Wednesday 25 March 2015

Eat a lot: Indian ayurvedic street food, Kreuzkölln


Every Tuesday and Saturday it's in our Kiez: this funky looking food stall selling vegan ayurvedic Indian street food. It comes with a chef that looks the part: turban on his head, white pointy Sikh beard and a somewhat impatient demeanour. The banner on his trailer advertises colourful pictures of dishes he doesn't actually sell and cute looking Indian children. The whole thing is a blast of colour and garishness in the polished world of the hipster street food market.


Our man sells only a few dishes (the secret of a good street food stall if you ask me): vegetable curry (€4), vegetable samosa's (€2,50), lentil soup (€2,50) and pappadums (€1). When he runs out, he runs out. Since I decided to have lunch at 1.30pm, the curry was gone, but the soup and the last few handmade samosa's were mine.

The flavours were fantastic: vibrant, fresh and spicy without too much heat. If you like it hot hot hot, have a teaspoon of the green chili relish at the till and you're sorted. Don't skip the samosa's, if only for the sauce, which should come with it's own DOP (made in Berlin), it's so good.


With summer coming, this is the place where you'll find me for a healthy lunch: at the most cheerful stand on the market.

Indian ayurvedic market stall, Tuesdays at the market on Schönleinstraße, corner Lachmannstraße, Saturdays at the bio market on Herrfurthplatz.


Friday 20 March 2015

What to do in St Petersburg, apart from the obvious




St Petersburg travel guides tell you, quite literally, all the same things. And yes, of course you peer at the masters at the Hermitage, marvel at the mosaics of the Church on Spilled Blood, saunter along Nevsky Prospekt and eat borscht. But what else? Here are five of the things we found worthwhile:



1) Go into shops



From the posh Eliseyev deli on Nevsky Prospekt 56 to the small local shops, you'll find nothing but gems. Even if the shop turns out rubbish, you will have had a 'real Russian experience'. Buy something you like the look of and try it. By doing so we stumbled upon this lovely milky ice cream popsicle and a pot noodle type ready meal that, by adding some hot water, turned into a tasty potato mash with croutons and dill.

Local fruit and veg shop on Pravdy street
Sweet somethings at the Eliseyev shop



Tuesday 17 March 2015

St Petersburg, but not in a nutshell


If there is one thing completely impossible, it's fitting St Petersburg into a nutshell. The city is vast, the streets are wide and royal and impressive. I don't know why I was expecting it to be quaint and cute and PEDESTRIANISED. Huge mistake.

Quaintest street we could find. Though still not pedestrianised.

Go to St Petersburg and you will walk. A lot. And travel. A lot. This was the one of the things none of the online guides mentioned. Most of the things they did mention, however, turned out to be incorrect. 

(Which was a relief, mostly. I got a bit miffed, you see, reading everywhere that St Petersburg is an unfriendly place, having booked this trip based on a romantic notion of snow covered Russian orthodox church rooftops and grand (yet pedestrianised!) streets. This was the place I had always wanted to visit, and the first holiday-without-twins for me, and I was going to be barked at by everyone?) 
 

Russian orthodox church rooftops, snow optional.

So, as a counter-intelligence exercise, I have made a list of the things travel guides tell you about St Petersburg that are not true.