking
Ahjo, Ateljee Bar, Belge

Mamma Mia! is an European owned and operated restaurant in the heart of Hua Hin tourist district. They focus solely on Italian food and this sets them apart from the rest of the crowd.

The food is good, tastes like real Italian and it is relatively inexpensive, too — albeit not that cheap as in the basic Thai restaurants around the area. The portions are surprisingly small, so prepare to heat at least two courses, if you are hungry.

If you arrive early, you should get a table by the windows facings towards busy street.

Mamma Mia!, 19 Damnoenkasem Road, Hua Hin, Thailand, +66 32 512 250

Hagi is a modern Japanese restaurant in the middle of Hua Hin’s busy tourist district. It is part of Sofitel’s hotel and restaurant complex, but looks like a separate joint — a common trend in luxury hotels in Hua Hin, it seems.

Unfortunately, the restaurant is a big disappointment compared to the expectations created by the decor. Sushi is bland and doesn’t taste that fresh. The culprit is the rice, as it doesn’t have much taste.

As the restaurant is also more expensive (not much, but a bit) than the other Japanese around the town, you are probably better off somewhere else. Pity, as the ambience is good.

Hagi, 1 Damnemkasem Road (in Sofitel hotel complex), Hua Hin, Thailand

If you are a Jaiku user with Mac, check out Jaiku Dashboard Widget on my company’s website (oh boy, I do feel proud of saying “my company”).

As a sidenote, the company has been live almost a year now — and it has been a real joyride. A lot of ups and only a couple of downs. Overall, very positive feelings towards being an enterpreneur. And yes, I’ve been able to pay all the bills and still had some extra money left.

There are plenty of Japanese restaurants in Hua Hin, but the quality varies a tad too much — and doesn’t correlate with the price. Fortunately there is Fuji: a real treat for sushi and other Japanese food.

The ultra-clean and shiny restaurant is located in the new Market Village shopping mall, a couple kilometers south from the Hua Hin centre. The chefs are working on spotless white jackets with ties whose straightness would pass even the examination of the most picky sergeant.

The menu is extensive — there are dozens of sushi and sashimi variations — and it includes all Japanese treats that have been worth exporting from the land of the rising sun. Everything is also moderately priced, so the restaurant is a treat for your wallet, too. The service is polite (have you ever encoutered non-polite service in Thailand?) and quite fast. The only issue may arise from over-eating.

Fuji, Phetchakasem Road (in Hua Hin Market Village shopping mall), Hua Hin, Thailand

For some reason or another, Hua Hin is filled with European owned restaurants — maybe the owners are running from old country’s tax officials or they have committed some hideous crimes and need to be on the large in Asia.

Anyhow, Amadeus is one of these — an Austrian and Thai restaurant. An interesting mix, if the food would be any good. We ordered Thai food and found us eating quite a bland stir-fried meat of various kind with boiled or fried rice. The only major plus of the place is that is has the menu translated to several languages, including at least German, Dutch and Finnish.

If I were you, I would go somewhere else — unless you can’t read English menus, but then you can’t understand this sentence anyhow.

Amadeus, Naretdamri Road (near Hilton Hua Hin), Hua Hin, Thailand

Yesterday was May Day, the festival for workers and students — the only sort of carnival day in Finland.

We used to have a picnic on Ullanlinnanmäki park with friends, but for the last three years we’ve skipped the picnic — due to Aapo and bad weather.

This year, the weather was nice but we’d decided to have a May Day lunch in a real restaurant instead of the picnic. Everybody was also saying that the weather would be awful, but it turned out to be really nice, albeit a bit cold.

So we ended up strolling around the park for a while and then headed to the lunch.

Aapo didn’t sleep at all during the morning and day, so he was really energetic and a bit hyperactive during the lunch — but fortunately the food was so good, that he was mostly focusing the energy in eating, and watching the boats in the nearby harbour.

We were quite tired after returning home. I don’t know why, but I’m always been tired after May Day — and no alcohol has been involved. Maybe it’s due to too much of fresh air or something.