The Brezel Bar

Bringing work home is never fun.  But if there is a fun place that you can go and work on it, it is not so bad.  There are lots of cafes in Berlin that make this possible.  Our favorite one in Berlin is the Brezel Bar (or Pretzel Bar).  This is a cafe that combines some of the best things:  fresh pretzels, chocolate, hot beverages, and free wifi.

The space itself is nice and comfortable.  There is always an art exhibition on the walls that changes every so often.  It is not the largest cafe, but if you have a seat, there is usually enough room to do work.

The food though is the winner here.  Sometimes we go for breakfast and stay and work some.  My favorite options include the Muh (like Moo), that is mostly dairy (lots of cheese), an egg, and some vegetables and fruits, and the Wurst Plate which is the white sausage plate.  The sausage is good, but the mustard is amazing!  The breakfasts also include bread of some sort.  Out of pretzel dough they make pretzels (of course) but also croissants, breadsticks, and rolls.  The rolls are my favorite because it is like have a large fluffly pretzel with lots of the pretzel middle.  If we go for just a snack, there are many varieties of pretzels:  regular, cheese covered, sunflower seed topped, chocolate covered (yes, chocolate drizzled soft pretzels!).  This is about the only cafe that we have had snacks at where I have yet to try their cakes.  And if you go for lunch, you can get the funniest sandwich you will see:  a large pretzel sliced in half with your sandwich makings inside.

This is an extra crazy pretzel.  (There is a half of pretzel bottom under there.)

A perfect day is to go here with a book you are reading for fun and to hang out, read, and snack!

A Berlin New Year's Eve

The fireworks began early in the day.  A Boom! here and a Bang! there.  We didn't see anything until the sun went down, which was at about 4pm.  Then every once in a while we would see a firework light up the sky.

Later we went to a party at the apartment of two friends of ours.  There we learned that it is tradition in Germany to watch "Dinner for One," a 16 minute skit.  No one knew exactly how it started, but it is played on the TV stations throughout the day.  The odd thing about this skit is that it is all in English except for the introduction.  Friends told us that even people who don't really speak English will watch this every year.  It is better to watch the skit than for me to explain it.  I found it here:

http://www.archive.org/details/DinnerForOne_559

As midnight approached the fireworks became more and more frequent.  At midnight the streets were full of fireworks being set off in every direction.  It was almost dangerous to be outside as fireworks whizzed by trees, cars, and people outside.  Some of the fireworks were huge and went pretty high.  Others were more loud than anything.  It lasted for almost an hour before dying back down to the more occasional fireworks.  Growing up in a state where it was illegal to set off fireworks made this German tradition seem more foreign perhaps than people would think from other places in the US.

There is also a fun German tradition of telling your fortune for the new year.  First you melt down a piece of metal over a candle and then to drop it in cold water to re-solidify.  Then you decide what the shape most looks like.  The kit you can buy today then tells you your fortune based on the shape that it became.  It is very hard to tell what most of the metal shapes are, so it is a nice way for you to help your fortune a bit (and for your friends to make it worse)!

A fun night for sure!  I hope you enjoyed yours as well!

Weihnachtsmärkte part 2

First I will say that if you already noticed the difference in the titles of part 1 and 2 (not the numbers) you are one who pays attention to details.  In the first one, I took the word for Christmas market and added an s to make it plural.  Of course the word is German and doesn't work that way.  So now it is correct.

After our first forays into the world of Weihnachtsmärkte, we went to the bigger more commercial ones at Gendarmenmarkt (a square), Schloss Charlottenburg (a castle), and on Kurfürstendamm (a street with lots of shopping).

The Weihnachtsmarkt at Gendarmenmarkt cost 1 euro to get in, but was beautiful and had live music.  The structures they built for the market looked like white mountains all lit up.  The buildings surrounding market also made a nice backdrop.  This is the market where we did most of our Christmas shopping.

The Weihnachtsmarkt at the Schloss was huge!  It was also beautiful with wooden structures and a giant wooden carousel like the one my family always puts out at Christmas.  After dark, they also lit up the castle in alternating colors and sometimes just made it look like snow was blowing across the walls.

