It's not a reference to the Simon & Garfunkle MILF song. It's a modern Asian restaurant in Berlin with an Australian manager (named Hamish - and a great dry wit to match Hamish Blake) that was recommended to me by a very food-loving person.
It seems that the restaurant has changed somewhat since its inception and the Berlin Food Stories blog post, the difference being higher prices and different menu items (for example the Szechuan G&T I read about was not an option, with only London's dry gin served).
- Oyster & fried green tomatoes (fermented limequat & green chilli) €10 - slightly salty oyster, tangy and fried crisp tomato and a tart (almost tamarind) sauce. A good combination;
- Fried label rouge chicken & roe (creme fraiche, tobasco honey) €13.5 - the chicken was excellent, crisp, crunchy, tender and the other ingredients added some depth, complexity and a variety of flavours;
- Wood-grilled octopus & dry aged beef fat skewer €13.5 - tender charcoal-kissed octopus. I'm not sure the beef fat added much (maybe to the cooking but not so much the flavour?. I ate it anyway;
- Grilled Tiergarten crayfish, brown butter (shio koji, burnt lemon) €22.5 - small little crayfish served in a divine creamy butter sauce. The mix of oil, butter, salt and lemon was incredible;
- Lamb spare ribs, pine, green curry & hay (fermented green strawberry & plums) €31 - very expensive dish of reasonably tender lamb ribs that didn't have much flavour to them. The sauce was thick and much too salty;
- Plum, lavendar takoyaki pancakes (taga tairo kushu 10 year barrel-aged sake, clotted cream, yubeshi) €19 for 2 - obviously takoyaki from the shape and maker but not actually the tako. It was like a modern Asian version of afternoon tea replacing the scones. The plums were sweetly soaked, the sake was surprisingly sweet and easy to take, but overall the dish didn't leave me that wowed (especially for the price).
It's quite an expensive restaurant (especially for Berlin standards) but not outrageous. However I can't help having felt underwhelmed somewhat. The flavours and creations just can't match those from Melbourne's Longrain or Chin Chin. Maybe that's just what my body is used to.
Luckily there's a good brunch place in Mitte and it was discovered by accident after walking home late with a belly full of Cocolo ramen and just noticing that the cafe looked quirky and cool. For a Sunday lunch it was surprisingly easy to get a seat (albeit on a shared table, but no issue with that).
The decor includes some little figurines made by tape and placed in front of cactus on the table. Go figure.
The coffee was reportedly very good and smooth. The chai latte smelt very sweet and was made from powder. They also lathered on too much cinnamon. However after scraping this off, the underlying beverage was smooth, slightly spiced and not as sweet as feared.
- Sway Norway (herbed creme cheese, mashed beetroot, salmon, caramelised onion) €9 - a relatively standard open sandwich. Interestingly the bread was spread with half creme cheese and half beetroot spread;
- Drummers on the Highway (3 scrambled eggs, fried breasola, sausages, caramelised onion, oven baked potatoes, sriracha cream sauce, avocado, baby leaf, cherry tomatoes, dark sourdough bread) €14 - a very large offering without any surprise flavours. The sriracha cream (or mayo?) was a thinner lighter but equally spicy version and added some extra needed power.
A good breakfast with some nice drinks. It would be better if they had some smoothies, but baby steps. I also didn't get to try the Coco Anjela (which was described by another diner as deconstructed cheesecake).
There weren't many options for late night food after arriving on Saturday night. Well of course that's if you exclude the wurst and kebabs. Luckily a friend recommended a ramen place that wasn't too far away. He actually said the best tonkotsu in Berlin is at Hako Ramen, but unfortunately I won't have the opportunity to get out that far.
Even at 2245pm, there was a short queue and in the end had to sit outside next to a bunch of young French smokers. At least the staff are all Japanese.
- Gyoza €5 - quite expensive for 5 pieces fried together. Small amount of filling too;
- Tonkotsu ramen (poached pork, pork belly, egg) €10 - the best parts were the thick slabs of delicious chashu and pork belly. Really excellent. However the noodles were cooked until soft (they didn't offer a choice, although I could have asked I suppose, but wanted to see how they would naturally serve it) and the broth had ok flavour but not very thick and could have been more "porky";
- Wantan (shrimp dumplings, poached chicken, vegetables) €10 - a chicken-based broth with obviously less flavour than the tonkotsu. It wouldn't be my choice of ramen (and it wasn't) so wouldn't recommend it.
