I Ate the False Rabbit, or Chicken: The Other Pork

or, "wrong rabbit" or "meatloaf" as the case may be. It was tasty and delicious. it came with some veggies and some mashed potatos, and that was my lunch on . . . thursday, at the Bistro Tasty, just accross the street from the office. no, seriously, just accrosst the street. look out your window, and accross your street, and Bistro Tasty is probably closer to where i sit that whatever you are looking at is to you.

I find it funny that Germans call meatloaf "false rabbit" - that being the litteral translation, of course. they will, when asked to translate "meatloaf" call it something like "hackbraten," but if you point to meatloaf and ask what it is, you will get "falscher Hase," or, "false rabbit." that is also how you will see it on a menu, as falscher Hase.

i wonder where that came from. did someone want rabbit for dinner one day, and he found instead some mystery loaf of meat on his plate? is it because the typical shape of a meatloaf is somewhat bunny like? did someone once bit unsuspectingly into what he thought was supposed to be rabbit, only to find a loaf of nameless meats on his plate, thus prompting him to shout "this is false rabbit!" ? i may never know. . .

but that brings me to a few other fun food facts, which seem to have been my theme for the week. . .
Berlin claims little as a regional food specialty, or even significant to the region, other than Curry Worst, which it loves and is very proud of. if you want a worst, you will always see the curry worst option at the top of the list at the sausage stand. and, let me tell you, it is delicious. it is basically a sausage with a curry katsup. the recipie for the curry sauce is, apparently, much like the recipies for bar-b-que sauce in america. carefully gaurded from place to place, claiming to be always different, and better than the next guys. personally, every curry worst i have had has tasted exactly the same, the only difference being the worst that i get under the sauce. p.s. curry worst and fries and coke light is a super tasty lunch.

very rarely is there a pepper shaker on the table at a restaurant. there is salt, but it is lonely. there is also never any butter, but there is sometimes some sort of bread. where did we, as americans, get the idea for butter with th rolls all the time . . . was it a marketing ploy? is it english?

wiener schnitzle is good. big flat fried veal. mmmmm . . . .

there is no such thing as a McGriddle at McCafe here . . . Kyle and i were very excited to get one the other day on the way to work . . . but it was not to be. they have "Indian" burgers (like, as if from India), but no McGriddle. now, c'mon, i know Germans love them some pork . . . and some pancakes . . . how hard is it to add and egg and eat it for breakfast?

which brings me to breakfast. most mornings i get a breakfast sandwich from the bakery on the studio lot. and by breakfast sandwich, i am not speaking of anything even remotely similar to the afore mentioned McGriddle, but a sandwich which i happen to be eating for breakfast. these sandwiches are available all day, and seem to be available in most bakerys in Germany (from my limited experience). i usually go with a turkey and cheese. it has lettuce and usually some red bell pepper and slice of hard boiled egg on some sort of nutty roll. many mornings i wake up and think: "what should i have for breakfast? not another stinking breakfast sandwich, thats for sure. . . " but, as soon as i get to "the office" the pavlovian responses kick in, and i crave a nutty, lunchmeaty, cheezy delight. sometimes i even go for the salami.

the bakery also has these little almondy horseshoes, which have had their ends dipped into dark chocolate. yeah, those kill me. i love them.

chicken: the other pork. there is a serious lack of chicken in Germany. you cant go to a restaurant and assume that there will be chicken there. i saw a rotiserie chicken place the other day, and the German guy i was with couldnt begin to understand my enthusiasm, after all, "why eat chicken when you can eat pork" is the mantra here. it also reminded me of the time i wanted eggs in Mexico, where the mantra seems to be: why eat eggs when you can have steak. well, cause i freaking like eggs, OK!? the English guy i was with understood my want. and i thought of my friend Tom, who would choose chicken, if he had to choose one meat to subsist on forever. i would chose fish, myself, and i have had some excellent fish here. and duck.

there is a bit of a rivalry between the Prussians (Berlin) and the Barvarians (Munich). apparently Barvarians eat a lot of meat. and when asked, from time to time if a certain restaurant is good, they might respond "no, its barvarian food. . . " which is interesting, because that does not so much objectively quantify the quality of the food, which is usually excellent, as it speaks to the bias of the person, who is also usually excellent.

in my neighborhood, there is a Pizza, Pasta, Salad place on every corner, it seems. there is also one of the best chocolate shops i have ever been in. The Rauch Schokoladen, which has its own factory for hand made chocolate, as well as importing chocolate from around the world. i got some chocolate with black pepper from peru. it was wierd, but oddly tasty. i also procured from this establishment 4 of the best truffels i have ever eaten in my entire life. One with balsamic vinegar (yes, you read that correctly), one coconut, one tiramisu, and one that was red and i cant remember what it was called, but it was probably my favorite. . .

there is a grip of Turkish food here, being that Berlin is home to the third larges Turkish population in the world, the other two being in Turkey. turkish food is delicious.

i have had three o.f the best Italian meals of my life in two Italian restaurants here. . . i guess its because they are run by acutal Italians. sorry Spumoni . . . i dont know if you're going to cut it any more. . .

oddly enough, i have also had excellent sushi here.

but it is hard, sometimes to find some food on the go. . . Germans always like to sit down to eat. which can be a serious pain, because you have to be ready to commit some time. if you sit down, they assume you will be there till they close, you die, or you trick them into bringing you the check. which is better than getting rushed out of a restaurant, but makes for a hard time if you are on a schedule at all.

food is good.