For two weeks in September, I will work as an artist-in-residence in a storefront at Lichtenberg Studios, Berlin. You are welcome to visit this temporary, open studio with a community kitchen for conversations about food and migration. The old German saying “The farmer won’t eat what he doesn’t know” implies that it’s normal to be […]
A pickled herring rolled around a cucumber pickle, fastened with funny wooden picks. That’s a rollmops! I just pulled one from a jar of brine, cold from the fridge… While enjoying what I consider to be a quintessential German snack, I wondered if the name (a mashup of the German roll, as in the verb “roll,” and […]
Potato salad is the perfect summer food: it’s cool, it’s fresh, it goes well with sausages and watching soccer. But what goes into the potato salad? That is the question. For me, part of integrating into German culture these past eight years has meant gradually shifting my taste in potato salad from American (favoring ingredients like peas, […]
Yesterday, on a Landpartie (countryside outing) to brainstorm some ideas for Schloss Wartin, I admired this sign, whose weird 70’s typeface clashed oddly with the surrounding village, which looked more like 18th or 19th century. ‘frische eier!’ means ‘fresh eggs!’
In my native California, it’s no sacrifice to eat with the seasons. At any time of year, some sort of juicy fruits and leafy greens are in season; winter means blood oranges, grapefruits, Meyer lemons. Only when I moved to New England at 18, then later to Germany, did I encounter the homelier winter produce […]
Tonight’s the eve of the Lunar New Year, tomorrow the Year of the Horse begins. Wishing you a year as full of sweetness and longevity as these colorful cans of condensed milk I admire in the local Asian supermarket. To begin the year right, I suggest my grandmother’s fried dumpling recipe, which was featured here […]
Last Wednesday, I was tour guide to six folks from the Ruppiner Feingebäck cafés in scenic north Brandenburg. It’s the second research and tasting trip I’ve organized for them in Berlin. We criss-crossed the city to try my favorite neighborhood cafés, brainstorming new design and menu ideas for their own café along the way…
This wheel of cheese landed in my shopping basket simply because I liked the wrapper. It’s a simple, soft-ripened cheese, like a large, plain-tasting Camembert. The label declares it a handmade (actually, “hand-cheesed”) speciality of Saxony, flavored with caraway. Neither the typography nor the illustration are the world’s most refined, but I like their straightforwardness […]
Obscure chocolate bars and tasty-looking business cards have been accumulating on my desk. My excuse for noshing on the job: I’ve been busy planning a tour of Berlin’s most charming cafés and food shops (in my opinion, of course).
A well-wrapped cheese is a joy to behold, I find. Proper cheese paper and perfectly tucked corners make for a satisfying object to carry home from the market. Though the typeface choice is less convincing, I do like the funny holey cheese illustrations.
