Despite lure of hypermarkets, Helsinki Market Hall retains loyal following
By Eeva Järvenpää
Atle Vikström was just 19 years old in 1951 when he started selling meat at a butcher's stand at the Old Market Hall in Helsinki. Along with his friend he sold meat and game in a booth on the hallway adjacent to Eteläranta.
"There was no more food rationing. When food became freely available, people ate with enthusiasm. For their traditional Karelian stew, they would buy five or six kilos of meat at a time."
Beef and pork were the main items. Ribs were used for soup, while larger cuts were used for the Karelian stew, which was a favourite Sunday food.
"Once Tauno Rautiainen, the host of a radio quiz show, and Kirsti Rautiainen came and asked if I knew what a T-bone steak is. I said I had no idea. They enlightened me, and that is how I started to cut T-bone steaks in Finland", Atle Vikström recalls.
The Vikström family got their own booth in the Market Hall in the late 1950s. First it was kept by Atle's mother Impi Vikström, and soon it was passed on to the son.
At that time there were small booths side by side. At one point meat was sold at 28 different booths in the hall.
"Old ladies generally sold things there. One sold fatted calf, while another sold a different kind of veal, a third specialised in hearts, intestines, and trachea for dog food. At that time, there was no actual dog food on sale - just a plywood box next to the booth with bones for the dogs."
"People knew how to make use of the whole carcass. Everything was put to use. Bones were chopped into small pieces to flavour soup. When they made meat soup, the blood was skimmed off the top with a spoon. Now they sell young meat with the flavour washed out."
Atle Vikström's friend was a chicken wholesaler. The chickens were plucked in a cellar on the other side of the street. Working with him were Russian emigrant women who had come to Finland during the Finnish Civil War of 1918.
The life of the Vikström family centred around the Old Market Hall for decades. Atle's wife Seija Vikström opened a cheese shop there in 1969. The two had three sons, who have carried on in the traditional family profession. Atle Vikström's grandparents were merchants at the Hakaniemi Market Hall.
In the 1950s the Old Market Hall was quite a cold place to work. There was no heating, and on very cold winter days, the meat would freeze onto the counter. There was also no refrigeration, or hot water.
On summer days, the black sheet-metal roof would make everything painfully hot. Cuts of meat on the marble counter were piled up, and customers would dig through them to pick the pieces they wanted.
Nobody knew anything about allergies back then.
"Now we're at the opposite extreme. It used to be that customers wanted their fish fresh. They still had to be kicking around. A year ago one merchant at the Hakaniemi Market Hall was fined because a fish was still moving on the sales counter. Regulations have changed massively in 55 years."
The clientele has also changed in five decades. It used to be that suppliers from restaurants and embassies came to buy here, and goods were delivered to them. There were also the down-and-outs who would congregate near the area. They would buy a piece of sausage if they were hungry.
Now the Market Hall is visited by tourists who hang around at the nearby Market Square and in the Esplanade Park. "In the summer, the counters of the market hall are bulge with foodstuffs", Atle Vikström says.
"Large markets take people to the ring roads, but we still have regular customers. One elderly lady comes here by taxi every week from Haukilahti in Espoo to buy sausage and cured meat."
Atle Vikström's sons are carrying on the family tradition in the pleasant Market Hall. Atle Vikström's youngest son Jari Vikström is now officially a merchant.
"My eldest son Veijo and I are working for Jari. Jari is the boss of both of us now."
"I am happy to help out here. Otherwise I would be at home alone, as my wife died already ten years ago. In the mornings I come to work at about half past six. I have a cup of coffee with the other sellers. There are always familiar faces around, and there is a good feeling among the merchants", Atle Vikström says.
Sitting in for Vikström at the cured meat counter is Tiina Ilmanen, who runs a cheese shop on the other side.
"She is a very nice person - a joy to be with."
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 20.1.2007
EEVA JÄRVENPÄÄ / Helsingin Sanomat
eeva.jarvenpaa@hs.fi
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| 23.1.2007 - THIS WEEK |
 Despite lure of hypermarkets, Helsinki Market Hall retains loyal following |
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