Author: Mara L.

I spent much of the spring and early summer in Europe, and now I’m back – and in shock. It’s so hot! Isn’t this supposed to be for August, 77 degrees at 6 am, above 90 during the day?

Today’s entry is a plea for help. I am looking for a sorbet recipe, something simple and low on sugar. I made some watermelon sorbet two days ago, and it doesn’t taste at all. It has the wrong consistency, like steel, nothing creamy or soft about it. I should admit that I never made sorbet in my life, don’t have great equipment (no ice-cream maker), and didn’t even look up a recipe. So I probably shouldn’t complain. But how much can go wrong with such a simple dish? I’d be most grateful for advice (perhaps watermelon isn’t the right fruit?).

I should follow up, somewhat belatedly, on my earlier entry on grocery shopping in Berlin. A store called Frischeparadies (“paradise of freshness”) seems to be a favorite among the more ambitious chefs in Berlin. Frischeparadis caters to restaurants, but is open to the general public. I surveyed everything, though I couldn’t buy much, because my temporary apartment in Berlin has a mini-stove with two burners, no freezer, and no oven. No complicated recipes for me right now! There is no meat counter with people to serve you, and only a relatively small choice of fruit and vegetables. But there is friendly staff at the fish counter (where I tried a couple of shrimp), a selection of wine that I didn’t study too closely, a great choice of cheeses, raviolis, gnocchi, and so on, and fabulous meat in the shelves.

Most of the offerings come in sizable packages, suitable for restaurants or a dinner with lots of friends. One of the few things that could plausibly be bought by a solitary architect-chef like me was a small package with two pieces of guinea fowl, imported from France (“pintarde,” for those who prefer French).

The quality of the meat was outstanding. One didn’t need any skill or tricks to make it into a perfect dish. I just put it into a pan with hot olive oil, added a couple of scallions, and once it had a nice crust, I added some white wine and tomato. People who live in Berlin must have their freezers filled with supplies from Frischeparadies! It gets my highest recommendation, five stars. *****

I should follow up on last week’s grocery store experience in Berlin with a more cheerful piece. Jens and I discovered a lovely, tiny café, Café Bondi, at the corner of Schlegelstrasse and Eichendorffstrasse. It doesn’t invoke these stars of German Romanticism (Schlegel and Eichendorff, that is). Too clean and modern for that. Instead, it is a white-and-blue, airy room with only one table inside, and a couple of tables outside. Two young people run it, a German-speaking woman who cooks, and a guy, apparently from the US or Australia, who does the rest. Everything is organic in the best sense. Salad comes with kernels on top of it, but not, as it were, moralizing kernels, but friendly, tasty-nutty ones. They also serve fair trade soft drinks in nicely designed bottles from Charitea. I didn’t try any, but I liked the look of them. Five stars for what must be one of the newest among the zillions of Berlin cafés. *****