Paleo dining with the inlaws

When we bought Blitzdeal vouchers for three course dinners at Sauvage, we decided to take A's parents out for a special dinner when they visit. The parents were here last week, with A's nieces in tow, but it was the middle of print week for me so I didn't get to see them much. But we did go for a paleolithic dinner, and I do think we gave them something to talk about at home!

Sauvage opened last spring in Neukölln and is the first paleo restaurant in Europe – probably even the only one. The concept is home-made, sugar-free, gluten and grain free, organic and transfat-free food, and  nothing is processed, sprung from agriculture or a domesticated origin. Be prepared for a whole new dining experience!

The menu is short but sweet. On the night we visited, the mains ranged from about 12-19 euro and for a vegetarian option the rump-steak, chicken fillet and swine medallion could be swapped for fried mushrooms to accompany the inventive side dishes. This was a bit surprising since the portion became considerably less filling. Three of the four vegetarians among us instead opted for the large antipasti selection for a main dish, but that, too, had to be specially ordered as vegetarian. I didn't think cavemen had access to so much meat.

While we waited we curiously tasted and analysed the starter of crackers served with rucola and tomato dips and a tapenade. One of the most exciting things at Sauvage is really their breads: held together by vegetable puree, nuts and seeds replace the wheat and grain you'd usually bake with, and the taste is nutty and full. The main dishes were all delicious and I can warmly recommend the adventure that is the antipasti plate. The only disappointment was dessert – maybe we were just too full to appreciate our hefty slices of carrot, orange and ginger cake, but it tasted like cold baby food mash, spiced with cinnamon. Next time I'll order the intense, unsweetened, coconut-milk hot chocolate and share the big glass with A for a dessert instead.

The atmosphere is very cosy and we didn't even realise that we'd spent four hours at the restaurant until we had to hurry to the U-Bahn to make sure we caught the last train home.

Christmas, shopping, Berlin

My mother is in Berlin again for the weekend, and I've kept her busy. We have ignored the snowy sidewalks and been shopping and eating well, mostly.

We started off on Friday by designing my mom a custom made perfume at Frau Tonis Parfum in Mitte, a scent of roses and lily of the valley (€65 for 50ml, €22 for 15ml). Then we dropped in to my fave clothing shop, Cyroline, on Alte Schönhauser Straße (they also have shops in Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain). I always find cool and comfy clothes there and this time both mom and I bought tops. This all accidentally happened on our way to check out a friends' exhibition at the very interesting Haus Schwartzenberg on Hackescher Markt.

On Saturday we had a date with S to go check out TK Maxx in Charlottenburg together – I had heard that the shop there was a lot bigger and a lot better then the one in Neukölln. Other people had clearly heard that too: it was super crowded! We did manage to find some Christmas presents and I bought a hoodie. S had a very successful shopping day and declared that she'd found "her shopping paradise" :) Everyone loves TK Maxx <3

Since we were in Charlottenburg – possibly for the first time – we decided to go see Schloss Charlottenburg and the Christmas market there. Sure, it was big, pretty and had free entrance, but it was also a bit kitchy and crowded for our liking.

When we found ourselves in Neukölln today, we decided to take advantage of the shopping Sunday (the shops in Berlin are closed on most Sundays of the year), and check out the TK Maxx there, too. It was a lot less crowded, so we could really engage in rummaging around and two hours later we walked out with more Christmas presents and two sweaters for A. Dangerous place, that is!

Free dinner

I don't know about free lunches, but in Berlin there IS such a thing as free dinners! Our friend, who lives in Neukölln, invited us to her local for free food yesterday. B-Lage serves one meal a week for a mere "spende", aka donation, to it's customers every Wednesday. We were a little suspicious, us being vegetarians and also not knowing many nice places in Neukölln. This bar certainly is as cosy and hip as any place in Prenzlauer Berg. DJ's play electronic music, the walls have cute spray-art and it has that cool run-down look. We arrived something to eight and after that the place started to slowly get crowded. Food was served around 8.30pm, and by then the bar was full and the queue for food circled room. The dish of the day was "curryous"; mash with a grain in it, maybe rice, accompanied by a delicious Indian-style spicy spinach sauce with pineapple. The food is always vegetarian, and this week vegan as well. Still, maybe the best part of the night was that all of us who gathered are learning German, and so we spoke German the whole night!

Good news!

I am happy over something really stupid. My favourite shop has just opened a branch in Berlin (Neukölln)! TK Maxx is a discount store, but with quality, designer and label stuff, like clothes, shoes, kitchenware... They tend to get in a few of this and a few of that, so they never have the same thing on the racks for long. In the States they are called TJ Maxx, I think. In Dublin I used to shop in TK Maxx all the time. I love the thrill of the hunt and the feeling of hope when I go in; "maybe today they'll have what I have always been looking for?".

I immediately felt an urge to go to Neukölln, where, to be honest, I haven't had an urge to go before. TK Maxx is on Karl-Marx-Strasse 92-98, almost directly at the U7 stop Rathaus Neukölln. It was a big, not completely crammed shop (they only opened last Thursday), but buzzing. I really felt like I was back in Dublin for about an hour :) We left with a pair of leather boots for me, Christmas presents for our friends' kids and A's godfather, a really cool woolen sweater for A and one of those small pillows you stick it in the microwave oven and it heats up. And I'll be back!

The best thing about Germany...

...is that it's completely normal to go out for breakfast! Our friends H and C were over for a visit, and we ate breakfast in cafés on the two mornings that were sunny.


This breakfast cheese platter is at Godot on Kastanienallee, a place that had been recommended to me specifically for breakfast. It was plentiful and nice, for sure! We had a slightly posher, and slightly nicer version the next morning at Blumencafé on Schönhauser Allee – for a few more euros, of course. It's a genius place that combines a flower shop and a café. Inside the shop live two enormous parakeets that scare and fascinate me. Another breakfast favourite is the vegan/vegetarian buffet at Morgenrot, also on Kastanienallee. And maybe when our next guests come, we will get a chance to go try the Sunday buffet Rix in Neukölln, highly praised by a friend who used to live in that area.

We do have friends

We've finally developed some kind of a social-life. On Friday we had some wine and a tour de Neukölln with our Irish friends. We drank cheap wine, danced to Funkytown in a funny, tiny club called Flying Sauvage, a former imbiss, i.e. fast food kiosk and cycled A LOT.

Yesterday we were drinking beer and playing mölkky with a gang of Finns on the bank of river Spree, across from Alexanderplatz and Berliner Dom. Surreal, but we had a really fun night.

Obviously we wouldn't miss Mauerpark Flohmarkt today, we've been there every Sunday since we moved to Berlin. 'A' found a rack of studio gadgets he is thrilled over, I bought salmiakki and was just as happy.

The weather has been in the very high twenties for over a week, next week it should cool a little. I think we will sleep a bit better and maybe get around to doing a bit more then. As long as we can go for a swim next week, the weather is perfect!