Instead of Alexander's Ball, in February 2020 we organized a slightly smaller event at the Oulunkylä residential building. The event followed the same pattern as the salon dances held last fall, but with a couple of improvements; we got to dance to live music and to enjoy a contemporary 19th century dinner. Pia Gerbaulet was the head maid during the event.

The evening's menu was mainly based on Kai Linnilä's and Hanna Pukkila's cookbook "Elsa Helminen's Food Year 1896 - In Grandmothers Kitchen" (word to word translation). The book presents excerpts from Elsa Helminen's diary and related recipes from southern and western Finland. Elsa Helminen took care of the household of the nearby Koski manor part-time, prepared guest invitations and catering for the manor on weekends and in summer. For winter salon dances, the selected dishes could justifiably be traced back to the earlier decades of the century. The main dishes that were served were: egg cheese, onion pudding, mashed potato casserole, oven cauliflower, boiled carrots, peas, fish jelly and Vatkuli - an onion stew made from beef. Out of the main dishes, the most visually striking was the fish jelly made from herring, whereas the egg cheese and the oven-cauliflower gained the most popularity.

The guests had spectacular hairstyles, hair combs, turbans and other embellishments that flickered brighter than the chandelier!

As usual, the dance master at the event was Petri Myllynen, under whose guidance the guests were able to first practice the scandalous waltz and later to solemnly dance it to Mozart's Länder series. Among the dances were La Russ långdans, Fröken Höpken and Le Retourne du Printemps. Risto Kytö, Katariina Kumpulainen, Sirkku Helin and Lauri Kallinen played the breathtaking music!

In addition to coffee and tea, the coffee table served snow pudding, cinnamon sticks and contemporary Shrove buns. The buns were filled with cinnamon filling and served in warm milk. The picture below was taken just a moment before dipping the buns into the milk. Despite their modest appearance the mouth-melting cinnamon sticks aka cinnamon biscuits, were the coveted delicacy of the coffee table.

We would like to thank the dancing master, the head maid, musicians and everyone involved in making this event!