Hello, friends. It's 10:33 pm in Berlin right now and instead of drinking a gin & tonic on the balcony or staring at an outdoor movie screen or, frankly, sleeping, I am sitting in a café near my apartment with free wireless because my Internet connection at home inexplicably stopped functioning sometime yesterday afternoon. Fantastic timing, Internet gods! I will not bore you with the details of how long it took me to find a place that had wireless for me to tap into, but let's just say there's a reason why I'm now sitting here typing to you all from a red velvet arm chair whilst listening to very loud 90's R&B pounding on the stereo - reminding me of the sweaty discos I went to in high school - and smelling the fruit-scented smoke wafting my way from the table of four dudes my father's age who have just started smoking a water pipe. Oh, Berlin.

Elsewhere:

Clotilde did a little interview with me about how I cook on vacation.

This sounds like my kind of frozen yogurt.

Can you imagine people once thought the pickle was "totally depraved"?

I want to be invited to Winnie's next BLT party.

I loved this interview with Nigel Slater.

These beet-pickled deviled eggs are so pretty.

I miss my babka-loving grandma and grandpa after reading this ode by Lila Byock.

Coming to Berlin any time soon? Check out my lists at the Guardian (!) for my favorite cafés and bakeries and breakfast and brunch spots in this lovely city.

Okay, folks. I'm giving myself permission to call it a night. I'll see you here next week - and guess what? I'm bringing cake.