Berlin on a Platter

Meierei

The Kaspressknödel (cheese dumpling) floating in that plate was pretty heavenly, all gooey and chunky and wonderful, but the broth is what really got me. I have yet to master a good beef broth and the folks cooking at Meierei gave me serious broth envy. There are clearly real cooks running the kitchen (a rarity in this city) and it's a pleasure to eat what they're making.

A small sliver of a place on Kollwitzstraße in Prenzlauer Berg, Meierei serves up Alpine specialties for lunch: hearty goulashes with fork-tender, high-quality meat, delicate broths with various "Einlagen" of dumplings or strips of omelets, chewy, crusty pretzels and salads. It also functions as a small-scale deli-bakery, selling big rounds of bread, imported hot chocolate mixes, great bags of traditional Swiss spice cookies, Austrian wine and more.

I loved sitting in the window on a bar stool, slurping up my savory broth and watching the world walk by. We've only got a few weeks left of the kind of weather suited to this food, so I plan on making the most of them.

Meierei
Kollwitzstraße 42
10405 Berlin
(030) 921 295 73

Lunch at Sasaya

I'm currently obsessed with the wakame salad at Sasaya in Prenzlauer Berg. It's perfect: slippery and chewy, with just the right balance of sweet and sour. There are even a few tiny shreds of hot pepper mixed in to hit the spot.

I had a quiet lunch there today, eavesdropping on a pair of middle-aged hipsters in hoodies and expensive jeans discussing apartment rents in Prenzlauer Berg and Pankow. "1500 for 120 square meters, that seems about right", one of them said. I wondered if they'd ever set foot in Steglitz or Spandau, or Charlottenburg for that matter.

The sushi was fine - the maki a little sloppily rolled - and just the right amount for lunch, though I forgot to ask them to replace the tamago with something else. I've basically decided that until I find another Japanese-run sushi restaurant, Sasaya's the only place I'll eat sushi at in Berlin. I just can't handle another Viet-Thai sushi joint where the shrimp taste like chlorine, among other indignities.

To remember for next time, the lunch menu had grilled mackerel with tsukemono and rice that sounded delicious.

Sasaya
Lychener Strasse 50
10437 Berlin
(030) 447 17 721