Jekyll2019-08-31T22:49:12+02:00https://vilimpoc.org/food/feed.xmlFood and Tastiness in BerlinWherein we review the various food options in Berlin, Germany; with a focus on the good, and particular editorial disdain for the bad.Fu Li Lai2019-08-29T00:00:00+02:002019-08-29T00:00:00+02:00https://vilimpoc.org/food/2019/08/29/fu-li-lai<div class="paragraph">
<p>I missed out on this place the first time my friends went there, and made sure to join for the next round. We headed down on a warm, late-August evening. The weather forecasts had been all over the place that week, predicting thunderstorms every day, which never appeared.</p>
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<p>Anyways, we ordered a wide assortment of dishes. I would have to say a number of the vegetarian dishes did not really hit the spot for me. The meat dishes, on the other hand, hit it out of the park. These are easily some of the best versions I’ve had in Berlin.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/fu-li-lai/fu-li-lai-02.jpg" alt="View of the outside of the restaurant">
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<p>First up, the ma la hotpot with pig’s blood and intestines. Mmm, delicious! There’s something about offal that I find extremely savory, in a way that eating a straight-up steak is not. The heat of the reconstituted dried chilis combined with the numbing effect, in this case provided by green Szechuan peppercorns, was very hard to beat.</p>
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<p>Also, the opening <em>amuse bouche</em> of thinly shredded potatoes and seaweed tossed with vinegar and sesame oil was pretty good, a lighter touch than most of the versions I’ve had in other places.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/fu-li-lai/fu-li-lai-03.jpg" alt="The ma la spicy-numb hotpot with pig’s blood and intestines, delicious!">
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<img src="/food/assets/fu-li-lai/fu-li-lai-04.jpg" alt="Thin shredded potatoes and seaweed">
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<img src="/food/assets/fu-li-lai/fu-li-lai-05.jpg" alt="Combined shot of the ma la hotpot and rice">
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<p>Among all present, the favorite dish was the hand-pulled noodles with ground peanuts and chili oil. This dish was unbelievable. The hand-pulled noodles were super tender but also slightly chewy, the sauce sublime. Highly recommendable.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/fu-li-lai/fu-li-lai-07.jpg" alt="Hand-pulled noodles with peanut and chili oil">
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<p>We opted for the grilled lamb with cumin, which in this case wasn’t the rib version but the parts closer in to the vertebrae (I don’t remember if there’s a culinary word for this, but spinal-cut sounds a bit weird). Those present at the previous dinner here mentioned that the ribs were probably a bit better, and easier to eat. For my part, I ended up with a massive piece of lamb towards the end that took a lot longer to eat, and sat a while in my bowl waiting to be mowed down.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/fu-li-lai/fu-li-lai-08.jpg" alt="Grilled lamb, the vertebrae cuts">
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<p>The salt and pepper fried prawns were delicious.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/fu-li-lai/fu-li-lai-09.jpg" alt="Salt and pepper prawns">
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<p>The wok-fried white cabbage had a smoky, fast-hot-fried wok hei on it that was utterly delicious. Though properly cooked, it remained super crunchy, which is not easy to pull off. We went back and forth about what kind of seasonings they used, and could not dig the secret out of the waiter.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/fu-li-lai/fu-li-lai-10.jpg" alt="Wok fried white cabbage">
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<p>The following three dishes didn’t do anything for me.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/fu-li-lai/fu-li-lai-11.jpg" alt="fu li lai 11">
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<div class="title">Veggie hand-pulled noodles</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/fu-li-lai/fu-li-lai-12.jpg" alt="fu li lai 12">
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<div class="title">Fried potatoes, eggplant, and green peppers</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/fu-li-lai/fu-li-lai-13.jpg" alt="fu li lai 13">
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<div class="title">Veggie dumplings</div>
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<p>Come here if you have a chance, it is well worth it. There were other dishes on the menu I haven’t yet had a chance to try, but I’m sure there are some very good options in there.</p>
</div>A bit off the beaten path, on the quiet side of Rathaus Steglitz, the food here is amazing.Hako Ramen (Pberg)2019-08-08T00:00:00+02:002019-08-08T00:00:00+02:00https://vilimpoc.org/food/2019/08/08/hako-ramen<div class="paragraph">
<p>The noodles are fine, but the atmosphere could use some help.</p>