There's shichimi and sesame seeds to grate on the table although no pickles or garlic. Given more time and a slightly larger belly, I would definitely have ordered kaedama €2 (and requested extra hard). They also have calpico to drink (which is a nice touch). I'd try the tantan next time for a change just to see if I liked it more than the tonkotsu.
It's not the best but don't get me wrong - it's decent and serviceable and I'd eat it happily again.
German cuisine isn't particularly well regarded. Further still, Berlin isn't known to be a food town especially for what can be respected as German style cuisine. Thus searching for somewhere to eat for the only dinner on a weekend trip actually proved to be quite difficult.
Eventually (exactly how I can't recall) came across the name Dos Palillos - an Asian/Japanese-style tapas place originally based in Barcelona and relatively recently expanded into Berlin. Although it doesn't have the most universally favourable reviews online, itcertainly sounded interesting and more appealing to most of the other considerations in Berlin.
The menu is basically limited to a set course - the longest journey is about 19 courses, but you can choose shorter ones should you feel less gluttonous.
Naturally, I was glutton-full and ordered the menu Dos Palillos Festival.
- Aperitif - orange & mango sake, alcoholic & refreshing shot;
- Tsukemono (marinated vegetables) - mountain potato & yuzu and marinated spring onions;
- White Aspargus topped with miso, mayonnaise & soy sauce - really nice, clean asparagus without the powerful flavour of the common green variety;
- Namban Zuke with Red Snapper - red snapper, carrot, asparagus in a tangy rice vinegar marinade;
- Sunomono (Japanese salad) - two types of seaweed with mussels complete with rich seawater flavour;
- Crab Salad with Pomelo & Roasted Peanuts - great texture combination with nice sourness cutting into the crab (my peanut-free friend received a salad of octopus, cucumber & sesame seeds);
- Navajas (razor clam thai style) - really really delicious razor clams with curry oil;
- Kimchi cabbage, radish, salted octopus;
- Shabu shabu of octopus, enoki mushroom, squid & Wagyu beef in light soy flavoured soup;
- Anchovy Tempura filled with umeboshi topped with yuzu powder - unusual and great flavour combination of salty anchovies, sour umeboshi and citrus yuzu;
- Grilled eggplant with dark & light miso and shiso leaf - fantastic texture with strong miso similar to the well known black miso cod variations around the world;
- Prawn-Steamed Dumpling (Chinese dumplings made with potato flour & filled with fresh small prawns & Iberico pork belly) - looked great, but not particularly different to usual yumcha other than an added bacon-ish edge;
- Eel Temaki with Nori - self-wrapped, crispy nori and melting quality roasted eel;
- Baby Vegetable Wok - standard stir fry vegetables, but a good change during the course;
- Meat Gyoza (pan-fried crispy Japanese dumpling with minced pork & nira) - decent, but not as juicy inside as the best I've had;
- Japo Burger (homemade bread, beef, cucumber, ginger, topped with shiso leaf) - pattie with ketchup & shiso marinade mixed into it and lots of flavour; sadly too small;
- Grilled Pork Rib Cantonese-Style - Iberian pork rib roasting over fire all night in front of us. Not as tender as it looked but still tasted great as expected;
- Fruta Cru - Melon soaked in Chinese rice wine, pineapple soaked in sambuca, apple soaked in sake, pear eaten with spearmint; strong and refreshingly alcoholic;
- Japanese mochi cakes with strawberry filling topped with strawberry jelly, strawberry cup filled with strawberry vodka.
All-in-all a nice set course meal. €70 for 19 fusion Japanese-Spanish courses really isn't that much. Good to see the finest cuisine in the world being fused into European kitchens.
Next time I would order the same 19 course extravanganza. Even if you aren't as hungry, don't skimp on the experience. You'll regret it later when you walk around Berlin searching for something else decent that isn't a wurst.