Originals by HYPEND - Q&A With BOOM
Hypend joins forces with Saucony Originals in 2022 to launch a community driven series called Originals by Hypend - featuring some of the people that make Helsinki move. Kicking off with Tanako “Boom” - the founder of the infamous Boom Room cafe in Punavuori Helsinki.
In your own words - who are you, and what do you do?
Me? I'm Boom, the owner of Boom Room café or restaurant. I don't like putting myself in any category. Like I'm not meant to be a “cafe”, but this place is just the way I live and moreover - what I do here. Also, I'm a dad.
How old are you?
I'm turning 36 this year, so I’m 35.
So, who do you cook for?
A lot of younglings. Most of them are like people in the art and music industry. They are people that I can relate to. My serving style is like, what do you want? *laughs* You know - what the fuck you want?
So, you'd like to get closer to people. Looks like a lot of creative people come here.
Yeah.
Which one do you prefer more: leather or denim goods?
As for me, I like denim with indigo. So indigo is like my passion for food and stuff. What I do is like indigo: the way you use it changes over time. Indigo is soul food to me. I never wash my indigo jeans, I only put them outside on my balcony to air them out. Wear it rare, always. Sometimes when I go out to eat I might hand wash them. The oldest jeans that I continue to wear are like ten years, I have never washed them, but I don't wear them every day.
Have you ever worn leather?
Yeah, when I was younger I used to wear a lot of leather.
When I, turned 30 I switched from heavy jeans to jeans that go with fashion. Like sometimes I want to wear jeans that color later.
Do you prefer fish or red meat?
That this is a very hard question. *laughs* I like both, but it feels stupid to say that since I only sell fish. Meat is what I ate when I was younger, after I got older I started to eat more fish. I feel better when I eat fish. It's not as heavy as beef, but when you make fish, you have to be very careful. You know, where you buy that stuff. But red meat…
What kind of fish do you like?
Whitefish like “siika”, salmon is also great. But if I really want to make something, I will make like white fish like “siika” Finnish, you know, white fish. That is the best to make.
Where did you get inspiration for the way you dress and present yourself?
When I wake up, I get the feeling from a nice sleep, and then I always think of what the weather looks like. After that one color comes to my mind, then I dress according to that color. Some people build their fit with what sneaker they will wear and then build on that, but I start with the clothes first.
I look to Japan for a lot of influence.. sometimes Murakami *laughs*
Murakami? Takashi?
Yeah. I like the way he wears his clothes - not specifically like what he wears. I think of his style a lot and then I put color on it. So I think about my clothes, but not one color, the color that goes through all and I dress it.
It’s a good approach. So, what is your favorite meal of the day?
Oh, fuck.. Meal of the day… My favorite… Like if I'm working during the day I hardly feel like I want to eat something. I prefer sashimi with rice and wasabi and then some kind of chiso and spring onion. And so, yeah, that's it. That's what I eat normally during the day.
What are the main things that you use in your kitchen?
I use knife. The knife is my, like my goddess.
*Someone walks in to order a Salmon Teriyaki*
What has influenced Boom Room’s menu?
I think that influence came from what people like to eat. Finnish people don’t cook salmon at home. When you buy it from the shelf it’s smelly and it's not very fresh. And if you do it, you have to take time. I was like you know, it’s too expensive to do fish at home, so, okay. Let's do it. I started to make fish. I know Finnish people like food that is sweeter, so then teriyaki is perfect. When you eat teriyaki it is so sweet and salty, so at a certain point, you get tired of the food because it’s like you’re eating M&M's. I'm originally from Thailand, so in Thailand, we use a lot of colors, green and red in food - so when your mind says ”good color”, you eat what you like, sweet or salt. Add a little bit of spice sriracha - it’s easy because even when you don't eat spice, you can eat sriracha. After that I put the spring onion, when it hits the spring onion, it takes the taste of sweet and salt away to the other side.
What's your favorite way to cook meat?
Grill - in the summer. In the winter - the pan. Iron pan at home.
Yeah. For example, if you work as a chef, what could be the biggest mistake?
Not doing what you want to do.
Like…It results in food that you don’t want to make to the customer, it's not from the soul, you know because your boss tells you and you need money to have a life and pay rent, you know, doing that.
That's why I quit my own job and then stood in my own shadow like I’ve been working here for nine years. People don’t see me as the Boom Room worker - they see me as Boom. And Boom made me somebody here. You know! *laughs*
Yeah, so this way you can express yourself through your food, through cooking…
Yeah, through cooking and show them that you, yeah Boom [is] really [like] you.
Oh, that's nice. What do they think about fashion? What's the biggest mistake people make in fashion?
Like what? How do they dress?
Yeah exactly.
For me, if the question is, how they dress, I would say they mix sometimes people look too much in the circle and want to dress like one, but they don't see the reality.
All like, if you have money, so, okay. Money can buy anything. But money cannot buy swag. It doesn't matter. Like if your swag is good, you use H&M or Zara, whatever you still dress good, looking cool because you got sweat and the plus thing is - you can dress anything that shows your own personality, the fit tells what is your personality.
So the mistake is when people just don't show their personality.
Yes, They don't know.
They want to be like someone, for example, someone they see on Instagram, but they don't have their own swag.
Okay. What first thing and what you like, how the dress and fashion express yourself. Sometimes I dress in something else that is not me. But it’s looking good.
I told to my girlfriend that, okay, I don't want to walk out of my home. I don't feel myself now. Even it looked good, you know? Oh shit. It looks like someone handsome and stuff like that. But I don't feel that this is me. I changed that I changed in the same colorways or what I have put then I told her “oh, this is more like me” and go out. And when you go out, you feel like more like, yeah, I don't know a more…
More like yourself…
Yeah like yourself. That’s when you don't get shy. And then you're just like, “oh yeah.”
In the end, if you don't feel that it's you, you know, but I don't know? What about when youngsters, like people who are like in starting of 20, 19, 18 to 25, they don't have that feeling. They just want to dress in the most clout pieces, like, you know, they don't have their own personality yet.
But I am 35 no. So, how do I dress? Okay. Sometimes I have expensive stuff, but for me, it doesn't matter anymore. As long as I feel good and I look good in my opinion. So even like 10-year-old t-shirt sometimes I wear, because I feel that, okay, this is nice. Sometimes the fashion is also too much. They asking for like one t-shirt at 90 euros, who the fuck is paying a hundred, just cut them a little bit of stitch for 90 euros.
That’s a little bit too much.
So, it's not clothing, it's the way you dress it.
Yes, express yourself! Fashion means the way for me, I mean, how you express yourself like art when you, you know, when you wear like, um, and just feel like good.
Yeah. So, you become a little bit of an artist when you dress out here.
Yeah, I think that everybody's an artist in - but everyone has to find what is you as an artist.
All of us are like, God makes us artists. Yeah. And then, in the end, you have to find what is, is that? Yes. And starting from.
Okay. But hey thanks for your time. Any last words about Boom Room?
I’m Boom from Boom Room. As I want, I want to like, you know, create like the place that people can just come, hang out and eat good food.
It's kind of not a restaurant. But you know… Like, you know, the idea!
Just a place to chill, to hang out, to meet good people.
Yeah. That's easy to come in, you know, nothing's perfect here, you know, but then you start to eat my food. You remember me forever, you know? *laughs* Yeah. Because food is so good, actually. Yeah. So now it's nine years now. Yeah. In here most of the time it’s me here.
Yeah, so you can control the stuff.
I can just close when I'm done with the day.