Virginia Spinks, Author at Go Eat Give

Eat Around The World in Berlin

If there is anything to take advantage of in Berlin, besides exploring its rich history and plethora of museums, it would definitely be the food culture. Berlin is a diverse city with residents from all over the world, which creates a very unique opportunity to have all of these culinary traditions at your fingertips. I hardly ate German food while in Berlin, because there were so many global cuisines I was craving for. Although if I did want some German food, I would go to a Berlin CurryWurst stand on the street and grab a snack.

Street food is trending in Berlin. It is common for friends to go to small restaurants on a square and grab a great, quick meal for 5 Euros before moving on to the next adventure for the night. One of Berlin’s best street foods is actually the Doner Kebap. This food tradition came to Berlin with Turkish migrants in the 1970’s. Doner Kebap is your best bet for a delicious, filling meal for only 3.5 Euros, and every place has a slightly different way of making it. It can have fresh veggies, homemade sauces, chicken or beef, falafel or haloumi, in toasted bread or wrap-style (Durum). I always suggest just getting “everything,” because then you get the fullest, most flavorful experience.

It is rumored (and I can confirm) that the best Doner is at Mustafa’s Gemuse Kebap in the Kreuzberg district, right outside of the Mehringdam U-Bahn station. The cue for this food stand is almost always at least forty-five minutes long, but it’s well worth the wait, especially if you go into the nearby Night Shop and get a beer to enjoy while you chat with friends in line. The Doner at Mustafa’s bursts with many savory flavors, including curry, and teriyaki.

There were many dining establishments in Berlin that were so good, I wanted to go back, but because I was short on time, Mustafa’s is the only place I actually returned to, cue and all.

Gemuse” means vegetable, which Mustafa’s puts plenty of in their version of Doner.

If you’re in the mood to taste multiple offerings, try out Berlin’s attempt at the urban food-stall trend, Markthalle Neun. This re-purposed train depot houses stands represents multiple global cuisines as well as German delicacies. This was a neat place to visit, but also has much more room to expand its offerings.

I had a snack at Kame, a Japanese Bakery, which serves up matcha pastries and cookies. Although, their Onigirazu Sukiyaki Beef was also delicious!

Right around the corner from Markthalle Neun, you can find the best Sudanese food in Berlin at Sahara Imbiss. Walk into the small restaurant and place your order for Haloumi, falafel, or meat, in sandwich or plate form, which they serve with tasty roasted vegetables and cover with homemade peanut sauce. The food is plentiful, flavorful, and also a steal at around 5 Euros.

Plate with salad, haloumi, falafel, and roasted veggies!

The diversity of cheap eats you can take advantage of in Berlin is truly endless. I happened upon many great spots to enjoy some Pho, especially for those cool early summer evenings in Berlin. I tested out Co Chu, which served some mint, ginger, and lemon tea that was to die for, as well as the cheaper street food option, Hamy, where the small menu changes every night.

If you need to fit a sushi break in with the long days exploring all the treasures of Museum Island, I recommend this spot near the Freidrichstrasse U-bahn station. Sushi Miyabi (Mitte) is just a few blocks from Museum Island and has a sushi happy hour all the time. What is sushi happy hour, you may ask? It is half-off sushi all-day-every-day. While this may be a poorly-veiled marketing gimmick, I found this sushi to be fresh, delicious, plentiful, and more than reasonably priced.

Lastly, if you’re like me and need to squeeze in a little work time even while traveling, I highly recommend paying Betahaus a visit. It is one of those coffee shops designed to be a work environment, and the aesthetic is incredibly clean and bright with an enormously helpful and kind staff. I felt right at home there.

~ By Virginia Spinks, former intern at Go Eat Give and a recent graduate of Emory University majoring in religion and anthropology. As an Atlanta native, she has grown up around many different cultures and cuisines, and has always had a passion for food. She views food as an experience: a point of connection to bring people together and create lasting memories.

We’re Bringing the Puerto Rican Food Party to Atlanta

The coast, the mountains, and the home: that is the landscape of authentic Puerto Rican cuisine painted by Atlanta-based renowned Chef, Hector Santiago. Known for his stint on Top Chef, Santiago has made a name for himself through his restaurants Pura Vida, and his most recent foray in the Atlanta food scene, El Super Pan.

