Cevicheria

Today is my 35^th birthday. Five years after the birthday I unsuccessfully tried to skip. I didn’t see it coming, me hating turning 30 as much as I did, but it hit me in the face a week before the big day and progressively got worse from there. On the day itself I started telling people I was turning 29. Most of them reacting with “oooo, one year left till the big 3-0” made me feel even more depressed, so I just went on joking around that it’s inappropriate to ask a lady her age. 

It luckily only took me a week to get over it and accepting my new age. I decided to join the trend and make myself a bucket list, so I won’t be as grumpy when I turn forty. My bucket list only contains 2 items:

1. Finding myself the perfect hairdo that will make me look more nature in a sophisticated ladylike kind of way
2. Writing my own cookbook

I still have five years to accomplice both, so today is just about celebrating my birthday by spending a day with my husband doing one of the things I love the most: strolling around and eating. We went to have lunch at one of the places on my wish list: the Cevicheria in Kreuzberg.

Ever since I ate the Peruvian fish dish for the first time at Gordon Ramsey’s Bread Street Kitchen in London it is one of my favorite things to eat. Curing the fish in citrus fruits optimizes taste and structure, making the fish briny and tender with a sour twist. I’ve made ceviche several times back in Amsterdam, mostly with salmon or scallops. Since Berlin is not really that close to the sea I’ve never prepared it here, for I don’t know if the available fish is fresh enough to eat it raw. Today I will finally have a plate of ceviche again, and the Cevicheria far from disappointed me!

If only for the entourage it would be worth visiting this place. The light blue interior, the friendly people and last but not least the South American music make you feel you’re in another country, leaving the busy city behind for a moment.

As for the food we ordered a pulpo salad and the white fish ceviche with prawns. The salad was a very well balanced combination of oil and herbs, freshened up with chopped tomatoes and cucumber. I could’ve easily eaten a whole plate of it. The ceviche was perfect as well, classically accompanied by sweet potato, corn, red onion and coriander. We enjoyed every bite of it.

Please go here if you have the opportunity! Even if you don’t like raw fish (they have grilled and baked dishes) or you don’t like fish at all (as befits a Berlin restaurant: the have vegetarian dishes)

For the both of us eating here felt like a mini vacation.

Prinzessinnen Garten

Oma came over to stay with us for a couple of days. She has an amazing kitchen garden back in Holland, so I wanted to go and visit the Prinzessinnen Garten with her today.

6.000 square meter hidden behind a round-a-bout in Kreuzberg. Boxes and crates full of herbs and vegetables. Of course not really the right time, vegetable wise, but it all looks great anyway. Oma explained the girls about Jerusalem artichoke, we bought seeds for her garden. We had coffee, lemonade and carrot cake in the shadow of the foliage.

It is a beautifully warm and sunny day for the time of year and this is one of the best spots to be on a day like this. It feels fresh in their shadow, the atmosphere is extremely relaxed. People around us drinking coffee or beetroot juice. Ordering a plate of the daily special or opening the lunch box they brought themselves. What also strikes me is the diversity in people that sit here. It’s not just the organics one might expect, there also are tourist, business people, groups of friends catching up, hipsters and three generation families. That’s us

Wochenmarkt

After hearing much about it we finally went there today: Wochenmarkt at Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg. It really was worth the sunny bike ride to these beautiful old market halls if only to have a cup of coffee in café Neun at the entrance and for the wonderfulness of the old halls the market is in. We also had some lovely pies, let the girls play at the mini playground in the middle, bough flowers, Easter branches and this week’s groceries.  

If in Berlin I would definitely recommend a visit to Markthalle Neun and enjoy what they have to offer. We will definitely come back on Thursday night for street food Thursday. 

Restaurant Richard

First time we have a (Dutch) babysitter here in Berlin, which means we have time to go out for dinner! Because it’s also almost my birthday we decide to go to a special place this time which I have been eying since we are here: Restaurant Richard. The restaurant is hidden on the otherwise not so pretty Koepenicker strasse, but the place itself is, inside and out, lovely to see. Beautiful stained glass windows, a wooden carved flower ceiling with gorgeous glass lamps hanging from them.

 Their menu is equally lovely. They serve you up to nine courses and have a five course vegetarian menu as an alternative. We go for a five course meal and combine the courses of our likings, which in my case means I don’t have a main course, but four small dishes and a pina colada desert. The food all is very nice, they cook with regional and seasonal products. We had a lovely evening here and I will definitely be back some day to try their five course vegetarian meal when one of my vegetarian friends comes over.

Leaving Richard we wave at the Lenin statue standing in between containers on the other side of the road.

 

Graffiti

The two things I described in the previous post – two things I love about Berlin - are also combined in this pictures. Children and creativity. Playgrounds and graffiti. Of course not all graffiti can be named creative or art, but because in Berlin there is room for this form of art there are a lot of beautiful, unexpected drawings that lighten up the city and definitely make it more colorful. It is a form of art I really miss in Amsterdam, because it is so prohibited graffiti most of the time can actually be described as vandalism more than art. One of the most shocking, but characteristic happenings for the current policy was when the London Police made this beautiful huge painting on the side of a house on the canals and the city government wanted to remove it because they didn’t have a legal license for the painting. Only after a lot of protesting they decided to leave the painting be. Anyway, on this subject Amsterdam could lean a little more towards the Berlin policy because I really do think wall art can brighten up the streets.

I now see these pictures are not the best examples to support my story, just outside the pictures of the slides there was a great drawing of a huge hand on the wall. I will later on try to make and post good examples of the graffiti I am referring to

Art

Passed the Oberbaumbrucke today to the Kreuzberg side. There's a nice little park on the other side of the bridge with some art pieces. I'm not sure what they are, but standing there watching my kid run around them (even hug them) made me realise two things I so far really love about the city. First is that they really are very child friendly in developing the city, around every corner there is a playground, small park or lawn for children to run around and play as much as they would like. The other thing is the space they give people to express their creativity, also in public spaces. Something I do miss in the streets of Amsterdam. It really brightens up the city and gives me the feeling to live in a city where rules are not the most important thing in life.

Knofi

Very good caterer with a lovely terrace to enjoy their goods at the Bergmannstrasse. It’s a wonderful sunny day and we took a stroll through the beautiful Victoria park before landing on Knofi’s terrace for a plate of Mediterranean food. Another good idea would be to visit Knofi first and have a wonderful picnic.