On the only weekend during Mutti's visit that we weren't a) feeling very very sick to the stomach or b)Roaming through Rome, Meeting Malta, See-silianing Sicily and Visiting Venice, we headed to the Big City.

And introduced Mother to some of Berlin's 'Cuisine'.

We headed East to the gallery, to see the pretties and bathe in the sunlight.



Last time we visited the wall with Andy's fold we found this rather racist and hateful message: 'We want the Wall back'. Classy.
This time the word 'don't' had been added, the whole message scratched out and the pleasing rebuttal of 'you stupid meanypants, get the bumhole out!'. I am paraphrasing to make this blog 'G for my Granddad reads this blog' rated. But you get the point. Also 'frigg you!'.



For Adam:




I spent about 3 minutes trying to work out what exactly this meant in English. Then Andy pointed to the left where they had the translation. Still, I was very proud of myself.

'Those who want the world to remain how it is, don't want the world to remain'

The little horns and tail make it deeper or something.


Andy really wants to reach for the stars and be an astronaut (actually Cosmonaut), but feels prevented by gates of oppression. Or something.




We walked, as people oft do. I quickly realised that my shoes are not appropriate for walking on stones in german winter.




My primary aim in the walking was to arrive at Knofi, in Kreuzberg- which you might remember we visited with the in-laws and Rob back in spring. I love this place- it has this crazy OTT sort of crowded-cozy-chaotic feel, with dried eggplant skins hanging from the roof and bottles and baskets and bags of goodies occupying every space imaginable. Andy tends to find the decor a bit claustrophobic, and is generally not as much of a fan as me. But the food is amazing- it has a crazy assortment of Turkish dips and pastes and olives and assorted bite-sized edibles.

Here is Mother tucking into a vegetarian tasting plate.

Almost immediately after which we forced her to try Curry '36.

When in Kreuzberg...
I think, like so many before her, she didn't really understand the function of the curry powder. I tried to convince her that the other true food experience she should have while in Berlin was a Doner. In the end, I never saw her eat one, but she swears she had one at the last minute on the way to the airport.

Jumping to the next day- when we headed to a couple of markets... Where I saw the man of my dreams:



This little fellow has clearly been painted for the express reason of matching mother's coat.



I love the smell of cat man's shoulder.

On Mutti's final night in Potsdam, we headed for a fancy dinner at Chi Keng in Potsdam.

Chi Keng is a sort of Japanese fusion restaurant (because all asian restaurants in our part of Germany seem to serve 'mixed asian' as opposed to the precise country-based food suggested in the restaurant name). It's apparently the spawn of Mi Keng, a tiny little place on the main mall of Potsdam city centre, which had to expand to a new location due to massive success.


We shared an entree mixed plate for two (the waitress was kind enough to tell us that the mix plate for three people was probably overkill), which was filled with fresh and fried spring rolls, salad, chicken skewers, fried prawns and prawn crackers, plus some super tasty crispy falafel sized salmon rissole things. It was all pretty tasty, and there was a nice mix between the fried and the non-fried.



For mains we went with a salmon sushi roll, which was filled with very crispy and slightly fatty skin-still-on salmon, and roofed with sashimi-grad salmon of the melt-in-your-mouth kind.

It was amazing!




We also opted for a prawn salad, which had beautifully cooked prawns, but was bit heavy in the dill for me...

... and a crispy duck red curry. Again, amazingly well cooked duck, great flavour, but unfortunately the curry was of the 'with pineapple' sort, and was super sweet.

So in the end, the two main dishes weren't as amazing to me as the entrees, but all in all it's definitely an experience I'd repeat. Interestingly, Andy and I went to Mi Keng- the Sire restaurant this Monday and were not as impressed. Possibly our choice of sushi was not as great- I was very put out that the sugared the top of the salmon in order to give it a nice caramel glaze. Furthermore the two people entree we ordered again this time was not as impressive in several ways- and was generally much more fried and much less fresh than at Chi Keng. Finally, as an un-alcoholic, I really appreciate that Chi Keng has a nice range of Mocktails and juicey mixes. Mi Keng had only Mango and Apple Juice (and respective Schorles), more fizzy muck and a variety of teas.