If you’ve met Le Boyfriend or if you’ve read this blog for a while, you would know that he  is obsessed with Burgers, and throughout our stay in New Zealand, he made it his mission to find the best burger joint in  the country (That’s how the burger quest was born.) We wanted to do the same here but I realised that even though he can eat them every day and is quite picky about them, we’ve never actually tried to make our own, so this time we bring you “The Burger Quest: Homemade Edition”

A couple of months ago I convinced le boyfriend to buy a stand mixer and the only reason he said yes was because it came with a meat grinder attachment….which meant…future burgers. So last weekend we put it to use.

For the patties, he used a mixture of rump steak, brisket and Scotch fillet, salt, pepper, a bit of paprika, Worcestershire sauce and an egg. The burger itself consisted of a hamburger bun (store-bought, we previously made our own buns but this time we didn’t have the time) Emmental cheese, crispy bacon, tomato and lettuce. I attempted to do an Alioli sauce but failed, so we used basic mustard and ketchup sauce.

Continue reading

Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung

Say what?!
Yes today I encountered this word and I thought it was worth sharing it with you.

“Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung” is simply translate to “Certificate of Disability” but is merely a “sick leave certificate.” Le Boyfriend’s been feeling under the weather the last couple of days which meant he had to stay home, because of this his work asked for a certificate signed by a Doctor confirming he was sick.

So if you are ever sick and have to take some days of work…make sure you have your Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung ready.

If there’s something we loved about New Zealand and definitely brought with us to Germany….is DIY Sundays. Actually they make so much sense here, Sunday’s are a bit of a drag in Berlin, everything is closed except for a couple of cafes or restaurants, which means you have to jam pack your weekend into Saturday. So DIY Sunday’s are actually a great way to keep yourself busy.

Le boyfriend and I love interior design and every time we move house we like to match the house to its own style. Le Boyfriend’s Argentinian apartment was Modern, New Zealand was Industrial and Berlin in more Scandinavian, of course here are things that move from one house to the next but the main style is different.

Last Sunday, we decided to spend the day finishing a couple of bits and pieces around the house. We finally got around building our bed, painting some decorative pillows, coating the last part of the dining room table and we decided to re purpose a stool we had by painting the legs and making it a side table for out internet router and tech bits.

Continue reading

I’m writing this from my bed, with long PJs on, a long sleeve shirt, a cardigan and with my fox slippers by the side of my bed, which can only mean one thing….autumn is here and with it, cold and rainy days in grey Berlin.

To fight the cold weather you could expect me to bake up something warm, something spicy and decadent, pair it up with coffee or tea and snuggle up under a comfy blanket. Well no, I refuse to give in to Fall and I decided to bake a cake that reminds me of summer, of birthday parties and easily my favourite cake of all time: A Lemon Meringue Pie (Simply called Lemon Pie in Argentina)

I invited a few friends for tea, so the pressure is on, a  buttery crust, zesty lemon curd filling and topped with a sweet italian meringue, who hard could it be?….well will find out since its the first time I’m making it.

I used Mary Berry’s Lemon Meringue Pie recipe this time, that you can find here, I’ve been obsessing with The Great British Bake Off lately so I had to try one of their recipes. I think next time I will use less lemons since my lemon curd turned out a bit too sour. I know is not the prettiest pie but it was my first try, we’ll see next time how it turns out.

Jules.-

Last month one of our New Zealand friends (Mr S) had to fly to Düsseldorf for work, so we decided to fly out there and spend the weekend catching up. We hadn’t seen each other for over half a year so we spent more time chilling and talking than touring around the city, but what we saw, we loved. Every time we asked someone, what’s Düsseldorf like? They would always answer with: Oh Düsseldorf is super dull/there’s nothing really there/there’s not much to do… Well, colour me surprised when we stumbled across Düsseldorf craziest street, full of bars and restaurants blasting music, people on the streets and the weirdest 90’s pop inspired Oktoberfest tent.

It was so nice catching up with Mr S, telling us all about the little one and the teeny one on the way, having coffees by the canals and feeding geese, walking through an amazing food market and listening to live music on the street. I have to say I completely disagree with everything everyone said, Düsseldorf was great!