We had gone to Kurfürstendamm to go shopping when we wandered upon this market.  It was a nice surprise.  It meant fun food and drinks and fun things to look at.  This market had a giant metal Christmas tree with random toys hanging from it that every so often came alive.  Music started and then flames came from the end of the tree branches in time to the music.  It was bizarre, but fun.

All of the markets had wonderful food and hot drinks like the markets I mentioned previously.  At these we did try a few new things as well.  I had my first ever roasted chestnut.  I don't know what I thought they would taste like, but they didn't taste like I would have imagined.  However, they were good!  And the stands that sell it are so clever:  they give you a bag with two pockets, one filled with full chestnuts and the other to put the shells in.  We tried Wassail, a hot mulled cider, which was one of my favorites.  The one thing that I already wish I could have another of is Viking Handbrot (handbread).  The one we had was a  sandwich roll size bread stuffed with cheese and mushrooms topped with sour cream (or maybe quark) and fried onions.  It was warm and gooey and wonderful.

Just thinkng about the food makes me wish that at least some of the markets were open all winter!


I would say that in general, Berlin is not the best place to visit in the winter.  The sun sets around 4pm right now, so you lose a lot of time to walk around in the daylight and see things.  However, the Christmas markets make it worth a trip in December.

Weihnachtsmarkts part I

The Christmas season in Germany is the season for Christmas markets (Weihnachtsmarkts).  Tons of them pop up in Berlin, some of them for just a weekend and some of them starting at the beginning of Advent and continuing through the beginning of January.  Like most things Christmas-y there is a range of how commercial, how tacky, and how traditional the markets are.  So far we have been to two different markets.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we celebrated the holiday, so Sunday was fair game to start going to the Christmas markets.  The first one we went to was at a Swedish church near Berliner Strasse.  It was only open for the 1st weekend in Advent, so we took the opportunity to go.  It was a nice small market in the open courtyard of the church and also in the school that is associated with it.  We tasted our first glühwein (German mulled wine).  It turned out to be more Glogg than glühwein. Glogg is the Swedish version, with different mulling spices, and with nuts and raisins in the wine.  I didn't love the wine, but the nuts and raisins were good. We watched as a girl's choir walked with lighted candles and sang traditional Swedish songs (we assume they are traditional Christmas songs).  As they celebrate the Feast of St. Lucia in Sweden, they had the lead girl dressed as St. Lucia with the traditional crown of candles on her head.  We wandered through the stalls where they sold imported Swedish food, Christmas cards and ornaments, knitted things, and other crafts.  We didn't end up buying anything, but it was fun anyway. 

Last weekend we went to the Alt Rixdorf Weihnachtsmarkt.  We have heard that this is the nicest one, although we will have to keep going to others to truly decide.  What makes this market unique is that they use lanterns to light the stalls at night.  Also, the stands are run by not-for-profits and charities.  We went twice to this one, once at night and once during the day in hopes that was a bit less crowded to see more of the things for sale.  The less-crowded part didn't work out, but it was nice both times.  This market was bigger than the Swedish one and was in a large square called Richardsplatz.  We tried glühwein again, the more German version with no nuts and raisins.  It was generally less spiced as well, which I liked.  You could also get shots of liquor in it if you wanted.  I also tried Eierpunsch (egg liquor punch) and Kakoa (a chocolate-y drink) with amaretto, both of which were okay.  All of these were nice and warm.  We also had Feuerfleisch, which is a grilled beef sandwich, and a Blütengemüse, which is a big patty of fried vegetables.  It looks a bit like funnel cake, but with veggies.  Both were amazing!  The stalls besides food had everything from crafts, to candy, to cookies, to mistletoe.  In the middle of the market there was a big stage set up and bands played Christmas music.  On Sunday St. Niklas was there giving small treats to children (see picture below) and Santa Claus was there as we think of him in the US to take pictures with.  We have only been to two Weihnachtsmarkts, but this is my favorite so far.

