Shop a little: Manufactum, Charlottenburg

I don't go there very often and I NEVER stay long. It is just too dangerous for my wallet, and prolonging the longing for their lovely products only adds to the disappointment later.

Manufactum.

But yesterday I went – specific aim in mind and only 20 minutes' worth in the parking meter. All I had time for, was to buy the thing I wanted (a pull out washing dryer for our wall), to get the wheel of Kalle's stroller oiled by the lovely shop assistant who heard the squeaky noise (ooooh, the service is outstanding too, can I live there?) and to ogle this amazing coffee grinder. For which I have no space in my kitchen. Nor money. Nor need, really. But, oh, did I ogle it alright. And some other kitcheny things, too.

I'll allow myself to go again in three months or so. I would luuuurve to have a look at the stationery.

PS For those Dutch people out there who miss fluffy Dutch bread? The Brot & Butter section does a wonderful milky version of Dutch raisin bread (at €4.80 a pop). It's a little low on raisins but makes up for it in fluffiness. Did I mention how fluffy it was?

Manufactum and Brot und Butter, Hardenbergstraße 4-5, Berlin, 03024033844, website

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…

Eat a lot: Zinc, Rotterdam

The other day, my friend Daphne took me to a restaurant near the river in Rotterdam. Sitting at a cute little table in cramped Zinc, I was reminded of many things - the place was so eclectic. There were crisp cotton tablecloths that hinted at stuffy, posh London restaurants, teamed up with bare brick walls that could easily signal a just-opened hipster place in Berlin. The lamps were missing their shades. The menu was missing altogether, but instead was delivered verbally by a waitress who wasn't very elaborate in her descriptions. I missed not having the menu in front of me; somehow I get more hungry when I can read the words... On the upside: the menu was short.

An image of Gordon Ramsay and his antics popped up in my head (but in a good way). The one thing I learned from his Kitchen Nightmares is that a restaurant shouldn't have too many dishes on their menu. Apparently it's an easy mistake to make, because wherever Gordon went, menus were sliced in half. More and more restaurants seem to be picking up on his good advice: Do a few things and do them well. It could be a motto for life itself. And for restaurant Zinc, too.

Anyway. At Zinc you 'buy' a whole menu for €32.50 (excluding drinks) and then you choose: a starter (meat, veg, fish), a main (same again) and dessert. Since I didn't really follow the rambled verbal menu, I chose a bit of everything: meat to start, then fish, then chocolate. There.

They started us off with a complimentary celeriac and potato soup with a single Jerusalem artichoke crisp. Celeriac being the one thing I can't eat, I nibbled on the crisp. Then came the starter, without further ado or explanation, leaving me wondering what exactly I was eating. Pork rilettes is my guess, well balanced with an acidic wisp of salad and a sweet little pear. The main was a white fish fillet, skin on (unfortunately not very crispy), with some in Holland still omnipresent sundried tomatoes, slices of lemon, couscous and, totally out of its Mediterranean character, purple carrots. The chocolate was chocolate, with a berry sauce. Apart from the carrots, nothing really stuck to my mind (hence my need to examine the picture to find out the chocolate I ate was indeed a mousse). But it was all very nicely executed.

Gordon was right. Small menus do work. Though for €32.50 I'd really like to know what I am eating.

Zinc, Calandstraat 12a, 3016 CB Rotterdam, +31104366579, website, open Tue-Sun from 6pm.