Kietz, Interesting beer and Turkish food
Berlin, Germany- March 3-6 2012
Upon arriving in Berlin (finally!), I wasn't expecting such a big city. I mean I knew it was pretty big but it was much more city like than I had imagined. Max, our host, greeted us at the train station and we walked a short walk to his place. From there he took us to various locations starting with the Sony center. Then we went on to see the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie and we walked around Museum Isle as well. There was so much to see! Max also informed us that we would be going to the Ritter Sport, a German chocolate brand, headquarters to create our own chocolate bars. Enough said. It was awesome. You could pick up to 3 ingredients and they would put that in the chocolate. Erin choose graham cracker and I wanted chili in the chocolate and we both agreed on raspberry. So we ended up with a graham cracker, chili, and raspberry chocolate bar. And it was actually pretty good! The graham cracker added texture, the chili added heat, and the raspberry added fruttiness. It was a well balanced chocolate bar if I do say so myself. 
The worker wrapping up our creation.
The next day, we were out for more of the city. We headed out bright and early to a tour of the Reichstag (Parliament) Building and after that we walked around and went to the shopping centers, visited Kadwe (one of the biggest department stores in Berlin!) and got boba.
I, however, was ready to try some real Berlin-er food. Max said, in order to fulfill our experience here, we need to get currywurst, which is a Berlin style sausage at Curry 36. One of the Currywurst stands that have been serving traditional currywurst for a long time. 
It came with a side of delicious seasoned fries and a mound of ketchup and of course the currywurst.
I kinda wished I had gotten a smaller portion or shared one with Erin because Max's vegetarian doner kebab looked and tasted AMAZING. He got it at one of the most popular food stands in Berlin, Mustafa's. The line went down the street and he waited for a half hour!
But I would have too, it was pure vegetable kebab goodness.
As if that wasn't enough food. We checked out the Kietz of Berlin, which are the small trendy areas where there are cutesy cafes and boutiques. Max said Barcomi's, an American-style cafe, had great dessert and coffee so of course we went to check it out!
They had a delicious apple-walnut cake with caramel cream cheese frosting. I usually don't like such a thick amount of frosting but this was frosting was rich and velvet-y. I don't know what they added to it but obviously we liked it.
Our plate was wiped cleaned of every crumb and smidge of frosting.
On our last day in Berlin, we made the mistake of visiting Sachsenhausen concentration camp right outside of Berlin. It was a super interesting and crazy experience to have been walking on the ground where thousands have died, and probably one of the most depressing, want-to-throw-up moments in my life. But it was good. Other than the freezing temperatures in Sachsenhausen to not lift our moods, we left after a couple hours to take the art tour of Berlin. While walking through the streets of course there were street vendors out tempting me with their food. and I could not resist. I'm not even sure exactly what it was, but it was quite tasty. Some more turkish food for ya. It was some kind of crepe naan in which she toasted and put some yogurt-based sauce and added veggies.
I especially like the purple lettuce. It added a lot of vibrancy to my picture :)
Oh street vendors of Europe, you will be the death of me.
After our arts tour and seeing the East Side Gallery. We decided to call it a day and head back to Max's for some good ol' German home cooking. We made German spaetzle, a simple homemade pasta made from flour, egg and milk. Pretty simple, but yummy.
After the spaetzle cooked, we simply added some cheese and cream to it, gave it a stir and stuck it in the oven for the cheese to do its thing. It was almost like mac and cheese but with spaetzle and not macaroni. So good! Max definitely spoiled us. By the end of the day we were all exhausted but full of good food and drink- just how its supposed to be!
Goodbye Berlin. Until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment