food

This is my last post on Europe--I promise! :)

I had to include some highlights from our culinary experiences, so here is a list of our favorite foods from our vacation.

Favorite drink: any kind of beer in Berlin! We had beer at least once per day, so we got to try many different kinds--light ones, darker ones, with a shot of raspberry syrup. Yum.

before

after

Favorite German-style food: Prater Restaurant in Prenzlauer Berg, which was recommended by my guidebook.

best flavored cabbage, potato dumplings, and soured pork

Favorite outdoor, quick snack: Konnopke's Imbiss, also in Prenzlauer Berg.

Konnopke's Imbiss is the oldest snack stand in Berlin and they are famous for their currywurst, which is basically hotdog with curry powder sprinkled on it. Delicious!

Berlin definitely wins the prize for the most outdoor food stands in Europe--reminds me a little bit of Taiwan, actually. There were tents and stalls set up in many major squares (on Ku'Damm, Alexanderplatz), and they usually served all sorts of roast meats (sausages, chicken, pork patties, beef stew) and grilled veggies (I saw a lot of mushrooms and onions). Here is one we tried. I'm eating beef stew flavored with paprika.

Favorite "nice" meal: lunch at Brasserie am Gendarmenmarkt near the Gendarmenmarkt square in Berlin.

This was a lovely bistro, serving German-French style food in a beautiful Art Deco dining room. Above is Byron's chicken salad and my saffron-flavored shrimp and fish.

Favorite pastry: Laduree macarons from Galeries Lafayette (I've mentioned these already).


Favorite soup/stew: lamb goulash at Restauration 1900, an "institution" on the square of Kollwitzplatz in Prenzlauer Berg. (Yes, we did end up spending quite a bit of time in that neighborhood.)


Favorite Czech meal: We found this really cool, authentic restaurant just by wandering away from the touristy parts of the Charles Bridge. No idea what the name is.

The fun part of this dining experience is that we were joined by a group of music students from Spain, who were lively and chatted with us about cultural differences between the U.S. and Europe. Czech food is a somewhat blander version of German food, in my opinion, except they include more fish in their diet. I ordered a trout filet and was a bit shocked to receive the entire fish--skin, bones, and all--on my plate.

Favorite non-Germanic food: doner kebabs, which we had in Berlin and Vienna. The pictures below are from the Naschmarkt, an outdoor, multi-cultural market in Vienna.

Doner kebab is basically the Turkish version of a gyro: flat bread stuffed with lamb meat, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and yogurt sauce. It is also served wrapped in a thin, tortilla-like skin, in which case it's called Durum kebab.

Favorite Vienna restaurant: Cafe Central, where we had yummy wienerschnitzel and my favorite dessert from the entire trip.

Kaiserschmarr'n is the name of the dessert above, and it was supposedly a favorite of Kaiser Franz Joseph. It tasted like a lighter, fluffier version of vanilla-flavored bread pudding, which you eat with plum jam. It has is sprinkled with raisins and powdered sugar. It was good.

And those were our favorite meals in Europe! As you can tell, we didn't have much Asian food while we were there, which made our first taste of a bowl of rice in Vienna simply divine.