Category: foooood

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foooood in china in germany traveling

starbucks abroad


i have a starbucks travel mug, which i got in china. it says shanghai in big letters, and i take it to class every day, filled with tea.
one day, a colleague asked me if i’d gone to starbucks in china, to which i replied that i did. they looked at my mug with disdain, and told me that they’d never do that, their voice dripping with moral superiority… it struck me as an odd thing to say, “i’d never do something”… how do they know?

i didn’t feel the need to justify myself to an almost stranger, but thought about it for a while… and then i realized we didn’t go to starbucks because we particularly liked their coffee (though i respect any brand that has the talent to pull a ‘red bean’ frappuccino…). we went there because it was familiar, and consistent. you know what you’re going to get, and how you’re going to get it – which at times was more than you could say for the rest of the places in the neighbourhood. we went there because when you’re out of your element, feeling misunderstood and lost, you want what is familiar and comfortable. big brands do consistency perfectly, and it can be very soothing.

this is what i should have told him. damned esprit d’escalier!

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foooood in germany

dürüm döner

so, a long time ago i promised to write about the middle-eastern food from our neighbourhood… but never really got around to it. let’s give it another go, starting with the basics! one of the first things we learnt when moving to neukölln is the difference between a normal döner and a dürum döner. we had no idea what a dürüm was when we moved here, but we were quickly brought up to speed. first, some basics (do correct me if i’m wrong):

– a kebab is roasted meat, usually on a skewer.
– a döner, or döner kebab, is a ‘rotating roast’ – the thing that you see in the kebab shops with the meat hanging there.

that said, normal döners are served in pita or sandwich bread… and often a mess to eat, with stuff falling from the sides at every bite… dürüms have the same stuff inside, only wrapped in a much neater package: a thin flat bread, which is itself wrapped in foil! :D

there are lots of varieties of dürüms, from adana (above, my favourite) to beyti… but that’s for another post! :)

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foooood

coffee-less

in an effort to curb our coffee consumption, we’ve decided to go without the stuff this week. today is tuesday, day 2, and i feel…

… nothing. after having had coffee in the morning and after lunch religiously for years, i expected mighty headaches, or other dreaded symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. instead, i feel nothing of the sort. i’m not better or worse, i’m just fine, the same. i sleep ok, i wake up early, i concentrate in school and during work… i’m relieved and happy that it is so, but also a bit confused. have we been drinking decaf all this time? or are we just especially well-tolerant of the stuff? either way, i hope i’m not speaking too soon…

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foooood in germany in the uk just life one second everyday video

one second every day – may 2013

may was a great month – even if the video isn’t one of the best so far. some highlights:
– lots of trips, big and small: london, weimar & erfurt
– street food thursdays, which have become almost a tradition on thursdays
– big stuff smoked bbq‘s delicious plates
– 2 postcrossing meetups in a single month
– the finnish postcrossing stamp
– the first couchsurfers of the season
– and more dr. who than we’ll care to admit… :)

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foooood in the uk traveling

what we ate in london

it’s been hard finding the motivation to write. in between school and postcrossing, by the end of the day i just want to tuck in bed and sleep. if can make it through an episode of doctor who without falling asleep, i count that as a victory!

so where were we…? ah yes, london! there’s food to be celebrated! here are some of the highlights of our trip.


fish and chips! greasy and ubiquitous and delicious!


dear lord, the crisps were out of this world… especially with vinegar! who knew? or maybe it was just because we hadn’t eaten chips in years…

sandwiches, sandwiches, sandwiches! there was a street food market going on near the london eye, so we hopped through the stands and choose the meatiest options :)


crumpets covered in jam and scotch eggs… just because they’re so exquisitely british in our heads, and we’d never had them before! :)


omg, this bagel at borough market… when the man asked if we wanted mustard on the bagel, we said sure! but after the first bite we were cursing up the skies with burning sinuses, eyes tearing up and mouths open like fishes trying to grasp a bit of air… jesus christ, that was some strong mustard!! i bet one could clean some pipes with that – it certainly cleaned our noses for a few hours…


chinese! it was great to discover london’s chinatown, and grab some dumplings and takeout :)


and last but not least on the photographic series, custard cream on cake and chocolates. how come anything made out of chocolate is so cheap in the uk?

the high point of the gastronomic part of the trip though, is not portrayed here, since i didn’t take any photos. it seemed… disrespectful to the chef to waste time with such trivialities when there was real, proper, delicious food prepared for us. we had lunch on st. john’s, a small indulgence and our first foray into the realm of michelin starred restaurants. fanciful establishments don’t really attract me… they’re way out of our league, plus, i’m not a big fan of having to dress up to eat. but st. john’s was different. it’s all about the food here – and not just the finest pieces of steak, but the whole animal… literally, nose-to-tail.

(funny thing: i had heard so much about the place that i already knew some of the dishes i wanted to order… and in the weeks before the trip, i had the oddest nightmares in which we were eating there but had forgotten to order the bone marrow…)

between us, we had the famous toast with roasted bone marrow and parsley salad (uff! i didn’t forget!), fried eggs on black pudding, welsh rarebit, lamb sweetbreads with peas and bacon, eccles cakes with lancashire cheese and meringue with strawberries and cream.

it was… magnificient, from beginning to end. every dish so simple, yet so mouth-wateringly delicious. everything so serene, never distracting you from the purpose of your visit. i was a bit uncomfortably full by the end of it, but oh so happy to have had the change to eat there. i couldn’t help the giddy smile – it was worth it! :)