Auf Die Hand, Fine Fastfood, Mitte

Auf die hand is my local. Unexpectedly, it means I rarely eat there  because it’s so close to my house that it seems lazy not to take a few more steps to my flat and make my own lunch.  On the other hand, its proximity comes in handy on occasions when I need to meet people for coffee and don’t know them well enough to invite them to the flat or on one of those exceedingly rare occasions when I am running out for an early appointment or best one yet, when I am going to the Zoo or any other such  destination where the food is bound to be inferior.I was underwhelmed by auf die hand when I first moved into the flat and everyone kept telling me it was there.  It just seemed like a gussied up Pret a Manger and there was no way I was going to miss the bane of the triangle sandwich chain or so I smugly thought…  Smugness it turns out, is closely related to Pride - one of the seven deadly sins.  (I don’t need a film starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman to know it’s bad form to indulge in these bad boys)  Now I often find myself hankering after a free range egg salad sandwich or a chunky humous salad wrap.  (Although I would still insist on the sandwich coming to something resembling room temperature)Like the Prets and Eats of the UK, auf die hand does soups, stews, cakes, cookies and a warm meal of the day which goes for around €6.50 (It bears noting that for €3 more, you can go around the corner to Traube and have the special of the day or for €4.50 you can descend into the subterranean world of Persian food at Sabzi- open for lunch only and then there is the newly opened Jones Food Store on Reinhardstrass which I’ve yet to try but looks promising).  The €6.50 hot lunch price tag garners a lot of disapproval from its benefactors who are sensitive to the unspoken lunch rule of nothing over €5 that persists in Berlin.  Despite this, they are heaving at lunch, throw a little sunshine into the mix - when auf die hand put out their candy coloured chairs - and the shelves are bare by 3.  Which is just as well since they shut at 6. Read more of this post

Smart Deli, Japanese Fast Food, Mitte

You know those pervasive Berlin bakery sandwiches? The multi seeded brown bun with green lettuce poking out like a frilly petticoat? Which when you open, reveals a shriveled  up slice of skin on cucumber, cut exaggeratedly on the bias. A slice of cheese, dark brown and curled in the corners with a pale imprint of the once moist cucumber on its belly.  Salami, a slice so thin you could read your newspaper through it, glowing like it is lying in a fluorescent cabinet - except of course it’s not. One bite makes the inflated sandwich collapse into a chaos of sharp shard like crumbs; it seems to be all crust.  I don’t do those sandwiches.

Sure, like all people new to the city, I was excited by the prospect of sandwich that did not come in a triangle, served at 4°C but after a few I declared the sandwich genre in Berlin bakeries ‘dead to me’.Which is a pain because it means I have no easy work free solution for lunch.  It is a bore to make food for yourself twice a day.  Especially when the little diva seems to subsist on a diet of white things and needs separate meals made up (and then more often than not, thrown out when they don’t meet her exasperating standards.  Oh and what sounds like unguarded rage towards my offspring is more like an unabating amazement at the wool that Mommyhood can consistently pull over my eyes.) and then dishes need to be washed, dried and put away.  At the same time, I don’t like things on bread, in between slices of bread.  I like my sandwiches to be gourmet and that takes just as much work as a hot meal.Some days I debate whether it is a frivolous waste of time to get on the M1 tram to Nazuna in Prenzlauerberg so I can have a pitch perfect bento box.  With the pram and the kid, convincing the kid that she needs sock and shoes - it’s all too much to contemplate especially when it means that it will be the only thing I do that day and I will come home once again to be confronted with “What in the world shall I make for dinner? For me? For her?” Read more of this post

Perfetto Supermarkets in Karstadt Department Stores, Berlin

Premium ↑

KaDeWe Foodhall           FrischeParadies

Galeries Lafayette Food Hall

Perfetto at Karstadt       Galeria Food Hall         LPG (organic)         Bio Company (organic)

Rewe                Kaiser’s           Ullrich (the zoo branch is open on Sunday!)         Edeka Group       Mitte Meer

Lidl           Netto         Aldi       Penny Markt

Budget ↓

More and more, I’m thinking that what you need for a successful dinner party is a generous spirit.  A host (ess) trembling with trepidation over whether you like the salmon mousse (or these days clarified salmon agar agar jelly with charcoal powder and botargo shavings) is an instant mood killer.

