Berlin Eats: non-European food
One of my favorite aspects about Berlin was the availability of non-European food, at restaurants that people frequent, and at reasonable prices. In the Netherlands, restaurants are in general quite expensive (more than €20 for a main course), not very tasty whether it's European or not, and often very empty. There's just a very nice eating scene in Berlin.
My favorite of the few places I tried was YamYam on Alte Schoenhauser Strasse in the Mitte neighborhood. I actually learned about it by reading the NY Times T Magazine. I had a hot stone bibimbap with beef for €8.50. You order at a counter and they bring the food to you. The restaurant was completely packed, and some people left because there were no seats available. The bibimbap was very good - hot sauce already added in. Only negative was that a lot of the veggies were a bit too salty for my taste.
On the same street in Mitte is Monsieur Vuong, a Vietnamese restaurant. This was listed in Lonely Planet, and it is quite popular among locals. I went on a holiday at 3pm and the restaurant was quite full. The next day (when I went to YamYam) at a more normal lunch hour, I noticed a line out the door. I had Pho Ga (they call it Pho Saigon) with an iced coffee.
I have to say I thought the food was okay, not great. The soup was definitely flavorful with a generous portion of tender chicken breast meat. But I missed mixing in fresh herbs myself, and overall the taste was a bit too sweet for me. Worse was the iced coffee which gave me really bad upset stomach. I think it had to do with the bartender whom I witnessed sneezing and wiping his face with his hands, and not washing his hands afterwards.
This was a "trendy" Asian place with lots of red and orange and lanterns all over. That black-and-white picture of a man is Monsieur Vuong I guess. My pho was over €7, and when I walked around the city some more over the next few days, I saw there are actually quite a few Vietnamese restaurants in town which looked more humble with prices to match.
On my last day, I made my own little find by coming across the "Latin American" restaurant Paracas, on my way to the train station back from the Jewish Museum. I was craving a bit of Mexican (just like I craved, and ate, Indian food in Helsinki of all places). The restaurant was rather full, and there seemed to be a few other American tourists there too. I ordered enchiladas de picadillo (but got enchiladas de pollo instead, which I was fine with - it's more expensive anyway). It wasn't the best Mexican food ever, but I thought that the salsa, guacamole, and white cheese were particularly well prepared. They could have gone with some kind of shredded German cheese but didn't (in the Netherlands I'm sure some restaurants would use Gouda!). The corn tortilla wasn't sturdy enough, and the potatoes were rather soggy. but everything else was quite nice, and with a small tip this meal came out to €9.