The Christmas markets are a really nice way to wander around in the cold.  It gets dark here by 4pm, but it doesn't matter so much when you go to a place that looks nicer in lights anyway.  I think they should probably keep them open longer through the winter to help people get out more.

Things I Always Took for Granted

Tis the season to be thankful for the things you have.  And I am very thankful for all the wonderful things in my life.

It is also the season for baking and making wonderful things in the kitchen.  And every time I cook I think about the things that I took for granted in the food world.  I will share them with you, so that you can be appropriately thankful for these things when you use them in the future.

1. Sticks of butter that mark tablespoons and cups.
    The butter here comes in blocks.  When I bake with my US recipes, I have to estimate how much butter I am using.  Luckily I have done a lot of baking in my life so I know what a tablespoon of butter looks like.  I convert all of the measurements to tablespoons and then measure them out by eye.  The butter here is also different.  I'm not sure how it's different, but when you melt it it doesn't look the same as I am used to.

2.  Food can be had no matter what season.
     Other than the time that I had an amazing plum recipe and could not find plums, I have had very little trouble finding produce I need at the stores in the US.  Now, it might be more expensive and may not taste as wonderful, but it does exist (except for some exotic things- plums apparently being in this category in VA.)  Here though most things exist only when they are in season.  Luckily they import more produce from Europe and Africa than they did even 10 years ago, so I think that the supply is better than in the past.  However, while making stuffing for Thanksgiving we could not get celery!  Celery.  What a silly thing not to have.  We made due with what they did have- celery root.  It is definitely more of a pain to cut, but it tastes similar.  And I can't say that I have ever used it before being in Berlin.
     While I am used to fruits and veggies being there all year, one of the nice things about Berlin is that people really appreciate the things that are in season.  They also don't eat tasteless fruits and veggies just to have them.  For example, in the spring when asparagus come out, it is celebrated.  When is the last time you celebrated asparagus?

3.  Don't mix up the baking powder and baking soda!
   In all of my baking years I have known that it is bad if you mix baking powder for baking soda or vice versa.  I always check many times both the recipe and the label to make sure that I do not get it wrong.  However, here there is something called backpulver.  It is a combination packet of baking powder and baking soda.  Mixed together!  Such that you cannot use one without the other.  I did find baking soda in the American food section in Karstadt, a big department store with a large grocery store in the basement level, but not baking powder.  In recipes I have gone between using backpulver (more than I would of either baking powder or soda because in the US we use double strength and this is single, but no defined amount more) or using baking powder for soda (1/3 of the amount) and omitting some of the salt.  I have actually done both of these for the same recipe and I haven't noticed that much of a difference.  Of course when my measurement of butter is a bit random, it could also be a difference with that.

4.  Staples for baking and cooking will be at every grocery store.
   Funny thing about this is that it has to be a staple in the place you are.  You won't see a store here without a selection of yogurt that outdoes the US as does the amount of sausages and salamis.  But don't try to get brown sugar or chocolate chips.  I was so excited to see brown sugar one day I bought two.  In my excitement I didn't realize until I got home that the sugar swished around.  It was raw sugar, hence brown.  When I've needed chocolate chips, I've bought chocolate bars and chopped them up.  The upside to this is that I buy better quality chocolate and it is so cheap!
You want easy to squeeze caramel sauce instead of the kind you need to use a spoon for?  Ha!  You have to melt the caramel first.  There are also no containers of pre-made frosting.  You have to buy glaze which you have to melt down.  Not a good snacking item to keep in the fridge.  (Okay, these may not be a staples, but I really wanted to make chocolate caramel sea salt cupcakes.)  Cornmeal and black beans are also not at our main grocery store and things we use a lot.  We have branched out and found places to get them, but it takes more effort.  And I have yet to see a whole turkey at the store.  I'm not even sure where our friend got one for Thanksgiving.  But I was grateful that she found one.


