Berlin Reified | Food, design and life in Berlin

Herbs & spices by weight

And when your thyme's too dusty to be trotted out once again, then it's time to hie yourself off to Pot & Pepper in the heart of Steglitz. (If you're very lucky, you will take a fellow food-lover along with you and stop for cake and gossip at an old-school Konditorei on Schloßstraße populated solely by white-haired women over 70.)

Such a pleasure to buy herbs and spices by weight, and know you'll use up your tiny bag before the rosemary's aromatic oils have dissipated. I poked my nose into container after container trying to select the best black peppercorns, and was thankful for the owner's compact explanations of Malabar vs Tellicherry vs Sarawak. And if you're worried the recondite herb you're seeking won't be represented on Pot & Pepper's tall shelves, check their list before heading out. American cooks will be pleased to hear they sell measuring cups and spoons too.

Pot & Pepper, Kieler Strasse 9, Berlin-Steglitz (map)
M-F 11 am - 7 pm, Sat 11 am - 4 pm
Tel. (030) 81827 983

Ceramics Center Berlin

These photos capture the Berlin Ceramics Center in very different weather but nevertheless suffice to show how wonderful a place it is. The Center will surely be just as magical in the snow and chill of late November when their Christmas collection opens this weekend.

Work by their summer resident Jacqui Chanarin will be featured, along with lanterns by Regina Müller-Huschke and oil lamps by Katy Jung; I'm sure Kaja and Thomas' elegant cups (adorned with evocative German words and phrases) will also be available.

Go along and dream of being one of their talented artists in residence (or indeed, apply for a residency, should you be a ceramics artist looking to spend an idyllic, creative few months in Pankow).

The opening is this Saturday from 3-6 pm, and Jacqui will discuss her work at 4. The Zentrum für Keramik is open weekends 2-6 pm from now till Christmas, and is also open Tuesday-Friday 2-5pm.

Zentrum für Keramik/Residency for Ceramics (Berlin), Ossietzkystr. 13 (map)

Tel. (030) 499 02591

 

Lausitzer Platz Organic Market

The glories of a fresh market! The compass of my world has grown overly small these past few years, and it is good to use the wandering days of early parenthood to seek out some new corners of my beloved city. The Lausitzer Platz organic market provided a crazy kaleidoscoped view of old favourites from Prenzlauer Berg  (Gerd, the Persian woman dispensing tea) alongside happy new discoveries (try the deadly Krapfen at the organic crêpe stand ). Go tomorrow, if you can, while the ground is still luxuriant with leaves; meanwhile, I'll be whizzing into the skies, and speaking of which, any tips for the DC area should be emailed to me tout de suite!

Lausitzer Platz Organic Market (map)
Fridays from noon to 6pm

Sgaminegg (New happenings on Seelower Straße)

Or perhaps not so very long after all, for what do new parents need more than a second living room to retreat to or entertain in, when one begins to chafe at the confines of a two-room flat that's housing three? In typical Prenzlauer Berg fashion the cafe that's opened up around the corner is even younger than our newborn (two weeks old to her five): out with the Christian bookshop, in with Sgaminegg.

For me, these are the halcyon days, where the sunflooded interior is mostly silent but for the stereo and the soft comings and goings of the owners and their friends. But passers-by look in, a Francophone trio spends a half-hour at one of the sidewalk tables, notebooks in hand, and who knows where the place will go next, if it will turn awful or remain quietly luminous?

And for those who are into that sort of thing, the little display in the back room features not only the plain-Jane Maldon sea salt but the smoked variety too.

Sgaminegg, Seelower Str. 2 (map)
Open M-F 10 am-8 pm, S 10am-6pm (a Sunday opening beckons) Update 2009: Open M-F 8.30am-7pm, Sat 10am-6pm
Tel. (030) 44731525 / 0152 296 55477

Salon sucré

Once Glatteisgefahr has been declared across the city, there's nothing for it but to hole up in your cozy neighbourhood French patisserie and ponder the many cakes, tartes and meringues lining the glass shelves. Sue was a bit skeptical about visiting Salon Sucré during the winter, but it was just the thing to peel off my damp pullover, climb onto a bar stool, lean on the radiator in the corner and sink my fork into two layers of chocolate genoise sandwiching a pale tranche of cheesecake, topped with the tenderest raspberries (perhaps scandalous in January, but there you are).

Our cakes disappeared in a thrice, but we lingered for hours, ordering the odd glass of Sylvaner, cup of tea, and duo of cassis meringues to justify our place. We caught up on everything, only pausing to listen to Eric explain the contents of the pastry case with unfailing enthusiasm to each new customer.

Cakes are a bit pricier than what I'm used to –– €4-5 each –– but portions are generous, and I'm always disarmed by a casual friendliness.