Lighting is more important than how many components your dessert has and whether it’s served on slate with tear drop shaped smears that look like miniature people didn’t heed the CAUTION WET FLOOR signs and slipped and slid to their peril (the slate manufacturer is now being sued).Last night I went to dinner party hosted by Caroline and Tobias of the Thyme Supper Club.  They could give classes on dinner parties.  There’s faint music, filling in any lulls in conversation - not that there are many of those as the couple separate and move around the guests acting like a light wind helping the tinder catch.We make our way through Prosecco, white wine then red and finally port to go with the cheese: Comté, Stichelton (on sale at Kollwitzplatz Saturday Farmers market Caroline tells me), Taleggio & Cheddar.I promise to invite them round to our house in the new year.  As I write this I think I will try to emulate their style then simultaneously I think of turning a Simon Hopkinson recipe I read for a prune and Armagnac custard into a tart - maybe with some sort of praline or a bruleed top, or a scoop of home-made ice cream and some jelly…that apple jelly I made at my last dinner party having been a huge success…Bah! Who am I kidding, I’m a long way from dinner party harmony but going to a really good one always inspires me.

I’ve got just the place to do all my shopping for it: the Perfetto Supermarkets at Karstadt.  This may just be as close as I will ever get to finding a Berlin equivalent to my beloved Waitrose.  As with all Berlin supermarkets, they should call in some Brand Consultants to do away with cluttered inconsistent logos and definitely some interior decorators specializing in lighting because there are some alarmingly murky corners where I can’t make out the small print on the back of the packets (or maybe that’s my impeding age). Read more of this post

Kochhaus Delivers

On Thursday night, the buzzer rang. Thinking it was a delivery for a neighbour, I let them in.  My name was said, a paper to be signed was thrust forward and two large bags were handed over.  I frantically flipped through the empty rolodex in my head trying to find the words to say “This is not for me!” But the man was already gone.

Then I remembered, the email from Kochhaus letting me know they would be sending over some food.  I was sceptical about the concept but nothing like a load of free stuff to change your mind.  Ha!  No, I’m kidding (kind of, you might think the guy who sent over a drink, sitting at the end of the bar is a total sleaze but secretly you’re pleased that he went to the trouble because even from way down there he thinks you are wonderful - that or he has money to burn and he’s been pulling that stunt all night hoping someone will bite.)Kochhaus is doing in Berlin what premium online supermarkets  in London have been doing for years: thinking up a recipe, photographing it in a flattering light so that it gets your juices going, working out portion sizes and sending the food over.  By providing this service in Berlin (where most bricks and mortar supermarkets look like they’ve been hit in the face with a sack of ugly and the idea of an online service shopping service seems decades away) Kochhaus have found their niche.A few things niggle me, namely an over reliance on the stove top (I use my oven where I can to avoid smelling like a line cook) and that their meat and two veg approach means you end up using a lot of pans.  Although I was thinking that perhaps if they had sent me over a pasta bake scenario, I might feel hard done by whereas the way they are building up the meal there is more value in all the individual parts. Read more of this post

Coledampf’s & Companies, Kitchen Accessories & Cafe, Kreuzberg

Coledampfs third store (this one with partners) in Berlin, is in Kreuzberg and it is incredible!  I’d heard about its imminent birth for some time but I just though “bah”.  I never imagined something of this retail magnitude was what they had in mind.  I would stick it up there with Williams Sonoma and Sur La Table.  A toned down European version of course because no one can compete (or tries to) with the volume, the ‘oh so shiny and new’ and bright displays that instantly convince you (me) that: Yes, you (me) absolutely must have the electric Zoku popsicle maker with accompanying book. (Even though the last time I ate a popsicle, I still had some of my milk teeth in.) of the American market. This Coledampf doesn’t have the variety that the Savignyplatz shop has, notably absent are plastics (spatulas, Tupperware, moulds).  Instead there is a stunning collection of de Buyer pots and pans; chefy tools, about 10 formats of conical strainers; glassware; dishes; German wines, from the 13 growing regions; a tower of Cynthia Barcomi’s aluminum bakeware; and books - 1 shelf of which is in English.There is a focus on craftmanship, environmental sustainability and regional goods.  As I understand it, Coledampf’s & Companies is a collaboration between the big, the good and the virtuous; bread from Beumer & Lutum; the culinary bookstore Kochlust; a range of edible products from Essbare Landschaften, I gathered that they are the ones that run the cooking school; something (opinion maybe?) from Garcon magazine.I don’t really need the partner credentials, it could be a collaboration between the 7 dwarfs and I would still love it.  The enormous space (500 sq ft), the large communal tables, the freedom to amble along slowly and peruse the contents of the shop without being verbally tackled by an exasperated sales person that wants to know if ‘you’re just wasting their time or what?!?!’.