5.  Preservatives will make our food last.
  We have a general idea how long food will last.  Or so we thought.  Here they use less preservatives, which really is a good thing.  But we have had to readjust how much we buy and quickly we use things.  Some of this is made easier in that they sell things in smaller packages.  For example, flour comes in 1kg bags (2.2 pounds).  But not everything lasts until we are done with it.  A little thing of red pesto that would sit in our fridge for several months and be fine got moldy after about 2 weeks.  In the end, it will be healthier at least.



I like the challenges of cooking.  I like making new things and trying new ingredients.  Being in a place where things often seem the same, it is funny how different they are.  It does make cooking an adventure.

Tricked

I am a firm believer of waiting for any Christmas celebrations until after Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, with Christmas a close second.  So I don't want to mix the two.  I want to enjoy them each fully.  So I do not listen to Christmas music, buy gifts, or eat things that are Christmas things until Black Friday.

I found that I have been tricked into celebrating Christmas early here in Germany.  The first stands of Christmas candies first appeared mid-October.  I figured that they were not for Halloween, which they only kind of celebrate here, so I stayed away and ignored them.  But it turns out it is hard to stay away from things you don't know are related to any holiday.

Visiting Dresden in the German state of Saxony was where I made my first fall.  We were walking through an indoor market and looking at the sweets they were selling.  "Original Dresden Stollen" the one bakery claimed.  I am a sucker for original foods from a place.  I feel that they are important to try.  While there were many variations, I even bought the original kind (which just looks like bread).  At the other bakery they sold Baumkuchen. This literally translates to tree cake, so I was intrigued.  I asked in German (English is less common in Dresden than in Berlin) what Baumkuchen was.  She explained (and I was proud to understand) that it was vanilla cake and marmalade layers inside the chocolate outside.  I had not seen such a thing in Berlin, so I had to try it.  We were out sightseeing for the day, so I resisted buying them immediately and having them get squished as we wandered. When we stopped in at the end of the day, I bought them and I brought them both back to Berlin to eat.

Once in Berlin we opened them up to try them.  I sliced the Stollen and found that really it was a kind of fruit cake.  I was a little worried about this as some of the Stollen was sold in tins reminiscent of fruit cake.  However, this was more like fresh bread with actual fruit (not green and red jelly things).  It reminded me of Italian Panetonne in taste, but was looked a bit more like Irish Soda Bread.  I figured since I don't really eat fruit cake at all, eating it out of season wasn't too bad.

The Baumkuchen was like a giant donut, most like an Entenmann's Chocolate Frosted Donut.  The inside didn't really taste like jelly, it was just sweet.  It is layered very thinly, hence looking like the layers of a cut tree instead of a layered cake.  I found out later that it is a very long process to make Baumkuchen.  This was the winner of the two.  I was wondering if there were places in Berlin to get it.

I didn't have long to wonder.  A week or so later I was walking home and needed a snack.  I stopped at a bakery (which I am amazed I don't do more often) to get a cookie.  I noticed that they had Baumkuchen.  I knew I hadn't seen it there before.  I also noticed that the cookie options had changed some too.  I ordered what looked like a nice chocolatey one called Lebkuchen.  Once I bit into it while walking down the street, I realized why these things had suddenly appeared.  I was eating gingerbread!  It is fluffier and more like the texture of the frosted sugar cookies you get at the supermarkets in the US, but it was gingerbread.  It was strong enough that it even masked the wonderful chocolate coating that made me get this cookie.  This was when I realized I had been tricked into eating a Christmas cookie.  With Thanksgiving still a few weeks away.  And since Baumkuchen arrived to Berlin now too, it must also be a Christmas tradition.

Now that I know to be more careful, I have stayed away from anything I don't know.  Friends have started talking about their favorite holiday foods, but I will wait another two weeks to try it.   There is a Christmas Market that is already open, but I will wait.  Gluhwein (hot mulled wine, which I learned about in my German class when we talked about Christmas) was all over Prague and now is all over in Berlin too.  I am so excited for the Christmas Markets that will be all over Berlin, I am sure to be out surrounded by these things often in the upcoming weeks.

