Category Archives: Blog

Well-wrapped cheese

A well-wrapped cheese is a joy to behold, I find. Proper cheese paper and perfectly tucked corners make for a satisfying object to carry home from the market. Though the typeface choice is less convincing, I do like the funny holey cheese illustrations.

A banner year for mushrooms

Foragers agree: it’s been a standout year for mushrooms in Berlin-Brandenburg. There are more than enough to go around, so even late-rising foragers like myself can find pretty little specimens that are still young and snappy, like these Hexenpilze, dotted-stem boletes…  

Painting house, paint names

Looks like someone is painting their house. Someone who wants to explore all the options and maybe has trouble making decisions, but also isn’t afraid to use any visual decision-making tool at hand, no matter how obsessive, to help them make up their mind.

Soup season: Turkish grandma’s red lentil

Blustery gray fall weather hit Berlin with a wet thud, quite punctually as soon as September started. Hot soup is now key to fueling my studio work. I’ve been meeting my friends to eat spicy Chinese noodle soups and swap recipes for our favorite hot, one-pot meals. I typed up several this week for Jane […]

No French fries here!

In emphatic Berlinerisch, visitors to the little snack bar and beer garden on the Insel der Jugend in Treptower Park are told not to even ask about fries. But there’s Flammkuchen, steak grilled to order, and other specials like homemade ravioli and cake. And cold Staropramen on tap. So no problem. You can also rent a vintage […]

Googly eyes make everything better

Googly eyes make everything better. Even political posters. With elections less than six weeks away, Berlin is plastered with them. As a foreigner without the right to vote here, I am doubly annoyed by this visual pollution—usually. Even by the ones from the Pirate Party, even though they have a great name and I guess […]

Little paper tray signs

Little fluted paper trays play a major role in Berlin eating. They support slices of cake in waxed paper bags being transported from bakeries to offices every day, carefully balanced on the palm of the hand, to be eaten with afternoon coffee. Deeper versions hold Currywurst and Pommes rot-weiß.

Leslie’s watermelon gazpacho

How are you keeping a cool head in these heat waves? I eat watermelon. And drink cold soup. Then I thought, why not do both at the same time? So, I melded recipes from a few favorite cookbooks and created my own spin on watermelon gazpacho. It’s been far too long since I’ve shared a recipe […]