Fish with Whiskey

I guess anyone who knows me won't be too surprised to see that one of my first Polish posts is about Pączki.

These delicious, sweet, perfectly-fried-fluffed-and-filled delicacies, pronounced more like 'pOnchki' than 'pac-see', are Poland's version of a jam-filled doughnut (or Berliner).

But let me tell you friends, the word doughnut just doesn't cover it.



When we arrived in Warsaw, one of the first questions I asked the magical Google machine was 'where can I get the best Paczki in the city'.

As luck would have it, it turned out that my beloved had chosen a hostel directly between two of the most famed bakeries in town. I'm sad to say that we never made it to A Blikle- I guess now I have another reason to return to the Capital, but we did manage to feast on some of the exceptional product from Cukiernia Pawłowicz.


Paczki dough is not at all sweet, but instead has a fairly distinctive 'yeasty' flavour. Often in addition to the filling flavour, the little dough balls are garnished with some sort of candied fruit peel, or, in the case of this fine and fluffy fellow below, flavoured throughout with orange.



Add a slightly tart traditional rose jam to the centre of a perfectly risen dough and produce a completely crispy outer shell with some sort of synergistic marriage of light frying and glaze... and then sprinkle on yet another layer of texture, complexity and rich almondy flavourings... and you have a beautiful beast.

Fun fact, apparently the addition of a bit of alcohol to the dough prevents absorption of too much oil!
Oh yeah, and did I mentioned that all the doughnuts were somehow, magically, always warm?

Did you want to see the inside?




And the surprise player?

I've had these photos floating around in an unpublished post for some time now. You can probably tell from my messy hair and the light sheen on everyone's faces that they were taken during 'That Berlin Heat-Wave' of a month or so back.

They've been hanging around in purgatory because the quality of the photos themselves is lacking, and, to be honest, Ethiopian cuisine doesn't seem to exactly sparkle for the camera.



But I didn't want to delete the shots, because, when it comes to food, aesthetics have to take second place to taste.

We visited Bejte Ethiopian, which is just around the corner of Noellendorfplatz U-bahn station, because it's close to us, because we like using our guests as an excuse to try new food, and because none of us really had any idea what Ethiopian food would be like.

Turns out, pretty darn good!

It started out well, in that the beer came out in a bowl.



Which Andy seemed to be into.




And then it got a whole lot better, when suddenly, a massive saucer descended upon the table.



My family is a lover of the 'try it all, share with friends' way of eating, so we had decided to go with a mixed platter, which was actually a mating of a two-person vegetarian tasting plate, with a two-person meaty delight plate.

It was... quite large.



As you can hopefully see from the photos, we ended up with 15 or so small curry- or stew-like mixtures, all sitting on a slightly lemon-y crepe.



Mix and match, smack lips, grin, repeat, until your stomach is stuffed, and the plate is (mostly) empty.


I have to admit that we didn't make it entirely though the whole lot.

Not for want of trying.

But even if we had, I suspect it is impossible to leave this place without a healthy level of satisfaction: the owners kept on reassuring us that they were more than happy to bring us a top up if our tummies so desired.




To be honest, I'm still not sure how to describe Ethiopian food, or define its place in the continuum of world flavours.

But if you head over to Bejte, I guess it's going to be pretty good!

Some among you have commented that the identity of my uncle who visited, has remained a mystery. So here is a quick foodie post to rectify that fact.

And to show you food.

Uncle! Being wise.

Aunt, laughing.

Leibhaftig, as with many of the good foodie places we've been to in Berlin, was recommended by Joram. The first time we visited was actually for his birthday.

I like it partially because the food is nice, but mostly because the food comes as a kind of 'tapas'. I'm super pro the dim sum concept of getting lots of little dishes and sharing with your friends- all the better to try things with m'dear.

But beyond my personal tastes, the concept seems particularly perfect for introducing foreigners to German cuisine.