Salon Sucre, Görlitzer Straße 32A (map)
Tel: (030) 612 27 13
Open Thursday-Sunday 10am - 6pm in the winter, Wednesday-Saturday 10am - 6pm in the summer (in the liminal months, call ahead to check; I'll update if I discover the exact months; and note that last summer, at least, they were closed for more than a month around August/September)

Moshi Moshi

I've been admiring Claudia Rannow's photos at the Kollwitzplatz market for some months now, thinking about how her witty pictures of Berlin would make the perfect present for someone who's leaving the city or who misses it. She seems to notice all the things I do, and catches moments and shards of Berlin in an appealing way, noticing the nonce messages the city throws up: her diptychs too can be terribly evocative. Have a click through her site and buy if you can; a small photo, very nicely mounted on a frame, is only 10 EUR, and the diptychs 23 EUR. (The photo above is from her shopfront, which she shares with Katja Morkel of Morkel. Update 2008: Moshi's prices have risen to reflect the times. At the moment, a single photo is 14 EUR, and a diptych 30 EUR. Note also new contact details below.

Moshi Moshi, Choriner Str. 37 (map) Bergstr. 73 (map) & at the Saturday Kollwitzplatz Market
Tel. 440 445 60, claudia.rannow@ginko.de Tel. 0170-907 5083, claudia.rannow@web.de
Open Wed-Fri noon to 7 pm, Sat 11 to 6 pm Wed & Fri 5-8pm or by appointment

Keramik Stefanie Scheier (II)

After a few crossed wires I managed to speak to Stefanie last week, visiting her in her atelier/shop on my way to the Kollwitzplatz market while David had a crêpe at Etienne. It was exciting to sit down with her, if a bit awkward, as I think we are both shy people.

She told me she completed her art training in her early twenties, and has been a social worker since then, working first with homeless children, and currently with drug addicts. When she moved to Berlin five years ago she resumed working with ceramics, and that was when she discovered the technique of imprinting clay with patterned papers: a neue Anfang, or new beginning for her.

The East German ceramicist who introduced her to the technique made works quite different to hers, and indeed, she says she's only ever found one book on the subject. Ceramics is still something she does in her spare time, but she says she finds it increasingly difficult to divide herself between vocation and avocation. No online shop yet, but I'll certainly post details if she ever does open one! In the meantime, Berlin residents and visitors can find her at her shop on Saturdays from noon to 4 pm or by appointment.

I've waxed eloquent before, and will say again how much I enjoy the distinct sensibility of her work. I love how the piece above evokes the Greek palette, and how others make material the Italian papers I otherwise turn into cards or letters. I am still carefully considering exactly what I'd like to have her make for me (David has promised me a few pieces for a Christmas present). Cups for tea? One of her mysterious, pleasing containers? We'll see...

Keramik Stefanie Scheier, Husemannstraße 23 (map)
Open Saturdays noon-4pm Update 2008: Tuesdays-Fridays 1-7pm, Saturdays 11am-4pm

Organic oils

The possibilities for fun at the Kollwitzplatz market are never-ending, with just the right balance between food and non-food items, and an endless array of samples. And where else could I watch linseed oil being made before my eyes?

Uwe Leue is a civil engineer by profession, but has been making oil for years. All his homemade oils are unfiltered, organic, and taste strongly of their source; at his stand, little dishes of sunflower, walnut, hazelnut, almond, poppyseed, black cumin, Bärlauch and sesame oils sit in a row waiting to be tried. (And Mr Leue is very patient if you try them all...) After much sampling I settled on the sunflower oil, which was flavourful but neutral enough, I thought, for the aioli I was planning to make that weekend.

If you look carefully at the mill above, you'll see a drop of oil just hitting the trough resting on the lip of the oil jar. The fibres left from the seeds – the brown rope curling out the front – are used as animal feed.

Mr Leue explained that in Berlin and Brandenburg, linseed oil was traditionally used to top a dish of boiled potatoes and quark – a meal of the poor, but made gourmet with the right ingredients.

Ölmühle Gatow at the Kollwitzplatz market, Saturdays 9 am - 4 pm
(To check if he's got a particular oil, call Mr Leue at 0173 871 3824.)

Greenery in light (Frau Rose)

I always seem to be running into examples of nominal determinism while walking around my neighbourhood. The hairdresser in the ground floor of my last apartment building was called Monica Scherer (=scissors), the dentist's assistant was Frau Teufel (=devil) and the owner of my favourite flower shop is called Grit Rose.

In other shops I eye their lurid gerberas and think of the scenes in Domicile conjugal where Leaud stands in the courtyard doing impossible things to flowers; Rose's blooms, in contrast, are naturally never less than perfectly fresh and vigorous. Yet her eye is not for flowers alone, but flowers in the context of a home, and along with the bouquets there are lovely accent pieces such as irregular handblown water glasses from Copenhagen or this spectacular 'lamp slip' from Tord Boontje (which I immediately coveted and added to my mental Christmas wish list) or even just green conkers tucked into pink votive holders and hung up in the windows – the sort of frivolous fun that flowers are all about.

Frau Rose, Stargarderstraße 15 (map)