I need you!

May 17, 2013 3 Comments

Suz w pep 5 L1060462 L1070036 L1060903 L1060883 IMG_0752 L1060471 L1060086 L1060091 L1050937 IMG_1023 L1050223 L1050349 IMGP0364 L1040465 L1050642 L1040799Picture 064L1040234 IMG_1527

I’ve been posting on Foodie in Berlin for almost 3 years now.

306 posts!

I can hardly believe it.  I feel I’ve figured out my voice and my angle so it’s time to think about the design.

I would like a logo for Foodie in Berlin and a general restyle (and some help sticking all that stuff up on WordPress).

I see Foodie in Berlin as quirky, funny (hopefully) and informative. I do not see it as particularly fashionable or trendy.  I hope it’s that funny friend you have that can make you guffaw when your mouth is full of food and whose recommendations you  always  trust. It’s important to me that the design be clean and easy to navigate.  
 
That’s the brief in a nutshell.  If you are interested and would like to know more (including what my budget is) write to me at foodieinberlin at googlemail dot com.  It would be helpful if you could include a link to your work so far and even better if you are located in Berlin.  If I like your work, I will get in touch and we will go from there.

Filed under Old Posts

District Môt, Saigon Street Food, Mitte

May 16, 2013 2 Comments

District MotSo District Môt.  On the former site of Chi Sing and from the people who brought us Si An Trà Café and Chén Chè Tea House.  The design is like being whacked in the face with a bag of obvious.  District Mot

It’s street food – so the whole place is meant to emulate that.  I’ve eaten street food in Vietnam and the experience is really not complete without the stench of Durian, a table of expired canines piled high with an oblivious boisterous puppy frolicking happily next to it (which makes me think the Universe is not a nice guy).  Oh and your eyelids should be stuck firmly open with sweat, so that to blink means to exert super human power.  For good measure, there should be a street urchin circling around you trying to sell you a) a bottle of tap water, its seal deceptively but meticulously glued back together, b) what looks like the Rough Guide but inside contains blank pages (actually fell for this), c) a tour.District Mot

You’re not going to get authentic and that’s fine.  If you can still get good.

But can you?

There were some dishes I liked at Chi Sing.  Enough that I took some friends from London the winter before last.  But the food was bland at best and plain old bad in other cases.  And the service was obnoxious.  That’s how it was with Chi Sing, I never knew which side of the coin I was going to get.

What to expect with District Mot?  More of the same I believe.

Mango saladI went for lunch, ordered three small dishes (€4 each).  The green mango salad was in fact ripe mango salad with what looked like Mickey Mouse ears, delicious all the same – although fish sauce and lime juice could probably make styrofoam taste good. Read more of this post

Filed under Restaurants Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

The Thai Market, Outdoor, Wilmersdorf

May 8, 2013 3 Comments

Nose to tail eating Thai styleBerlin is a city of extremes. On the one hand, you’ve got bureaucrats, trying to out best each other at making you squirm.

Even postal workers are in on it, you should have seen the maniacal happiness in the eyes of the postal worker while I ruffled around in my wallet to find my driver’s license.

“You’re not getting that parcel without your passport. No point looking in there – I need your passport – that’s the only way.”IMG_4128

I don’t take the bait (any more). I calmly (kind of) step out of line and take my time, without the heckling. Find it and line up again. Nor do I take (visible) offense when the same postal worker peers at the license – then me – repeatedly as if I am buying a gun, rather than picking up my Amazon book.IMG_4124

So in this context, I am dumbfounded – no other word will do – to find a place like the Thai Market. Where women (I didn’t see a single man cooking) sit cross-legged and cook. Where everything is either €5 or  €2.50.  Where dishes are washed in pails of water.  Fried chicken languishes in the sun.  Hands don’t get washed for the 5 hour duration that the women are cooking.IMG_4123

Of course if the horse meat scandal in Europe and the rat meat scare in China have taught us anything, it’s that we are  not as in control as we would like to believe, no matter all those inspectors going around swabbing door handles.  (Did I ever mention that fending off said health and safety inspectors and bribing her with brownies and granola was one of my jobs in my other life?). Read more of this post

Filed under days out, Markets Tagged with , , , , ,

Sayuri, Japanese Food, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf

May 1, 2013 2 Comments

SayuriI can always think of somewhere to go to in Mitte.  Or even Kreuzberg or Neukölln because someone or other has written about where to eat.

In fact, the other day I was thinking that were I not otherwise occupied with the twins and Layla, Berlin is ripe for opening something up.  Especially if you are an expat and you can tap into the mostly tame social community.  You don’t even have to spend money on a website since a Facebook page is more appealing to most – stating “we are a small enterprise that only spends money on stuff that matters”.Salmon But what about the other Berlin, one that is not aware about the “Rant” article the Exberliner wrote and the subsequent storm in a teacup (see comments in überlin) reaction it produced?

