A Londoner's foodie treasure hunt through Berlin
September 12, 2010 5 Comments
When I first arrived in Berlin, I innocently asked everyone “Where is Waitrose? Or the equivalent?”.
The answer I got every time. There is nothing like that here.
Whaaaa? How can there be no Waitrose? I love Waitrose. That’s like finding out Santa Claus doesn’t exist! Read more of this post
July 20, 2010 Leave a Comment
Today was an example of how not to bake!
I am expecting my first guest this afternoon. And she knows I went to cooking school and like to cook and that I think I have a discerning palate. I couldn’t very well serve her something store-bought for tea! I immediately thought of Bill Granger recipe I really like that uses sour cream and is full of blueberries. Most importantly though - it’s a no brainer!
July 7, 2010 8 Comments
was a salad.
After unpacking straight from 8 am to 6 pm today, I headed out to explore the Mitte neighborhood.
My local supermarket is a Lidl. Eh, so it’s not exactly a Waitrose - that was instantly clear! But it’s not even equivalent to a Tesco’s! I bought some vegetables which seemed perky enough. I couldn’t find any cereal that I could identify…
Isn’t that the charm of moving to a new city though? Navigating the unkown until you can make a portfolio of “your places”.
To cheer myself up after the grim experience of Lidl, I had a scoop of organic ice cream. Chocolate. It was good. Not notable enough for me to include it here though.
Our TV isn’t hooked up yet so we won’t be watching the Germany vs Spain game. Although it being summer here, the windows are open, so I imagine we will be able to keep score just the same.
I made the first “meal” in the new kitchen tonight. If you can call it that, it was just a salad. It was a good way to get my feet wet, get a feel of the pros and cons of the new space. Pros - lot’s of space, open plan, drawers galore that do that “whoosh” thing when you bump them with your hip to shut. Love that!
Cons- the sink. They installed the smallest shallowest one they could buy. So if you put in say - a salad bowl. The sink is full! They then took said lilliputian sink and squashed it against a wall and left no room behind it, ensuring that there is no surrounding area to take the sink over flow that in guaranteed to occur after you’ve had a bowl of cereal in the morning. And it’s on the opposite side of the kitchen from the fridge with the oven / stove about a meter away. Hmmm…. Please can I meet the geniuses who thought of that one!
Tonight’s salad (served with some rye bread and cheese) featured:
1 head of sweet lettuce
1/2 a yellow pepper
1/ 2 a cup of quinoa (colored yellow with turmeric)
A handful of roasted and chopped hazelnuts
1/2 a cucumber
A bunch of cherry tomatoes (oh woe to me that my love affair with the Greek tomatoes was forced to end and I now have to contend with these insipid little poser tomatoes!)
A German inspired salad dressing of 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar, salt, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, pepper, 3 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons yogurt.
Hardly a recipe really but a welcome break from the restaurant food we have been over-indulging in of late and significant in it’s first meal status.
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