Drink a lot: Drop Coffee, Stockholm

My recent visit to Stockholm coincided with a (very tardy, I'll admit) obsession with Lisbeth Salander, the unlovely yet loveable heroine out of Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy. Needless to say, there was only one place for me to go. Ignored were Gamla Stan with its palace and government buildings, the Vasa museum and the boat rides along the islands. Ignored was even the massive summer sale advertised in every shop window. (I did make up for that later.) I arrived, I got off the train and marched linea recta towards Södermalm, home of my heroine.

Once there, I was at a loss. I didn't have a guide book and besides, this wasn't really tourist territory. So I wandered. And found myself ready for a fika. Thanks to Stieg, I'd already learned that the Swedes do nothing before switching on a coffee machine, regardless of the time of day. It turns out it's not just his characters (who admittedly need the caffeine, what with the number of action scenes they need to keep up with) - drinking coffee is a proper Swedish pastime. Fika means as much as 'to go out for a cup of coffee and meet your mates' and is an important part of culture. I could be Swedish.

This being a national sport of sorts, a fab fika place appeared before my eyes as soon as I thought up the word 'coffee'. Drop Coffee, located at Tjärhovsgatan 5, looked stylish, smelt great and sounded, well, quiet. This is not to say there was no one there. On the contrary, the place, kitted out with white floor-to-ceiling tiles and black leather furniture, was fairly packed. Clearly, the Swedes don't feel the need to make a racket when fikaing away. How refreshing.

Eat a lot: 3 Schwestern, Kreuzberg

Restaurant 3 Schwestern is located in the beautiful old Bethanien building, a former hospital complex built mid 20th century, tucked away behind Oranienstraße. Predictably, tourists don't venture far from what they know and therefore tend to skip the Mariannenplatz and this impressive building, with its long corridors full of artist studio's, printing presses and exhibition rooms. A huge mistake.


I brought some Dutch friends here who were suitable impressed by the vaulted restaurant ceiling, the allsorts collection of guests and the excellent food. At around €15 for a main course, prices are a bit above the average Berlin budget, but our European guests didn't bat an eyelid. But then in Holland, people are used to paying the same amount of money for a sad, overcooked bit of salmon... The lovely waiting staff at 3 Schwestern served me a crispy, succulent, generous piece of halibut fillet with panfried potatoes to die for instead. Other winners on their German style menu where the apple fed pork with dumplings (visions of little pigs being hand fed with mountains of juicy apples ensued) and stewed leg of lamb with a rosemary jus. 

If you're on a low budget, head to the large, leafy garden out back on a summer's afternoon for tea and cake. The summer cheesecake looked a treat and I would have happily devoured it, had I not pigged out beforehand on the bread basket and zingy lemony garlic butter. Or you can take advantage of their very reasonably priced lunch menu (3 courses for €10.50). As for me... I'll be back. Next time we have guests that offer to pay for dinner, this is where we'll be going. God, I really sound like a cheapskate don't I? Sorry about that. It's the Berlin way of life.

This was the stage at which I remembered to take a picture. 

PS There's an open air cinema (Freiluftkino), showing Original Language films, on all summer at Bethanien. Daily at 9.45pm.


3 Schwestern, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin, 03060031860, 3schwestern-berlin.de, open Tue - Sun from 11 am

Eat a lot: Schiller Burger, Neukölln

Right in my Kiez, in the fast gentrifying Herrfurthstraße, a trio of foodie spots has opened: Schiller Burger, Schiller Bar and Schiller Backstube. Enter a load of higgledy piggledy furniture on the pavement, lots of liveliness and, of course, the odd protester's rock through the window.

The people behind the place are not easily frightened and have happily made the dents in the windows part of their graffiti wall display. The many twenty and thirty somethings in the area aren't afraid either. They have come crawling out of buildings that, as far as I was aware, only housed old Berliners, squatters and druggies, and have taken seat, en masse, outside the Schiller Bar. Who knew there were so many people like me in my Kiez?

The burgers, with incomprehensible names like Glocke (bell) for a cheeseburger and Wallenstein for chilli cheese (forever my favourite) are decent. The buns are not too soggy or squidgy, the toppings generous and there are great options for veggies. The fries are excellent yet the sauces dire. Some room for improvement then. If it weren't quite so close and gemütlich, and they didn't have quite so many places to sit and lounge outside for the rest of the night, beer from the next door bar in hand, I would take the trouble of cycling all the way to BBI (Berlin Burger International) and their ever present queue.

Schiller Burger's cool flyer / business card

Burgers, fries, sauce and a beer for two cost us €16.50.

Schiller Burger, Herrfurthstraße 7, Neukölln, 12049 Berlin, 01729824427, schillerburger.de

Eat a lot: Weinblatt, Graefekiez

In the ever more trendy Graefekiez you'll find a Mediterranean looking place called Weinblatt. The wooden benches outside are perfect for lounging on a sunny day, but the day that I pass the place is a rainy one, so I duck inside. I'm glad I did, because many of its treasures are hidden inside. 

At the centre of it all, you'll find a shop counter full of glistening olives, beautifully coloured pastes and wonderful salads. Every other millimetre of wall space is covered in food stuffs to take home: organic wines from Italy or Spain, beautiful packets of dried pasta, bottles of olive oil and wonderfully heavy looking homemade breads.

I pick one of the many menu combinations on offer - I go for two pastes, one salad and olives for €4.50 -  and sit down in the adjacent room, which is stuffed, like the vine leaves that give this restaurant its name, with sofas, garden furniture, wicker ornaments and, inexplicably, vintage Vogue fashion posters. A glass of wine and a basket of flatbread to boot and - sigh - it feels like a mini break. When I go back for just a little more, I learn the limits of Weinblatt's combination platter menu: it's not possible to combine the pastes I just had (a chilli-tomato and a creamy aubergine one) with the interesting looking veg balls I feel I NEED to try. Not without getting some vine leaves thrown in anyway. 

So I end up stuffing myself. Which is possibly the only thing you can do in a place called Weinblatt.

Weinblatt, Dieffenbachstraße 59, 10967 Berlin, +49 (0)30 69517365, open Mon-Sat from 9.30am till 11pm, Sun from 11am till 11pm, knofi.de