Best bread in Berlin

Our whole office has been abuzz about this for weeks now because a new bakery opened up just across the street, and they make the best bread in Berlin! In Germany you do get great bread: heavy, dark, ryes and wholegrains, packed with sunflower seeds. But soft breads and buns baked with yeast tend to be a disaster: airy and light and dry or heavy and dense and dry. At Zeit für Brot on Alte Schönhauser Straße the organic breads are just perfect: La Baguette (2.60€) is soft and chewy with a thick, crispy crust, the Zimtschnecken (cinnamon buns) are soft and juicy... And now I'm addicted to their Schokobrötchen, a fluffy little thing, resembling a flat scone, with big chunks of dark chocolate melted in it. Of course the more traditional, darker German breads like Bauerbrot are good, too, but a person just has to have a good baguette now and then! A part of the reason why the bread tastes so exceptional here is that the bakery itself is in the back of the shop, so everything is fresh, fresh, fresh. And what they don't sell by the end of the day, the donate to the homeless. Perfection.

A birthday dinner in the making

I'm trying to revive my lust for writing and reporting. I've wondered why I haven't mustered up any blog posts lately and came to the realisation that having the dog move in has cut down the time for bumming around online. Instead I now enjoy long walks and hiding dried chicken pieces in our living room and playing the search game with the pup. Time well spent, I think!

Anyway, it's not like that much has even happened in the last month. We celebrated May 1st with a picnic, then the weather got cold and has kept us indoors ever since. The first week of May, my brother and his band played a gig at the metal bar Blackland on their tour of Eastern Europe and we hosted nine, hairy metal musicians in our living room. The dog was super happy to have so many people to pet him, and so many sleeping bags to sleep in!

I've been planning a 60th birthday party for my father and so on the second weekend in June there will be a family invasion and a living room full of cousins, this time. I've researched, googled and emailed potential restaurants, finally settling on Weisse Villa in Friedrichshagen, overlooking the Müggelsee lake. Here's a few suggestions I got for birthday dinners in Berlin; you find a private room and an affordable menu Schneeweiß in Friedrichshain and the .HBC restaurant in Mitte or a great location on the canal at Altes Zollhaus in Kreuzberg, and simply fantastic food at Gugelhof in Prenzlauer Berg.

Let's hope the weather will be on our side and that the celebratory weekend is a great one!