Hungry in Berlin

One of the better days of my gastronomic life here came when I was complaining about the difficulty of finding good Italian ingredients at my crappy local supermarket and a friend said “Don’t you know about that place on Sophie-Charlotten-Str.?” It sure seemed like a weird location, but he was right: at the other end of it, down by the Westend S-Bahn station, there is a whole bunch of odd businesses, warehouses, and factories (including the one where the Berlin Museums manufacture the sculptural and other 3-D reproductions for their gift-shops).

There, at Sophie-Charlotten-Str. 9-10 is the beating wholesale heart of nearly every Berlin Italian restaurant and deli. Centro Italia is one-stop shopping for Italophiles.

Now, I said “wholesale,” but there seems to be a rule in Germany that all that means is that if you have a business license, you don’t have to pay Value Added Tax (MwsT). So the prices you see are pre-tax. No matter: there are still plenty of good reasons to go there.

Pasta, for one. This is where I discovered Voiello, Barilla’s professional-class pasta. Two rows of shelves in Centro Italia’s cavernous space are devoted to pasta, with Barilla, Voiello, and some super-premiums on one side (Barilla is going for €1.98 a kilo, incidentally, while Voiello is €1.78 for 500g), and Italian family-cook favorite Divella on the other. Divella is notable for its wide variety of shapes, for integrale (whole wheat) pasta, and for spinach pasta.

But, as most of us are aware, there’s far more to Italian cuisine than pasta. Vinegars and olive oils take up a bunch of room, and there are some real bargains to be had among the oils. Aged Balsamic vinegars are much cheaper here than elsewhere (if you can even find them elsewhere), and there is, next to the vinegar, a huge variety of pickled peppers, eggplants, and other vegetables. Elsewhere, you can find liter jars of capers, a massive saving. Canned goods, too, are worth seeking out: a large selection of canned tomatoes, and various beans, much cheaper than at the supermarket.

If you like the dry cookies served with Italian coffee, there are enough varieties to boggle your mind, as well as a good range of grissini, or bread-sticks. The coffee itself is available in huge sacks, numerous Italian brands.

There’s a whole wing of the store devoted to wines, and I’d like to get our wine expert up there for a look; I don’t think it’s as impressive for quality as for quantity, although I’d sure like to be proven wrong. Grappe and liqueurs, too, have a whole row to themselves.

As you walk in, be sure to check out the salumeria, with its astonishing range of Italian cold-cuts. They used to bring in salsiccie, which Americans know as “Italian sausage,” but that’s now found cryo-packed over in the refrigerated section, which further expands on the number of salumi, as well as offering cheeses and some impressive fresh pastas,  particularly stuffed pastas like giant ravioli. Oddly missing from this part of the store — and one of the things I went up to buy — were anchovies. There’s a 600g rectangular can of them over by the capers, but that seemed a lot for a single person, although I’d have bought it if it had been dry-packed, salt-cured anchovies, which are nuttier and more flavorful. (Has anyone seen these for sale here? They’re expensive, but keep forever in the fridge, and are really worth it.)

A freezer section holds other goods, including fresh pastas and a whole bunch of cryo-packed examples of that mainstay of Berlin dinners, frozen pizza, except these look handmade. And, to finish things off, there’s a selection of showy platters, pitchers, and bowls, all mimicking Southern Italian handmade styles, as much for decoration as for use, I suspect.

Since my last visit some time ago, the wholesale fish market Barlu has opened a shop which adjoins Centro Italia, and has a bewildering number of fish for sale. (No anchovies, though). That’s a separate shop, and you have to pay separately, but it does seem to be an unusually rich source of salt-water fish, rare in Berlin’s markets.

Once you’ve visited Centro Italia, the secret of all those tiny Italian delis which dot Berlin’s streets is made clear: just get a storefront, pack a few hundred Euros into your jeans, remember your business license, and head off to Sophie-Charlotten-Str. (There’s another Centro Italia in Marienfelde, incidentally, but it’s not as comprehensive as the Charlottenberg one.) You’re in business!

Better yet, use it as your source for impeccably authentic Italian dining at home. You won’t lose nearly as much money that way.

(Centro Italia, Sophie-Charlotten-Str. 9-10, 10459 Berlin. Open Mon-Fri, 9am-6pm, Sat 10am-4pm. Phone: 030 302 1728)

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