INSPIRED BY THE WORLD – El Super Pan boasts traditional dishes from all around the Spanish Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic), some of which have very non-traditional fusion elements from other international cuisines, particularly flavors from East Asia. One would never see pork belly buns, fish sauce, or anchovies in Puerto Rican cuisine, but Santiago is a firm believer in the expansion of what we know about food. He is inspired to create by the fresh ingredients grown in whatever environment he happens to be cooking in.

El Super Pan's pork belly bun, a fusion of Spanish-Caribbean and Korean cuisine — El Super Pan’s pork belly bun, a fusion of Spanish-Caribbean and Korean cuisine

Santiago, along with other Atlanta-based Puerto Rican Chefs, Julio Delgado and Andre Gomez, will be planning a menu for Go Eat Give Destination Puerto Rico that provides a true glimpse into the everyday food in Puerto Rico; a real slice of life. But don’t get me wrong, there is nothing “run-of-the-mill” about everyday Puerto Rican food. It is full of layers of spices, textures, and strong flavors, because food and eating is such a big part of Puerto Rican culture. Santiago said that when he was a kid in Puerto Rico, cooking at a young age was extremely common, and all of his friends used to come to his house to cook together, laugh, play, and eat.

Two staples of Puerto Rican cuisine that you will see as a base for just about every Puerto Rican dish are Sofrito and Adobo. Sofrito is a rich mixture of peppers, onions, tomatoes, salt and pepper that serves as a starting out place for much of Puerto Rican cuisine. Adobo is a complementary mixture of spices that one would be extremely remiss to leave out of their Puerto Rican dish: cumin, corriander, oregano, black pepper, garlic, etc. These spices and vegetable bases make cuisine so flavorful and bold, it’s easy to take for granted. Santiago recalled the first time that he tried oatmeal in the mainland United States, and he thought, “what is this?” “Puerto Ricans hate bland food,” he laughed “at home oatmeal has vanilla, orange zest, cinnamon, sugar, a little salt. It’s one of those big differences.”

YEAR-ROUND FOOD FESTIVALS – Santiago explained that there is an immense festival culture in Puerto Rico. There is always something going on and with that, comes the food. He joked, “If you’re not drinking Cerveza in Puerto Rico, you’re probably eating!” There is truly a festival for every occasion on Puerto Rico and for the harvest of every possible staple food you could think of. There are coffee festivals, banana festivals, taro festivals, corn festivals, tomato festivals, orange festivals and more than five different festivals dedicated to crab. Puerto Rico is also a growing home to very large, internationally recognized culinary festivals, like Saborea (savor) where over 70 chefs, brewers, mixologists, and baristas come together to celebrate the best the country has to offer. I’m not sure there are many other places in the world where food is SO central and so celebrated–that’s how you know it’s going to be good.

Bacalaitos--fritters of salted cod, a common beach snack — Bacalaitos–fritters of salted cod, a common beach snack

THE COAST – To start, the chefs will present a taste of the coast. Attendees will taste bacalitos, which are fritters of salted cod. Santiago says bacalaitos are a very traditional Puerto Rican dish, despite the fishes’ natural cold water habitat. They are a food tradition left over from Spanish influence, so they import the cod to keep the tradition alive. There will be a variety of empanadas and alcapurrias. Alcapurrias, unlike empanadas, are made with a batter of mashed root vegetables like plantains and taro, and are often stuffed with fish or crab. This is the food people think of and crave in the coastal regions of Puerto Rico: little, deliciously crunchy, fried seafood snacks that are easy to grab and go.

An example of mofongo, a staple of Puerto Rican cuisine

THE MOUNTAINS – For the main courses, Santiago, Gomez, and Delgado will prepare a taste of the mountains, a frequent weekend escape destination for many Puerto Rican families. One of the dishes include Mofongo. Although you will find similar cuisine throughout the Spanish Caribbean, mofongo is thought of as originally Puerto Rican. It features green plantains mashed, fried, and served with crispy pork chops spiced with, of course, adobo and garlic. Pork is a common and celebrated form of protein in Puerto Rico. So, we will also get to taste Lechon Asao, pork slow roasted until the skin is thin and crispy, which will be served with arroz con gandules (pigeon peas).