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<p>Hako opened up a new location in one of the busy shopping streets in Prenzlauer Berg, displacing a smoky bar called Godot, which for years had occupied that corner. I suppose the landlords wanted to make more money, so they probably upped the rent beyond what a bar could sustain. (i.e. The same reason Cocolo Xberg recently moved locations from Paul-Lincke-Ufer over to Graefestrasse.)</p>
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<p>Anyways, I waited for a month or so for the kitchen to settle and the place to start developing a regular cadence before stopping in for the first time with a friend. I’m never sure whether it’s a good idea to go to a newly-opened restaurant right away, but generally figure it’s not. I also assume that the various construction materials are probably still outgassing.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/hako-ramen/hako-ramen-20190808-1.jpg" alt="Exterior shot of the restaurant entrance.">
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<p>The first thing we noticed was that the location feels less well-run than the Friedrichshain location. When we walked in, no one called "irasshaimase" out to us, which, well, it’s not strictly necessary if you’re not actually in Japan, but it <em>does</em> actually contribute to a welcoming and convivial mood. It’s a small thing you might remember, that other places in Berlin don’t do.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/hako-ramen/hako-ramen-20190808-2.jpg" alt="A shot of the bar">
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<p>The pile-up of condiments and service items at the noodle bar makes me imagine that no one would ever want to sit there. Perhaps this will change in winter, when the outdoor seating goes away.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/hako-ramen/hako-ramen-20190808-3.jpg" alt="The menu">
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<img src="/food/assets/hako-ramen/hako-ramen-20190808-4.jpg" alt="Soy sauce, sesame seeds in a grinder, chili oil, and chili powder">
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<p>The tonkatsu ramen itself was fine, fatty, delicious, they have the recipe down.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/hako-ramen/hako-ramen-20190808-5.jpg" alt="Tonkatsu ramen">
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<img src="/food/assets/hako-ramen/hako-ramen-20190808-6.jpg" alt="Close up of the oil">
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<p>Overall, the food is fine, but I think what classically happened here is that the restaurant took over a much, much larger space than their first restaurant in Friedrichshain. So, it always has to fight the perception of being slightly empty. I’m sure I’ll go back every now and then, but I have to say that this location kind of lost the charm of the smaller Friedrichshain location. It just didn’t feel like quite as much <em>fun</em>.</p>
</div>The noodles are fine, but the atmosphere could use some help.Nini e Pettirosso2019-07-27T00:00:00+02:002019-07-27T00:00:00+02:00https://vilimpoc.org/food/2019/07/27/nini-e-pettirosso<div class="paragraph">
<p>Came here with two friends at the tail end of a sunny Berlin summer day, after we’d finished a bit of swimming at the pool on Columbiadamm. I was lucky, I’d run into them spontaneously closer in to the city. It was, in fact, a great day for a walk and a swim.</p>
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<p>We ordered the food to take away (single-use plastic, I know) and took it down the stairs to the green lawn in <a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6rnerpark">Körnerpark</a>. There are signs telling people not to sit there, so naturally everybody sits there.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/nini-e-pettirosso/nini-e-pettirosso-06.jpg" alt="">
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<img src="/food/assets/nini-e-pettirosso/nini-e-pettirosso-01.jpg" alt="The counter with single-slice pizza inside">
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<img src="/food/assets/nini-e-pettirosso/nini-e-pettirosso-02.jpg" alt="Another shot of the interior, looking back towards the kitchen">
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<img src="/food/assets/nini-e-pettirosso/nini-e-pettirosso-03.jpg" alt="A bowl of rigatoni bolognese">
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<img src="/food/assets/nini-e-pettirosso/nini-e-pettirosso-04.jpg" alt="Another shot of the counter and pizza selection">
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<img src="/food/assets/nini-e-pettirosso/nini-e-pettirosso-05.jpg" alt="The menu">
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<img src="/food/assets/nini-e-pettirosso/nini-e-pettirosso-07.jpg" alt="The pizza with buffalo mozzarella, rucola, and tomatoes">
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</div>Located right around the corner from Körnerpark, this place turns out simple Italian fare, which is pretty good.7 Dumpling2019-07-20T00:00:00+02:002019-07-20T00:00:00+02:00https://vilimpoc.org/food/2019/07/20/7-dumpling<div class="paragraph">
<p>So there are two things that I usually pay attention to when I’m out eating.</p>
