Gosia in Florida

A few impressions from a visit to Berlin.

Berlin is one of the cities I could see myself living in. You find it easy to be whoever you are or want to be at the moment. And knowing Berlin with each visit a bit better I guess I still like Prenzlauer Berg best. Town houses with high number of cafes, bars and parks per square meter make this part of the city lively, cosy and with Paris-like atmosphere.
Everybody seems so laid-back, sitting around in cafes from the morning until early afternoon during the weekends, riding old-school, tatty bicycles, dogs running around and being welcome almost anywhere they appear - even sales people keep water bowls for their customers' dogs during hot days. And if you're hungry in the middle of the night there is always a falafel spot just around the corner.
I was lucky to arrive in the beginning of a sunny weather. Here are some photo impressions:

 Cheese shop at Sredzki Straße

My all-time favourites are Gruyere and Bergkäse - 

- the older - the smellier - the better.

Lindner Deli.

Lindner Deli with their very elegant salesmen.

My super chic hostess serving spargel and schnitzel in her golden lace dress.

Abovementioned delicacies accompanied by sauce hollandaise and lemon juice.

On the sunny Sunday afternoon we took a trip to Dameritz Seehotel, an hour by car from Berlin, direction east. 
The staff has still quite a lot to learn about service ("Eastern Germany, you know..." as my friend commented) and the carpaccio was too thick, gummy and without any particular taste, the Chardonnay and Zinfandel not what one could wish for, but my fish with asparagus and strawberries was just right and fresh, and the sorroundings made up for the deficiencies. 

See the world through Chardonnay...

Nibbles - classical bread and butter.

Beef carpaccio.

Lachsforelle (a type of trout) with spargel and strawberries.

The hostess still chic in her huge hat relaxing during sunset.

The author with her faithful Swiss companion.

Coming up soon...

Guten Abend Berlin!

Jeff's on Thursday. Moules, oysters and chicken tortilla salad.

All the frutti di mare lovers' favourite day of the week is Thursday. That's when the delicacies come to town.
And here we have some representatives of the frutti di mare family - moules in white wine and oysters accompanied by vinegar sauce. And with the sunny weather you can have them in the garden and feel like on vacations. Just close your eyes and smell the oyster. Ocean, sand, mud. Now, Bon Appetite!

And ps. - chicken salad with guacamole on a tortilla - very filling, an entree and main course in one. 

Coming up soon...

Frida, Warsaw. Guacamole, fajita, pollo en mole.

I've seen the movie, I've read the book - a couple of times. The book tells better stories than the movie, the movie has one great soundtrack and Salma, playing smoothed out, a bit too pretty, but still convincing Frida. From time to time I go back to one or the other and afterwards I always have this thing for mexican cuisine.
This time was different. It's been a couple of months since I last saw the movie or read the book, my mexican cuisine phase was long over.  AND I still felt guilty because of the churros I had then. The plan was to end a nice walk in the old town with a quick espresso at Blikle's summer garden. Frida restaurant was just on the other side of the street and I believe I got somehow hypnotized, since I got up from the table and crossed the street without a moment of hesitation. It's not that there's something wrong with Blikles. It was something wrong with me, never being to Frida restaurant yet. And I felt I had to fix it right that moment.

Chair in the summer garden. Comfy and of the right height, which is so important when you eat - I hate eating with my stomach squished by sitting on chairs that are too high or by tables that are too small. 

Guacamole and nachos. Ripe and fresh, simply accurate.

If you order fajita, your tortillas come in a special pot that keeps them warm.

And your fajita might look like this.

And that's my pollo en mole. I liked the sauce better than the meat - a bit too tough. The sauce is a bit hot, but that's what you expect from mexican cuisine, right?

Well, that's a first here:) It's just that I found it so cute I couldn't help photographing it at the time, and now I can't help putting it here;-) Now you know what takes us girls so much time in the ladies' room:) 

Bread and Butter.

Fresh, crispy, tasty. 
I chose the place from all the cafe-gardens in Zlote Tarasy because of its simple, scandinavian-like decor. The staff was friendly, the weather was nice:). 
They have an interesting selection of fruit and herbal teas.
I guess some might be put off by the prices - about PLN 16-17 for a trout sandwich. 

Bread.

Nothing beats a slice of bread with butter. 
Correction.
Nothing beats a slice of home-made bread, straight from the oven.
For a video-recipe click here. Try it, it's easy. 

Medzilaborce, Slovakia. Eurohotel. Good old knedliczki with meat goulash.

It's a sentimental thing. Reminds me of holidays with my parents - we used to go to Czech Republic and Slovakia a lot when I was in my early "teens". 
The reason I found myself in Medzilaborce was the Andy Warhol Museum and that it was quite close to Bieszczady. Sometimes you just have to get off a horse:) 
Well this is not and art-dedicated blog, and I'm not an art expert, so I will not say a word about Andy Warhol:). De gustibus non est disputandum, that's what my father taught me quite early in my childhood and I stick to that.
So, about the knedliczki - delicious. Aaaand so cheap... I don't even remember what it was exactly for knedliczki, but enough to say that we paid like 20 euros for a full meal for two with drinks and starters (including a bottle of white table wine from Slovakia). 