Arroz con leche, a puerto rican rice pudding

THE CASA – For the final course, we’ll get to taste Puerto Rican desserts commonly served at home such as flan, arroz con dulce, rice pudding with cinnamon, coconut and raisins, and a Puerto Rican favorite: papaya con queso. As I was speaking with him, I could tell Santiago clearly favored the latter as he nodded and said, “It’s amazing.”

All of these thoughtfully planned out and expertly prepared dishes, combined with the live music and dancing always present at Puerto Rican food festivals, we are all going to feel as if we are actually there. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate this amazingly rich culture than through a fiesta of food, one of the things it holds most dear. So let’s eat!

GET YOUR TICKETS TO DESTINATION PUERTO RICO TODAY!

The Second Shelf, Changing the Face of Craft Beer

A Unique New Title

Jason Santamaria is a Beer Architect, a somewhat unusual title. He is the president and one of the co-founders of one of Atlanta’s newest players in the Craft Beer scene, Second Self Beer Company. I recently had the pleasure of visiting the brewery at their location on the West Side of Atlanta and got to know exactly what he and Chris Doyle, “The Alchemist”, were building.

Jason and Chris at the opening of their Tasting Room for Craft Beer — Jason (left) and Chris (right) at the opening of their Tasting Room.

A Partnership a Longtime in the Making

Chris and Jason have been brewing together since 2005. Jason comes from a culinary family and he claims that this background is part of the reason he felt a connection to brewing craft beer. But for him, it wasn’t just about making the best version of a beer that many others were already producing, it was about making something entirely different.

The first beer that Jason and Chris produced and took to brewing competitions, was a Red Hop Rye. The problem was, it didn’t exactly fit into any particular beer category. Essentially, they combined elements from three different beer categories: Red Ale, IPA, and Rye Wheat beer, and came up with a new style of beer.

For Jason, “it’s a perfect example of American ingenuity in beer.” This is Second Self’s beer philosophy. They are constantly working to create craft beers that have never been thought of or heard of; sophisticated not just in structure or flavor, but in concept as well.

Jason has even introduced international cuisines to American craft beer. Second Self’s “Thai Wheat” was inspired by Jason’s travels to Thailand in 2010. He took cooking classes while there and learned about a traditional spice blend, “well, technically a tea,” he said, that is now the base of the beer. They use fresh lemongrass and ginger, which is something you would never find in a traditional wheat beer. He mentioned that it took about 100 iterations to perfect this drink.

Craft Beers on tap at Second Self Beer Company — Craft Beers on Tap at Second Self Beer Company

It’s All In The Details

This kind of detail-oriented production is what is needed to make the type of beers that Jason envisions: Beers that are able to pair with a multitude of cuisines and flavors. Beers that are not too overbearing, but that still maintain a complexity of flavor that make them a delight to drink on their own. Jason talks about beer as a sophisticated sommelier would talk about wine, and there’s a reason for that. “Wine’s been at the dinner table too long and beer needs to have its place too,” he says.

I believe Second Self is creating a new space within American Craft Beer that is doing just that; it asks for a spot at the dinner table based on its merit and thoughtfulness, and I believe the beer’s Second Self is producing deserves that spot. So does renowned Atlanta-based Puerto Rican Chef, Hector Santiago, which is why you will see Second Self beers alongside our amazing menu of expertly prepared Puerto Rican dishes at Destination Puerto Rico (by the way, I am partial to the Mole Porter). Any beer with as much insight, enterprise, and creativity behind it as the ones Jason and Chris painstakingly draw the blueprints for, build and perfect, is sure to bring not just beer, but any dining experience, up to a whole new level.

~ By Virginia Spinks, an intern at Go Eat Give. Virginia is a senior at Emory University majoring in religion and anthropology. As an Atlanta native, she has grown up around many different cultures and cuisines and has always had a passion for food. She views food as an experience: a point of connection to bring people together and create lasting memories.