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<p>Most important for me is how the food tastes. Second most important is how easy it is to get that food (which loosely falls under the service aspects).</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/7-dumpling/7-dumpling-3.jpg" alt="7 dumpling 3">
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<div class="title">Batch 1: Pork and cabbage</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/7-dumpling/7-dumpling-4.jpg" alt="7 dumpling 4">
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<div class="title">Batch 2: Beef and celery</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/7-dumpling/7-dumpling-5.jpg" alt="7 dumpling 5">
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<p>The dumplings here are ok, but not ultimately that special.</p>
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<p>We ordered a set of pork and cabbage and a set of beef and celery dumplings, and a set of wontons in chili oil. I was aiming for some proper wontons with mixed pork and shrimp filling, but they were out, so we stuck to pure pork.</p>
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<p>All of the dumplings were fried and crispy on the bottom. The wontons were thrown into a mix of light chili oil and light sesame paste, topped with a bit of spinach. The chili oil didn’t really have that much flavor of its own.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/7-dumpling/7-dumpling-1.jpg" alt="7 dumpling 1">
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<div class="title">The menu; and also, Microsoft’s emoji representation of a dumpling is at best a pierogi and at worst an empanada.</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/7-dumpling/7-dumpling-2.jpg" alt="7 dumpling 2">
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<p>The service side was downright overworked and totally stressed out. I’ve seen this show before.</p>
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<p><em>Common stuff was made hard, easy stuff was made hard.</em></p>
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<p>For instance, the person ahead of us asked for a receipt and the owner had to go into the back office to get a pad of paper and a business stamp before writing out a receipt by hand, stamping, and handing it over. No cash register? <em>No problem.</em></p>
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<p>This took about 5 minutes and just left us all standing there waiting to get something done that could have just been a button press. It means that my friend and I were standing around for probably ten minutes in an otherwise empty imbiss before we could even place an order and sit down.</p>
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<p>We’d taken out a few drinks from the refrigerator before the owner had cashed out the previous order. In her state of agitation (I’ve not seen someone this stressed out in a while), she added it implicitly to the previous person’s tab without asking.</p>
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<p>When she realized what she’d done after the person left, and this is something I really hate, she did a lot of gesticulating about how she thought the drinks had belonged to the other person and didn’t realize that they were part of our order. And this and that, and this and that.</p>
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<p>Then she proceeded to charge us as well for the drinks. Fair enough, the restaurant biz is hard, and it wouldn’t be fair for us to have gotten a free drink off of her mistake, but still…​ kind of weird. The American in me thinks I would have said something like "Enjoy your drinks guys, they’re on <em>him</em>.", while pointing to the imaginary person that had just left, and laughed and moved on.</p>
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<p>What I would <em>not</em> have done, which is exactly what happened, was then for us to go through 5 minutes of the owner trying to explain how she’d made the mistake we had all just witnessed and then proceeding to throw the drinks onto our tab anyways.</p>
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<p>Overall, I hate it when I feel like I’m wasting my time because someone can’t get their shit together. If you have one, you can generate a receipt from <a href="https://www.orderbird.com/">Orderbird</a> among about a million other not-that-expensive point-of-sale systems.</p>
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<p>In fact, it’s a bit suspicious when I don’t see automation here and instead see a hand-filled receipt. And, realistically, having a legit and itemized receipt would have immediately pointed out that she’d sold drinks to someone who hadn’t ordered them. But at this point, zero recourse for that person.</p>
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<p>So yeah, I’m not going back. As in diffusion or osmosis, there’s a certain level of agitation that transfers itself to me after dining like this. And I hate it.</p>
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<p>I see someone who is stressed out and mismanaging things to the point that they are not enjoying it and I am not enjoying it (because I’m probably starting to get <em>hangry</em> by that point, anyways). And it reminds me of all of the Chinese restaurants I’ve ever been in, where they are short-staffed.</p>
