Glühwein season uncorked

Yesterday we had the first glühweins of the season at the Nordic Lucia Weihnachtsmarkt in Prenzlauer Berg. When we met D and S at the Kulturbrauerei it was crowded and it was raining. After having waited for them for almost 30 minutes I was in rotten mood. And the longest queue of the whole market? At the Finnish glühwein stand where we wanted to get a cup of glögi. We marched over to the Swedish punsch stand and after just a few sips, the world was a better place again. And even better when I realised that we were standing next to Herr Nilsson's stall – our favourite Swedish candy shop!

New: Raw food in Berlin!

As the weather is getting colder (only +5C now), it's natural to think of nothing but eating. I got the opportunity to write an article about new vegetarian restaurants in Berlin, so the past week and a half my life has revolved around food. 2011 has been a great year for vegetarians and vegans in the city: NINE veggie restaurants have opened since February. When my mom was here, I dragged her along to Lucky Leek and Kopps, and since then I've been exploring raw food with A. There are two new raw food restaurants in Berlin: Gesund & sündig in Wilmersdorf and café style LebensfRoh in Kreuzberg.

Gesund & sündig
Germany's first raw food restaurant opened in June. The location and the opening hours reveal that most of the diners at Gesund und sündig come from the sports centre that the restaurant is connected to. Luckily it's along the Ringbahn and thus within reach even for a Friedrichshainer. A more central location is under consideration for the new year, we were told. Everything on the menu here is raw and vegan. As a starter we share a plate of delicious "Sweet and sour sushi" (€7.90): a mixture of sunflower seeds and sauerkraut replace the rice, and the centre is carrot, zucchini and pineapple sticks – because of the seaweed, it still clearly tastes like sushi. In Pizza Crudo del la Casa (€7.90) the base is made with dried seeds and has a slightly bitter, nutty flavour which the tomato sauce and roasted vegetables balance with their mild and sweet taste. The "ricotta" on top is made of cashews. Pasta is replaced with sliced courgette in the "lasagna" (€8.50), and the side salad is instantly a new favourite: rucola and pear with a garlic dressing. Everything is as bright and colourful on the palate as on the plate. I tried a super healthy green smoothie (€2.80) while A played it safe with a fresh apple juice (€3) – we pretended to be health nuts and skipped beer and wine. Gesund & sündig is definitively not just for hippies, but dinner there was delicious, interesting and filling. If only it was a little closer to home: I'm certain we'd visit again and bring tons of adventurous friends with us!

LebensfRoh 

This homely café opened next to Görlizer Park in August. They're not very busy on the Tuesday morning when we've decided to have breakfast there. The café is filled with sunlight and the lonely voice of Kurt Cobain singing from the Unplugged album – I had the song "Jesus don't want me for a Sunbeam" stuck in my head all day afterwards. For breakfast the choice is between raw müsli (€4) and chestnut porridge (€3), but a plate of raw food crackers with assorted spreads, olives and veggies sounds like Berlin breakfast to me (small plate, €5). The porridge is nice: slightly sweet, sticky and a little grainy. For another euro it comes with fresh fruit or warm fruit puree. The Hertzhafter Teller is simple: two crackers piled with different spreads, a salad, olives and some grapes. They're out of many items, and so I'm asked if it's ok to use a milk-based spread, too, rather than vegan. The plate is nice, but not exactly as filling as a Berliner might expect after having paid €5. If I'm around the area, I might want to pop by again to try their raw courgette pasta or one of their daily dinner specials to really make up my mind about LebensfRoh.

ROA in Berlin

Last week I was in a lot of pain and I went to the doctor again on Friday. I got prescribed more ibuprofen for what apparently was inflamed muscles over my ribs – from all the coughing. As a result I didn't use my free tickets to the annual Preview Berlin and I declined the opportunity to be sneaked in to Berlin Festival, but tried to take it easy and rest a bit. A decision I slightly regret.

