Curry Wurst at Curry 36

If somebody visits Berlin and ask me, "what is the trademark dish of this city?" I wouldn't to make one second to answer: "Curry Wurst". Curry Wurst is nothing more than pan fried pork sausage cut into thick slices, seasoned with lots of tomato ketchup and a little bit of curry powder. Normally, Curry wurst is eaten together with either french fries or German bread roll.

Sounds simple isn't it? But the power of curry wurst lays on the texture (it's smooth) and the taste of the sausage itself. Trust me, the Germans know their sausages. You can find curry wurst being sold everywhere. From colleges cafeterias to any random street vendors. In short, you can go anywhere in the city and and easily find warm curry wurst for your snack. However, for the best curry wurst, there's only two stalls in Berlin you need to visit. The first is Konnopke in Schönhauser Alle (Best on East Berlin) and the other one is Curry 36 in Mehringdamm (Yup, you guess it! Best on West Berlin).

I usually go to Curry 36 for two simple reasons: This is the first stall that I went to and second, I heard a rumor that the former German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, only eats Curry wurst from this stall. However, he never has to do the hard work of actually buying them himself, all he needs to do is ask his assistant/driver to buy them for him while he waits and sits in the car (which I presume is a Limo). Anyway, when you order a curry wurst, the seller are going to ask,"mit oder ohne Darm?" which means "with or without intestine?". I prefer eating it with the intestine, for the extra bite, but original east berliner's curry wurst should be eaten without (it's because back during the GDR, there was no such luxury as intestine).

Here is the picture of curry wurst with intestine



I went to this stall today, because a friend of mine, Agus, wants to open his own curry wurst restaurant in Indonesia. So he starts to taste various curry wurst to decide what kind of sauce, does he want to serve in Indonesia. Btw his most favourite curry wurst is also the one from curry 36.

As you can see, there's always long queue for the sausage and it's even in rainy day.



They even sell the vacuum sealed sausages to bring home



Curry 36
Mehringdamm 36
10961 Berlin
U6/U7-Mehringdamm

Oven-steamed halibut with ginger and scallion

As requested by Henky O, I'm posting the recipe for my oven steamed halibut. Henky saw my post about my home-made dinner and asked me for the recipe.

The key for this dish is the choice of the fish and the soy sauce. I strongly recomend fresh halibut, because it's low in fat, has mild "clear" taste, fleshy and silky. Don't ever use frozen "seelachs", it will only ruin this dish. This is because steaming fish is a tricky method to cook fish; If the fish is fresh, it will bring out all the goodness of the fish, but if the fish is frozen or spoiled, I bet you will smell the infamous fishy smell that those who hates seafood surely know about. So be sure to choose a fresh piece of halibut.

For the soy sauce, I use a Chinese brand called "Ha Day". It's not the best soy sauce out there, but it's the one I can get in an Asian grocery here in Berlin.

So just for Henky, here it is

Oven-steamed halibut with ginger and scallion

a piece of halibut around 200 gr
1 piece ginger about a thumb, shelled and julienned
1 scallion, washed and julienned
2 Tbs Soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
5 Tbs vegetable oil
a drizzle of sesame oil
1 piece of shitake mushroom (optional), rehydrated and sliced finely


For the sauce:

• Heat up 5 Tbs vegetable oil in a pan, Once it started to smoke, put in the julienned ginger and scallion.
• Now you need to be really fast, before the ginger and the scallions wilts, pour in the soy sauce and sugar. Be careful it will sizzle like crazy
• Stir fry them for 10 seconds and set aside

Oven steaming:

• Now you can do it like I did and prepare 2 pieces aluminum foil (around 30 cm * 30 cm) and stack them over
  
• Put the piece of the fish in the middle of the aluminum foil and finely arrange the shitake mushroom on top of the fish and pour the prepared sauce over the fish
• If you want your dish to be soup-like add 2 Tbs of water
  
• Carefully packed the fish in the aluminum foil to make a packet. You need to fold them really tight, otherwise all the sauce will flow out and you will only get a piece of dry fish without sauce.
• Put the fish packet into the oven and bake the packet in the pre-heated oven at 220°C for 20 minutes.
  
• Open up the packet, drizzle with sesame oil and serve the fish directly on the aluminium foil (Of course with plate underneath). I tried to transfer my fish on a plate for better presentation but in the end I only ruined it.
  

• OR ... you can put the fish with the sauce on a heat-resistance plate and steam it.
  

Dürüm Kebab at Balli

There is a neighborhood in Berlin, Kreuzberg, that is also known as little Istanbul (Küçük Istanbul). And true to its name, this district is filled with Turkish bath, Turks-operated pizzaria, Turkish restaurants, Turkish bakeries & baklavari, Halal supermarkets. And if you pay attention, most of the apartments on the street of Little Istanbul boast Turkish names such as Aydin, Yilmiz and Yozuglu.

