first up (cheese will always come first), halloumi!

we quite like halloumi. traditional from cyprus, it’s a cheese made with goat and sheep’s milk. it feels like mozarella, but saltier, and since it is usually fried or grilled, it reminds us a bit of the slovenian fried cheese. all the falafel shops seem to have a variation of the halloumi salad above, usually with some mint in them. yum! :)

you need an electric table-top grill, which has small individual pans, where you make your dishes. you can use anything you want on it, but things like mushrooms, boiled potatoes, cold meats and cheese are customary. the food is put on the small pans and covered with cheese. you can also grill other things on top of it.

i think the best part about it is that it makes dinner really easy to have with friends. there’s something for everyone, and we can cook and eat dinner simultaneously, while chatting. all you have to do is set the table with everything you want – this way there isn’t one single person slaving away in the kitchen while the others are being entertained elsewhere. plus, melted cheese is like bacon… it makes everything better! :)

the sign outside states “don’t die before trying”, and so, try we did. and then it became a sort of ritual: every time we were nearby, the caffeine siren calling would divert us from our path straight into this tiny little coffee shop. well, the coffee and the cheesecake, if we’re being honest. it’s really good.

i don’t know enough about coffee to comment beyond “i like it” – so their fancy machine has little allure on a commoner like me.

but sometimes, good coffee has this quality of making time go slower while you sip. have you noticed? this is one of those coffees. you take a sip, taste the foam, close your eyes and feel all is well with the world. you take a bite of that cheesecake and let it melt in your tongue, slowly. yup, you don’t even notice the impatient baristas anymore. all is well. :)

bonanza is on oderberger straße, 35 near mauerpark.

other yummy things we’ve tried:

the minute i knew hudsons cakes was going to be in the fair, i knew i wanted a slice of their “chocolate lausitzer porter” cake. we had tried it before, and it stuck with us. it’s so good, moist but not too chocolatey… just perfect.

like they say around here, lecker! :)

i found the recipe at chez larssons, and the only tweak we did was to double the amount of cardamom (because we’re all cardamom junkies around here).

you’ll need:

for the dough:
100 grams of butter
5 decilitres of milk
50 grams of yeast
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 decilitres of Sugar
2 tsp ground cardamom
5.4 cups of wheat flour

for the filling:
100 grams of butter
1 decilitre of sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

for the top:
1 egg
pearl sugar

procedure:
melt the butter, add the milk and heat until finger warm (not too hot!). crumble the yeast into a bowl. add a little bit of the milk/butter mixture and stir until the yeast is dissolved. add the rest of the milk/butter mixture, salt, sugar and ground cardamom and 2/3 of the flour.

mix and add flour until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl. save a little bit of flour for later.

cover the dough with a tea towel and let it rise until double the size, about 35-40 minutes.

mix the dough for a few minutes in the bowl and then knead it on the flour dusted work top with the rest of the flour, until it doesn’t stick too much.

then divide the dough into two equal parts. use a rolling pin to flatten the two dough parts into 20×40 cm each. mix the filling ingredients in a small bowl and spread the butter/sugar/cinnamon filling on the dough.

fold dough in half length-wise, then cut and twist according to the photos on this post so that you make pretty little knots.

put the knots on a covered or greased baking sheet. let rise under a tea towel for 20 minutes. whisk the egg in a bowl and use a pastry brush to brush the egg onto the knots. sprinkle some pearl sugar on top.

place in the middle of a 250C oven for 8-10 minutes until gloriously brown.

you’ll be licking your hands too…

“Achieving good environmental status in the Baltic Sea still requires substantial public outdoor and cooperation of all parties. WWF operates in the Baltic Sea on a number of ways, including through the establishment of wetlands and the training of volunteers. Now everyone can support our work in the Baltic Sea, and even have fun in the way: by eating ice cream!”

it’s actually quite good, very chocolatey and you can barely taste the salty water… :P

huge knäckebröd wheel

jam in a plastic tube

cute chocolate packaging

liquorice flakes

topping sauce

lingon tea

lingon jam

nutella & fake nutella

barcaffe coffee & turkcaffee – same thing, apparently, but they sell it under that name outside slovenia!

rain boots drier

when you first look at it, it looks like carrot soup, with a bit of feta cheese on the middle, right? it’s actually rosehip dessert soup, and it tastes sweet and a little bit herbal. you warm it up on the microwave, scoop some vanilla ice cream on it, and voilá! instant deliciousness, with a bonus boost of vitamin C!

by the way, isn’t the packaging simply irresistible? :)