On Sunday I, none the less, went to the finissage of the small Skalitzers Contemporary Art gallery in Kreuzberg who were showing an insanely cool collection of art from their 2011 artists. I wanted to see the incredible work by ROA, Belgian street artist extraordinaire. After the gallery visit we decided to go across the street to view some more of ROA's work: at the bottom of a sand pit, the very Pippi Longstocking-esque biergarten called Kjosk (at the corner of Oranienstraße and Skalitzer Straße), is defined by a white brick wall covered in large, black, hand-painted, dead animals. They're very impressive and make this makeshift biergarten worth a visit; we enjoyed a good chat and a cold OBC – Original Berlin Cidre.

Later I also ate at Yellow Sunshine on Wiener Straße for the first time, and in my slightly hung over state their Lappland Cheese Burger was just the best fake-meat burger I've ever had... Mmmm...

Betahaus

Two weeks ago, at the Screen Print Festival 2011 in Stattbad Wedding, our new friend R told E and me about Open Design City, a space in Kreuzberg where you can rent tools and appliances and get help for your more ambitious design projects. We were particularly interested in screen printing possibilities, but also curious to know what other things can be made there, like with laser cutters or soldering equipment.

The ODC is a part of Betahaus, so to familiarise with ODC you have to go on a tour of Betahaus, a shared office space where you can rent a desk by the day or by the month. Tours are available twice a week and are free of charge. I now know three people who work there, so I was curious to see what it's like.

E and I were on time like proper Finns tend to be – R was nowhere to be seen. Later I saw her message on Facebook, saying she'd been held back at the office.

Betahaus is very impressive: it's big, it's airy, it's light. If it wouldn't sound so corny, I'd describe it as an inspiring environment. The Open Design City space, on the other hand, seemed small. There was no one there to explain precisely what tools are available and what the possibilities there are, so that part of the tour was very disappointing.

As we sat down in the downstairs café afterwards, an American girl who'd also been on the tour asked to join us. We had a nice chat among graphic designers and as we were leaving AS wanted us to reveal which guy from the guided tour we would date if we HAD to. She was quite taken with the amount of cute guys she spotted at the premises. We made diffuse plans to meet up at an art gallery later in the week – so if nothing else, I made another friend today!

Summer enough for Freiluftkino

Freiluftkino is one of my favourite things about Berlin summer, and now the season has kicked off!

A was sure it wouldn't be too cold to FINALLY see the 2010 Banksy film, Exit Through the Gift Shop as it was the opening film of the Freiluftkino Kreuzberg season last Friday. When we found our way in between the buildings on Mariannenplatz we were warm from cycling and it was still not completely dark. We could see rows of beach chairs parked in front of a hoard of green, plastic, garden chairs. The outdoor cinema in Kreuzberg is definitively smaller than Freiluftkino Friedrichshain! We grabbed fold-up beach chairs and found a nice spot in the centre. Typically for Berlin, people arrived late and when the announcer finally got to introduce the film it was already dark. Smartly we'd brought a blanket, but it didn't stop the cold air beneath the chair from soaking through the fabrics and onto my back. By the end of the film I was pretty cold, but hadn't even considered leaving: the film was funny and good, poignantly asking the question: "what is art?" – depth that I hadn't expected.

A chilly May first

I've suffered another spell of unwillingness to write. From the beginning I wanted to keep a blog about how we are settling in Berlin and what new, lovely things we discover about life here. When we moved to Ireland five years ago I never jotted down a single thought or epiphany I experienced in my new country. But lately it has felt like I'm not stumbling across new things in Berlin anymore, but rather like I'm happy with what I have already discovered. This is my life now.

Still, life has not stopped. Since Easter, when I last updated the blog, summer has arrived. At least for a Finn this is summer – it has been over +20°C most days and we haven't seen rain in weeks.

First of May was chilly and the riots were sparse. I guess all the commotion around closing down Liebig14 and Kunsthaus Tacheles has kept the activists busy and when May came around, they too wanted to take it easy. For the first time we dared venture to the annual MyFest in Kreuzberg, but the icy wind and the hoards of people put a damper on our spirits. We went home and waited for warmer weather!

Boxhagener Platz prepared for rioters on April 29th.

MyFest is not about rioting, it's about eating and drinking in the streets of Kreuzberg!

