What's For Dinner #118 - the Pollen Is Covering Everything! Edition - May 2025

[linguafood (Natascha)]

I think you would very much enjoy the city. Lots of art, culture, food & drink, and many parks and bodies of water/canals make you forget you’re in a big city. The best time to visit is in the “warmer months” — the only thing missing that would make it perfect is a beach

It was a chilly 14˚C today, tho… May isn’t reliably warm, but being from the UK you’re familiar with Northern European “summers”

And almost everyone here speaks English, thx to the influx of hipsters from Williamsburg and many of your compatriots — no interpreters needed!

And I would love to show you around if you were ever to come over in the summer some time

[biondanonima]

@linguafood

And almost everyone here speaks English, thx to the influx of hipsters from Williamsburg and many of your compatriots — no interpreters needed!

On my last trip I was hard pressed to get an opportunity to practice my German as English was so ubiquitous. It’s nuts!

[linguafood (Natascha)]

It drove the Fulbright grantees insane. It was the most common complaint of everyone, and not just in Berlin, actually. Although any further east you may run into issues.

[Madrid]

I had to pass a test translating academic German into English for my doctoral degree. I took a summer school course that met 5 days a week on academic translation, worked very hard on it, learned some of the more difficult parts of the grammar, passed the text with flying colors. Then, promptly forgot most of it and never learned to speak German at all.

And I had zero trouble whatsoever communicating when I spent 10 days in Berlin long, long ago (1983, before the wall came down). I had a little pocket dictionary to translate restaurant menus and food in stores, and I stayed at a pension in a Spanish - speaking neighborhood where I could speak Spanish while buying provisions in the corner food markets.

The only place it was even a bit challenging was the day I crossed over to East Berlin and had to deal with an East German female border guard on the subway who was way too interested in my Pentax camera. She didn’t speak English. I spoke English to her in a very polite way and then just exited at the first West Berlin station.

Amazing city, one of my best memories in life.

[THECHARLES (Charles Yu)]

“ TANUKI, J-Town, Steeles & Woodbine, Markham “ - Affordable and enjoyable, quality casual Japanese fusion cuisine

[IMG_0014] The now defunct ‘Shiso Tree‘ used to be one of my favorite casual Japanese fusion places for an informal and relaxing family gathering. Memory of some of their delicious and well executed Japanese themed pasta dishes and the exemplary and amazing value Zuppa di Pesce still lingers on in my memory after all these years! ‘Tanuki’, occupying the same ‘ hidden’ location as Shiso Tree, operates on a fairly similar business model, but with more focus on Japanese comfort style dishes and …

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Yes, the eastern parts of Germany are still very much behind in terms of English language mastery. A lot of young people have moved to Berlin or the west, and the older crowd is likely more fluent in Russian

That is no longer the case for most of gentrified East Berlin, of course.

And I agree with you: an amazing city

[ernie_in_berkeley]

An interesting thought: I’ve never asked my Ostie sister-in-law if she spoke Russian. She’s been in the States for over 30 years now and has a journalism degree from Columbia.

[medgirl]

Sounds amazing! I really should be more organised and plan a trip to Berlin sometime soon. Maybe next summer!

[Saregama]

@jiaozi

turkey Adana sheet pan kebabs

Those look fantastic!

@jiaozi

baby broccoli roasted in the kebab juices

Clever!
When I made Tepsi Kabap a while back, I was shocked by the amount of juices exuded. But when I set it aside to assemble the rest of the meal, they had been miraculously reabsorbed!

Barbunya pilaki sound delicious.

[mariacarmen (maria ascarrunz)]

today it’s going to hit 82 and then back down to 67 tomorrow!

[mariacarmen (maria ascarrunz)]

BF had already eaten dinner last night by the time I got home from bday (not mine) drinks with friends, and had also done a beautiful job re-conditioning our wok. So I immediately made myself a doctored-up bowl of Buldak ramen noodles with their spice/sauce packets, mentaiko Kewpie mayo, a little bit of thinly sliced pork belly, an egg, and scallions.