The Turks are the largest minority in Germany. This is because during the late 60s, large numbers of Turks were invited to come to Germany as guest workers to fill an acute labour shortage after WW II. Most of these Turkish workers eventually stayed in Germany and found their living here. No wonder some say that the best döner kebab, outside of Turkey itself, can be found in Germany.

With that said, my favourite Dürüm Kebab is located at Tempelhof and not Kreuzberg. Even though there are three, no sorry, five kebab booths right across the street from my apartment, my spouse and I willingly take that 30 minutes ride from my borough, Wedding, just to eat this Dürüm. Hey, Kreuzberg is not the only neighborhood filled with Turks.

For those who don't know, Dürüm is a type of Turkish wrap that's filled with finely sliced veggies (ice berg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onion and sometimes red cabbage) and thinly sliced kebab meat. The wrap is made from wheat flour flatbread, similar in shape to the Mexican tortilla.

The Kebab in Balli is huge and I mean it. Here's a picture of it. Once I went there at midnight and they were putting in a new skewer and it was tremendous! It's twice the size of the skewer in the picture. I think they already sold half of the meat by the time I came.



And here is the oven they use to bake the turkish wrap, Yufka.


And here is the Dürüm Kebab. Btw my spouse and me only order one piece and we share it. And trust me, it's enough for the both of us. What I love about the dürüm in balli is that they don't skimp on the good stuff. Warm & big yufka, enough layers of kebab meat, A lot of crisp fresh salad AND they add french fries! I always squeal with joy everytime I bite into one. It feels like biting into surprises, Hey I always welcome something deep fried in my food.


To perfect this meal, I always asked for dried chilli flakes for an additional kick to the dürüm. And here is the picture of the restaurant in Tempelhof. Get ready to see a line of people queing in the store as I've never see them without customers.


Balli Tempelhofer Damm 146
U6-Alt Tempelhof

China Restaurant Ho-Lee

Have you ever wonder where celebrities eat when they get to a new city? In all honesty, I never care about stuff like that, until I stumbled upon this Chinese Restaurant just accros KaDeWe (Berlin's equivalent of Harrods). And what do I found? Pictures of Jackie Chan on the wall!
Sorry for the blurry photo, I was in hurry. After all it's just something to tickle your interest



According to the boss (who came from HongKong), a few years ago, Jackie Chan came to Berlin to shoot his film "80 days around the world", and he frequented this restaurant to eat cantonese food. He visited this restaurant so often, that the boss and Jackie took oath as sworn brother.

Of course the first question that I asked was, "What did Jacky Chan ordered?" The waiter answered readily and point out to this dish from the menu:

stir fried pork with firm tofu with zha cai (pickled mustard plant 榨菜)

The verdict? It was the best dish of the night, the combination of the piquant zha cai with the flavorless tofu and the savory pork stripes was superb! However a friend of mine commented that it's something that you can make at home easily. He was right actually, I made this dish too at home and It was a success. Well I guess Jackie Chan was home sick and wanted something simple to remind him of home.

When I asked for other suggestions, the Cantonese waiter was a little bit annoyed and said I must asked precisely what I want. I couldn't, so I just randomly picked something out of their menu

Shrimp wonton

It's really just shrimp wontons. No other way to describe it but shrimp rolled inside wonton skin. Very minimalist.

Shui Zhu Yu 水煮魚 (Sichuan water boiled fish)

What was I thinking?! Ordering Sichuan food in a Cantonese restaurant. It really taste like fish boiled in water sans spices. Obviously, it lacks the typical numbing taste of pepper that all sichuan food have. A major dissapointment. I would still vote for Tian Fu's Shui zhu yu over this one.

Fuqi Feipian 夫妻肺片 Married Couple's Slices of Lung

Again it's a famous Sichuan Cuisine, The combination of softly stewed beef slices and beef tripe was tasty, however again there's no comparison with Tian Fu's Fuqi Feipian,

One thing for sure, this restaurant was not something special, which makes me want to ramble it to everyone I know. But then again, maybe it's because I picked the wrong dishes that I didn't enjoy much. I mean Jackie Chan came to this restaurant a lot! That must count something. Maybe I'll visit them again and picked something else.

