Back in Europe’s hippest city. A bit earlier this year, so we’re not yet overrun with kids on vacay from Spain, Italy, France, and GB. Plenty of local ‘kids’ here anyway. And so many mustaches! 
Follow me here for our culinary adventures this summer 
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I was genuinely surprised to find that I hadn’t posted about this Thai place we discovered last summer already. But it’s not too late! 
“Thai on Sundays” has been a bit of a tradition for us for many years now, although until two summers ago, this meant scooting across town and spending a leisurely afternoon at Thaiwiese - an anarchic, homegrown weekly gathering of numerous members of the local Thai community that started out as a picnic well over a decade ago, and that - in good German fashion - has finally been regulated to death. I will miss ‘my’ soup lady forever, her broth transporting me back to cheap soup kitchens in Bangkok 
But such is life. Nothing lasts forever. Früher war alles besser.
Tossakan prides itself for delivering ‘authentic Neo-Thai food.’ It’s a dream for anyone who loves that burning chili, and a nightmare for those who can’t handle the heat 
But srsly, the options for spicy dishes are: spicy, very spicy, and Thai spicy. We ordered the latter last year & almost died, and we have a pretttttty high tolerance for heat.
Last night, we thought we were being smart by ordering ‘just’ spicy – but to no avail. While the
fantastic tod mun pla (fish cakes) were on the milder side, the vinegar/cuke/chili mix caught up on us.
The fried pork belly with crisp garlic and a wonderfully green, spicy seafood dipping sauce was unctuous, rich & tender.
The most unusual and interesting dish we had, however, and one I’ve never seen in Thailand or Thai restaurants anywhere else was miang kham: 4 pepper leaf wraps with ginger, peanuts, lime, chili, coconut and tamarind sauce. It was beautifully presented in 4 shot glasses, and felt like a nice, comforting pillow
after the abuse our taste buds had suffered from the nua nam tok (beef salad), which was particularly fiery – our moist scalps and eyebrows providing tangible proof of the amount of chilis used… not that you could see any in the dish, save for the seeds. Oh, so many chili seeds! 
Thank goodness for two orders of sticky rice, and ample amounts of Bavarian beer. Despite our fears, the night and morning were pleasant
The place openend another branch in Xberg last year that specializes in gieuw tiew, and I am super-excited to check it out this year… might it be as good as my soup lady’s?
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I always enjoy this summer series. Happy eating
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Thank you so much 
We look forward to our summers here all year
Looking forward to following this. Husband and I will probably be in Berlin for 5 or 6 days in late July. A first visit and doing the museums etc (disappointed that Pergamon is closed) and trying to get a sense of the place. Im leaning to staying on the West side in a green area which I prefer over concrete highrises, but am torn since it seems like the best food may be in places like x-berg (we live in downtown Brooklyn so it would probably not feel too challenging) but I do like peace and quiet, bird song etc. As well as beer gardens, good mideast and asian cooking, but not loud bar scenes.
I know you have probably addressed this before, but have you found any really tasty food in the Museum Island area?
any other thoughts for a first time visitor?
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You’d actually be surprised how green many of the neighborhoods are, not just in the west. There are parks almost everywhere, and Berlin doesn’t haven any real high-rises anywhere, save for a couple eyesores on Potsdamer Platz aka “architecture.”
There’s good food to be had everywhere - e.g. Charlottenburg/grad is currently experiencing a bit of a culinary renaissance (we had very good & cheap Iranian food at a casual bistro last year), and public transportation will get you literally anywhere in the city center within 30 min.
The Museumsinsel is in Mitte, with many options right there (though it’s also big with tourists as you can imagine).
Maybe check out my previous reports over the last couple of years and see if anything floats yer boat?
Asian is a pretty wide net to cast, and we do have plenty of Middle Eastern (Turkish, Syrian, Levante, Israeli, Greek, Lebanese, etc.) to choose from.
For bird song & beers: a gorgeous beer garden is at Cafe am Neuen See, right in the middle of Tiergarten - basically our Central Park. We also love Prater (Prenzlauer Berg) and Schönbrunn in Volkspark Friedrichshain - pretty decent Italian food to be had at that one.
Please don’t hesitate to ask any further questions
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Dinner last night at a French brasserie we’d been meaning to try last summer & never got around to it.
An airy, modern space with very interesting art (a threesome on the wall facing the entrance was particularly intriguing, but I didn’t snap a pic since there were peeps sitting right beneath it) and stunning chandeliers.
The menu is small, but eclectic. We opted to share a few small plates, as none of us were interested in the usual app, main, dessert thang.
We split their very good sourdough from a local baker – so good we got another order of it,
anchovies and capers,
eggplant ‘caviar’ (really just glorified but good baba ghanoush),
perfectly tender, sautéed pulpo with ‘nduja & salsa verde of which we ordered another plate – the sauces were nice to sop up with that fantastic bread,
a whole artichoke with hollandaise and chervil vinaigrette (lovely),
roasted pepper with labneh and bagna cauda (also very good),
sautéed asparagus with sorrel and koji-beurre blanc (good inspo for my future asparagus meals!),
and the small tartare (about 2.5oz and plenty at that point – very rich & filling).
In fact, I felt absolutely stuffed after sharing these things even tho it wasn’t a lot of food. I blame the amazing bread 
We also shared a lovely Riesling that was the perfect complement to the meal, and very reasonably priced at 42€.
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