It’s our last weekend in Berlin. At this point in a month-long trip, we like to revisit our favorite sites, bars, and restaurants in preparation for leaving. In Berlin, we are saying goodbye to: the Reichstag, Schwarze Traube – our neighborhood cocktail bar, and a sampling of Turkish fast food indulging in one last delicious Döner Kebab and a half Turkish-style rotisserie chicken. German food and beer will not be missed.
Berlin is an immigrant city as you can tell from the great variety of cheap ethnic eats available in the city. For example, we’ve enjoyed Vietnamese soups, Thai curries, Sudanese peanut chicken, Indian tea, and Italian pizza. Kreuzberg, our neighborhood for the month, is home to a huge number of Turkish immigrants and an accompanying number of Turkish restaurants. Having been to both Turkey and Kreuzberg, it’s worth debating who makes the best Döner Kebab. In fact, Berlin claims to be the inventor of this sandwich.
Turkish sandwiches in Berlin have almost endless variation. First, you start with the bread – fresh and fluffy floury squares, thin tortilla-style wrap bread, or a lightly charred baguette. Second, you slather on your sauces – a tangy, garlic yogurt sauce or a spicy pepper sauce (scharf) or both. Next, you need your protein, chicken, veal, or lamb scraped off the spinning stack of meat or a fresh-fried crispy falafel or köfte (spiced meatball). Finally, the sandwiches are topped with salad – shredded lettuce, slices of tomato and onions. Everything is rolled up or stuffed in and handed to you wrapped in tin foil for a quick lunch or dinner on the go.
However, our very last meal will be Hühnerhaus 36 rotisserie chicken. We’re not sure how it’s Turkish, but it’s run by and largely filled with Turkish people at all hours of the day. You get a crispy spiced skin surrounding moist meat and accompanied by their variation on the garlic and pepper dipping sauces. When we arrived in Berlin, we didn’t expect that chicken would be our last meal, but it’s too delicious to pass up.
Time to go eat!
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