half liter of hell.

Oof. We are working like dogs, and having a hard time finding awesome food, and so this is why you are not hearing from a duck.

For a second there it seemed like things were trending in a more positive direction. After decent Japanese on Tuesday and fucked-up dessert pasta Wednesday night, Thursday night we went to Yam Yam, which in Berlin means Korean food, not Italian.

My bibimbap was solidly good, especially after throwing my seaweed salad and Hilly's kimchee in there. But Hilly's tofu-filled mandu were just a little boring and again, weirdly sweet. The banchan of spinach and seaweed were both nice and fresh-tasting, I'll probably end up back here at some point b/c it's supposedly the best Korean in town, cheap, and right across the street.

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Last night after a loooong day of work, we trekked out to Schoneberg to Renger-Patzsch for our nightly dinner/debrief b/c I'd seen nothing but rave reviews from bloggers about their unpretentious comfort food, especially the Alsatian tarte flambées.

And yes, things started very promisingly. This is HBF's summer salad with peaches and a tarte flambée with leeks, walnuts, and bleu d'Avergne to share. It was very tasty, kind of like a lavash pizza, friendly toppings on a superthin crust, you definitely didn't want to stop eating it.























But then: poor Hilly. She's been getting the worst of our disappointing food, I'll chalk it partly up to bad luck and partly up to vegetarianism. There were basically two things she could've ordered on what was a pretty meat-centric menu (calf's head risotto anyone?), and she went for the chanterelles with cheese dumplings. Out of pure gallantry, I took the other one, a pike perch crisp-fried with cabbage and caraway jus.



My fish was pleasant and cooked very nicely but ultimately just kind of plain. Nice technique, not much adventure or imagination. Or caraway. Hilly's dish was....not pleasant. The cheese dumplings were baseball-sized globs of dry, salty nast. Like if you went to the Natuurwinkel and bought one of their generic "veggie burgers" and re-pureed it and then balled it in a fist and then cooked the living shit out of it. Worse, her chanterelles were completely tasteless, even though they'd been showered with fresh thyme.

So, WTF, Berlin!??!?!?!?!!!?!?!. Do we really have to run the carnivorous gauntlet of Rutz after all for a 14-euro salad just so Hilly can eat something decent and Berlin can start to redeem itself? Do we????????? They do have nice wine.

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