Berlin!...

I didn't have a lot of traditional German food while in Berlin but the overall food experience was quite tasty. One of the best Korean food I've ever had (NYC and CA included)! The greek food we had was amazeballs. One of the reasons for the lack of regular German fare was b/c 1. it gets repetitive, and 2. friend I was with was maxed out on it since she'd been in Deustchland longer than I had hehe :) But, I did in fact have currywurst, and veal schnitzel and it was divine (with giant ass white asparagus and hollandaise sauce--also, german food is just really heavy so I was delighted to mix it up!) WEE!!

Here we go on the untraditional stuffs: swabian ravioli with...something or other from Alpenstueck near Oranienburgerstrasse, and chanterelle risotto w/ peach and red cabbage salad:

Some turkish food @ Mauerpark--where there were hundreds of ppl on a hill watching/doing public karaoke and of course, public drinking :)

Lamb filets w/ amazing rosemary sauce and green beans at Kos near Weberweise:

And of course, currywurst @ Checkpoint Charlie "beach" where they were showing the quarterfinals game for the Eurocup 2012 :)

Had some good times in Berlin--the food adventures could've been more exciting but it's such an international city that u can't help but eat all sorts. I"m also told Dolores burritos (yes, after the SF park) is a big deal...and also another big trend: burger joints! not just Berlin but Spain too!

Dinner in Balestrate!...

We're starting w/ Sicily in my....way overdue postings from the Italy trip! Why? b/c I lurved Del Capo market, the sweets in Balestrate & when Angela and Scott (and Karen) made some fantasmic fish and risotto and arancini! and...then the pics from Erice/Trapani! woohoo! and Palermo pizza!

A little..."preview" if u will...(of artsier shots i might not be able to make work in the rest of the entry :P...

We'll start this all with the dinner in Balestrate complete with my silly "chocolate" tasting with the stash I bought in Pisa. That'll be saved for another post b/c this one is just massive, hehehehe. Now...from the beginning...

We had lovely fennel w/ grated orange zest plus half anorange but u just can't see it in the pics. Fennel fennel fennel...kind of have an odd relationship with fennel--didn't like them grilled in a salad @ Olive's in Soho, kinda really enjoyed them raw and shaved with the diluted fish sauce aka nuoc cham aka dipping sauce (which btw totally makes badass salad dressing)...

...but here, we sauteed with some stock (if i remember correctly?) with the lemons and orange and pomegranates totally rocked and had a new depth of flavor....which i can't rightly describe since it's been so long :) but it was great with the risotto too :P

Getting out the pomegranate seeds for the fennel! Easiest way to get it all out tho--is to cut the pomegranate in half and then pat the back of it with a spoon and all the seeds come flying out :) Okay so you can see all that orange half and other stuff here... :)

The ladies workin' hard stirring away @ the fennel & risotto...

We also had a artisanal porcini risotto from one of the vendors (?) that works with Scott's company (yummers! I took home a pack and Karen took home a pack of saffron risotto!). Here are innumerable pics of that going down too :) Simmer simmering away!

In the meanwhile...Scott preps the fishy fish with capers, then salt & pepper--olive oil, then garlic! So...I forget what kind of fish we got at the market that day, but it was large and bootiful! Angela broke down the whole thing and descaled it and all!

Beautiful fish no? Shame we couldn't figure out what kinda fish it was but it sure was ginormous when it locked eyes with us and the fish-man :P

...and we even tried to go buy tweezers to remove the little bones but all i could remember to say was "Stiamo cercando per una pincetta per a prendere l'osso nelle pesce"...but i couldn't remember how to say "take out" or "remove" and kept making pinching motions and saying "sopraciglia" for eyebrows. Needless to say, my Italian has gotten supremely rusty! Anyhoo--so tons of pics of Scott drizzling the fish in olive oil after patting in some lemon slices, capers, garlic, and sea salt.

WEEE!! All packed up and ready to go...but see we actually forgot the garlic for a minute so...back open it goes :D...NUMMY NUM NUM...So that was a final "before" look @ our pesce...and....AFTER roasting in the oven! :D So many pictures...so little space hehe.

WOOHOO! so purty...and yummy! Note this is actually ish "other" people make but i'm still super jazzed eh? :P...seriously even putting all these photos back in sequence makes me a little giddy. In the midst of all this, I did a whole chocolate tasting set-up on the table as well and went back and forth stalking everybody in the kitchen and having them re-stage taking things out of the oven etc... :P

...and this!! yes that's STEAM...lots of it! bootiful bootiful steam! (and not a dirty wall hehe) ^_^

Scott gave us each some risotto from his co. to bring home. VERY VERY excited to crack it open! Anyhoo...back to dinner. Some of these are out of sequence back to the table with just the plates set up! :) To the table! But first some vino!...