Street Eats and Summer Festivals

This year was the 5th annual Atlanta Street Food Festival, but expectant patrons may have noticed a pretty large difference between the festival this year as compared to the past few years. The event was moved from its popular central location in Piedmont Park to Stone Mountain Park. If you dread what impact festivals have on your car mileage or your pocket, here are my recommendations on how to make the most of your festival experience…

Plan to Spend the Entire Day

If you are just going for a few hours, a $15 parking fee, a $25 cover charge and the price of food from vendors on top of everything, seems like a lot to ask. Not to mention, Stone Mountain Park is out of the way for many folks inside the perimeter, and this past weekend sported Heat Indexes of over 104 degrees Fahrenheit. However, I discovered that the people able to make the best of this situation, planned to get their money’s worth by bringing their own lawn chairs and setting them up in the shade for the whole day. This way, you could avoid the heat, have guaranteed seating, and have the time to digest between rounds of eating.

Many people had the right idea in bringing their hammocks! There's lots of trees and natural shade in Stone Mountain Park! — Many people had the right idea in bringing their hammocks! There is lots of trees and natural shade in Stone Mountain Park.

Find the Unique Street Eats

From what I saw this weekend, there are trends in what food trucks sell. I felt that every other truck sold the same tried (but true) foods: burgers, lobster rolls, fried green tomatoes, and some variation of low country boil. But the most popular trucks were the ones that specialized on one food type, or sold food that nobody else was selling. Here were some of the highlights:

Chazito's Cuban Food truck from Savannah, GA served up some delicious empanadas con pollo, tostones, and maduros — Chazito’s Cuban Food truck from Savannah, GA served up some delicious empanadas con pollo, tostones, and maduros.

Mac The Cheese Food Truck was never without a small line . They served me up a Fontina Mac and Cheese although they were serving mac every which way, including with lobster. — Mac The Cheese Food Truck was never without a line. They served Fontina Mac and Cheese although they were serving mac every which way, including with lobster.

Bollywood Zing! based out of Smyrna served up some flavorful samosa chaat (samosa with warm chick pea salad on top), however we did miss their biryani! — The Bollywood Zing! truck, based out of Smyrna, served flavorful samosa chaat (samosa with warm chick pea salad on top), however we did miss their biryani.

Roti Rolls, ranked the best food truck in Charleston features eccelctic sandwiches inspired by many global cuisines and sources their food "farm to truck." This sandwich is their "Foghorn Leghorn;" organic chicken, coconut curried vegetables and house-made kimchi all on Indian Roti. Needless to say, it exploded with flavor. — Roti Rolls, ranked the best food truck in Charleston, features eccelctic sandwiches inspired by many global cuisines, and they source their food “farm to truck.” This sandwich is their “Foghorn Leghorn”: organic chicken, coconut curried vegetables and house-made kimchi all on Indian Roti. Needless to say, it exploded with flavor.

The “Not As Famous Cookie Company” made an appearance with their cookie truck. As a dessert truck serving only cookies, it stood out amongst all the Italian Ice stands. And these cookies were delicious; they should be famous. My favorite was the peanut-butter chocolate pretzel.

Know That You’re Giving Back

The ticket price for entry may have seemed steep for some, but most attendees may not have known that part of the proceeds went to benefit an important Atlanta-based non-profit, The Giving Kitchen. The Giving Kitchen grants help to those in the Atlanta restaurant community dealing with crises (of any sort).

All in all, this festival was definitely worth going to. Although a bit far removed from it’s beloved Piedmont Park location, the new location certainly helped with the crowd problem. The way the trucks were spaced out in Stone Mountain Park made the event feel more like a relaxed family fun day at the park, than like the congested street festivals that can be irritatingly difficult to navigate. The organization and logistics of the festival could still use improvement, perhaps with a more detailed map and description of the food vendors, or use of an app-like guidebook. However, it already seems that the Atlanta Street Food Festival is getting better year after year.

~ By Virginia Spinks, intern at Go Eat Give. Virginia is a senior at Emory University majoring in religion and anthropology. As an Atlanta native, she has grown up around many different cultures and cuisines, and has always had a passion for food. She views food as an experience: a point of connection to bring people together and create lasting memories.