But the best part?

You can order food.There is a cafe on the ground level and a warm food cafe upstairs.  From memory, the menu upstairs went something like this: a celeriac soup, a pan-fried salmon, a regional duck dish, a pear dessert. Entirely seasonal, with not a raspberry or asparagus spear insight to dilute credibility.  With dinner at Renger Patzsch not far off on the horizon of the evening.  I ordered a soup and a dessert.  The kitchen is open and has some super strength extraction because although the salmon was coming out with perfectly crispy skin, I couldn’t smell it being cooked.  The chefs plate up on the open pass, as professional as if it were the pass at Maze, then *ping* goes the little silver bell and the order is expedited to the table. (Mains are in the €12-€15 range but look to be worth every euro.) Read more of this post

Katie’s Blue Cat, Pan-English Cafe, Kreuzkölln*

Do you know a good thing when you see one? I do.  Katie’s Blue Cat is one of those good things.

Even though it’s only just opened, it feels like it’s been around for a while maybe because of how coherent their offering is or how together their staff is.  Which is in stark contrast to a lot of the independent start-ups that open up around the city which have a habit of  putting the cart before the horse. In other words, they open a café, they know they are going to do coffee and something sweet (good margins on those babies) then they stumble through a motley crew of baked goods from around the world, a sunken cake here, a cupcake there, a hodge podge of stuff that doesn’t compel me to buy (why should I when I know at home I’ve got something better which inevitably uses superior ingredients, most of them organic and fair-trade). K.B.C.’s is clear: a “pan-English” inspired baked goods shop, with excellent coffee.

They do three things, which got me: the milk, the biscuits and their clear positioning. They use organic regional milk to make their cappuccinos, which is a huge deal because why boast about good beans (they use Bonanza here) then serve it up with bland long life milk? My cappuccino was smooth, so smooth that I was caught entirely unaware when a huge caffeine induced bout of euphoria hit me a mere half hour later, masked in the creaminess of the milk, I hadn’t had any indication of the bite that shot of coffee was going to take.

On to the biscuits, I like cake, I do, but I find it difficult to commit to a whole slice, that and more often than not, it’s too sweet for me. K.B.C.’s serves up a selection of about 6. Mostly doing away with the usual suspects in favor of cowboy cookies and Earl Grey shortbread biscuits.May I have a word with you about those Earl Grey biscuits? I ate an entire biscuit. Which may seem like I’m stating the obvious except that I rarely eat and entire anything or even half a thing I order (mostly because since leaving my 20s and a good chunk of my 30s behind me, I also seem to have misplaced my lightning speed metabolism but also because life is too short to eat just okay tasting stuff). These biscuits were tremendous, the Earl Grey gave them a chewiness and the flakes of salt I came upon every now kept the sweetness in check. Let’s just say, I’m a big fan. Read more of this post

Melt, Galettes & Crêpes, Friedrichshain

You know how when you are waiting for a bus, nothing comes for an hour, then out of nowhere 5 of them appear? Berlin’s got the “no bus - Op! too many buses’ syndrome.  I’m not talking about obvious things, like curry wurst or burgers, rather more fringe snacks like bubble tea.  These days I can’t walk down a street without seeing a shop announce “New! Bubble Tea!” (oh and I totally own up to the fact that as I type this, I have a Bubble’s Tea loyalty card in my wallet. What can I say?  It keeps me young, to behave like the young.).  Crepes is another one, most neighborhood markets will have one guy doing crepes.  Given that reality, it’s hard to get motivated to go have a crepe. To go to Friedrichshain and have a crepe.  Twice. Because the first time I went they were closed.  As was Factory Girl and I really wanted to know what this whole Magnolia thing they keep going on about is? Say Magnolia to me and I think of Tom Cruise, it’s raining frogs or red armadillo wedding cake and Julia Roberts looking fresh and happy, like a bright yellow daffodil (obviously less so by the end of the movie).  But neither of those two images come into play, at Factory Girl, Magnolias are a riff on tiramisu but with flavours like apple crumble or cookies and cream.  They come dolloped on top of bespoke ceramic square plates.  I was served by a very friendly man, who kept plying me with free samples of Magnolia in a bid to get me to commit to one, which I couldn’t because although they are pleasant, they don’t have much texture, like Eton Mess without the meringue and I am always going on about how I’m a texture girl.  I ordered a coffee to go.  It wasn’t stellar.

