Food and Drink, Berlin

The Internationales Berliner Bierfestival is a blast of a festival held near the Alexanderplatz. I counted 3 separate major stages where bands were playing, and the booths of beer vendors went on for blocks.

The beers were from everywhere, with Bavarian and Hessen companies having the strongest showing. But there were also (very good) beers from Kenya, Namibia, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, and elsewhere in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Central America.

Check their website for future dates.

Some local inexepensive beers had quite funny labels and names lake this one bottle on my picture: "Kyritzer Mord und Totschlag". It was dunkel beer brewed by Brauerei Dessow (Oettinger).
It was reddish black, mild and rather sweet (chocolate flavour) beer.

When staying in Berlin it's not necessary to have a breakfast possibility included in your accommodation. There are a huge amount of restaurants offering breakfast for reasonable prices and, what's best in my opinion, the breakfast (or brunch if you like) is served until 16pm, in some places even till 17 pm, so you don't have to get up early in the morning just to make it to the hotel breakfast, which usually ends at 10.

On weekends there are big breakfast/brunch buffets served in many restaurants in Berlin, especially in Prenzlauer Berg area. The buffet usually includes a variety of bread, cheeses, cold cuts, fresh fruit, pancakes, to mention but a few. But most importantly, you'll be sure to get your stomach full! You can eat as much as you like for under 10 euros in most places, only drinks are usually not included in the price.

If you happen to be in Berlin on a weekend, your visit won't be complete without trying out a breakfast buffet!

It can only be criminal negligence not to try currywurst, when in Berlin! that is, hot sausage with ketch-up sauce and curry -fries on the side are optional- or the lighter versions of bratwrust, backwurst, etc...
enjoy the crime in full, at the oldest place in town, Konnopke's Imbiss.

Located just under the U-bahn rails of "Eberswalderstrasse" station, on Schönhauser Allee 44a, at Prenzlauer Berg and is open Mon - Fri 06:00 - 20:00, Sat 12:00 - 19:00

Beer is tasty and cheap in Germany. There's a wide selection of Schwarzbier available in supermarkets (Kaiser's and Edeka, for example) just for 70-80 cents. Pretty much all Schwarzbiers are a good go. Dark cherry beer is worth tasting, too. If you want light lager, Berliner Kindl is one of the most popular choices. I also hoped to meet my good Belgian friend Stella in Berlin, but she wasn't there. Fortunately, there are many black replacements to miss Artois in Berlin :)
It's absolutely OK to have a beer on an S- or U-Bahn train in the evening, so enjoy it on the way back wherever you sleep!

Described to me as "fruity & deoicious" - yeah - they saw me coming!!!

It is a light, newly fermented wheat beer that continues to ferment in the bottle. It comes two ways - red or green. I had the red which is mixed with raspberry to give it it's "fruity & delicious" flavour. I found it more like drinking liquid sherbet. It was neither fruity nor delicious and I was certainly not going to give the green version a whirl! - Apparently it is sweet woodruff syrup that gives it the vivid green colour and makes it taste "slightly medicinal" (hmmm, sounds like a corker!!!)

Berliner Weisse Mit Schuss comes in a whopping big glass with a straw and is a Berlin speciality.

In one restaurant I ordered a special kind of drink I had never tasted before. It was called 'Diesel' and was a mix of lager and coca-cola. I must say I didn't have very high expectations on it at first, but when I had a taste of it I found that it was really good! I can't tell for sure where this drink was invented but I haven't come across it anywhere else than in Berlin so far.

No house party is complete without a bottle of bubbly Rotkäppchen sekt. At the entrances to clubs you will find emty bottles of this stuff and seeing a stack of Rotkäppchen bottles together strikes warm feelings in your heart. (Rotkäppchen = little red riding hood) Since France for some reason is the only place with the right to make champagne because of weird copyright laws, Germany makes the fizzy sekt which is basically the same thing except better. ;) It is also known as a really big East German product, so that makes it even better going down!

At every second corner in Berlin you can find these little stands where you can buy a typical german dish, a typical Berlin dish, the Currywurst & Pommes. It is a fried sausage with a tomatoe curry sauce and french fries with it. It is a must do to try one when in the city.

Many younger people have rather small flats and would rather meet or entertain friends at local cafes. There are too many to name, both with signs out from so you can find them and those that are "secret" with needing passwords or to enter with a local who knows where to go. Any neighborhood you go to there are small "weinstube" and such things, nearly every corner.

Very nice to sit and have a meal or just a beer and talk and laugh. This is the Schwarz Sauer cafe/bar just around the corner from Checkpoint Charlie Museum.

The website link below is to a travel guide which can provide information for hotels, cafes and such. I know a lot of people like to research online before visiting a place, but really for Berlin..you can look up place you might like to go for eating and drinking online to get a map to location or something. But really it´s best just to get out and walk a certain area wherever you are and if it looks good to you, prices meet your pocketbook, go inside and have a nice time. Ask a local or someone who visits frequently if you are looking for a specific type cafe or restaurant to get a real feel for a place because over internet one can´t always especially if you want to go where locals go.