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<p>I’m not saying the owner is a bad person or anything like that, it’s just that between going to her restaurant and going to one where I won’t feel annoyed for a large part of the time — I’ll just as likely make my way over to <a href="https://vilimpoc.org/food/2019/06/08/wok-show.html">Wok Show</a> instead.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/7-dumpling/7-dumpling-6.jpg" alt="7 dumpling 6">
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<div class="title">Garlic and oil</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/7-dumpling/7-dumpling-7.jpg" alt="7 dumpling 7">
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<div class="title">Added wontons and chili oil</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/7-dumpling/7-dumpling-8.jpg" alt="7 dumpling 8">
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<div class="title">Close up of wontons and chili oil</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/7-dumpling/7-dumpling-9.jpg" alt="7 dumpling 9">
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<div class="title">Closer up of wonton</div>
</div>Dumplings were ok, person running the place was insanely stressed out though.El Reda2019-07-06T00:00:00+02:002019-07-06T00:00:00+02:00https://vilimpoc.org/food/2019/07/06/el-reda<div class="paragraph">
<p>The restaurant has been around longer than I’ve been in Berlin and is still going strong, so they must be doing something right. This was the first place I ever tried kebab kubideh, with buttered rice and fresh parsley on the side.</p>
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<p>The menu is a mix of Lebanese and Iranian, but since I don’t live close by, I usually just get the one dish when I’m out there. Though I did see some interesting other options (could have sworn I saw a lamb tongue sandwich on the menu, which sounded interesting).</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/el-reda/el-reda-20190706-01.jpg" alt="Outside view of El Reda">
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<img src="/food/assets/el-reda/el-reda-20190706-02.jpg" alt="Inside shot of El Reda with menu">
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<img src="/food/assets/el-reda/el-reda-20190706-03.jpg" alt="Order number ticket">
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<img src="/food/assets/el-reda/el-reda-20190706-04.jpg" alt="el reda 20190706 04">
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<div class="title">Kebab kubideh with rice and grilled tomato</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/el-reda/el-reda-20190706-05.jpg" alt="el reda 20190706 05">
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<div class="title">Parsley, basil, onion, radish, and butter (for the rice)</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/el-reda/el-reda-20190706-06.jpg" alt="el reda 20190706 06">
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<div class="title">Sumac shakers are everywhere</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/el-reda/el-reda-20190706-07.jpg" alt="Close up of kebab kubideh and rice">
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<img src="/food/assets/el-reda/el-reda-20190706-08.jpg" alt="el reda 20190706 08">
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<div class="title">Close up of kebab kubideh, rice, and tomato</div>
</div>A great place out in Moabit that does a splendid Persian kebab kubideh.Mmaah2019-06-21T00:00:00+02:002019-06-21T00:00:00+02:00https://vilimpoc.org/food/2019/06/21/mmaah<div class="paragraph">
<p>So I tried this place spontaneously with my friends Tim and Christina on the longest day of the year. (I don’t know why I talk about the summer solstice like this, but it does mean the start of the long trudge towards the darkness of Berlin winter.)</p>
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<p>Anyways. Not good.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/mmaah/mmaah-1.jpg" alt="mmaah 1">
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<div class="title">Out front.</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/mmaah/mmaah-2.jpg" alt="mmaah 2">
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<div class="title">Lukewarm rice with beef bulgogi and mayonnaise.</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/mmaah/mmaah-3.jpg" alt="mmaah 3">
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<div class="title">Lukewarm rice with beef bulgogi and spicy chicken bulgogi.</div>
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<p>I will admit that the rice grains were very nicely cooked, with a nice chewy bite, but overall, nothing really <em>there</em> to write about.</p>
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<p>My friend Christina posited that the lukewarm rice could have been due to the fact that we arrived about 15 minutes before closing, but usually those food service-sized rice cookers have a ton of residual heat, so I doubt it.</p>
</div>I mean, the meat tastes ookaay, but it’s overall…​ meh.Salami Social Club2019-06-13T00:00:00+02:002019-06-13T00:00:00+02:00https://vilimpoc.org/food/2019/06/13/salami-social-club<div id="preamble">