Friday marked the beginning of the Berlin Festival of Light, an annual event that takes place in the city and where various buildings and monuments become canvases for light art and 3d mapping projections. Every day from 7pm to 12am different buildings become part of this installation.

Last Saturday (if you follow me on Instagram you might have seen it) Le Berlin Boys and I took the U-Bahn to Alexanderplatz and begun our light tour through Under den Linden, stopping at the Museum Island, Humboldt University, Gendarmenmarkt and Brandembug Tor. I’ve never see so many people on the streets since the Lange Nacht der Museen (Long night of the museums) and given that we are starting to fell the chilly fall weather I was actually surprised to the amount to people.

For the next couple of days many of these buildings will remain as stops in the Festival, but if you are interested in a particular place, there are many events and monuments that will be part of the circuit on specific days, so make sure you check the website so you don’t miss out.

Currywurst…Berlin’s favourite dish. So loved by the city that it has it’s own museum… IT’S OWN MUSEUM! dedicated to this dish.

Currywurst

Herta Heuwer is the name of the lady attributed to the invention of the Currywurst in 1945, after she started selling this cheap dish to British soldiers. A typical currywurst consists of a grilled pork sausage (Bratwurst), whole or cut into chunks, topped with ketchup and a mixed of curry powder and spices. Usually is served with french fries and some places will make their own sausages with curry inside the filling as well.

As I said before, this is such a beloved dish that to commemorate it’s 60th anniversary, the Currywurst Museum opened in Berlin and it’s dedicated to it (I should know…I live two blocks from it), according to this museum it receives 350.000 visitors per year and there is an estimate of 800 million currywurst eaten per year in the country.

On a ‘type’ note:
Cooper Black was a predominant lettering style popularized by Oswald Bruce Cooper in Chicago and the Midwest of America in the 1920s, and it exhibits influences of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and the Machine Age. 

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen that I’ve been trying out their new ‘story’ option and posting a s##tload of photos and videos from our weekend trip to Palma. So without rambling too much I’d though I’d give you a bit of backstory.

Last week Le Boyfriend’s father celebrated his birthday and since he’s been living in Spain for a couple of years now, we thought we’d fly to Palma de Mallorca for the weekend and make it a weekend celebration. So we packed our swimsuit and jandals and took a plane to escape the chilli weather of Berlin.

Even though we caught the (only) thunderstorm of the year, we managed to get some sun and enjoy the island in full. We walked the historic city centre and on Saturday we caught a boat that went through different ‘Calas’ and watched through a see-through bottom how they feed the fish.

But let’s be real, if there’s something spaniards are known for..is their food. Mallorca is known specially for two things: Pan am Oli and Enzaimada. The first one is more of a rite, you have the bread, the rubbing of garlic, the brushing of the tomato, the salt and olive oil. And the second one is so good that the airport had to issue an order setting a maximum amount of enzaimadas someone can carry on a plane given the amount tourist were taking home, so you can imagine how delicious this pastry is.

So after stuffing ourselves with three different types of paellas, relishing on wine and sangria and getting a bit of sun while snorkelling with the fishes, we had to say  ‘sta logo (good bye) and get back to chilli Berlin. I hope Le Dad in Law had a great time because we sure did, and as soon as we get a good offer we will be back for more.

I know what you are thinking, ‘Those are Pretzels…with P’, well…. no, actually these soft snacks are called Bretzels in Germany and it is said that its name changed in the USA because there were re introduced by the Pennsylvanian Dutch community. Still in Germany, even though the name varies throughout the region, they are still named with a B: Brezn, Bretzel, Brezzl, Brezgen, Bretzga, Bretzet, Bretschl and so on.

Bretzel (Pretzel)

These snacks go way back, some say even to the early middle ages. It is a baked bread, commonly shaped into a twisted knot, complemented with a lye treatment and seasoned with salt. It’s name may derive from the latin ‘bracellus’ or ‘bracchiola’ (bracelet/little arms) that could have to do with its shape.

