Yes, I know I keep blogging about food, but - who cares?!! I do. I care about food and here is another tasty source! Prinz, Tip and Zitty are unified in laudations, but also the Food & Wine magazine found this little place amongst 40 cities around the world.

Leo Bettini is specialised on dumplings and pasta in all different variations (and colours!). This beautiful dumpling picture is picked from their website www.leobettini.de.

Leo Bettini, Mulackstrasse 33, 10119 Berlin, Tel. (030) 60 50 74 49, mail@leobettini.de. Opening Hours Mo - Thurs 9:30 - 18:00, Fr 9:30 - 20:00, Sa 12:00 - 20:00.

“The best pizza in Friedrichshain - that’s what our clients say”. There is not much to add. Pizza to go or pizza to have right there - you have the choice. They even started “Flying Pizza Concerts” every Thursday night, get a first impression on myspace if you need this with your pizza or not.

The area of Sonntagstrasse is a good place for a relaxed afternoon or evening with a lot of cheap places to eat & drink plus a little park where the local Friedrichshainer take a break to hang out, talk - or eat a pizza.

Caminetto, Sonntagstrasse 6, Friedrichshain, near S-Bahn Ostkreuz.

Just newly opened up end of July this year, the oliv café is often packed (although not at the time I took this photo). It is a beautiful New York style place with some food such as muesli, cake and sandwiches and a really good coffee with a perfect ‘crema’. It has no “oliv” sign up at the outside yet, but never mind, you find it at Münzstrasse (corner Almstadtstrasse), not far from the adidas flagship store and Alte and Neue Schönhauser Strasse, the place to shop in Mitte. oliv is open on Sundays also. Aus Liebe!

what makes a top creative creative? right. that is food. a lot of food, as we can see in this blog. if the people at metadesign are hungry, they often go to “klemke” just around the corner. forget about health food, eco bio sustainable fusion cuisine. this is REAL food. pigs, cows and lambs slaughtered, cooked and deliciously prepared as traditional food: braten, schnitzel, gulasch. there are no chairs, you have to eat standing at a table, preferably outside most time of the year. ah, and lawyers go there too.

Klemke’s Wein und Spirituosenhandel.  Address: Mommsenstr. 9, 10629 Berlin

image from qype

I’m no big fan of Döner (turkish kebap), to be honest. But rumor has it, that this by now favorite German dish … … was invented in Berlin. And you do get a good one in the city. So it can’t be left out here.

I think Bagdad has a fairly good one, with good meat and the choice of chicken or beef. I prefer beef.

Bagdad, Schlesisches Tor, thanks for the pic to http://berlin.virtualnights.com

It is in Schlesische Straße, just off the subway stop Schlesisches Tor.
There is another Döner restaurant right next to it, don’t go there. I don’t like it out of no reason. (But I have friends who enjoy their Döner there as well - so this is just a very personal statement).

My favorite is a Dürüm Döner with extra cheese and olives (Eur 3,40), but the standard Döner (”Ein Döner bitte”) for 2,50 is great, too.  Concerning sauces on the döner, they salesperson will ask you “welche sauce”, I prefer “Kräuter-scharf” meaning a mix of the spicy and herbal sauces. There is a garlicy one as well. Concerning condiments he will ask you “Mit Salat alles” which means you get lettuce on it, tomatoes, onions and cabbage.

The mentioned rumor has it that the Döner was created or developed in Berlin in the 60s (in Turkey, there is a beef-in-bread-kombo, but it doesn’t have any condiments on it). Who knows whether this is true, but if it is true, the Döner’s origins lay in a Turkish restaurant in Adalbertstraße: it is on the left hand side when you turn in from Oranienstraße and walk towards Kottbusser Tor. They still sell Döner, also to go, and it is - in fact - very good.

Only place to go: Ishin.

The small chain has various outlets in Steglitz, Mitte and somewhere in “Wilmersdorf-Schöneberg” (Bundesallee, I believe).

Its cantina-style concept and opening hours guarantee you the freshest fish. The rice is delicious, too. And for those of you who can’t stand sushi, there are a variety of other great Japanese dishes, such as DONs (a bowl of sushi rice with various toppings) and Cey-Ros (steamed portions of rice with vegetables, meat or fish).

Definitely try those side dishes:

a) Hiya-Yakko
b) For the adventurous: Natto (fermented beans: mix them with the mustard that comes along and some soy sauce)

http://www.ishin.de/

If you walk Lehmbruckstrasse in the other direction (coming from Yuki, see post below), then you will find Bäckerei Böttcher, who serve perfect bread, rolls, but also Wurst and Boulette, for those who need a hefty snack. The bread, and that is special about Böttcher, is extremely fresh and heavy, and I once heard a person saying he does come all the way from the west of town to buy bread here. The rolls have the excellent reputation to be genuine “Ost-Schrippen” (even newspapers wrote about it) (read all about rolls and Schrippen in a massive article at Wikipedia). This means, they are still baked like in old GDR times (yes, we are in the former east sector here), so there are not too many chemical tricks in the dough (that’s at least what I believe) but rather straightforward baker skills plus an unbeatable freshness. They also serve special bread - I forgot the name, probably something like 1. FC Hintertupfing Bread - where 10 Cents of the price go to a football club no one has ever heard of (and no one ever will, except the bakery’s clients).