China Restaurant Ho-Lee
Bayreuther Strasse 44
10787 Berlin
U-Wittenbergplatz

Tel.: 030/23626274

Welcoming Alobert as our second author

My dear cousin, Albert, who lives in Australia, is a very talented cook. I think this talent runs in the family. He specializes in cooking complicated fine western food. What's more, he really put in his labor of love to all his foods. When he's done cooking them, he'll arrange them in these photogenic ways. Another important fact about him is, he loves to indulge himself in expensive michelin star rated restaurants. Once he visited one of the best restaurant in Australia (forget the name) but the picture was great! I hope he visit another one soon and post them in this blog.

btw did I mention that he's not only a talented cook but also a gifted pianist and a hard working accountant (Bert, you do work as an accountant? aren't you?). Okay, it's not important, but I still want to mention it, as I want to imply that he's not a professional chef, like you and me, he's only passionate about his food.

Anyway after I start my blog, I've asked him once to contribute as a guest writer, he was excited about the idea and soon after that he keeps nagging me, when he should start. So today he officially accepted the invitation to become a member of "Craving for food". And I bet, we are going to read some posts on tasty looking food soon.

Ishin Japanese Deli

Ishin Japanese Deli is not a place where you go to eat the best sushi in town. It's more like a place you go to find mediocre but cheap sushi. Even though the maki they serve are loosely wrapped with only two tiny piece of raw salmon inside (they even mixed in crab stick and canned tuna in their maki), I'm not gonna complain since my main reason of visiting Ishin is either to enjoy their Don (raw sashimi on rice) or their cey-ro (cooked fish on rice). Also they have free all-you-can-drink green tea. I'll never say no to that.

Here is Ishin's Unagi Cey-Ro (eel over rice)



Ishin offers a variety of Don as their "specials of the week" for €5,00. For example on the week when I visited them. they have Tuna Steak on rice. I strongly recommend this one, it's such a bargain! You got 4 pieces of tuna with rice, and it's really one of the best food they serve on the menu.

Maguro steak with rice


My favourite Don is the Barachi Don. It's marinated minced raw fish on warm rice. Unfortunately they took this item out of their Menu, and the only way you can get this dish is after 4:00 pm. I really think that they chop some leftover fish and serve it as a dish that way..



Btw, if you are sushi fans, go to Ishin at their Happy Hour, which is mo-fr untill 4:00 pm or wed & sat. the whole day. Around that time you can get Ume Menue for €5,50 (reg €7)and Take Menue for €9,00 (reg €12)

My spouse always order Sushi in Ishin so I have some photos for you guys to enjoy

Ume Menue


Take Menue


Sake Menue


Ishin Japanese Deli
Mittelstraße 24 10117 Berlin - Mitte
Telefon: 030 - 20 67 48 29
U+S Friedrichstraße
www.ishin.de

home-made Chinese dinner

I dedicate this post escpecially to my friend, Edo Leonardo. He was curious about my Easter dinner, so I told him that I only prepared some simple food. Regardless, he said, he wants me to cook it for him because he's really hungry. But, since he's so far away in Indonesia, he's going to have to make do with some pictures and a blog post instead of real cooked food. So here it is, especially for Edo.

Steamed halibut with julienned ginger and green onions

Okay, I cheated. I didn't steam it the traditional way. I simply wrapped the fish around some aluminum foil (which protect the fish from direct heat) and heated the fish in the oven. And you know what, there's no big difference, the fish was still juicy and mild. Together with Cantonese sauce of ginger, green onions and soy sauce, this dish is simply irresistible. On a side note, this dish was inspired by Jamie Oliver. He cooked one dish (which name I forgot) with a similar method, but he used different herbs.


Braised pan-fried tofu with ginger and fresh garlic
Ok, please don't judge this dish from its picture. I know that it doesn't look appetizing, but trust me, the combination of tofu, ginger and garlic is a match made in heaven. I pan-fried the tofu first to give some crisp to the tofu skin. Then, I braised the tofu together with ginger, garlic and chicken stock, this is when the soft tofu absorbed all the goodnes. So you get a combination of crunchiness and the taste of spices.




Egg flower soup with tomatoes and seaweed
Every house wife has their own combination for the egg flower soup with tomates. I like to mix in seaweed to give a taste of sea to the soup. So you don't only taste the boring sour taste of the tomatoes but there's also a combination of seaweed's umami.


Stir fried baby Cai Xin
What should I say to this dish. It's just a plain greens stir fried with garlic and salt

Dinner for two, as I said, it was a simple home-made Chinese dinner, no fuss and all these four dishes was made in 30 minutes.

Windbeutel with Baileys

Imagine putting some air into a pouch, then try to bite into said pouch. I bet you taste "nothing" :D.
Sorry for the joke, but that's what the name "Windbeutel" implies. It means "wind pouch", and that's what you're suppose to feel when you bite into a windbeutel - it's light as air. I personally think that's a pretty name for a dessert.