Berlin moments, 29.1.2011

K and I had a walk around Mariannenplatz in Kreuzberg and stumbled upon this cool community in a corner of Bethanien: everything is built from old vans and trailors. Not sure who lives here and why.

The sun was shining today, but it still sets early, around 4pm.

All the ugly makes Berlin beautiful. Every time I pass this lot on Revaler Straße I feel I should go to RAW, Cassiopeia, Suicide Circus and the Sunday fleamarket here more often...

There is a house in New Orleans...

You know how someone tells you a film is amazing and you get really excited, and then when you finally see the film you are really disappointed? That's what happened to us with New Orleans Haus. Everyone and their mother recommended this little restaurant north of Görlitzer Park to us: "You have to go there!", "The food is so good!", "Best cheesecake in Berlin!".

My Crawfish Étouffée (€8,90) tasted mostly of celery, the crawfish was tough and it was obvious that the broth wasn't made with any seafood. It reminded me of some of my least favourite dishes in school. The Macaroni and Cheese Cake (€6,40) on the other hand was delicious: of course very cheesy and greasy. I wish it would have been served with a slightly acidic side dish, like a tomato salsa maybe, to cut the fat a little. We used the Louisiana "Original Louisiana Brand" hot sauce as a condiment, and that helped.

Out of curiosity we also ordered Corn Maque Choux (€2,80) and a piece of cornbread (€1,70) as sides. The corn salad felt very strange to our taste buds and we left most of in uneaten. But the cornbread! Then cornbread was delicious! I had never tasted any before and was totally taken by the distinct corn flavour and the sweetness – a happy surprise. It's just a pity that a small piece of baked goods was the highlight of our meal.

I'm sure the desserts would have redeemed New Orleans Haus, but after all these heavy dishes, we simply couldn't fit anything else in. Maybe I'll go back for the cornbread and a Lemon Bar.

Sunny in Görli

Görlitzer Park in the sun

Last night we went to an Exberliner at Kaffee Burger event, where we saw up-and-coming Berlin bands My Name is Claude, Susanna Berivan (she was amazing!) and Paris Suit Yourself. As a result, we didn't get up early today, even if I had every plan to soak in all the rays on sunshine that I could – but we did our best. We had our breakfast al fresco at Restaurant Anastasia – the restaurant was picked solely by where we could get the most sun. Our cheese platters were €6,50 each, were nothing special, and the bread was clearly frozen, processed crap. With tea and a Saftschorle it came to €19,00, which to my mind is too much for a very average breakfast.

After brunch I cycled off to meet our friend R. To optimize our sun-intake we hung out in Görlitzer Park (with the rest of Kreuzberg – does no one in Berlin have a job?!). R is moving back to Finland next week and we have promised to buy a lot of her furniture to help her get rid of it (and to fill our empty rooms). Now she handed me a backpack and a paper bag full of bonus knickknacks; scissors, oven forms, a cook book, pens... I have a feeling we'll have a very full house by the end of next week!

Austrian week

No Kangaroo, Austrian ski hut restaurant in Kreuzberg

By chance I have been into all things Austrian this week. On Wednesday I showed my (Austrian) tandem partner a very cute Austrian café, Marketta's Greisslerei, that has just opened up in Mitte, next to my work. And yesterday we finally got around to checking out the Austrian restaurant No Kangaroo in Kreuzberg.

Mohnweckerl with Bergkäse

S instantly fell in love with Marketta's Greisslerei. They have Holunderblütensaft (elder flower juice), Mohnweckerls (white braided bread with poppy seeds and salt on top), Liptauerkäse (paprika flavoured quark), Bergkäse (Austrian hard cheese) and Buchteln (a tray baked bun filled with plum jam) – all of which I tried and loved. All of which met S' high, Austrian standards. I'm now addicted to the Mohnweckerls with Bergkäse: they're so salty and so good! I had one of them, a Buchtel-bun and drank a latte-type coffee for €6,80. Not bad for Mitte. I'll be back (pun intended!)!