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<p>There is such thing as too much of a good thing, and <a href="http://www.salamisocialclub.de/">Salami Social Club</a> hasn’t figured out how to balance its online orders with its walk-in orders. On any given weeknight, the walk-ins may have to wait an unbelievably stupid amount of time to transact any business with the people behind the counter, while watching the Deliveroo and Foodora delivery people zip in and out food-in-hand.</p>
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<p>It’s kind of amazing, really, to watch people line up haphazardly at the
counter, either to select a slice of pizza, or to pay, or to get a drink, while
simultaneously behind the counter, the one staffer who handles this thinks it’s
the most ideal time to shove drinks into the pull-out refrigerator drawers.</p>
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<p>I guess I shouldn’t say much about it, because I’ve never had to run a
restaurant, but in as tight a space as they have, I’d imagine getting finished
customers out the door would be paramount to getting new customers in.</p>
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<p>Here’s the thing, the pizza here is damn good. It’s not a surprise that people
want to eat it.</p>
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<p>The question is whether people who show up to get a slice have priority over the
people who clicked a few buttons on their laptop to order and then went back to
watching Netflix.</p>
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<p>I’d argue for the people who make the effort to show up. Even if they aren’t
ordering a whole pizza at a time.</p>
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<p>These are the people who are likely to be more upset if they’re getting ignored
in person.</p>
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<p>And, well, when it’s two people showing up, that’s two people who leave before
ordering more slices because they’re out of patience.</p>
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<p>Also: How about getting a <a href="https://sumup.de/">SumUp terminal</a>, so the process of
making and breaking change doesn’t take so long either? You can charge people
more, honestly who cares if it’s not cash?
<a href="/2018/02/25/mikkeller.html">Mikkeller</a> already does this and it’s a great
way to run up a bigger tab.</p>
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<p>That said, I’ve been here a number of times so far.</p>
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<h2 id="13-june-2019">13 June 2019</h2>
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<p>Quick slice, as tasty as ever, and just as disorganized. It was a €1 slice
night, so at some point the people running the show started trying to limit
people to 1 slice at a time.</p>
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<p>Let me tell you what that does: It means that there’s constantly a line waiting
for another slice, and it essentially clogs up the place.</p>
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<p>It doesn’t help with bandwidth or throughput, and it’s not something you’d
need <a href="http://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-connection-machine/">Richard Feynman to tell you</a>.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/salami-social-club/salami-social-club-20190613-01.jpg" alt="salami social club 20190613 01">
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<div class="title">Tasty slice</div>
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<h2 id="10-may-2019">10 May 2019</h2>
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<img src="/food/assets/salami-social-club/salami-social-club-20180510-01.jpg" alt="salami social club 20180510 01">
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<h2 id="18-april-2018">18 April 2018</h2>
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<p>This visit was supposed to be a quick one for a slice and a chat with a friend,
but turned into a bewildering amount of waiting, such that we just ended up
leaving and getting a beer elsewhere after finishing the first and only round of
food.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/salami-social-club/salami-social-club-20180418-01.jpg" alt="salami social club 20180418 01">
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<div class="title">Sausage slice and spicy slice</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/salami-social-club/salami-social-club-20180418-02.jpg" alt="salami social club 20180418 02">
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<div class="title">Pretty damn tasty</div>
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<h2 id="30-january-2018">30 January 2018</h2>
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<p>The proprietor of <a href="http://berlinlovesyou.com/moksa-berlin/">Moksa</a> stopped in to
do a kitchen takeover and the results were incredible.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/salami-social-club/salami-social-club-20180130-01.jpg" alt="salami social club 20180130 01">
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<div class="title">Indian fusion pizza</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/salami-social-club/salami-social-club-20180130-02.jpg" alt="salami social club 20180130 02">
