I’ll start this thread with the reliably mediocre NYT 36 hours Berlin installment, as it might be helpful for anyone who’s never been here, and who doesn’t know a lot about the city at all. I’ve never been much of a clubber (understatement of the century), and the fact that the city is living, breathing history is also not exactly news 
In short, you’re better off following me here on my newest adventure.
Bis später, HOs 
First up: The Best Bread Ever.
We discovered this tiny market stand last summer & developed a bit of an obsession — so much so that we barely bought any other bread, which is ridiculous considering just how awesome the bread in this country is. But we’re pretty ridiculous, so 
It’s about as close to our ideal bread as possible: a dark, deeply flavorful, shatteringly crunchy crust, with a moist yet fluffy crumb. Utter perfection.
Alas, we’ll have to wait till Thursday for their next market appearance. Can’t waitttt 
Did I mention we spent a sabbatical in this Kiez about 20 years ago? Back then, the famous Marheineke Markthalle was being renovated, and most of the vendors had set up shop in the small parklet right next to the building, which was our main place to shop for cheeses, meats, produce, etc.
It was therefore a lot of fun returning today to pick up some fixins for a proper Abendbrot. There’s a Greek bakery and a Greek home-style food stand,
a couple of Italian alimentari & vini,
a fancy-shmancy gourmet foods place,
a Mediterranean dip & mezze place,
a stand specializing in nuts & dried fruit,
fish & seafood, several cheese purveyors,
butchers, and a few bakeries. There’s also pizza and German food and an espresso bar and a wine bar — TL;DR: it’s a culinary flippin’ wonderland.
We got Bulgarian feta, stuffed grape leaves, grilled eggplant w/yogurt at the Mediterranean, a nice hunka Taleggio & Finocchiona at the Italian deli, local crusty bread & a sourdough roll at the bakery, and one of my favorite cheeses with fenugreek & one of my PIC’s favorites, a Tomme de Savoie.
A pistachio cream brioche treat from a Sicilian bakery for our afternoon coffee.
There’s also a cobbler who fixed a heel that came off of my fairly new shoes within an hour 
One of our favorite falafel purveyors is much closer to us now, and so we scootely-dooted over to Habibi in Schöneberg on Winterfeldplatz, where one of our favorite markets sets up every Wednesday and Saturday. Habibi has been around forever. It’s basically a Berlin institution, and they’re highly popular with bar flies bc they’re open until 2 am.
Whether you order one of their platters — vegetarian with the usual ME suspects, vegan, or shawarma — everything is delicious.
They have a nice selection of local sodas
as well as Ayran, which is my preferred beverage of choice with falafel or shawarma (or döner kebab).
We shared a falafel sammich with salad (tomato, lettuce, peperoncini, hold the onion) and extra fried eggplant, zuke, and cauli, with all the sauces: garlic, sesame, “hot.” 
The dude had also added fried carrot & potato I didn’t really want, but I didn’t realize that until we’d taken our lunch over to a nearby bench in the sun, overlooking fine architecture by one of Berlin’s most famous architects, Hinrich Baller. His buildings are ballin’ 
You know what’s also dangerously closer now, besides the newly discovered Sicilian bakery? Pasam, Berlin’s best baklava.
Naturally, we had to stop in and get more sweet treats… just in case we run out 
We’ve not had the pistachio kadaif before, nor their version of the trendy Dubai chocolate.
We’ve generally had better luck finding good Thai food here than in the US, save for a few notable exceptions. One of the places we visit often is a food truck at one of our favorite weekly FMs, which I think we discovered way back in 2009 when we were living just down the road from that market square.
There’s usually a line, but the two Thai ladies behind the counter move it along fast. You can choose from a few mains — the inescapable but surely very good Pad Thai being one of them, often a couple of different curries, and a handful of other things, but we pretty much always stick to their aMAZing spicy pork “tim sum” with an abundance of chilies & fragrant with ginger, lemongrass, and lime leaves.
The heat level caught me a bit off-guard today 
, but we snarfed them down nonetheless. Apfelschorle (apple juice & bubbly water) to cool down our tastebuds afterwards 
The Wednesday rendition of the FM isn’t as large as Saturday’s, but there’s still any number of food trucks to choose from (I only remembered to take pics of these two on our way out):
Are you familiar with Nell Zink, an American writer living in Berlin? I just finished her latest novel, Sister Europe, and it paints an interesting portrait of the city, with all the immigrants and fading elite class structures.
I am not, but thank you for the recommendation! Once (if) I finish my NYer issues I am in the market for a summer read
We were on a mission to get our sourdough fix, and the bakery’s IG bio claimed it would be at the bi-weekly Turkish market along the canal. The Turkish market has been around for decades, and takes place on Tues & Fri. It’s not for the impatient (like myself), bc the aisle is narrow, and there are a LOT of Turkish ladies dragging around their little shopping trollies.
When we stayed in that district in 2005 & 2010 we went regularly. You can get produce, eggs, meats, fish, Turkish breads of all kinds, nuts, olives & fresh grape leaves,
pickled veg,
Greek cheeses and mezzedes, knick knack, knives, fabric… it’s quite the scene, and worth a visit.
A small food truck area offered dosa, African/Caribbean food, and Tibetan momos.
I love just how international our food scene is.
PS: The bakery stand was not there. Boo hiss.
Some gratuitous grafitti & street art.
