Eat a little, drink a lot: a recipe for the King's Day party at the Dutch embassy

Serves:

enough to get about 150 people drunk on fairly empty stomachs

Ingredients:

•  1 large embassy, slightly stale:

•  1 tiny queen, abdicated but not forgotten, wearing royal purple:

•  1 drizzle of foamy beer, preferably the most undrinkable brand you can find:

Drink a lot: List, Neukölln

List, Weichselstraße 66, 12043 Berlin, website, open Mon-Sat from 12 pm till late

Eat a lot: Pizza Nostra, Prenzlauer Berg

I've never eaten quite as much pizza as I've eaten here in Berlin. There's a great place around the corner where I get my take out fare. The aubergine, chilli and 

crème fraîche pizza is the one to order there: it's fiery and creamy all at once. But when in Prenzlberg, I can't help but get a slice, at the very least, at Pizza Nostra. 

Their 'bottoms' are amazingly crisp yet chewy, not unlike a very flat ciabatta bread straight out of the oven. They say it's pizza in true Napoli style, which might very well be the case and if so, I need to go visit Napels, pronto. 

Eat it topped with fresh tomatoes and rocket for lunch (€8) and you're set up for the rest of the day. I have a Japanese friend who eats a vegan diet, and he only falls off the wagon for the Pizza Nostra pizzas. Now, if that isn't an endorsement to be swayed by…

Pizza Nostra, Lychener Straße, 10437 Berlin, 03041717000, website, open Tue-Sun from 11am - 12am.

Eat a lot: Werkstatt der Süße, Prenzlauer Berg

Dark chocolate, raspberry, Tasmanian pepper and gold leaf tart

Eat a lot: Street Food Thursday @ Markthalle Neun, Kreuzberg

Finally! Last Thursday I visited the Street Food Market at Markthalle Neun. I love the different Markthallen that are dotted around Berlin - they remind me of some of my favourite places in London: Smithfield and its surroundings, Spitalfields market on a weekday and early mornings at Borough market.

Their revival is a brilliant thing. All those enthusiastic, driven people organising weekly or monthly events and get-togethers, from the Handmade Supermarket to a distillers' festival, under their roofs. What's not to like, applaud and support?

I was looking forward to it immensely. My plan was to have a poke around, take some pictures, discover some young and upcoming Berlin chefs, too poor to start their own restaurants but with skills to be raved about. But.

Berlin finds: Rixdorf

Things are moving quickly here in Berlin. Gone are the days of massive flats, empty and waiting to be lived in. Gone are reasonable rents, illegal ping-pong bars and bullet-holed facades. Well, almost gone. But it won't be long now.

Clubs that have been open since the fall of the Berlin wall are closing to make way for chi chi shops, posh apartment blocks and media companies. When you're looking for a room in a WG (shared housing) you have to beat twenty others and still pay a premium price. One of Berlin's most wonderful traits, its greenness, is steadily disappearing to make way for, yes, more expensive flats.

As they say, all was better in the olden days.

Imagine how chuffed I am to be living very near one of the few proper authentic bits of the city still around. In the middle of Neukölln, there's a village green housing the oldest blacksmith in town plus a garage for old-fashioned horse drawn carriages. The surrounding town houses are gorgeous, spacious and light. The local thrift shop is enormous and filled with stuff no one in their right mind ever would buy - it's all just too dusty and disgusting. But what a joy to rummage through it all. Here in Rixdorf, the annual hay bale rolling competition and the Weinachtsmarkt transport you back in time. Squint and you can imagine yourself a hundred years ago. It's just lovely.

It's easy too: just take a walk on Richardplatz and the surrounding streets. Have a chai tea and some cake at Barini, opposite the thrift store, while you're at it. Buy tickets for a puppet show in the theatre next door and visit the figure skating shop, just because there is one. This is Berlin at its best.

Alt-Rixdorfer Weihnachtsmarkt, second advent weekend in december, Richardplatz, 12055 Berlin

Barini, Böhmische Straße 46, 12055 Berlin, 030 25059718, website

Berger Wohnungsauflösung, Böhmische Str. 13, 12055 Berlin, 030 68224987

Central Rixdorf Theater, K&K VolkArt, Böhmische Straße 46, 12055 Berlin, 030 26378812, website

Eisprinzessinshop, Richardstraße 76, Berlin, website

Rixdorfer Schmiede, Bürgerstr. 17, 12347 Berlin, 030 6942232, website

One of those happiness inducing things

Hurray! The public water pumps on the streets of Berlin are working again. Summer's really coming…