The Lehmbruckstrasse in Friedrichshain first seems to be a bit of a forgotten place. But wait what this street has to offer! First of all there is the lovely Yuki Café where Yuki serves homemade cake and a variety of tasty sandwich creations. Besides this she has very good coffee and an exquisite music taste as well - today there was quiet, tragic piano music. The café, in every case, is seldom crowded, which makes it a perfect spot to take a break from the business hectic at lunchtime. The only thing you have to care about is not to talk about business secrets, because it is likely to have a competitor company’s employee sitting at the next table. With a little bit of luck you might run into a film star like Til Schweiger (oh my God), who’s film company is located around the corner. If you have difficulties to find Yuki, then watch out for the store next door - for some reason this one places about 10 washing machines on the pavement every day which is a real visual pleasure for the ambience.

So there were 3 reasons to come to Lehmbruckstrasse (Yuki, washing machines and Til Schweiger), but there is more to come.

Lehmbruckstrasse 15, 10245 Berlin Friedrichshain, +49-30-21805884, open from 7:30 until 7 p.m.

Sorry for getting carried away into drinkage and interior-designage in my last posts.

I’m back on the topic now!

Today’s quick special: Grillhähnchen (rotisserie chicken).

There are many really disgusting places and SARS has cleaned up the city from (in my opinion) too many places (unreasonable panic).

But the good joints have survived.

A good one is tender, juicy and has a definite taste to it: either by a good seasoning on it’s skin, or, in my absolute favourite place, by a real charcoal fire below our feathered friend while it is fried. On top of it, chicken is a really healthy snack (without a side of fries).

So let’s start with the classic version: DAS HÜHNERHAUS, Skalitzerstraße Corner Görlitzer Straße. It’s a snack stand, not a walk-in place.

They have a pretty spicy and delicious seasoning on the skin and the chickens are grilled long enough so that the skin is really crispy (nothing worse than a not crispy thus greasy skin! more white than red! bäh!). Order a half one with a side of salad (marinated with lemon juice and olive oil) and some of their special spicy sauce. Simple and good.

Hähnchenhaus Skalitzer Straße: thanks to Qype for the pic...

While this one is in the heart of Kreuzberg, for the very best one you will have to travel to Neukölln:

I don’t know the name, but you can’t miss the Fast-Food-Style Restaurant on Sonnenallee Corner Reuterstr. (very close to Herrmannplatz).

I think it’s originally Lebanese - well, there are very proud Lebanese men working in the place. The chicken is cut open and placed flat in an iron cage, then hung into a special construction circulating it above various charcoal fires. The whole place is designed like a fast-food restaurant, so you order by menus (they come with delicious bread, hummus, fries, salad, etc.) and get the chicken along with it.

I didn’t find a picture, but writing this post I realize that I have to go there very soon!

BTW: as for dessert — try the bakeries along Sonnenallee when you walk back to Hermannplatz. They have some of the best turkish cockies and fresh&juicy Baklava.

While it might be hard to find some really good restaurants in Berlin (though this has changed and I will later post more on this issue), the city remains my uncrowned queen of international “snackage”. Based on the famous Currywurst, all the nations under Berlin’s sky offer their own delicacies and those of others in small, affordable and good snack stands and restaurants.

So why buy in? Eat out!

First thing to do of course: the Currywurst and there is - in my opinion - only three places to eat it. For those of you into the topic you might be surprised that Konopkes is not on my short list. Despite the fact that’s an East Berlin institution I consider their wurst just not up to the highest standards. So please only go to:

CURRY 36, Mehringdamm 36, U Mehringdamm, curry36.de

Thanks artie* from Flickr for this picture.

Order quick and sharp, the ladies on the counter don’t have much time: “Einmal Currypommes mit Ketchup-Mayo” will give you a Currywurst, french fries, ketchup and mayonnaise. Yumm! Alternatively order a “Schaschlick-Spieß” and enjoy a bit of tender fried pork.
Look it up on google maps

Bier’s at Kudamm 136 and at S Friedrichstraße

The slightly more noble West Berlin Curry (please notice the French champagne bottles in the coolers behind the grill stand next to the Beer and Coke!) is not more expensive but offers the curry for the endless party-monster and the distinguished opera visitor at the same time. The original outlet at Ku’damm 136 received a sister on Friedrichstraße directly in the underpass below the train tracks for the Mitte crowd. Try the extra spicy sauce along with your curry, it’s delicious.
Look it up on google maps: Ku’Damm location.