After a couple of shopping trips to the Italian market & local weekly market for cheeses, prosciutto, and more grilled veg, brunch/lunch was kinda up in the air, so — from several options near & far I chose a tiny, family-run Northern Vietnamese place we’d walked by early on in our stay, seeing many Vietnamese folks on the small patio munching on intriguing dishes, and the terms “authentic” and “home-cooking” came up often in the overall very good online reviews.
We arrived to witness a huge Vietnamese family enjoying an impressive plate with seemingly everything on the menu,
and more Vietnamese folks showed up while we were enjoying our lunch. We got an order of the nem tom thit (Viet spring rolls), the nem chua ran (fermented pork sausage), the nem lui (grilled ground pork on lemongrass skewers), and cha la lot (fried beef & pork ‘patties’ wrapped in betel leaves) – probably my favorite. The lemongrass pork & the spring rolls came in second. I had the passionfruit drink posted on the wall, which was refreshing and not overly sweet.
A very meaty brunch. My PIC wasn’t a fan. Thai is more in his wheelhouse than Viet, it seems. I thought it was nice to try some more “unusual” Viet food.
Georgian dinner at Der Blaue Fuchs. Nice appetizer plate (but terrible picture) with the usual suspects: red beets salad, spinach salad, chicken salad, eggplant rollz, lotsa random spring mix on top (no dressing):
An extra order of nigvziani badrijani bc it’s my favorite Georgian app (imagine my disappointment when our server first said they were ALL OUT OF EGGPLANT — they were not )
and a very well seasoned, ground meat skewer with grilled veg.
It was a nice meal, and at 30€ / person didn’t break the bank. It did not particularly stand out from other Georgian restaurants in town, however.
pulled pork OR salmon (of which they were out, shamefully), 2 poached eggs, macadamia romesco with chimichurri, Hollandaise, and toasted sourdough. We got an extra poached egg & extra bread since there were 3 of us.
Super-friendly service, excellent cappuccino, good food.
Dinner at our favorite Greek resto in town, Berkis.
We split the pikilia kria, a smaller-than-it-used-to-be mixed mezze plate with the usual suspects, i.e. beets & skordalia, taramasalata, tzatziki, melitsanosalata, gigantes, feta), but not much of any of it, and not as tasty as we remember. Bummer!
I also ordered kolokithakia tiganita & melitsanes tiganites, yet we seemed to receive two orders of the latter. 's ok, my PIC prefers eggplant over zukes any day, but… that’s not what we ordered.
The choriatiki came with a balsamic dressing (!) and arugula. WTAF. There’s no lettuce in a proper choriatiki! Blasphemy.
Thankfully, their souvlaki game is still very much on point. I ordered way too much (2 pork & 2 lamb souvlaki per person, when 1 each would’ve been plenty), so a lot of meat came home with us.
We were stuffed to the gills & therefore had no room for their loukoumades, sadly.
Might go back again next summer, but I’d likely stick to the meats (souvlaki & gyros) after last night’s experience, but would prefer their mezze to be as flavorful and plentiful as they used to be
maybe chef’s day off?? In addition to cutting staff Im finding lots of places are adjusting formerly generous portion size downwards rather than raising prices a lot as prices rise.
Nah, full crew. It’s a family operation plus extra staff.
It was especially galling since we split the plate between the 3 of us, which is generally something I recommend for Greek or Turkish places, bc it is always too much food.
The souvlakia were very good, tho. I had a lamb skewer and two bites of pork for lunch >burp<
and an abundance of food & drink & miscellaneous vendors. Yesterday, off the top of my head, we saw Swabian, Turkish, Italian, Korean, Belgian, Sudanese, Mexican, Peruvian, Bavarian, Croatian…
Our choice fell on a generous portion of deliciously creamy, smoky Kässpätzle.
The food made me cry — in a good way, and I would’ve loved to have finished my last small beer of Helles to cool my tongue… instead of having our server knock it over and spill it all over my lap
The food made us cry again this morning, but that’s par for the course
Our final meal in Berlin (oh, how I hate to write those words!) was at the same Turkish restaurant we had our last meal in 2023: Adana Grillhaus, a Kreuzberg institution. Charcoal-grilled meats and wonderful Turkish mezze is their game.
(grilled eggplant with yogurt) for our app — a ridiculously generous portion we finished nonetheless with the ‘assistance’ of crispy, fluffy charcoal-grilled pita bread,
You people! You people make it impossible for me to leave here! I will cancel my flight and just eat my way through all the restaurants I didn’t get to and more until my money runs out
WOW! Who knew that Berlin was a fantastiche eating city (not me, always late to the table)
I’ve been so glued to Spain and Italy in past ten years, with only side trips to Southern Africa–Cape Town…now there is another great food city to investigate!)
All of a sudden I find myself eager to take nice long trip to Berlin, and don’t even know where else!
I have a space in spring 2025 of about three weeks. Was thinking of Dolomites (although neither of us can hike!) MAYBE Lake Garda, which Jen knows about and will ask her about that later on (did not like Lake Como much) …combine Dolomites with Puglia.
But now…skip Dolomiti in favor of Germany??? May-June next spring??? I am so unused to not being to read menus outside of all the Asian places I used to spend time in in my “younger” days!!! But what fun…maybe a German online course should be on my radar!!!
I think that flights might be easy from Puglia to Germany: Bari (never been to the city) to Berlin? To Munich? To Frankfurt? Will look into all that.
Right now, eagerly awaiting Jen’s report on a forum here that I’ve rarely looked at before this Munich trip was planned…
Natascha, my pleasure to have “met” you here!! I already am pegged into anything that Jen writes, be in about Queens, NYC, Italy, Germany…“I will follow you,” is that not a song title from 50 years ago?? And now you are on my "follow: list as well!!!
I was surprised that one of the restaurant menus I looked at had “matzoh ball soup” on the menu!
More excited every day!!
It really is, and very affordable compared to NYC, or other European metropoles.
I’ve only seen slices of Italy (Tuscany & Sicily), but after this summer’s Sicily trip I am ready to explore it more. What a gorgeous country, and the food…
Friends of ours will be in Cape Town next year — I’ve always wanted to visit, and it’s so much better to have a local connection.
May & June is when we are usually in Berlin, and that is the best time in our experience, although the weather can be all over the place.
Not sure about direct flights from Italy — we flew through Munich to get to Palermo, but I’m sure you can find out about that in due time.
I am also awaiting @JenKalb’s report, but she’s busy, so I’ll exercise patience for now
No need to learn German, the city is flooded with American ex-pats and most Germans have a pretty good command of basic English. The matzoh ball soup was likely at Masel Topf (?).
Thank you for your kind words As for the song — did you mean this one (a favorite)?
We tend to use Frankfurt as the easiest connection when traveling from US to Europe by flying with Lufthansa which gives you more or less access to “everywhere” in Europe without too many stopovers. BA through Heathrow gives you also a lot of options. If you are planning long enough in advance both airlines have sometimes good specials on their prices
)
And thank you 
You people make it impossible for me to leave here! I will cancel my flight and just eat my way through all the restaurants I didn’t get to and more until my money runs out 
As for the song — did you mean this one (a favorite)?