The Austrian ski hut that is No Kangaroo was a different story. I thought Austrians are quiet and cool types, who drink Almdudler and speak with a slightly funny accent. No. Apparently they are rowdy, loud and have questionable taste in music. As we waited outside the restaurant for S and D, the schlager music was turned louder and people started to yell along. We thought this was just a one-song-thing, but it went on for the whole night. S explained that it is typical after-ski behaviour. At least I think that's what she said: it was so loud that it was difficult to hear each other. I guess that's what you get for going to a themed restaurant: there's ski lift benches at the bar, skis nailed to the walls, the whole interior is built to look like an old, wooden ski hut and you go through a forest to get to the toilet. It's kind of fun, though, and if you're out to drink and be loud, No Kangaroo would certainly meet your needs. A and I drank beer and Almdudler and ordered knödel with fried egg and an aubergine schnitzel with potato salad for dinner. For dessert we drank strong fruit liquor and shared a Kaiserschmarrn. It all came to about €40 and S deemed it all very Austrian and good. We asked the waiter if it's always so loud and he said it only gets louder as the ski season gets closer. Maybe we'll go back next summer when it's quiet again...

P.S. S explained why the restaurant is called "No Kangaroo": apparently Austria gets mixed up with Australia a LOT :D

Aubergine schnitzel, €7,50

Kaiserschmarrn, €8,50 – it's HUGE

Mexican favourites

Yesterday we enjoyed our first day of no-guests and did a little tour-de-Kreuzberg. Our goal was actually to go rescue the plants at R's apartment: it's empty while she's still in Finland and her subtenants left behind tomato and paprika plants that might not survive with the limited care we can supply...

We started off on the Saturday market on Boxhagener Platz, where M and little J were playing in the sandbox. We bought tomatoes and Brandenburg-grown cherries and decided to make it a habit to go to Boxi more often on Saturdays – specially near closing time, when you clearly get the best deals!

After the plant rescue mission we cycled back towards Friedrichshain along Oranienstraße, where we quite randomly chose to sit down and eat at Mexican restaurant Santa Maria. I later realised it's owned by the same people who own the successful Maria Bonita and Maria Peligro restaurants. We ordered a portion of the guacamole with chips, vegetarian tacos and a three cheese "torta", that basically is a Mexican style sandwich. The guacamole was good, the soft tacos a bit plain and my torta was so ugly I didn't even want to eat it – but I'm glad I did, because it was the best part of the meal, hands down! I'd go back for another torta, for sure. The tacos and the chips I might not go all the way to Santa Maria for, but stay closer to home and get them at the superb Ta’Cabrón Taqueria (Skalitzer Strasse 60), where the food is also nicer to look at.

Vegetable taco, €4, Santa Maria.

Torta with three cheeses, €6, Santa Maria.

Seafood taco, €5, Ta’Cabrón Taqueria.


We finished our little outing by hanging out in Görlitzer Park for a bit. What a nice day!

My week as a tourist

It's been busy: I finished my design project last week, then on Saturday my friend M came to visit us for a week, we met up with both her friends and ours, and on Wednesday my mom moved in with us, too.

M left a cool and rainy Berlin today, I walked her to the U-bahn just over an hour ago. I was very proud of myself: I didn't lose my patience once, even if I find it quite straining to have guests stay for so long. We visited Mauerpark on a Sunday, ate pizzas at A Magica, had vodka-rhubarbs in Kptn Müller, introduced everyone to vegan fast-food at Yoyo, popped by our local Friedrichshain brewery, Hops and Barley, ate at our downstairs favourite-restaurant several times, had a lot of ice-cream, drank beer in Viktoriapark at sunset, showed off horror-bar Zyankali, cycled to Treptower Park to check out the Soviet memorial, did a guided tour at Hohenschönhausen Memorial, the former GDR remad prison, and drank Berliner Weiße mit rot in Volkspark Friedrichshain. Not bad. I think I'll have a nap now. Or go to the Humana second hand department store on Frankfurter Tor with my mom :)

Eating and... eeh... eating.