Cruelly I am at once entirely addicted to coffee (seriously, I wake up in the morning thinking ‘coffeeeeee!’) while being simultaneously very sensitive to the effects of caffeine, meaning I am dead tired yet hyperventilating lying down.  Not fun.  Therefore, if I’m going to mess up precious R.E.M time (not the shiny happy people kind) then it’s gotta be - outstanding!  I won’t go so far as to say ‘God in a Cup‘ level but let’s say, I’m discerning.I take my Factory Girl coffee for a walk around Friedrichshain.  It’s keeping my hands warm but I’m not drinking it, which is making me feel guilty about having spent 2 Euros whatever and then not drinking it (Sometimes I think  I could run circles around Woody Allen’s racing thoughts).

I see Melt.  I walk in.  I set my cup on the counter.  The young French man who owns the shop comes over to me and says hello (auf Deutsch).  ’Hi!” I chirp (in American), it comes out a little loud, perhaps a bit black labrador seeing it’s about to be taken out for a walk.  There’s a split second where he realizes I don’t know what I want yet, there is a flicker of annoyance, perhaps it’s his nostrils that flare.  All of a sudden I am back in Paris, where this kind of subtle jousting between customer and shop owner is a given.  It’s not rudeness, no it’s more elusive.  It’s a weighing up that takes place in a matter of - well in a second, where they decide how they will interact with you.  Possible categories include, like a piece of gum lodged in the grooves of their shoe, like an imbecile, like you are a C. Deneuve - although it goes without saying that the last one almost never happens.  I take a few moments to reminisce about my University days in Paris.  He tidies.  He has that clipped walk that I remember so well.

I get his attention and order in French.  A galette with Emmental, ham and egg.  And I ask him to throw away my cappuccino and order a cappuccino.
“It’s full?” he inquires.
“Yes.”
“You didn’t like it?”
“No.”  I throw down my gauntlet.
“You will like ours.’ he picks it up, dusts it off and hands it back with chin held high.Alrighty then, how I miss the psychological finesses of Paris.  Well, sometimes, when I’m being romantic about it and because I don’t live there anymore. Read more of this post

Alpenstueck, Bäckerai & Manufaktur, Alpine Inspired Food, Mitte

The Alpenstueck group have carved themselves out a neat little corner in this quiet pocket of Mitte.  (Interesting article on Iris Schmeid, owner of the group here.) If this group were a haircut, they would be buzzed up nice and neat in the back, with a plummeting horizontal fringe.  Black, of course and very very straight.  In other words, in control, high maintenance and stylish.

It started off with just Alpenstueck on an attractive corner site.  With a large wall of stacked up logs, gray leather banquettes, large wicker baskets, antlers (lamps, coat hangers or just piled up in a corner), with pale gingham lampshades.  During peak traffic times in Berlin (like the fashion shows or the Berlinale) getting a table is impossible.  Probably because Alpenstueck is the kind of place that visually impresses and because the staff have enough pedigree that you can count on them to be polite, spot your empty glass and even smile now and again.The food is a combination of 2 kitchens you will encounter often in Berlin: Swabian & Viennese (which all places here refer to as Alpine - but I ask you, where is the rösti and the fondue then?).  Meaning you can expect schnitzel, maultaschen, the vinegared potato salad, the wilted cucumber ribbons, goulash, kässpätzle, sauerbraten and so on.  I prefer the goulash at Meierei, the maultaschen at Manufactum and the schnitzel at Ottenthal.  But Meierei is a deli with limited seating that is closed for dinner; Manufactum is also a deli with annoying bar stools serving food on huge plates and tiny tables; and Ottenthal is almost too grown up (when being grown up meant boring and stuffy) and you always need a reservation. I guess if I had a friend in town that I wanted to impress, I would probably take them to Alpenstueck too. The added charm of Alpenstueck is that the streets around it feel abandoned and dark, probably cold because let’s remember we are in Berlin, then you see the warm glow of the restaurant, the smiling guests inside and you think, ‘Oo, I bet it’s nice in there.’ Read more of this post

