Fried Rice & Pie in Berlin

It was a rainy morning in Berlin...rather, I suppose by the time we woke up it was more like a rainy afternoon. Regardless of time, we were pretty spent from the touring and eating we did during the Doner Day before. So we decided to do some home cooking. Did we have rice? check. Garlic? check. Eggs? check.Tomatoes? no...Meat? no... supermarket? close enough. FIELD TRIP!!!

One of my favorite things to do when I visit another country is to go grocery shopping. Actually, that's one of my favorite things to do at home too...and let me just say, that grocery shopping on an empty stomach is a dangerous thing to do. So I get the directions for how to the local market, and I "suit up" (<3 NPH) in my hoodie, equipped with a canvas bag b/c it seems that every country charges for plastic bags except the USA, and head out.

I pick up what I need for making fried rice, and then start hunting for ingredients to make a version of Nestle's Mini Custard Fruit Tarts. I found the recipe online a few years ago, and made them for Thanksgiving when my cousin was visiting...he was such a fan, that I think I ended up making them into full pies instead of mini tarts at least 3 times that weekend. The best part is, the recipe is super simple and can be easily substituted with other ingredients. A few substitutions had to be made here because apparently they don't have graham crackers in Germany, and I had to take a stab at some of the other ingredients because, well, I can't read German.

Since I'm on dessert, I'm going to Tarantino it and work my way back from the end:

Preparing the crust...

Custard

Crust pre-bake

Crust post-bake w/ filling

Final product!

It's dessert time!

My little helpers hard at work - there's no such thing as a free meal!

The set-up and fried rice process & result:

Not the best fried rice I've ever made - which I'm going to chalk up to circumstance, BUT was at least passable. And dessert was a hit, which totally made up for it and gave us all the energy to embark on our adventures around Berlin afterwards.

The Breakfast Post #1

I've recently taken to taking pictures of my breakfasts at work in the mornings and posting them on G+, which has prompted a few comments that I should start a breakfast blog. I'm not sure that I could dedicate an entire blog to breakfast (though I do love breakfast - especially for dinner!), I figured I'd at least start by dedicating a post to some of the morning time meals that I've consumed in the past few weeks.

What started it all - red velvet, parsley and garlic, and some bread

Who doesn't love Trader Joe's? Delicious AND it makes me feel like I'm being healthy!

Won't make any pretenses that Ruffles are healthy...ridges or not. 

Was judged by a coworker for having quiche for breakfast, but I know they were just jealous.
From Nick's place on 39th & 7th.

Cappuccino Muffin, meet Chocolate Cupcake

An attempt to eat healthier after being admonished via G+ for not eating well balanced breakfasts...
...those may or may not be Sunchips peeking out in the background

**drool

McD's Sweet Tea, Kefir Yogurt (healthy!!!), Chocolate Sprinkles Donut, log of Sharp Cheddar Cheese w/ Almonds, and some bread

Unfortunately, all this eventually caught up to me, and I think my body started to hate me for filling it with so much random stuff and I've been trying to go back to normal breakfast things - like bagels (love bagels!) and oatmeal. But hey, it was fun while it lasted! Check back in for the breakfast post round 2 sometime in the near future!

Doner in Berlin

The morning of my first full day in Berlin, my cousin asks me if I like Doner Kebabs and if I even knew what that was. I mean, who did he think he was talking to?! Of course I did! First of all, they're all over NYC, and second of all, there was a place right across the street from where I lived in Firenze - unfortunately, I did not take advantage of it as much as I should/could have (shoulda woulda coulda!). But for some reason, there are Doner places everywhere in Europe? Can someone please explain that one to me?

Moving on. 

So he takes us to what he has deemed the best Doner stand around Berlin, which was a tad bit out of the way from where we were going to join the Starbucks tour - I forget what the actual tour was called, but it started at Starbucks and must have been sponsored by them because their maps had all Starbucks locations - best part was, the tour was free! But again, I'm getting sidetracked (story of my life). 

Focus! Doner stand. So we get there, and there is a rather long line, as all good things tend to have, but luckily, my cousin has a plan. He tells us to wait in line, and runs off to pick up some sausage and fries. What he comes back with, is some sausage and fries drowned in ketchup with a generous dollop of mayonnaise. One might be concerned that this excess of condiments might cause the fries to be soggy, but we ate them so quickly, this was not a problem at all. 

It is finally our turn to order. And by our turn, I mean, my cousin ordered for us in German. For all I know, he ordered us cow gut or something. What I do know, is that it was delicious, and super filling. I couldn't even finish my entire sandwich! The leftovers did come in handy later though after the exhausting 4 hour tour.

Doner Stand

The sandwich

Munching on the sidewalk like hobos

Pwnd by the sandwich -
came in handy later when I was hungry again

Man in overalls passing by
I was amused.

And now just because, below are some of the pictures from the actual tour that was fueled by my doner sandwich above. And at the end of the day, after the tour, and after some rock climbing (a most interesting experience as I have a slight fear of heights and am not very flexible at all), we ended our evening with some more fries and burgers! All in all, a super long, but pretty awesome day.

**For all groups of 2-3 photos, the captions after each group follow the pictures in clockwise order

                        Traffic Light from the War                              Inside of a bank?!?!                   Infamous hotel where MJ dangled his baby

                             Sunlight                                   Brandenburg Gate (to all my music nerds - Bach?)       Segway tour?!?! Willing to bet they're American...

Holocaust Memorial

 
                     This poster amused me...                                             Berlin Bear!                                              PF commercial anyone?

View of part of the Berlin Wall

 

Checkpoint Charlie 

Found a heart! (I think) So I hugged it...though I really would have liked to hug the overalls man...or maybe the giant chocolate bear in the window...

  Most lame beer bike ever (we made more noise than them)                   Humboldt University Gate                                  Found on the bridge below

                                                        Outside of the rock climbing place                       Inside...this took A LOT of effort

Acorn beer? And German soda (pop?)

Mmmmm, burgerrrrr

Love love love fries!