Berlin Eatz Summer 2022 [Berlin, Germany]

linguafood · May 8, 2022, 10:39am

Hola.

I’ll be posting my culinary adventures in one of my favorite European cities over the next few months.

Not sure if other posters would like to chime in who are currently in Berlin or plan on traveling there, but in any event, I’m hoping to give some updated recommendations

First up: Centro Italia, a fantastic Italian supermarket in Prenzlauer Berg. A culinary paradise offering antipasti, paste, formaggi, carni, dolci, erbe, vini… really, anything one could hope for and more. I picked up a lovely hunka taleggio and a piece of very young, very creamy & rich Pecorino, as well as fresh porcini ravioli and a couple of wines.

They also offer a daily selection of antipasti, paste and secondi to be eaten on their lovely patio.

Presunto · May 8, 2022, 10:41am

I was just gonna ask what you ate for breakfast

linguafood · May 8, 2022, 10:42am

Are there more than 2 photos showing up for you?

Presunto · May 8, 2022, 10:46am

Yes. In “gallery” format (grid icon in the row above this message box.

In “gallery” you can’t add comments individually but the photos can be “swiped” left/right. Only works if you upload directly, as in not via a image hosting site like I do.

linguafood · May 8, 2022, 10:52am

K. I could only see two, so I wanted to make sure

Thanks for letting me know!

linguafood · May 8, 2022, 3:26pm

A little afternoon scoot around the hood took us to one of the best patisseries in town: http://www.werkstatt-der-suesse.de/

We just had to pick up their signature pastry & a blueberry pistachio concoction, soon to make an appearance at dessert today or tomorrow

Also walked through the regular Sunday street food market, where we had a choice of Portuguese, Moroccan, Peruvian, Egyptian, burgers, empanadas, chimney cake, Kässpätzle, and Israeli hummus.

Picked up a couple more sweets for coffee - a chocolate pastel de nata, and a coconut thing that was just lovely. The plate has these two plus a canele from the patisserie.

linguafood · May 10, 2022, 11:02am

Our first home-cooked meal since our arrival: mozzarella di bufala caprese with two kinds of tomatoes followd by tortelli ai porcini with sautéed oyster & brown button shrooms. The caprese was lovely, but I found the tortelli’s porcini filling I purchased at the Italian market to be almost inedibly salty. My dining companions disagreed, but what do they know? Zackly!

Dessert was a frozen pistachio concoction also from the Italian market. Lovely, but couldn’t finish between the two of us. AMATEURS!

Last, but most certainly not least is part of today’s breakfast: WW toast with trout roe over cream cheese with a healthy squeeze of lemon. A culinary pleasure I look forward to all year. Or almost 3 years, in this case.

Presunto · May 10, 2022, 1:19pm

Too bad about the salty parcels. In this situation I wouldn’t know how to make it less salty. Eat more greens to cleanse the palate might help.

Doesn’t look like it contains much pistachios in your sweet ice ball thing. I dislike sweet things but will eat my weight in Turkish baklava. It’s massively loaded with pistachios (at least where I live).

Roe on bread is one of my absolutely favourite things to eat! This simple pleasure relies heavily on good quality bread and butter.

I eat it every chance I get! Check out my roe, fresh from the market stall fishmonger. These are intact whole roe sacs.

Roe jackpot!

Swedish pressure treated salmon roe in a little jar. Pressure treated roe remain plump for along time.

Don’t forget to eat Nordsee Krabben and the other 2 types as well!

And Matjes!

Now you. To market. To market!

linguafood · May 10, 2022, 4:00pm

HA! You really do love your roe! That salmon & roe bowl looks incredible!!

The ice cream was pistachio, and there’s pistachio paste in the middle. I love everything pistachio, and this wasn’t particularly sweet. I’m surprised you say you don’t like sweet stuff but love baklava? Most of it is relatively sweet in my experience, and we have some fantastic baklava in town from Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, etc.

These two are known city-wide:
http://www.pasam-baklava.de/ (Turkish)
https://damaskus-konditorei-emissa.com/collections/all (Syrian)

Presunto · May 10, 2022, 5:23pm

I make rare exceptions for a few things, ie Turkish baklava and Spanish flans (but not Mexican. Much too hard and sweet.).

Syrian baklava looks nice but I still think Turkish is best, because of the amounts of pistachios my system is willing to override my dislike for sweets.

linguafood · May 10, 2022, 8:21pm

Beers (helles and pilsner) at my favorite beer garden in town, Prater. The lines to get beer were unusually slow, but I chalk it up to lack of staff. I’ve never had to wait more than 10 min ever, including the Euro- and Worldcups, respectively.

Brats n tater salad that was a tad more acidic than I would like, but damn do I loves me some hot German mustard.

Presunto · May 10, 2022, 8:28pm

Nice Biergarten (and beer).

Today was the first hottest day here (mid 20’s C). Unfortunately it was heavily overcast and blowing a gale.

linguafood · May 10, 2022, 8:31pm

Samesies. Gusty, overcast & kinda muggy.

Prater is the oldest beer garden in
Berlin. It’s beautiful to sit beneath the chestnut trees

Presunto · May 10, 2022, 8:36pm

I’ve read that one of the times Germans feel the most patriotic is when they sit under a (linden) tree in a Biergarten drinking beer. It also has something to do with the right to enjoy the national beverage in the open air/public.

linguafood · May 10, 2022, 8:52pm

Pardon this German’s French, but fuck patriotism.

Having said that, it was wonderful being at my favorite beer garden drinking reasonably tasty beer.

Phoenikia · May 10, 2022, 9:25pm

Looks amazing. I’ve always wanted to stop by. I haven’t been to Berlin since 2008.

linguafood · May 12, 2022, 2:20pm

Chanterelle and funghi focaccie from my favorite focaccia place in Xberg (Wrangelkiez). I tried to look it up to make sure it’s still around, but it didn’t come up in Google. Thank goodness it still very much exists, but I can’t link to it, unfortunately.

When we were done eating, another focaccia had been put out – with zukes and anchovies. Shitty timing, but no doubt we’ll be back

Presunto · May 12, 2022, 5:29pm

Very substantial pizzas.

Berlin is warm enough today? I still wear trousers.

linguafood · May 12, 2022, 6:19pm

They look much larger than they are. It was much chillier than yesterday & windy, but I made do with tights and a skirt

linguafood · May 13, 2022, 10:23am

Running errands, we had to swing by one of Berlin’s most well-known baklava bakeries I mentioned a few days ago, Pasam. Their pistachio baklava is out of this world <3

A couple of those morsels, and two cheeses from the Italian market made for a wonderful late night ‘dessert.’ La Capretta on the right is a fab goat cheese we picked up without even tasting it, as that spiffy pecorino hasn’t come in again yet; the name of the cow/sheep’s milk cheese on the left was not retained by either of our jet-lag addled brains, but it was also very good. A Sicilian Grillo to wash it all down