Luisa's Berlin

Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness

As photographer Ashley and I are waiting in front of one of Berlin’s most renowned delicatessen in Charlottenburg, I cannot help myself but wonder how I ended up getting to hang out with renowned author and blogger of the acclaimed food blog The Wednesday Chef on a sunny August day. My love story begins in September 2012 when my sister gives me My Berlin Kitchen – the novel written by Luisa Weiss – as a birthday present as well as a Welcome gift to Berlin. She knows about my yearning for living in New York and Luisa’s story is the perfect tale – just backwards: Luisa Weiss was working in NYC after college and living with her future fiancé when she starts writing her food blog The Wednesday Chef, which soon becomes a sensation. However born in Berlin, she never stopped longing for her childhood home. After months of heartache and a painful breakup, Luisa decided to take the plunge and move back to Berlin.

»The day I saw the apartment we ended up taking, it was yet another gray day in a very long string of gray days in February (…). It was on the top floor of an old building near Schloss Charlottenburg in a leafy, sleepy part of the old West where old Turkish ladies in black coats shared the sidewalks with what was considered the center of the city, but since the city’s reunification, Charlottenburg and its palace felt further and further away from the ›new‹ Berlin. Which is precisely what made the neighbourhood appeal to me. Given that I’d partly moved back to Berlin to reclaim my childhood, I wanted nothing more than to be in the part of the city that felt like it had never changed.«

Now, a few years later, sisterMAG gets to meet up with the open and down-to-earth star author, who shows us around her favourite foodie places in »her« Berlin.

Rogacki

Wilmersdorfer Straßer

Rogacki is an institution in West Berlin. It has been around since 1927 and it was the first big-time delicatessen. During the war the house was damaged and they had to close for a few years in the post-war period. They were still operating out of a drive-way next door. Then they rebuilt bigger and better and it has been operating ever since. What is really special about Rogacki is the selection of fish. First of all the smoking: they smoke everything themselves and have a huge variety. I haven’t seen such a variety anywhere else in the world, not even in New York. They’ve got every kind of salmon, special things and they are all delicious. Plus they have a really amazing fish selection: Häppchen, pickled herring, appetizers and also a really big sausage department. You can also come for lunch, so at noon the whole place is crammed.

»Rogacki is a legendary Berlin delicatessen that still smokes all its own fish, from tiny golden sprats to slabs of pink salmon, tuna, halibut, and more. They also sell every kind of preserved herring under the sun, from pickled to rollmops to matjes. I figured that a steady supply of Rogacki’s fish specialities could help to prolong our minivacation just a bit.«

Go Asia

Kanstraße 101

The cupboards in this well stocked Asia Supermarket are packed with absolutely every exotic ingredient you could wish for. While strolling through the isles, we talk about dishes she has showed on her blog and how convenient it is to have a wellsorted and clean market to shop at.

Erich Hamann

Brandenburgische Straße 17

One of my favourite stops of our Charlottenburg tour is definitely the shop of chocolatier Erich Hamann. The chocolate manufacturer's shop on Brandenburgische Straße is far enough from Ku'damm to have almost no walk-in traffic. You must know about this old-fashioned, yes almost stodgy manufacturer. Erich Hamann Bittere Schokoladen Berlin was founded over 100 years ago by the East Prussian Erich Hamann. Production, packaging and distribution is still all done in-house (yes, in that house), which hasn't really changed since the 1920s. The Bauhaus Design does not only welcome us with the traditional storefront, but also the design of all packages has a lovely outdated character.

I buy a little bag of chocolate bark, which is one of the many specialties of Hamann, as Luisa explains to us.

Lon-Men Noodle House

For lunch Luisa takes us to two Asian places, however very different in style and taste. First we stop at a very authentic noodle shop on Kantstraße, where construction workers are grabbing a quick soup. The place is tiny, but the service is fast and friendly. Luisa orders gua bao, a tiny little steamed-bun sandwich filled with duck and pickles, vegetables or chicken.

Afterwards we stop at Dao, a restaurant which is known for its amazing Thai food. The salads and dishes we order are delicious, the colours vibrant, even decorated with real flowers and fake ones made out of carrots and vegetables. Definitely worth another visit!

Dao Restaurant

Kantstraße 133

From Kantstraße we head in the direction of Ku'damm, but stop in the more quiet part of Bleibtreustraße. Here in the midst of little boutiques and restaurants, Jens de Gruyter opened a lovely concept store called »Paper and Tea«. The space is not just a shop selling tea over the counter, but rather a showroom with little samples of each tea for you to see and smell. »Teaists« will explain the characteristics of the offered selections. The packaging is equally divine: simple materials and colours are embellished with discreet illustrations. The different oxidation states of the tea are reflected in the colour concept.

And of course the second part of the name is also worth visiting the store: P&T offers stationary from the highest quality, even stocks Rifle Paper Goods – paper jewels that every paper affine digital lady knows all too well.