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<div class="title">Shark pizza</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/salami-social-club/salami-social-club-20180130-03.jpg" alt="salami social club 20180130 03">
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<div class="title">Chicken tikka pizza</div>
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</div>
</div>There is such thing as too much of a good thing, and Salami Social Club hasn’t figured out how to balance its online orders with its walk-in orders. On any given weeknight, the walk-ins may have to wait an unbelievably stupid amount of time to transact any business with the people behind the counter, while watching the Deliveroo and Foodora delivery people zip in and out food-in-hand.Wok Show2019-06-08T00:00:00+02:002019-06-08T00:00:00+02:00https://vilimpoc.org/food/2019/06/08/wok-show<div id="preamble">
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<p>Wok Show has been around for over a decade with no noticeable change in quality. The owner is just as ornery as she was the first time I went there and the dumplings have remained just as delicious.</p>
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<p>Hard to believe this place has been around that long, but I probably have
pictures to prove it, somewhere in the archives.</p>
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<p>The dumplings are handmade and fresh. In this case, we ordered 20 boiled and 20
fried, a mix and match of pork and cabbage filling and beef and celery filling.</p>
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<p>Twenty’s about as much as an average-sized human can eat, though there have been
moments of temporary insanity where I somehow managed to finish 40 in a sitting.</p>
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<p>For those who can’t get enough of a good thing, they also sell frozen dumplings
you can take home with you.</p>
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<p>And in traditional Chinese restaurant style, prepare to be cared for in the most
understaffed way possible. They will forget things, and ask you what you ordered
as they bring you someone else’s food.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, the <em>non-elastic nature of dumpling consumption economics</em> means
I’ll continue to come back anyways.</p>
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<p>Bring friends, because this place is awesome and the more food you can get on
your table, the better.</p>
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<h2 id="8-june-2019">8 June 2019</h2>
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<div class="title">The first 40 of 60, and eventually 80</div>
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<h2 id="27-april-2018">27 April 2018</h2>
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<img src="/food/assets/wok-show/wok-show-20180427-01.jpg" alt="wok show 20180427 01">
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<div class="title">Chili-oil chicken, missing a bit of the chili oil</div>
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<img src="/food/assets/wok-show/wok-show-20180427-02.jpg" alt="wok show 20180427 02">
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<div class="title">Boiled dumplings</div>
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<div class="title">Fried dumplings</div>
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</div>Wok Show has been around for over a decade with no noticeable change in quality. The owner is just as ornery as she was the first time I went there and the dumplings have remained just as delicious.Curry 362019-05-13T00:00:00+02:002019-05-13T00:00:00+02:00https://vilimpoc.org/food/2019/05/13/curry-36<div class="paragraph">
<p>It’s far better than <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Konnopke%27s%20Sch%C3%B6nhauser%20Allee%2044B,%2010435%20Berlin,%20Germany">Konnopke’s</a>, but I’m not 100% sure it’s better than <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Bier%27s%20Kudamm%20Kurf%C3%BCrstendamm%20195,%2010707%20Berlin,%20Germany">Bier’s Ku’damm</a>.</p>
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<p>I usually go for <em>Zwei Currywurst mit Darm und Pommes rot-weiß</em>, and that’ll hold me over until dinner. It’s a lot of calories.</p>
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<p>They do have raw onions, which add a nice contrast to the ketchup. And I also have no idea how anyone can eat the version <em>ohne Darm</em>, what <em>is</em> that?</p>
</div>One of the homes of Berliner currywurst.Fischfabrik2019-05-10T00:00:00+02:002019-05-10T00:00:00+02:00https://vilimpoc.org/food/2019/05/10/fischfabrik<div class="paragraph">
<p>It’s a tiny fish and chips shop, and they do a good job.</p>
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<img src="/food/assets/fischfabrik/fischfabrik-20190510-01.jpg" alt="fischfabrik 20190510 01">
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<img src="/food/assets/fischfabrik/fischfabrik-20190510-02.jpg" alt="fischfabrik 20190510 02">
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</div>A decent little chippy in Prenzlauer Berg.