We will have to work on Thanksgiving here.  I plan to cook a nice turkey dinner on the Saturday after.  After that I will be ready for the Christmas Markets and food.  And I'm sure I won't run short on time to try any of it!

How to Make Berlin Look Expensive

Go to Prague!

Prague was one of the city's I felt like I missed while studying abroad in London.  I know you can only do so much in one semester, but it was one of the places I had hoped to get to, but didn't.  It was far and expensive to get there.

From Berlin, however, it is a different story.  It is four and a half hours away by car.  You can take a bus for 40 euros round trip.  On the bus you also get water, a snack, and wifi.  And you only need to be there 30 minutes before you leave.  You also get to see the country side between here and there, which looks a lot like Pennsylvania until you get into the Czech Republic.  So many benefits over flying.

When people talk about Prague they mention four things:  the beer, how pretty it is, how much they loved it, and that you must go.  Beyond that, I never had any idea what you would do there.  In other cities people talk about what things you do there, the Louvre, The Tower of London, the beach, the Kremlin.  It's always been odd that Prague doesn't have this, but only until you go.

Prague has many things to do.  The Prague Castle, which is still a working government building, but also has a number of museums that take about two days to go through.  The Charles Bridge with great views of the city.  The oldest working Astronomical Clock is there with a tower you can go up to view the city.  There are other museums, an opera house, marionette shows, and the largest night club in Eastern Europe.

But really it has this amazing sense of place that is hard to describe.  It really comes down to:  "It is beautiful, you must go!"  The city is one of the oldest in the area that has not had to be fully reconstructed due to war.  It is a place to wander aimlessly through the streets to see the architecture and the views of the city.

There are many wonderful cafes, restaurants, beer halls where you can sit and eat great food, great beer, and watch your surroundings.  Eating and drinking give you a sense of the Czech Republic : the hospitality and also something that represents no-nonsense.  Apparently many of the traditional Czech foods have been lost in time to communism, so much of the food is similar to most of Eastern Europe:  Goulash (which isn't really a stew, but more meat in gravy with dumplings to sop up the gravy), sausage, pork, and lots of potatoes.  If you stay away from the main touristy streets, you can also eat a full hot meal with meat and potatoes for about 5 euros.  The street food is fabulous as well!

Potatoes, Cabbage, and Pork

Fried Cheese with buttery potatoes with slab of butter.

Goulash

The Oldest

The Newest

And the beer is amazing.  Not only does it taste great, for the most part the beer costs about 1.50 euros.  Beer is usually the cheapest drink per volume you can get in Berlin, but it is still more than this!  Most places in Prague only sell two types:  light (not actually light but a pilsner) or dark.  The oldest beer hall in Prague, U Fleku only had one kind of beer.  What made this great was that when you sat down you were given a beer.  When your glass was empty they offered you another.  No need for language issues here, although really most people spoke English quite well.  We took a beer tour, which took us to the oldest microbrewery in Prague, the newest, and the most popular.  The tour was great because you had a half liter of beer at each place and you learned about the microbrewery and also about brewing beer.  We met some fun people on the tour as well.  A group of us went out after the tour to a bar called Propaganda.  It had a campy communist theme,which was hilarious to a group of American tourists.  (And one of the guys who worked there comes from the town we just moved from in the US!)

While in Prague, you must try Budweiser.  It is a traditional Czech beer that is not related to the American beer of the same name.  In fact they are in legal battles over the name.  It also comes in light or dark as seen below. 

 
Our last day in Prague was a rainy day.  We had seem most of the things we wanted and really only had half a day before we caught the bus.  We did some shopping as we had noticed that we could buy cheap shoes and I really needed some.  I bought two pairs of mary janes and one pair of winter boots for a total of 45 euros!

If you are looking to move to Europe but don't know where, think about Prague.  It is beautiful.  They speak English.  The food and beer is good.  Things are cheaper than in most of Europe.  And it is still an international city where there are many things going on.  I personally am not ready to move again, but it crossed my mind while we were there.  And if you aren't looking to move, at least go for a visit.  It is well worth the trip.