Dwor Kombornia. Fine wines and Italian cuisine.

Thats a very nice place you've already seen here before. After my two-week retreat to Bieszczady in March on my way to the always busy capital I decided to prolongue my come back trip  for one more day. Not more than 70 km away from Kulbaka I turned left from the road nr 9 and after 5 minute ride on small local roads there it was. It's such a beautiful and quiet place. The weather was nice, one of those warm March evenings, so it was a treat for the whole body (a walk in the garden, a delicious late lunch and supper, and another guilty pleasure of mine - a face massage at the SPA. Oh well, I deserve it! Don't I..?)

So here it is. For the last couple of years I've been cheating on my favourite red wine with the white. Actually it's been so long that I guess now I'm in a regular relationship with the second. And Kombornia has one nice wine selection. 

That's the one you've already seen here, it was so good I had to have it again.

Don David Torrontes

Argentina

And this one was recommended by the waiter.

AOC Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Domaine Tour Saint Michel

2009

Grenache Blanc 50%, Clairette 50%

Parker gave it an 88, I give it my personal 100.

It's soft, round and delicate.

Well, I know, I'm starting to get boring with my beef carpaccio addiction.

Scallops on a mint guacamole with Prosciutto di Parma.

Prosciutto e melone

Easter at Kulbaka, Strzebowiska.

Delicious Easter breakfast at Kulbaka - fresh ecological eggs, savoury sour rye soup, delicate cold-meats and traditional vegetable salad. Marta knows how to please the palate:)

And my mom is my yeast-cakes master.

Bieszczady outside the season. Biesisko.

As for now it's quiet and sunny. 
Biesisko, though pretty empty at this time of the year, always ready to feed the hungry. 
A clerk in one of the groceries in Cisna promised to order frozen french pastry for me for tomorrow, so I could prepare my favourite (both because of taste and easiness of preparation) snack - goat cheese and pear tarts. 
By the way - I recommend kulbaka.eu as a place to stay in Bieszczady - both if you're looking for a decent standard with friendly owners or want to spend some valuable time with horses.
It's my second time here this year and it's only March:).

Lamb sausage at Biesisko

Mosaiq, Wroclaw

It was a special occasion, so I really wanted the place to be special, if not perfect. Since when it gets to Wroclaw's restaurants I've been out of circulation for a few years now, I referred to my trusted source of information - tripadvisor.com. And it said the best restaurant in Wrocław is Mosaiq. Never heard of it. So I asked around  - no luck:-) Yet, their internet site says something that made me take the risk - three from four presented chefs have worked for Gordon Ramsay or Albert Roux. 

Believe me it is not only probably the best restaurant in Wrocław, but probably (cause I haven't been everywhere - yet!) the best in Poland. 

It's an explosion of tastes, delicacy, sophistication. I cannot find the words, and I know photos don't do the food any justice.

We were a group of five, and shared every dish. I can recommend trying courses you normally wouldn't try - if you never liked duck, try it here. Not so comfortable with eating raw fish? - got to try their sashimi. 

And here come photos:

Blue-fin tuna sashimi

Goat cheese salad with pear, honey and aceto balsamico

Vitello tonnato

 Salmon boiled in low temperature 

Duck served with apples and orange-ginger sauce

Perch

Chocolate moelleux

Grand Nosalowy Dwór, Zakopane - Lobster

Imagine a perfect day in the mountains. After a busy week of snowboard training, resulting in a couple of strained muscles and a hurt pride from a few (not so many in fact!) falls, the predominant feeling is  in fact...  fulfillment. For me such physical fatigue is most welcome.
But there is still one aspect that keeps things a step away from perfection - food. How long can you keep going on highlander cuisine - sure it's fantastic after intensive physical activities, but you cannot condemn me for soon missing something lighter. Like my beloved italian cuisine. 
So the perfect day begins with beautiful views, crisp, clear air:

View from Kasprowy Wierch

and continues to get better with the help of a new chef de cuissine in Grand Nosalowy Dwór - Armando. I actually ordered lobster spaghetti, but then Armando brought this poor creature (still alive) and suggested preparing it in a different way, since it was quite a small one.

 I didn't mind. 

Polonia Hotel, Strauss Restaurant - Topfenpalatschinken

When winter comes I find it harder than ever to resist rich, hot desserts. And classic Topfenpalatschinken – an oven-baked pancake dough with cheese curd and almonds served with apricot compote is one of my favourite.

Boathouse - white chocolate perfection...

That's the creation of the Boathouse pastry chef, a white chocolate perfection. I cannot resist ordering it, always promising myself to just try ONE or even HALF a spoon, to "fondle the palate". Never happend. It's just too perfect.