Because, let's face it, Germans eat a variety of meals, but most of them can be summarised as 'pork-potato-cabbage' (PPC).

I actually have very fond memories of an early German lesson, in which our teacher tried haplessly to introduce her very German-limited students to regional foodstuffs across the country. Attempting to explain that 'ok, so this one is also pork and potato, but the potato is different, and we use a different type of pan for the pork'.
Comedy Gold.

Apart from the PPC repetition, meals in Germany have another defining feature: they are huge. Which, unless you really want to spend every weeknight eating giant platefuls of kartoffelpuree, make it difficult to take your tastebuds on a testrun during a short trip.

Enter Leibhaftig:

Wurstchen with sauerkraut

Knoedel (a kind of bread-yeast ball), with sage butter and parmesan

Potato salad

Fleischkaese ('meatloaf') with two kinds of mustard

Weisswurst (see- a different type of sausage, boiled in water)

Ok, so you might have noticed that the food is more Bavarian than Berlin. This is fact that was 'helpfully' pointed out to us by some rollicking Germans when they noticed us photographing the food ('hahahah, why don't you go to Munich, you are so funny you auslaenders you').

Seriously Berlin, invent something more than a sausage with curry powder on, and then we'll chat.

Goat cheese with honey, toasted almonds, and pink peppercorns. And physalis (gooseberry). Germans love physalis.

So our guests- shown below-got to try a range of things, and came to the conclusion that they're probably more into Asian-based foodstuffs (I think).


But we left without that horrible stuffed feeling. Which allowed for a bonus round at Kauf dich glucklich.

Waffles. Mmmmm.

Ok, and speaking of Bonus....



.....here's some U-bahn pics from the ride home.

So you know that we moved from the one-restaurant-town of Potsdam to the too-many-restaurants-city of Berlin. And of course, the very heavy task of trying allthefoods! has fallen upon us.

Unfortunately, Berlin is a tourist city, which means that there are perhaps too many places to eat, and many of them are terrible (the new age of internet reviews can only do so much to combat the problem of LocationLocationLocation).

Up until now, we've been basing a lot of our food-related decisions on the recommendations on stilinberlin. It's a pretty great site- beautiful layout, map provided. And of course, they know what they're talking about foodwise

So when it got kinda steamy last week, we followed their advice, their map, and our nose, towards 'Berlin's Best Ice Cream' - aiming at the west-most establishment: Monheim.

Advertised as old (the establishment), and creamy (the Eis).

What more could you ask for?


Ok, I'm sorry about the terrible photo. I licked before I clicked*

*I really hope that's not a horrible euphemism for something.

Let's scroll through some happy icecream faces shall we?




Pretty good huh?

But you know what's missing? A guy who really knows how to do icecream.

This Guy!
Right. So in all honesty, I was not super thrilled by the icecream at Monheim. Firstly, they didn't have pistachio, which broke Andy's heart. The chocolate was creamy, but not super chocolatey. Plus the second flavour was green tea, which turned out to be 'fruit green tea' instead of a creamy matcha (which I had expected).

Ok, that last point is not really their fault, but nonetheless, I left with a general feeling of underwhelm-ment.

Do you remember the photos of me at the top of the page? That's me with raspberry and lemon curd icecream, bought at Hokey-Pokey- which I'm currently rating as the top place in the whole city. Creamy, fruity. They have pistachio. It is like a dream.

So why even bother trying other places when Hokey Pokey is just so great?

Well firstly for the adventure, and secondly, for the convenience- Hokey Pokey is 40 minutes from our house, and a long, long way from work.

But do you know what Joram sent me last week?
THIS
No seriously- click the link.
It's a map of the best icecream (eis) in Berlin, arranged by U-bahn station.

Summer. Saved.

Ok, ok. I know that Summer is pretty much on its way out.
But you should all know that I'm the dedicated sort- willing to eat Eis all year 'round just for the cause.