A trio of carrot soups

What to do with a stack of beautiful, leftover multi-coloured carrots?

I couldn't stand the thought of mixing them up, creating a brown, unintelligible mush, ruining their vibrant colours. Having just been to Pauly Saal, the Michelin starred restaurant in Mitte, where they served pumpkin with pumpkin and pumpkin, the way high end restaurants tend to do, I decided to go for a trio of carrot soups. 

Eat a lot: RisOtto, Mitte

I'm feeling kind of special today.

It turns out I'm living in the city that houses the very first risotto restaurant in the world. Who knew?

I wonder if it's true. (It seems highly unlikely. The first ever risotto restaurant, well, ever?)

I wonder if it's any good. (Though risotto in the average restaurant is almost never a total disaster, it's usually not particularly good either. Ever since I discovered even celebrity chefs can't get it right on the night (yes, Tom Aikens, I am talking about you and your undercooked attempt), I've stuck to the homemade variety where I can be sure the timing is just so.)

I wonder if the world has gone off risotto, seeing as there was not a single person inside.

If you don't mind, I'll leave it to other people to answer the above questions for me.

RisOtto, Friedrichstraße 115, 10117 Berlin, 0173 7171626, ros-otto.de, open Mon-Fri 11 am - 9pm, Sat 12pm - 6pm

Eat a lot: Kaffee Mitte, Mitte

The old adagio: when in Berlin, do as the Berliners do, doesn't do in Kaffee Mitte.

I have passed this place many times but I never managed to make it inside until now. Sometimes it was too busy, sometimes I was too busy, sometimes it just wasn't the right time for a Kaffee mit Kuchen.

But I was wrong there. This is not a Kaffee mit Kuchen kind of place. It's a mediterranean hangout, where Italian seems to be the language of choice, the sandwiches are made by a tattooed, pierced barman wearing a blond wig and most of the guests seem to be best friends - of each other, the staff or the resident dog at least.

The sandwiches they serve for lunch are a tad pricy. Four euro for what essentially is a piece of bread with a drizzle of oil, some rocket and a sparing scattering of cheese seems a bit far-fetched, even when in Mitte. But oh, how good that sandwich was. Crunchy yet chewy, salty and oily in just the right amounts, with a perfect little salad to polish it all off.

It made me forget about the fairly silly self service system where you order at the bar, get an electronic device that lights up when your order is done (we didn't get our device, but luckily our order found its way to us thanks to one of the many hanger outers at the bar) and you even have to put away your own dishes.

What I liked most of all is the proper Italian breakfast they serve in the morning: a cappuccino with a cornetto (€3,80). Next time I am in Berlin Mitte at breakfast time, I will do as the Romans do, and head to Kaffee Mitte for my fill.

Kaffee Mitte, Weinsmeisterstraße 9A, 10178 Berlin, 030 24038204, website, open Mon-Fri 8am - 8pm, Sat 9am - 8pm, Sun 10am - 8pm

A foodie at the Fruitlogistica fair

Last week I went to the Fruitlogistica fair in the Berlin Messe. Incognito, as I am not a fruit or veg producer, nor a fresh produce buyer at a supermarket or a kitchen manager at a large hospital. 

Fruitlogistica is a large trade fair for just those people, people who get food on to the plates (or into the shopping trolleys) of the masses. The exhibitors are producers of food and processors of food, and also companies who make great big machines that help produce and process the foods.

I felt a bit like a tourist and had a whale of a time. I posed with the big pear outside, chatted to stall holders about their red carrots (from Pakistan), pink lettuce (from Italy) and baby white cabbages (from the Netherlands) and gawked at complicated bits of machinery. I ate tiny slivers of apple and a fascinating fruit called 'sapodilla' which looked like a mousey brown plum but tasted somewhere between a banana and a kiwi. If that is even possible.

 

Couldn't help myself

Here's a bit of a tour for you. The Louvre is wasn't but if you're into your food, it's a Grand Day Out all the same.

 

Cool cabbages from Italy

Where the Dutch tried to impress with potatoes, LED lights and endless cups of coffee...

Potato globe

Pink LED lights by Philips for extra fast growth, apparently. Bit scary though.

 ... the Italians had readymade soups, Ferrari's and wine at 11 am:

Soup-in-a-bag

Italians on a mission: how can you fail to impress when you bring a Ferrari?

The Malaysians and the Senegalese fought over pineapple property, while the Pakistani and the Japanese introduced some new kids on the block:

The packaging on offer was even more colourful that the fruit:

A melon dressed up as cheese

Oodles of pretty packaging options

Labels galore

Asian grape packet

There were things I instantly wanted to take home with me: 

Bachelor pad perfect

Stylish if somewhat perishable way to display kiwi fruit

And those things I never even knew existed:

Clever tree tepees for saving water

Environmentally friendly weed control machine

• 

A bundling machine tying anything and everything together with a bow on top

A few days later, all I have left is a stack of leaflets and a ripened Sapodilla. I do hope all that fruit that was on display has found a good home somewhere... I like the idea of Berlin's homeless gorging themselves on Senegalese pineapples and Portugese berries!

Sapodilla fruit

 Fruitlogistica, Messe Berlin, 4-6 February 2015