Yes i'm a little crooked with this but I thought it kinda quirky and fun. When i rotated .75 degrees counterclockwise it just kinda looked generic. At least that's the story I'm sticking to anyway :) That and angela looks like a ghost! (do you know how impossible it is for me to keep still sans gorillapod with a b-shot?!)

This is the bottle of olive oil that Scott and Angela had freshly pressed the week prior, using olives from Scott's boss's orchard and pressed in the neighboring town. Apparently...everybody around there does it. WEEEE!! Look how thick it looks and almost opaque! That's how it's *supposed* to be. Nom nom nom...

We also had some fresh mozzarella (just from the supermarket--yeh SUPERMARKET, not the market market...but OMG infinitely better than anything @ the markets here, except maybe Murray's cheeses! or Odika? whatever it is...

AAAAaaaaannnnd done. :) I usuually don't post pictures with people in them on the blog...but Scott and Angela were pretty effin' awesome hosts and fun to hang around in Balestrate and Palermo so...here they are!! Thanks so much guys!! We sure licked the plates clean ;)

YAY SICILIA!!....oh hell one last look at that fantastic fish :D...

Fig & Olive...

Was trying to go for Mia Dona, but alas uber-booked up (and super late) & the hostesses were a bit...incompetent and well...anyway. FIG & OLIVE! very into the mediteranean cooking and lately what I've noticed is Greek & Vietnamese has much fresher, more succinct--punchy tastes and cleaner flavors. Simple. fanplasmico. Complex flavors with little but rich herbs and seasoning.

Mythili got the Porcini, Ricotta, Pumpkin & Sage Ravioli which had caramelized pumpkin, sauteed mushroom, shallots, ricotta cheese & fried sage. Sweet, tart, great flavor with the caramelizing.
Wanted to go for small plates/meze like at Kefi but options were limited and I was hungry--I ordered the Fig & Olive Mediterranean Tasting which comprised of grilled chicken with chorizo, tomatoes, chickpeas, oregano, pimienton, black olives/ grilled lamb on rosemary skewers, bell peppers, Greek yogurt & honey, couscous salad with figs/ grilled shrimp on oregano skewers, risoo, tomato, Pimenton Olive Oil.
I have to say that the shrimp was perfectly cooked, the embodiment of succulent. The sides that came with the meats were all really good--the risotto was great but the couscous salad was freakin' AWESOME with the Greek yogurt & honey. Shrimp. Seriously.
Lamb too. Chicken was good but I was really surprised by the shrimp & lamb. I'm picky with shrimp. meh to lamb. you look now!...
Def would want to come back to try the other pastas and the small plates. ANYWAY...decor was cute, price was a little overpriced but I also had some wine to wash down my grumpiness.
I had the cream cheese creme brulee--so light! just sweet enough, the figs were great b/c they weren't candied like in the meals--I've never had so many figs in my life and I say...me likes. Rosemary infused...creme brulee maybe? The wafer was just the right crunchiness and texture to the fluff. I'd go back just for the cream cheese creme brulee alone.

Analysis!--yay for once in a while, possibly with a group to share (especially with a group to share). Chicken was meh, shrimp yes, def felt good after--but also a little smashed from the rosee. :)

In Vino + [Mike's Pastries v. Ferrara's]...

There are 2 places in the city I go for Italian: Pisticci's near Columbia, and In Vino in the LES. Both have distinctive, brief menus--all the food is well portioned, well seasoned (or perfectly lightly flavored), culmination of interesting sauces + flavors that sets them apart from other Italian places *anywhere*. (side note: I don't like the lobster tail @ Ferrara's on Grand & Mulberry b/c the filling is more custardy and marscapone-like instead of a sweet cheese like ricotta @ Mike's Pastries in beanown) Here's some torrone instead :) :

Anyway, Annie visited from CA in October with her boyf--so I took her for non-Asian foodies @ Cuba Cafe and In Vino :)...Cuba Cafe will be saved for later when I can find my photos--so back to In Vino.

Anyway, Annie got the Gnocchi w/ gorgonzola cream sauce + walnuts, I got the Papardelle with shrimp arrabiata (which I always do), and Chris got the porcini Ravioli in truffle cream sauce.

The pastas are home-made...per se...but it tastes noticeably different and wonderful ^_^ Anyhoodle, I ran into Albee w/ his boyf there once and they got the risotto special--it was freakin' amazing, but me & Jun still stuck to our usuals.

We [as in pretty much anyone I go with, and I go too often] tend to start with the sottocenere cheese plate (cow's milk cheese with truffle oil and truffle flakes) with apples, walnuts, and a really intensely flavored, dark honey. I don't care much for many cheeses but I LOVE the truffle cheese!! warm, kinda nutty, creamy taste (sorta) with a delicate truffle flavor, but especially fragrant per se with the truffle.

Sometimes I get the crostino di avocado (avocado + goat cheese puree on toast and it's freakin' AWESOME). Jun and I split the calamari salad the last time I was there--white wine sauce w/ tomatoes and...lemon and something whatever. Blah di blah blah. pictures later.