If I don't watch out this will turn in to a food blog :) I just really have to write down the name and details for our newest Sunday brunch hang out. Last Sunday the sun was shining and the snow and ice melting, and we met with our Finnish friends for brunch at Schwarze Pumpe on Choriner Straße. We have walked past it before and the name staid with me, but not until I found this great blog on Berlin cafés did it occur to me to go in. The brunch buffet is fresh and plentiful and only sets you back €4,50 – and it's really popular, so a booking is strongly advised. We got there at 11 and had a perfect timing: later it got busy and the kitchen started to struggle to keep up with the demand.

Other than that we haven't been eating much. Well, I got take away sushi from Papa Nô the other night. Their sushi was surprisingly tasty and reasonably priced – even if I still prefer to not patron restaurant chains. I might have to give them some more of my business, because they have a free delivery service as long as you order for over €10... Then we ate more sushi on Wednesday: D wanted to thank us for letting him stay with us by treating us to sushi and a tour of his new apartment in Kreuzberg. He took us to Akitatsu on Bergmannstraße, where they seem to have a never ending happy hour and half priced sushi – very affordable, very tasty, miso soup and all.

Kreuzberg

Yesterday we were meeting our Finnish friend on the stairs of the Viktoriapark monument to watch the sun set. We ended up making a whole day of it, while the poor girl was at work. My favourite thing of the day was to cycle along the Kreuzberg canal, it's so green and leafy and the cars and the noise are far, far away. We followed the canal to reach the Türkenmarkt. I wish we could have done a big food shop there! The tomatoes were plump and red, the fruit so cheap... We did get olives and dolmados' that fit into my over-the-shoulder bag. I wanted to see the Berlin airlift, which turned out to be just a monument in a park. At least I now know who the "Rosinenbombers" were. We also found the veggie restaurant I had checked out in our Lonely Planet guide beforehand; Seerose on Mehringdamm. Why are there so few á la carte vegetarian restaurants?! This one was one of those buffet style places, where the otherwise good food got nuked in the microwave oven and was not as nice after that... But cheap and cheerful.

Today we spent leisurely reading and playing Yatzy in the park. Oh, and we found a new nice park in Wedding, called Humboldthain park. There is a big swimming pool and apparently a nice jogging trail, too. Something for Saturday, perhaps?

Best day ever?

Yesterday we had the best day ever (again). A has fixed our bicycles so the gears and brakes work and we cycled to Badeschiff in Kreuzberg. It should have been no surprise that it was packed with people, but even if swimming was more difficult in the crowded pool, we had fun people watching. People really have crazy tattoos! We cooled off at Freischwimmer, a riverside restaurant and "wasserlounge" next to Badeschiff. You can also rent kayaks and canoes there, which we want to do sometime. Cycling home we stopped in Freidrichshain and I gave A the tour of what he missed when my friend E was visiting. We also found a funny organic/vegetarian/vegan fast-food restaurant called Yoyo and I had my first "currywurst" with fries and A had a Holzfäller Teller, a "pork chop" with fries. It was quite yummy and it was nice to be able to order off the whole menu for a change! We also had a smoothie and a beer, and it all only came to €14. Talk about being a cheap date... When we finally got home we were very dehydrated, happy and had cycled for about 16 kilometres. Well done us!

Picture from Yoyo Foods website

The weekend is over...

My friend N was here for almost a week and I have seen so much more of my new hometown. Our other friend was here too and she stayed with her friend in Kreuzberg, so we saw some of the southern hoods, too. My favourite place was Viktoriapark where we climbed up a steep slope to sit at a monument for something or other, with a few bottles of beer. It was sunset and we had a view of the whole city. We have trotted Kastanienallee up and down many times, and I think I know my way around the shops there now. On Sunday we had the best time in Mauerpark, where we saw cool drum-and-machine-band Trap, and the best beat-boxer I have ever seen, Mc Xander. Yesterday we hopped on a sightseeing boat tour and got a totally different view of all the beautiful buildings along the river Spree. We ate a lot and we drank a lot, at the cost of our beauty sleep. Now I will eat Finnish candy and watch TV for a few days, I think. When I have recovered we will take our new bikes out and explore, and I definitively want to show A the spot in Viktoriapark.



I don't know how to flip the video the right way, obviously the original isn't filmed like this, sorry!