Burritos and Quark

Let's start with another picture from my balcony...because it's fall and it's kind of amazing that I have my own balcony!

If you don't know me very well, this may come as a surprise, but I LOVE food. I LOVE it! So today I share my experience with you via pictures of food. There are only a couple. So first, I come from California. This offers me some benefits in Berlin as well as some challenges. The benefits come from living in an area where many nations and cultures are represented. It is a blessing because living in a big city, I'm surrounded by many different people from all over the world, and it's not a surprise to me. It actually provides some comfort. It feels like home. My neighborhood has lots of people from Turkey and it's been fun to walk around and smile at the ladies wearing traditional clothing or the babies with (often) massive amounts of hair on top of their heads sleeping under piles of blankets fast asleep in a bustling train. It feels like home. The challenge of coming from California is that I LOVE spicy food and I REALLY LOVE (all caps shows how much I mean it) Mexican food. I knew there wouldn't be Mexican food here and I could try to make my own but it may be a cheap substitute. Well, SURPRISE! I got Mexican food yesterday. And it was BOMB! And it was SPICY! And I was happy. Here is a picture of my second day leftovers. (The place was sort of like Chipotle. So good. Bonus: it's right next to my German Language school so...they'll be seeing a lot of me. )

This story is an old one. Here is a picture of my breakfast. German breakfast is great because it's not all sugar and syrup. It's hearty. You can have bread, cheese, pretzels, and coffee. It's wonderful and savory and so perfect for my taste. This is my favorite bread here so far (besides pretzels which I also love). It's dark and dense and has pumpkin seeds all over and in it. On the left is a piece with Quark (kvark). It has dill and green onions in it. It's such an interesting dip and I really enjoy it. Drizzled on top is really wonderfully thick and sweet balsamic vinegar. MMM. On the right is quark (plain) that tastes like plain Greek yoghurt. On top of it is strawberry jam. This is a traditional German thing (the bread and the quark). I really enjoyed it and I liked it a double dose because in my German class in high school, whenever we signed up to bring something for our Oktoberfest/Christmas/endofschool parties, our teacher would always ask us who was bringing the quark? We always poo pooed her but now I see she was right (about so many things). What a wise lady. What other pearls of wisdom did I miss from Frau Koeller?