Berlin: Day -7

Even writing that title makes me feel like I’m going to throw up. I’m going to pretend it’s not there and instead tell you about the Balkans.

buredžici

First stop: Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is pretty… pretty dear! I ate a lot of cheap creamy yogurt that comes in a carton that you can drink from. And I spilled a bag of müsli on the floor. The best thing I ate in Dubrovnik was probably a plum, one of those little Italian ones. Yeah.

Mostar, though. Mostar was full of good food. The photo above is from the little hole-in-the-wall burek place I stopped in on my first day. A huge plate of buredžici, tiny meat bureks in a tangy garlic-yogurt sauce, with a spinach burek on the side for good measure, ran me less than 2 euros. The next day I had a whole grilled trout on the terrace of a restaurant overlooking the Neretva river. It came with an entire loaf of bread, greens, and salad. 5 euros. And then there was the meat burek from the wood-fired oven that I ordered for delivery and ate for two consecutive meals. 1 euro. Thank you, Mostar.

I didn’t take any food pictures in Sarajevo, but I did eat cevapi 3 days running, and went to the fancy patisserie in the Hotel Europe. The cevapi was invariably served by very grumpy blonde women. I also started waking up in a panic at 7:14 a.m. every day. I didn’t realize until later that this was probably because of the massive amount of espresso I was consuming. (Hey, when you can get a shot of espresso for 50 cents, it’s hard to say no. But Just Say No anyway.)

Sadly, Bosnia is one of the few European countries without Google Maps, so I cannot show you where these lovely cevapi places, staffed by ogres, are located. It is also one of the few without McDonalds (maybe the only one, actually). But they do have signs like this one:

no guns, no ice cream, and nothing in between.

I don’t know why that’s blurry (thanks a lot web resolution), but you get the drift. Stay tuned for reviews of our last suppers (gulp) in Berlin.

Berlin: Day -14

I’m not going to complain about this week’s heat wave; the temperature that, as Lucy put it, cannot be described without using bad words or the word “balls;” the lack of air conditioning in all but the most insipid chain stores (H&M, I’m looking at you); the German conviction that air, if blown directly on you, causes colds; the resulting lack of fans in the office, coffee shops, and my apartment; the mini-ness of the fridge and my ensuing inability to make more than 16 ice cubes at a time, although I desire to consume at least eight ice cubes in any given glass of water; the complete absence of iced coffee and tea from menus around Berlin, and the seeming contentment of this fair city’s residents to continue drinking hot Milchkaffees and grüner Tees despite the body-temperature heat surrounding them, whether they’re inside or out.

Instead, I will share a photo.

Lakritz

When was the last time you saw a licorice store?

Kadó, Graefestraße 20.

Berlin: Day -21

Since I can’t count, and since I’m much closer now to the end of this sojourn than to the beginning, I thought it would be appropriate to recognize that, while I am hovering around the Day 114 mark, I only have a few weeks in Berlin to go. Three, to be precise, since I will be spending 9 days in Croatia and Bosnia. Alone. When was the last time I was alone for 9 days? I refer you back to the beginnings of this blog, dear reader. India 2008. It’s been a while.

That was a hot summer.

If you’re here for my food adventures, I might have to refer you to Lucy, who posted this masterfully edited video of me reading aloud from my journal. It might seem that the one thing that gives meaning to my life now is amusing my baby sister. But I was doing it for her own good–she neglects to note that she requested some food recommendations for Budapest, and I was merely responding.

I did cook recently. This is what I made:

Red Lentil Soup

1 large onion, finely chopped
100 g red lentils
50 g rice
1 liter water
1/2 T cumin
1/2 T coriander
Salt and pepper
lemon wedges

Slice the onion, cook over medium heat in a heavy pot in olive oil until dark brown and fragrant. Remove and set aside the onion, but do not wash the pot. Dump in the lentils, rice, water, and spices. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking to the bottom, for 30-45 minutes, until thick and creamy. Add water if necessary to thin the soup. Serve with the onion on top and with lemon wedges.

-from a German version of Claudia Roden’s book Arabesque, which I found at the Neukölln library, where I write this now.

I’m also still working on the cookbook. Keep an eye out for new developments. It will come out soon.