They eat just fine.  At places like Sayuri.  Where you can get grilled mackerel with skin so crispy it audibly shatters.  Where the rice is plump, resistant and shimmering with just enough vinegar dressing. Read more of this post

Filed under Restaurants Tagged with , , , ,

Cocoro, Japanese Cafe, Kreuzberg

April 25, 2013 1 Comment

CocoroI feel like we are starting to have real choice in Berlin.  Gone are the days where lunch options were limited to schnitzel, ungainly maultaschen or the abiding curry wurst.  We have a street food market, how San Francisco of us!  We’ve got so many pop ups it’s like that video game with the moles or rabbits or whatever.  On Sunday I went to Gourmandise 3rd pop up at the Beta House where there were at least a hundred people queing with their Tupperware (as requested by the organizers) to buy cake.  I can’t afford to throw away a half hour to line up for cake when I’ve got a babysitter on the clock at home.  Instead,  I went round the corner to the adorable Ganz Wien and had coffee on a silver tray and found the lopsided home-made Sacher Torte endearing.
Ganz Wien, KreuzbergSomething else is happening. The bubble tea shops are closing en masse, leaving plenty of well-appointed store fronts for rent. On Mehringdamm strasse a Japanese Kitchen named Cocoro has opened. I nipped in on that first sunny Sunday to grab coffees on the way to our maiden visit to Tempelhof Freiheit (I know! It’s taken me 3 years to visit!).Salad at CocoroI was dubious about the extensive menu of beverages on the wall. Listing everything from coffees, to matcha soya latte (€3.60 -had it, not for me) or that David Rio Chai brand I would sooner associate with the Balzac chain then someplace I might want to eat. I saw cakes from Nazuna, organic power bars from Foodloose and macarons from Makrönchen.  IMG_2081
I’m suspicious of too much choice. Often, the more choice there is, the poorer the quality is. This is true for fashion and for food.  But then I saw a copy of Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss and that made me decide on the spot to have lunch there. Read more of this post

Filed under Restaurants Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Companion Coffee, Coffee, Kreuzberg

April 18, 2013 3 Comments

Companian CoffeeWhen I saw the boys behind the bar at Companion Coffee I thought to myself, I know you two…  Aren’t you supposed to be wearing brown plaid shirts?  And taking away my sugar? Because of course Shawn and Chris used to work at The Barn (yes, that Barn).

I only know that their names are Shawn and Chris because of Mary Scherpe’s blog Stil in Berlin.  To me they were just: ‘the only guy in Berlin who does not (mercifully) have that hipster haircut’ and the other ‘one that wears a hat indoors’…who take my sugar away.Companion CoffeeActually I am not that fussed about the sugar but I’m about to oust myself from the coffee closet of shame by admitting this:

Two shots of espresso in my small cappuccino is too much for me.

I feel like it’s stripping the enamel clean off my teeth and my normally happy burbling stomach goes kind of quiet, like “what was that?” before conspiring with my other organs to keep me running to the toilet – diuretic indeed!  Companion Coffee Read more of this post

Filed under Shops Tagged with , ,

Opening of Sra Bua by Tim Raue, Pan Asian Food, Mitte

April 14, 2013 4 Comments

Opening of Sra Bua BerlinI have no idea how I got on the Sra Bua opening party mailing list. But somehow I did.

It’s conceivable that somewhere on the invitation it said ‘black tie’ but I was too busy marvelling at the mysteries of PR lists.  I put on my pink corduroy trousers, (my favorite pair of orange jeans from Comptoir des Cotonniers being in the wash).  I paired them with a blue t-shirt and a blue and white striped sweater.
The red carpet at Tim Raue opening The extensive red carpet was my first clue that I might have gotten it wrong. The wall of big men, in black overcoats, earpieces and walkie talkies that closed in on me with a look on their face that said “The Brandenburg Gate is that way honey.” was the second one.  Some Sra Bua tastersInside, I find that they have kept the interior of former Uma intact, minus the central point of the horse which has been replaced by another sculpture.The red carpet from the insideAs I have arrived at 7:30, I initially have good access to the miniature signature dishes being passed around. Half an hour in though, it’s become a free for all. Tim Raue, himself is being jostled around by elegant guests with feral eyes shoving past him to get at the food.  If he’s here, who is in the kitchen, I wonder?  The kitchen at Sra BuaDaniel Lengsfeld, I find out.  (A former Tim Raue sous chef that went on to cook at a place called “Katz Orange“.)  Because Sra Bua (a Kempinski brand restaurant of which there are already 3 in existence  around the world) is merely interpreted by Tim Raue.  On most days you will find him on the pass at his 2 Michelin star Restaurant Tim Raue.Salmon with grapefruit Sra Bua Read more of this post

Filed under Restaurants Tagged with , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,507 other followers