The best french fries

Hanna Gunderson Yesterday after class when everyone else left to go to the Hauptbahnhof to catch their trains, Hannah T. and I went to a restaurant in Kreuzberg that she's been wanting to check out. After the tiniest bit of confusion that included sitting on the floor of an S-bahn station with a guidebook and maps of Berlin (the ultimate tourists), we made it. The restaurant is called Yellow Sunshine, and is a vegetarian, all organic diner. It sells the same food as a regular diner or fast food restaurant would, like currywurst, fries, and about 20 different kinds of hamburgers, but without meat. I was very skeptical about how a vegetarian cheeseburger or chicken nuggets would taste, but I bought it and sat down to one of the best burgers I have ever tasted. It didn't really taste like meat; I don't know how to describe it; it tasted similar to meat but was much, much better. Also, the fries were hands down the best I have ever ever had. Hannah and I both agreed that the atmosphere of the restaurant was also really nice. Big windows, yellow walls, warm-colored wood tables and floor. Overall, the best dining experience that I have had here. 

It's so nice to see such a personal, quality restaurant here. Our group has been spending lots of time hanging around the Friedrichstraße area, which is a huge commercial center, and it's mostly dominated by chain restaurants. There are two McDonalds's in the Friedrichstraße U-Bahn station and there are signs everywhere saying "McDonalds, 100 meters" with an arrow, and then right underneath it it says "McDonalds, 200 meters" with an arrow in a different direction. And the Starbucks is always completely packed with people, even though there are so many cool, unique cafes everywhere here. My experiences with food are always an important part of traveling for me, and I always like to go to the more unique, quality or specialty restaurants. Some other memorable/good food experiences I have had here are:

1. The Kartoffel Haus (potato house) in Leipzig. The name pretty much says everything about this place. Almost every item on the menu featured potatoes. I can't remember the name of what I ordered, but it was a pretty simple breakfast scramble, with potatoes, bacon, and a fried egg. It came in a mini frying pan, instead of on a plate, which was fun. Overall, it was just simple, good food. 

2. Currywurst/other food stands are like the equivalent of fast food restaurants in America. They're everywhere, and they're fast, and they're delicious. My favorite is the crepe stand on Friedrichstraße right next to Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus (which is a huge, great bookstore. Like Barnes and Noble, but about 3 times the size) where you can get cheap crepes with nutella. 

3. Food at home in my host mom's apartment has been pretty much the same as food here. For breakfast I usually have toast and tea and fruit or cheese. The bread is way better than sliced bread from the grocery store at home though, and there are about 10 different kinds of jams that she has provided for me, and a few different kinds of butter, and nutella. Dinner is usually about the same as dinner at home. The only problem is, I told her that I like Mexican food when she asked me what kinds of things I like to eat when I first arrived, without knowing that the German conception of Mexican food is not at all like the American conception of it. Basically, if something has corn and beans in it, it can be called Mexican food. This results in some interesting dinners, like Mexican casserole.

4. The Ritter Sport Schokowelt is the most impressive chocolate store I have ever seen. They have every kind of Ritter Sport chocolate imaginable, and then some. They also have a place where you can order custom made chocolate with all sorts of ingredients, and then pick it up later. The counter where you order chocolate looks alot like the counter at Coldstone, with all the different possible ingredients lined up in jars. 

5. Bakeries here are like Starbucks's at home (also, Starbuck's here are almost as common as at home). There are what looks like independent bakeries, and there are also lots of chain bakeries, whose names I have seen over and over again (but, unfortunately, can't remember now). There are bakeries in almost every S-Bahn and U-Bahn station. And they are all delicious, always. There are lots of baked goods with marzipan in them for sale all over, which is my favorite flavor. 

6. Speaking of marzipan, there is a special kind of pastry in Leipzig called the Leipziger Lerche. They look like mini, bite sized pies, and are filled with marzipan paste. Lerche is the German word for skylark. Before the Leipziger Lerche was invented, they used to make similar looking pastries out of skylark meat. When skylarks became endangered and hunting them became illegal, a bakery in Leipzig started making similar looking pastries, filled with marzipan instead of meat. 

Also, right now it is 6:58 here in Berlin, and it is 53 degrees F! That's much better than the 10-20 degree temperatures of the last week.