Four days in rainy Berlin

[ElsieD]

26 minutes ago, Duvel said:

I think it is very straightforward: salt, pepper & nutmeg. Some softened onions & egg (as a binder). And enough breadcrumbs to make it unsuitable for Atkins followers …

 

Reminds me of the meatballs my mother (Dutch) used to make.  She didn't use a lot of spices but nutmeg was one she did use.  In meat balls, on green beans and I forget what else, carrots maybe?    She also used curry powder in some dishes, a rice dish comes to mind.  Oh yes, and always bay leaves and I think cloves in red cabbage.  Seeing that meatball made we wish I could have just one more of my late mother's.

[Duvel]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

Like your son on some creatures I wonder about edible? - like the also very ancient horseshoe crabs - not really a crab https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Invertebrates/Horseshoe-Crab 

They were actually in the tank next to the pictured underwater bugs. Made me wonder as well. I like to believe this account …

Edited November 7, 2021 by Duvel (log)

[Katie Meadow]

25 minutes ago, Duvel said:

They were actually in the tank next to the the pictured underwater bugs. Made me wonder as well. I like to believe this account …

Save the Horseshoe crabs, save the Red knots. 

https://www.audubon.org/news/saving-red-knots-one-crab-time

The crabs were abundant on Long Island, where we used to summer. No one ever considered eating one. They were harmless, and we just stepped around them. Sometimes there would be hundreds. Now I suspect there are way fewer.

[Porthos]

I'm really enjoying "going along" on this trip. Thank you.

 

Are 5 Guys Burgers common in urban German areas?

[Duvel]

6 hours ago, Porthos said:

I'm really enjoying "going along" on this trip. Thank you.

 

Are 5 Guys Burgers common in urban German areas?

A couple of years ago, Germany was hit by the “premium burger” craze, with new chains popping up (“Hans im Glück”, “Peter Pane”, “Burgermeister”, …), but also international chains branching out (e.g. “5 Guys”). The latter has quite a few branches in the bigger cities by now, just in my vicinity there is one in Mannheim and one in Heidelberg …

[ambra]

On 11/4/2021 at 6:33 PM, Duvel said:

After checking into the hotel I found a small Vietnamese neighborhood joint offering both. Berlin has a huge Vietnamese population stemming from East German times, where Vietnamese were welcome migrant workers. The city now is brimming with Vietnamese restaurants, a Vietnamese shopping center and Karaoke bars.

I remember the Vietnamese food there being absolutely amazing. I sometimes want to jump on the plane just for some noodles!

[TicTac]

17 hours ago, Duvel said:

 

About 5h and 12 km later we returned to the hotel …

 

 

 

 

Someone got a room upgrade!!!

[Duvel]

Yeap … the cassowaries 👍

[kayb]

I wish the little one was a few years older. I have a 10-year-old granddaughter I need to arrange a prospective husband for.

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

I wish the little one was a few years older. I have a 10-year-old granddaughter I need to arrange a prospective husband for.

Hey, nothing wrong with an older woman.  They have more experience 😬

[Duvel]

After a nice and sunny day, it started to rain at night and it did not stop.

 

Lucky, we had planned and reserved time slots for the Natural History Museum. Due to Covid the interactive parts of the exhibition were closed (much to the dismay of the little one), but luckily the dinosaurs were all there …

 

 

 

The museum was nice, yet the most spectacular (in my view), yet creepy part was the basement collection of fish specimens preserved in formaldehyde. It was a gigantic room, indirectly luminated through the collection. I could have sworn I saw some fishes from @liuzhous excellent Chinese Fish thread, but maybe that was fishful thinking …

 

 

 

Upon our return at 13.30h to the hotel, noone was in the mood for going out again. My MIL was feeling under the weather (or better suffering from the latter) and refused to leave the hotel again. I took my FIL to pick up a Döner, which we enjoyed in our room. It was very good. I decided to have a beer with it and took a nap afterwards, to be refreshed for dinner …

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by Duvel (log)

[Duvel]

It really did not stop raining. I had reserved a table in a nice restaurant with local cuisine that I really wanted to go, so I dragged everyone (except my MIL) out to walk over …

 

 

 

Little one and me shared an Eisbein (cured and boiled pork shank, with potatoes and mashed yellow peas) …

 

 

Me with a Berliner Kindl, little one with his newly aquired favourite KiBa (or Kirsch-Banane, a mixture of cherry and banana juice …)

 

 

 

My wife opted for the Schnitzel with a fried egg (and couldn’t wait, obviously) …

 

 

And FIL went for the wild boar stew, served with a fantastic red cabbage and homemade potato dunplings …

 

 

A Berliner Kümmel (caraway scented Schnapps) concluded the meal and warmed us just enough to make it back through the cold to our hotel.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by Duvel (log)

[rotuts]

@Duvel 

 

wonderful blog.

 

thanks for the ' on the way ' pics

 

I can see the attraction of the Dino exhibit.

 

Ive only had ' pigs knuckles ' once

 

in Germany , when I was ten.

 

loved them , along w the red cabbage and apple sauce.

 

sorry your weather isn't cooperating 

 

but I bet a bit od drizzle 

 

makes the food taste that much better.

 

thank you for sharing.

Edited November 11, 2021 by rotuts (log)

[Smithy]

I'm sure your trip is over now, but one of the wonderful things about blogs like this is that latecomers (like me) can still ask questions.  That last night's meal looked fabulous. I must try making schnitzel again. Was your MIL sorry she misssed out, after hearing about the excellent meal?

 

You noted that your FIL had excellent red cabbage. How was it prepared? What was special about it?