Friedrichshain: Aunt Benny’s, Cafe; Kinkibox, sewing cafe; La Récréation, Ceramics; Hops & Barley, micro-brewery; Olivia, Chocolate & Cafe; Goldschmiede, jewellery

At this juncture, I would say that I know Mitte inside out; Prenzlauerberg very well; I am surprisingly well-informed on where to eat in Kreuzberg; Charlottenburg is pretty shaky; Schöneberg, vaguer still; Friedrichshain had been blank (with the exception of Cupcake which I visited only once); don’t even get me started on places like Wilmersdorf it might as well be a different city, in fact from what I hear - it kind of is.While the weather was ‘Fa la la la la, la, la, la, laaaaaa‘ glorious, I took out my new copy of Tip’s Speisekarte (in which I got a mention on a special they did on food bloggers - Yay!) and plotted out a few addresses to try out. Then I printed out the google map and off I went with a girlfriend to explore.Yes, I’m a geek of epic proportions. Something it’s taken me a long time to embrace but now that I have, you know what? Geeks have much more fun.Annoyingly, two of the places I had been looking forward to trying were closed on Tuesday (Factory Girl! and Melt) but Aunt Benny’s was open. It has a similar aesthetic to places like The Barn or Bäckerei from the Alpentstueck group, namely, black painted walls, designer bare bulbs, good staff / service. I was still full from tasting a lot of mediocre food along our tour (places I won’t name because they were unoriginal even in their shortcomings) but I couldn’t resist the chickpea and kidney bean salad with rocket in a large weck jar.At that point the tour was over and it had been disappointing. The extraordinary number of young Europeans on the streets told me that there was more to Friedrichshain. Layla nodded off in her pram which gave me ample time to follow my nose.

(Note to self: always rely on the nose!)

I turned up some truffles, not all culinary but you don’t mind if I go off brief every now and again?

First up: La Récréation, a ceramic workshop with dishes so pretty they made me think of pastel coloured, Pierre Hermé macaroons. I wanted to buy a set then and there and thankfully was impeded from doing so by a man who actually was buying an entire dinner set.

Read more of this post

Ackerplatz market, Däri - Milk Workshop, The Circus of the Cycling Spoons and loving Berlin right now

You know how when you fall in love with someone?  You are utterly goo goo ga ga over how great they are? Exciting, unpredictable (in a good way), friendly. Then you suddenly find them reckless, unpredictable (in a bad way), and what you took to be friendliness, is actually horniness (and they hit on all your girlfriends, all the time)*. Most times that’s when you expedite them to the nearest exit.  Except on the very rare occasion where you see them stripped down and you think, yep, I get you and I still love you (yeah, close your mouth dear, I’m as surprised as you are).My guess is that this is probably why almost 95% of love stories are about an unrequited / misunderstood love that is requited / understood for a blink before one or both of them dies. Romeo & Juliet? Had they lived, he would have probably become a shoe salesman and she would sport a bouffant red hair do.

Because it’s complicated, intangible even to express what it is, how it works, why it works? (Oh and if you ask me, the characters of  Miracle Max and his wife run circles around all the afore-mentioned lovers.)It’s easy to be in love with someone before all the dots have been connected but once they have, well then you find yourself thinking - “That’s just a stupid drawing of a couple of kittens playing with a ball of yarn. How kitsch, how dull, I was expecting something else, I saw myself with someone better…” dump.It’s sort of the same with cities, you visit once and you think ‘Ah, to live here, I would be the happiest person in the world.’ Then you do and discover that actually you can’t put up with all the dog poop (Paris); all the over 70s (Geneva); can’t afford it (London); all the Hogans sports shoes (Munich); all the motorcycles without mufflers…oh, oh…and the imminent financial collapse (Athens) - you get my drift.But Berlin, Berlin.  Well yes: the bureaucrats are exceedingly good at telling you, you haven’t filled in the right form; receiving a flyer that says I must go collect my parcel at the post office leaves me shaking with fear (they’re mean to me); and my eyes roll so far into their sockets every time the supermarket counter girls get up from their seat to make sure I am not wheeling out a lifetime supply of diapers, that I have to pull out my compact mirror to help roll the back into their place. Buuuuuuttttt……The rest of Berlin is fantastic.

You just need to step out of your door and let things happen to you.  No plan, necessary, no money even (although that certainly helps). Read more of this post

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