Hungry in Berlin

Oh, where has the time gone.  Or the sun. But anyone who’s lived in the Hauptstadt long enough knows that one doesn’t ask that question out loud after Oct. 1 or thereabouts.  Summer disappeared and then there was something that might have been Autumn, but then Winter kicked it aside without much of a how-do-you-do.  And even though we might still be craving crisp salads with juicy red tomatoes, what we’re going to get is grünkohl and knacker.

But that’s OK. Winter gives good reason to bake and hibernate, and bake some more.  So the HIB team apologizes for being away (making wine, writing books, moving to foreign countries and reporting on penguin-man love) but will now be back with a vengeance, or, at least, with dinner rolls in hand.  See you at the table.

A funny thing happened on the way to breakfast the other morning. John, fellow HIB contributor and connisseur of all things crunchy, was digging in for his usual early-morning granola. We go back and forth between various bio brands (not necessarily for the fact that the product is bio, really, but that there are just few choices for crunchy granola. Muesli has a sog-factor worse than corn flakes) but this morning’s selection was “Gut und Gerne,” strawberry-flavored. All good so far.

John tips the bag over into his small bowl and out hops a grasshopper. Seriously. Violently green, very alive, and a little hysterical. We watched it run around the rim of the bowl for about a minute. Deciding it wasn’t a hang-over hallucination or the special surprise treat that the Gut und Gerne folk forgot to mention on the packaging, we cupped the grasshopper gently in hands and tossed him outside.

The moral of the story? Bio is not for the squeamish. Examine that package closely before you, erm, hop in.

It started when they ran out of merguez at our local market stand. The surly sausage flipper gave the last sandwich to the person right in front of us, and that decided it: we would hit up Le Cous Cous for dinner and get our own.

This tiny place, run out of a hut on Amtsgerichtsplatz, is what every restaurant find should be: hidden in plain sight, in a former flower shop designated as a historic monument. The Denkmalschutz regulations mean that there isn’t even a sign on the front, just an open side door and some blackboards showing the specials. Inside you’ll find a neighborhood hangout with an upright piano, a few tables, and an open kitchen, all in a cheery yellow and white-tiled space smaller than your living room. Read the rest of this entry »

The fact that ice balls have been falling from the sky for the last week only makes me hungrier for food that implies sun. Cheeses, olives, pasta, tomatoes… you know. Mediterranean. Italian.

I’m not a bad hand at fresh pasta, but having grown up in a household decidedly short on Italian mothers, I can always use a little help. I’m guessing a lot of the rest of you are in the same boat. So if you’re looking to brush up on your Italian cooking skills, tomorrow’s class at Goldhawn and Sampson in Prenzlauer might be worth looking into.

It’s being run by former Hazelwood co-owner Suzy Fracassa, focusing on the creation of a simple top-to-bottom home-cooked meal, and based on her own family’s recipes. She’ll run through an entire menu: Piedmontese garlic-anchovy veggie dip, roasted bell peppers and fresh ricotta for starters; a polenta with salsiccia ragu for a middle course, veal scallopini with sautéed zucchini blossoms for the main course, and naturally, homemade biscotti for desert).

Read the rest of this entry »

For the next two weeks, I’m interviewing John Thorne over here. I invite you to stop by and read and, I hope, comment.

John, for those of you who’ve never encountered his writing, is, with his wife Matt Lewis Thorne, the perpetrator of the Simple Cooking newsletter, which they sell on their website, along with copies of their books, most of which, I regret to say, are out of print.

Not so his new one, Mouth Wide Open, which you can order just by clicking that link right there, and which is, like all his previous books, re-readable and with numerous excellent recipes. I’ve made the Minestrone Genovese already and will probably do it again Friday night.

Come on over and talk.

EW

THORNE UPDATE: Mouth Wide Open was just named a Notable Book by the New York Times.