 

Thanks for bringing us along. I loved the scenery and museum photos as well as the food photos!

[Duvel]

Ahh @Smithy …

 

There is still one day left to document, thanks for the reminder 😉 Will do so tonight.

 

MIL was tired and truth to be told a tiny bit overwhelmed just how nasty the weather in Northern Germany can be at this time of year. Her fashionable clothes look like they are very warm & suitable for sustaining hours of rain, but in reality they do better in a Catalan climate context where 15 oC and a few clouds are considered bad. I think we all underestimated that part, and she was happy to have a hot bath and not having to go out anymore …

 

The red cabbage was braised for a long time, with apples, a lot of cloves and a touch of cinnamon and before serving amped up with some dark berry marmalade. I like it like that !

Edited November 17, 2021 by Duvel (log)

[Duvel]

Last full day in Berlin. The weather wasn’t that much more inviting, but at least it wasn’t raining.

 

We took the bus to reach the seat of the German parliament, the Reichstag. Some architecture looks actually better in these hazy autumn days …

 

 

A few meters away is the Brandenburger Tor, which from my view is as impressive as the Reichstag (but I might be biased).

 

 

From here we split up. My wife, the little one and the inlaws went on to see Gendarmenmarkt, Checkpoint Charlie and go shopping … and I rented a bike.

 

 

First stop was Konnopke‘s, the birthplace of the Currywurst. Located under a streetcar bridge in the former East, in this shack the first Currywurst was served in 1960.

 

 

 

Sausage was good, well spiced with a fruity curry sauce.

 

 

Cycling further through the former East, there were only a few things that caught my eye …

 

A few kilometers away is the Dong Xuan center. As I explained above, Berlin has a huge Vietnamese population, and this is where they shop. I went there to stock up on some items, but also to get a Banh Mi. The market inside looks just like you are in Vietnam. It took me back 😊

 

 

 

 

 

They had all the Banh Mi ingredients you could ever ask for, plus a spacious outside seating. 

 

 

 

Unfortunately I messed up the picture and noticed too late. Please image a lovely Banh Mi with extra liver pate, pressed pork head and spicy pickles 😌

 

12 km back into the west side of the city is Kreuzberg, center of the Turkish population of the city. It is not a pretty place per se, but has its charm.

 

 

 

Alledgedly, the Döner Kebap was (co)invented here by Mehmet Aygün, the founder of Hasir Döner.

 

 

The Döner at Hasir differs a bit from the usual Döner you find. The meat is more coarse, definetely beef with sufficient fat interstacked on the skewer to render the shavings kind of greasy, yet very juicy. The meat doesn’t contain much seasoning except salt.

 

 

 

Like in a french rotisserie, they keep cuts of potatoes under the rotating skewer to soak up the dripping fat. You get one or two in your Döner sandwich. Speak of flavor …

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by Duvel (log)

[Shelby]

You're killing me.  

[Duvel]

By now I was a bit exhausted and rather full. I cycled further north west, to the city quarter of Charlottenburg, to reach the legendary Deli Rogacki. It gained popularity outside of Germany, when Anthony Bourdain choose to go nuts on the headcheese selection, bit since I was full I opted for something more light.

 

 

The place has all what Germany has to offer, which you can buy and take home, or just eat there.

 

 

 

 

The boiled liverwurst/blood sausage combo is legendary, but I opted for some oysters and a just arrived Matjes herring (and a Chablis, just because) …

 

 

By now I was positively done. I left my trusted bike at the sidewalk (logged out from the mobility app and ended my rental) and headed back to the hotel …

 

[Shelby]

You're double killing me.

[heidih]

So this is the season when the herring are fat?

[Duvel]

The rest of the family arrived an hour later, which gave me some time to recover. We decided to call it a day and watch a movie, but …

 

Little one declared he was hungry. He wanted to have Currywurst, which I persuaded him not to take. His second option was Döner (I really wonder where he gets this from …?), which strangely I was not supportive of either. Lastly, Burger was unanimously approved, so I ordered online at Burgermeister, a Berlin „chain“ with four locations.

 

 

 

The burger was great: juicy, flavorful, great toppings - we all found it significantly better than the 5 Guys one from a few days before. Little one gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up …

 

 

 

 

I slept well that night 😉

Edited November 17, 2021 by Duvel (log)

[Duvel]

5 minutes ago, heidih said:

So this is the season when the herring are fat?

It depends … are you calling me a herring ?

[heidih]

25 minutes ago, Duvel said:

It depends … are you calling me a herring ?

Of course not - you demonstrated the perfect eater/exercise balance with the biking and eating stops!  And that was a "red herring" response    And of curse I typed before googling - so no Maatjes herring season for the plumpies is late spring/early summer. Hey at least I learned something.

[Duvel]

1 minute ago, heidih said:

you demonstrated the perfect eater/exercise balance with the biking and eating stops! 

Yeah, I kept telling me exactly the same thing when in the Burgermeister app I found the option to add a second patty …

[KennethT]

I'm am truly impressed at your gustatory fortitude - currywurst, banh mi and doner!!  (I don't count the oysters and fish - they slide right down and take up no stomach space whatsoever - but they're tasty!)  Hopefully all that bike riding was uphill both ways... hehehe...

 

I was curious about the doner - here, we have 2 different varieties of something similar - gyro which is basically a giant (doner sized) caseless relatively finely ground sausage revolving on the spit, and shawarma which is thin pieces of marinated meat stacked up on the spit to doner size, then shaved from the sides.  It seems like the German doner is more of what I would call shawarma - is that right?