Back in Indonesia, this cake is called "kue sus". I used to wonder, where the hell did this weird name came from? As far as I can tell, sus can means suster(nurse/abbey sister) and I kept wondering, what does a nurse has to do with dessert! Well now I know, It's all about history. Indonesia was colonised for 350 years by Hollands who brought a lot of food and culture into Indonesia and after so many years we just borrowed their foods and words into ours. So guess what is the dutch name for cream puff? Soesje!!! no wonder Indonesians call cream puff "kue sus"

I was never a fan of Indonesian kue sus. It was heavy on vanilla pudding and most of times after one piece I feel bloated. But my mom loves kue sus, so whenever she goes to a cake shop, that's the cake that she will always buy. I never ate them or when necessary I just took one and that's all.

But I love windbeutel, it's all about the cream as the filling. They are light (not in term of calories but in term of consistency) and if they are slightly chilled, it feels like biting into ice cream, yummy! Combined with Baileys Irish cream, they taste even better. For those who doesn't know, Baileys is an Irish whiskey and cream based liqueur.

I would love to give you a recipe for Cream puff with Baileys, but I can't! 'Coz I bought them from the freezer section in the supermarket. So lucky for those of us in Germany! we can buy them in any good supermarket. Those of you, who are not in Germany, keep on drooling!!

Sichuan food at Tian Fu Restaurant

Five years ago, almost no one in Berlin has ever heard about Sichuan food. But today, you can find this spicy cuisine (which originates from a region in China) in practically every third Chinese restaurant in Berlin. But the title of "Pioneer in Sichuan food in Germany" belongs to Tianfu restaurant.

Even though Tian Fu is the first Sichuan restaurant in Berlin, IMHO, they don't retain their quality as they used to. Maybe they're trying to cut corners by using not-so-fresh ingredients? Or maybe they just change their chef? Either way, The Tianfu that I used to visit tasted better than it is today.

I would love to recommend another better sichuan restaurant in Berlin, but until today I still haven't found one, so everytime I have a crave for spicy, numbing food I still go to Tianfu.

Here are some food that I ate there.

Spiced tofu with coriander leaves, they are still good, however I feel that they cut down on the coriander leaves. I can't even taste them and it used to burst with the typical soapy taste of the cilantro.
tofu skin salad, it's cold and plain, but is really refreshing after all of the spicy food


jellyfish salad, it's still good with chewy jelly fish and some acid from black vinegar


dan dan mian before mixing


dan dan mian after mixing. they are still tasty but again in my humble opinion, I feel that they cut down on the sauce. There was not enough sauce to cover all noodles and there's only a little bit of minced meat.


Water boiled fish (Shui Zhu Yu), the only dish of the night which still satisfy me. It's numbing and spicy and there are a lot of good smooth pieces of fish. It's definetly the star of the evening.


Stir fried bok choy with shitake mushroom. They mixed in some cheap leek to compensate the more expensive shanghai bok choy, to make the whole plate looks fuller.


Btw If you know any other good Sichuan Restaurant, do tell me! I'm open for any recommendations!

Tian-Fu Restaurant
Sichuan Spezialitäten
Uhlandstr. 142
10719 Berlin
Tel.: 030/861 30 15
Fax: 030/86395337
http://www.tianfu.de/

Avocado Pudding

Is avocado fruit or vegetable? Most Asians associate avocado with dessert and something sweet, but westerner always think that avocado is savory. My Russian neighbor was really shocked, when I made Es Teler (Indonesian dessert consisted of avocado, coconut milk and jackfruit). And I was astounded when I saw her eating avocado with cayenne pepper and salt.

Don't get me wrong! I love guacamole with tortilla chips! But the thought of eating bread with salty avocado as spread is really something that I need to get used to.

Anyway, I'm gonna stick with thinking avocado as fruit for now.
Here is a simple dessert of avocado pudding





Avocado Pudding
1 ripe avocado (cut in half and peeled; mashed half of the avocado and chopped coarsely the other half) - Don't forget to pour 1 Tbs lemon juice on the chopped avocado (I forgot to do that and the chopped avocado on the pudding oxidize very fast and let's just say that it looks very unappetizing)
10 g Agar agar powder
500 ml milk
100 ml water
200 g sugar

• Mix agar agar powder, milk, sugar, water and mashed avocado in a pot
• Heat the mixture over low fire and stir well
• Pour in the chopped avocado into the mixture (The chopped avocado is there for a crunchy texture, If you don't like fresh fruit in your pudding just mashed the whole avocado)
• Once the mixture boils, Set aside and pour the agar agar mixture into molds
• Chill in the fridge for about one hour
• After the pudding is set, overturn pudding on a plate and serve