2015 was a good year to be a passionate eater in Berlin. When I landed here in 2010, this was still a city where many people avoided restaurants altogether. And now? Berlin is drawing more and more young chefs and restaurateurs. Compared to Paris, London and New York, the barriers …
Read More »Berlin Dispatch: When Pide Leads to Döner, Part II
Photo: Rumen Milkow Something remarkable happened on the way to the movies a few weeks ago: Rumen and I hopped in a cab with a driver named Aziz – who used to make his living selling pieces of the Berlin Wall, and who’s been driving a taxi for 16 years …
Read More »Berlin Dispatch: When Pide Leads to Döner – Part I
Photo by Rumen Milkow Before he started driving a taxi 16 years ago, Aziz made his living selling pieces of the Berlin Wall. From 1990 to 1995 — his first years in Berlin — he manned a souvenir stand at Brandenburg Gate, learning German, observing the tourists, watching some of …
Read More »Berlin Dispatch: Rogacki Forever
A few days ago I met a Berlin taxi driver named Zlatan who told me his favorite place to eat is Rogacki, the superdeli/marketplace in Charlottenburg that started out as a smoked fish stand back in 1928. Once a week, Zlatan stops by the cafeteria at Rogacki for fried codfish …
Read More »Driving Hungry on Tour: Upcoming Readings
We’re taking this book on the road! If you’re in any of these seven cities, I hope you can join me for an evening of stories about hunger and wanderlust: New York: Monday, July 27, 2015 – 7:00PM – McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince Street Washington, DC: Tuesday, July 28, …
Read More »From the Archives: The Way to Albamonte
It’s Independence Day in Argentina, and I thought I’d celebrate from afar by re-posting the story of one of my all-time favorite Buenos Aires taxi adventures. I’ve been back to Albamonte many times since taxista Antonio dropped us off here, and I’ve never been disappointed. It isn’t only the thin-crust …
Read More »Palermo Postscript: On Street Food & Lemon Granita
The crowd had thinned out by the time I took this picture at Friggitoria Chiluzzo. You never know what treasures you might find when you’re wandering around after a taxi adventure — especially if you’re still hungry. As I was walking away from Trattoria da Salvo, the seafood restaurant on …
Read More »Berlin Dispatch: Something’s Missing at Onkel Ho
I knew nothing about the Vietnamese diaspora in Germany before I came to Berlin, much less about its impact on the city’s food scene. It was thanks to Rumen and Yüko — two taxi drivers with a soft spot for curry and chilies and peanut sauce — that I learned …
Read More »Berlin Dispatch: Fishing Under the S-Bahn
BERLIN — Dirk Waldeck is a man of a dying breed practicing a dying art in a place that’s in the process of selling its soul. “I could climb up the TV tower or go on a hunger strike,” said Dirk, when I asked him what he thought about his …
Read More »From Blog to Book, Part 6: In Production & in Limbo
This is the last in a six-part series about how Taxi Gourmet, the blog, led to Driving Hungry, the book. What happens at a traditional publishing house in those mysterious months between the day you deliver your manuscript (huzzah!) and the day your book comes out? 1. Your …
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