My latest Berlin visit was overdue, something always came up! I was more than happy to finally go there last weekend, mainly because I have wonderful friends in Berlin that I love very much. The fact that Berlin is a major vegan hub doesn’t hurt either. You can read my first account about Vegan Berlin here.
This visit started with some basic necessities for every Israeli – Hummus! The hummus scene in Hamburg does not exist, like, not at all. The few places that offer hummus offer a very bad version of it. And yes, of course, I make an excellent hummus at home but without real pitas and some other yummies on the side… it is not the same. So we went to Zula Café in Prenzlaurberg, it is an Israeli café that aims at Germans/foreigners crowed, meaning, the hummus is very delicate and rather tasteless – it is made with no (or hardly) any garlic and other spices, and the mixture of those is served on the side. I completely get it, some Germans have serious issues with garlic and not many people are used to eat it like we do in Israel. So the hummus was mediocre, pretty plain in taste.
BUT everything else was really delicious. Starting with the Pitas. Zula’s pitas are the best I have ever eaten outside Israel!!! Fresh, soft, delicious. I wanted to just take pitas and sleep on them! We also had wonderful spinach falafels in tahini, Israeli salad, fries, and an excellent grilled eggplant, in, well, you know it, tahini!
I have heard that there are many other Israeli hummus places in Berlin, and there are some really good Palestinian hummus places in Berlin, but they will have to wait for next time!
A generous dinner for 3 (everything that was mentioned plus another hummus dish, soup, and beer) – was almost 50 euro, the Berliners claimed it is not cheap but we all agreed that for the amount of food and for the fact it was not bad at all, it was worth it.
(I am seriously thinking about opening a vegan Israeli hummus place in Hamburg!)
The next day I met a dear friend at Kopps in Mitte. I have heard a lot about their brunch and we decided to give it a chance. Since the vegan brunches scene does not exist here in Hamburg either (yes, yes, there is a pattern of vegan things that are missing in Hamburg – there are a few random brunches here in there) I was pretty happy to discover a rich vegan brunch, with vegan cheese and butter, fresh breads and rolls, tons of salads and veggies and even vegan Spätzle, a German specialty that I ate once before going vegan. Overall the food was delicious, the coffee was excellent, and it felt good to spend two hours at such a fancy restaurant, eating and chatting. Kopps’ brunch is not cheap, 13.5 euro per person, not including coffee.
I was pretty happy about my experience at Kopps when I scheduled another brunch for Sunday, at Café Vux, Neukölln, with another dear friend. She told me it is the best vegan brunch in the city and that we must be there at 11:45 – because they open at 12:00 and if we will be late we will have no table. And so we did, we arrived early, met a lovely group of Israeli vegans plus one German vegan, and we all set together for, yes, the best vegan brunch in Berlin.
Look at this table! Besides something that was very salty (no clue what it was) and another thing with too much dill (apparently too much dill isn’t my thing) I have tried every single thing from this table, it was all excellent! Lots of flavors, fresh, interesting, and oh so delicious. We all agrees that those little balls were the best, not sure what was inside. For dessert , I tried the brownie (wow!), rice in coconut milk with cinnamon (wow!), and mini mini scones with homemade jam (wow).
The coffee at Vux was excellent, service and overall atmosphere was causal, happy, and very friendly. Price wise makes it, indeed, the best vegan brunch in town, 9.5 euro, not including drinks.
The sad thing about those two days with brunches was the lack of room for other food, I did manage to eat a wonderful veggies curry in coconut milk, with crispy tofu, that my friends cooked, but that’s it, although my “vegan places I want to try” list was long. Will keep it for the next visit!
What else happened this weekend?
I visited the place where David Bowie, my love, who I am still mourning, was living at while in Berlin, from 1976-1978:
I also went to the Anton Corbijn exhibit at the C/O museum, enjoyed it a lot:
Until the next post, goodbye!