sometimes you just have to stop thinking for a bit and let life follow its course, hang on to the belief that (like in the movies) things will eventually be ok in the end. good coffee helps making dreary days better – and thankfully, berlin has exceptional coffee. :)
today, there was an awesome soup-festival in our kiez, and we got to try several soups from different countries. the weather was just perfect for soup, coldish and windy, and i wish we had gone hungrier, because the soups were just mouth-watering (and cheap!). i could have eaten a lot more!
iranian carrot-curry soup with walnuts
german pumpkin soup
iraqi yoghurt soup, with bits of carrot, potato and tiny meatballs inside
i hope they repeat the initiative soon! :)
here’s an update on my quest to try 20 different cheeses. i should say that i’m not a cheese connoisseur by any means, though i really like them. but since i’ve been more on a paleo phase of late (and discovered i’m relatively sensitive to lactose), i only do a small tasting now and then – while the boy gets to slather his crackers with generous portions of the stuff!
le brin: soft and smooth, with a very light taste. we quite liked it!
wensleydale with cranberries: hello, little bit of heaven! soft, crumbly, and melts-in-your-mouth kind of cheese. the sweetness of the cranberries adds a sort of playful touch to it, so nice :)
frischkäse with almonds and pineapple: i’m not such a big fan of the fresh cheeses, but the boy really likes them. the pineapple/almond combo adds both sweetness and crunchiness to it, which helps to atone for its lack of texture.
bavaria blue: very creamy and mild, but i guess not that different from other blue cheeses out there.
so i asked for tea some months ago… and tea came, from the 4 corners of the world, like an explosion of unexpected flavors in my mailbox! lychee and rose! quince and linden! bubblegum! english rose! gorreana! yerba mate! lúcia lima!
my beloved bodum cup has been working double shifts as i make my way through the loot (and i’m sure i’ll be stocked for quite a while) but it’s been a daily delight, and i’m really happy that i included the tea swap on my 101 list. thank you girls! :)
“It’s late afternoon and you’re exiting the metro into a flock of hawkers; the lady with a bazillion different notebooks, the cart with cages of baby rabbits and birds, and if it’s winter, the yam guy. Then, before you even see the culprit, you encounter a stench that makes you wonder how a beached whale carcass managed to roll this far inland. You spot the source, an idle square of stinky tofu in a wok across the street. And even as someone who professes “don’t knock until you try” and “don’t be an ugly tourist,” when I first smelled stinky tofu two years ago, I just about blurted out, “who the f*** would eat this stuff?”
shanghaiist nails it! :)
we tried it back in 2009, at my chinese teacher’s insistence… you can read what we though of it here.