Aaand, I forgot to take a pic of it all actually bubbling IN the wok.

[ernie_in_berkeley]

(I guess it’s “ossie”, not “ostie”. I misremembered an old email from her.)

[linguafood (Natascha)]

We slept a whopping 12 hours last night! We stayed up sipping rosé, reliving our fun trip over har di har until about 1:30 am. I’d woken up briefly at 8:30 am, but decided that was too early… and next thing we knew half of the day was gone! Good grief!! We had so many things to do today!!!

Not to brag, but we got a LOT done anyway Picked up my lil Vespa scooter, took care of some essential & not-so-essential grocery shopping at the stupidmarket, picked up our Bag O’ Berlin Thangs left with my buddy in our old ‘hood (my ancient leather jacket among them, which came in mighty handy today on the scooter bc it’s freaking chilly here), AND I managed to find a cheap-ass blow-dryer cuz our pad doesn’t have one

We still need to buy a cheap coffee maker, but that can wait until tomorrow as there’s also a pretty nice café in the building next to ours where my PIC got us a very good cappuccino this morning. Really can’t complain.

Our end of the street is practically littered with Italian restaurants of varying quality / google ratings; the other end where we went to for dinner tends more to Asian & SE Asian with various sushi/Thai/Viet randomness fusion places, a couple of Indian places, an Indonesian, two Tibetans… but there’s also Sudanese, Greek & Lebanese FF places. Turkish grocers, kebab, shwarma & falafel places abound, as well as a newish South Indian we want to try soon. A gelateria, a couple of “bowl” places (yes, this yawn-inducing trend hit Germany a couple of years ago), a cake & pie bakery, a chocolatier, a couple of wine stores…. There’s certainly no concern, then, that we might go hungry or thirsty here

As for tonight, temps dictated ramen at a decent enough place down the road. I really loved the jet-lag friendly lighting

Shrimp gyoza to start us off,

miso ramen for me,

tantan spicy beef chashu for my PIC.

Hit the spot. We added ample sources of heat: dried chilies, chili oil, and chili sauce the server brought when she saw us adding a bunch of the chilies.

A lovely Riesling to go with.

We picked up wine & beer at the supermarket on our way back to the pad. It’s good to be home

Oh, and here’s the other side of our entrance for @medgirl.

I detect astrological and astronomical themes

[ottawaoperadiva]

I’m glad to hear you got a good night’s sleep last night and you seem to be in good spirits. Here’s hoping the rest of your trip goes smoothly.

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Thank you! No point in dwelling on a short-lived bad experience. Life’s too short for that ish

Once jet-lag subsides, our taste buds recover (we both experience muted taste as one of the symptoms), and our GI systems get used to the new feeding times , we’ll be ready to paint the town

[ernie_in_berkeley]

The NY Times today, “36 Hours in Berlin”. Gift link:

36 Hours in Berlin

[medgirl]

Your apartment block art gets curiouser and curiouser!

Love the label on your bottle of Riesling. Reminds me of a joke:

A man booked a night away from his retirement home in a swanky hotel to celebrate his 90th birthday. As a birthday present, his friends arranged for an escort to visit his room that evening. She knocked on the door, he opened it. She announced: “I’m here to give you super sex!” He replied: “I’ll have the soup please.”

[linguafood (Natascha)]

I know a slightly “dirtier” version of this one. My bestie in my 20s, a raunchy Canuck with the mouth of a sailor told it to me. I’ll send you a DM so as to not offend more tender souls than ours

[linguafood (Natascha)]

I haven’t had a chance to look at that yet, as our internet didn’t let Chrome access any of my usual sites, but I am very curious about their recs. I’ll check them out with my morning cuppa mañana!

[bcc]

Glad you made it !!