Even though people still argue about its origin, the Bretzel has (to this day) big ties with the Christian religion. Some say it’s shape resemble hands is prayer or that the three holes represent the Holy Trinity. But the biggest reason yet, is because it’s minimal ingredients made them into a meal that could be eaten during lent season, and they quickly became the Easter and ‘lent meal’ by excellence. Just as we ‘hide eggs’ nowadays, people used to hide Bretzels for kids to find.

Since the 12th century, (mostly in southern Germany) the bretzel has been used by bakers and its guild as an emblem and can be found hanging outside bakeries. It’s usually savoury and can be eaten with butter, mustard or cold cuts. Sweet versions are quite popular in some regions, topped with sugar, chocolate or covered with nuts.

Mythology and traditions: 

• New year’s Bretzels: On January 1st, people give each other slightly sweet Bretzels to symbolise good luck and good fortune.
• On the 1st of May, boys used to paint bretzels on the houses of girls they fancied.
• An upside down Bretzel could be a sign of disgrace.
• ‘Bretzel Sunday’ is a festival in Luxemburg were boys would give girls a bretzel to show they were in love with them, in return the girls would give them a decorated easter egg.

On a ‘type’ note:
Bauhaus
ITC Bauhaus was designed by Edward Benguiat and Victor Caruso based on the prototype created by Herbert Bayer of the Dessau Bauhaus in 1925. It’s name comes from the Bauhaus movement and Design School created by Walter Gropius in 1919. 

A couple of days ago, I set to write this post and ended going on a bit of a rambling on the way I like to travel. (Which you can read here) But given I clearly took off my chest what I wanted to say…let’s talk about Brussels!

Le boyfriend and I were able to get two plane tickets to Brussels for less than 10$ each, and being so cheap we decided that it made more sense just to get there early in the morning and fly back to Berlin at night. Which meant 3 hours of sleep and to Brussels way too early.

As I said in the last post, we don’t follow maps and we like just walking around, so after getting off at the Bruxelle Central train station, we just walked around until we found a café that was open. I don’t know if it was because it was early or because it was Saturday, but the streets looked like a scene of a post apocalyptic movie, they were absolutely empty, quiet and barely lit.

After walking for a while and praying for the clouds to go away and give a sunny day, we found JAT’s, a super modern café close to the Palais de Bruxelles. We ordered two yummy bagels, some coffees and relaxed while the city awoke.

There’s nothing like yummy food to regain strength, and as we walked down, towards the Grand Place Le Boyfriend had to basically un-glue me (is that a thing?…in spanish is..) from every chocolatiers, macaroon stores, and fancy antique shop window.

We had coffee number two at the Grand Place, which we had all for ourselves since it was so early, there we found out that the week after there was going to be a gigantic, amazing flower carpet installed in the middle of the square, so we were able to get a few glimpses of what was going on, as well as a couple of weddings taking place in the town hall. (I’ve never seen so many gorgeous brides and grooms in my life)

Being such a sweet tooth, I couldn’t help myself and stop at every single candy shop and chocolatiers, I knew Belgium was known for its chocolate, but if you mix delicious sweets with amazing store design that’s a win win in my book. We walked through Saint Huberts Gallerie and over to the Rue des Bouchers, which is filled with lights and music and countless restaurants. (Pro tips here: Given its popularity, it does feel like a tourist trap, with overpriced menus and people shouting at you to get in their restaurants, we decided to get out lunch from somewhere else, but you might go there at a quieter time and it does look quite vibrant)

We had only slept 2 hours, so it came a time were we were just shattered, and luckily Brussels had blessed us with the most amazing sunny Saturday, so we bought two subway tickets and made our way to the Parc du Cinquantenaire, a beautiful 19th Century styled park, with flower gardens, fountains and art and arms museums. We had apparently travelled to Brussels just in time for a music festival, so after catching a glimpse of a band from Bolivia, we found ourselves in a massive Colombian party, with live music, traditional treats and one or two ‘very drunk’ party goers.

With a bit a latin music in our background, we put our sunglasses on, lied on the grass and had a cheeky nap al fresco to regain energy. A couple of hours later and a few weird discussions about pokemon go and we walked our way back to the Bruxelle Central train station through the European Quartier.

There were a couple of things we wanted to do, but we either didn’t have the time, or the fatigue got the best of us. But if these low-cost flights keep going Im positive we will give Bruxelle another go.