Rogacki, I love you

This is on such a backlog. This happened on June 5th, 2009

Peiz had just left Berlin, and I awoke bleary eyed and all alone. Hmmm a whole day free with nothing planned. After chowing down on some squirrel muesli, bio yogurt (I'm not sure what that means exactly), blueberries and goats cream cheese slathered carrots, what else to think about but...lunch. My dad called me to say he just remembered that I was in Berlin and when he was watching Anthony Bourdain, there was a deli/meat market/food extravaganza with every cut of meat and every slab of cheese you could imagine!!!!!!! You could even eat there too and there was so much food, it was OBSCENE!

PERFECT! A day of culture (museums) and obscene gluttony.

The first task was trying to locate it. My dad couldn't remember what the place was called but could describe it in great vivid detail, which made it extra frustrating because typing "ENORMOUS place in Berlin with obscene amounts of anything you want and so much food you don't know what to do with it." into Google doesn't really help. Actually no. I can't remember exactly how it was described, but I spent a good amount of time scouring the interweb for it, using roughly those keywords.

I sent him the website. and he texted back "Jawohl!! Das ist das Geshaft" which means "Yes!! This is the shop."

Right, mission to locate food! It was all the way west in Chalottenburg, a residential neighborhood.



You get off the U-Bahn at Bismarckstrasse. Okay, so it's not way way west, but from where I was staying, it was a little bit wester than usual.



This is the outside. You can get fresh German eggs. HERE.



you can also get some FRESH FISH AND SHARK. RAWR!



The standard collection of cheeses....



I love to eat....GERMAN MEATS!!!!!!!!!





Rogacki is set up with a market around the inside perimeter and with stalls in the middle with stand around tables for you to eat quickly at. I must've walked around the place maybe 4 or 5 times before deciding what I wanted. I was tempted to get a selection of meats, but with a giant blue fish on their awning, how could I pass some of it up?



This is a peculiar fish. I haven't decided if it's saying "I have a secret" or "I house things good and fresh" or "I am very wary and suspicious of you" or "Stop eating my friends" or "You will spend more time here than necessary" or "Geez, another tourist?" or if it is just apathetic.

Actually, there weren't that many tourists. They were all tough looking German speaking folk. So I motioned to the server at what most people were eating: breaded fried fish and potato salad.



Es ist gut. yum.

Við Tjörnina Cookbook

Pamplemousse was dying to see the cookbook that I bought from Við Tjörnina, the best restaurant I ate at in Reykjavik hands down in terms of atmosphere and value for money. They also had an 8 course sampler menu that I was too afraid to try. Icelandic portions really fill you up and it's quality and quantity. With the current exchange rate, restaurants are about London/New York prices for a nice restaurant and much less for a cafe/bistro. If it sounds like a lot, imagine what it would've been last year – so things now are literally half price!

The cookbook makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside, much like how my dinner made me feel. The drawings are too cute! I especially like the one with the gutted flat fish.

Even more fish...and waffles

This is how bright it was at 10.30pm. The sun doesn't go down at this time of year, so we worked up an appetite for dinner cycling. A tour guide was supplementing his income by leading free Reykjavik bike tours and working for tips. 6 of his tours in the summer were cancelled because there was a drop in demand for tours and more people were showing up and doing their own thing or camping. So he and his wife/girlfriend bought some bikes and decided to give free tours around the city! He took us through Reykjavik neighborhoods, pointing out hotdog stands, ice cream shops, burgers, lobster soup shacks and finally by the ocean and Bjork's house. (you can allllmost see it in the picture. It is a small 2 storey black house, off into the distance)

Also where the new opera house by the sea to rival Sydney's, which is under construction, designed by Olafur Elisasson. We cycled through the university where it costs NOTHING to go to school. Our guide had 7 degrees, 5 of which were masters degrees, costing him a grand total of $300. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!! Maybe I should move to magical Iceland and get some education. That means that every degree costs about half a monthly MTA metrocard.



Anyway, earlier in the day, a shopkeeper gave us a recommendation for dinner at a place by the lake, Við Tjörnina, which means..."by the lake", that serves meat and fish. They handdraw/write their menus everyday.



It isn't traditional Icelandic food – most people can't stomach real Icelandic food. How about ROTTEN SHARK? Neupe, I'm giving that a miss. BUT, what was special was that this place was decorated like an Icelandic house and we were told that going there was like being invited to dinner in someone's house. So when the bike ride went about 45 minutes longer than anticipated and 40 minutes late, we started getting verrrry antsy. It was 10.45pm and we bolted out of the drop off car even though our guide assured us that Icelanders were very flexible with time and burst into the restaurant apologizing profusely since the kitchen was closing in 15 minutes.







Their menus had some sort of bizarre cover.



And on the inside were more drawings of fish!



All the tables had different decorations and tablecloths. Ours had cross stitch on it. (Hand stitched, NOT printed)



When I went in to make a reservation earlier in the day, I asked what fish just came in and the chef told me that they had gotten some artic char, cod and monkfish fresh in that morning. Candice and I both had the char.



It was HUGE!



It came with some root vegetables and a skinned tomato with some sort of cilantro corridander mix hiding under it. I've never had fish so good and so fresh. I was enticed by their cookbook that was in the lounge where we were waiting for our food and I bought it, captivated by more fish drawings and beautiful photography, despite the fact that I can't understand a single word it says because it is all in Icelandic.

Earlier on the bike ride, I met some people that were looking for the Waffle Wagon earlier in the day. It only makes an appearance late at night, so you have to be patient. It stays open for the late night weekend crowd so it closes whenever people go home early in the morning. 6am? We emerged from the restaurant past midnight, having saved room for waffle.



mmmm tasty waffle. I ate it too quickly to post pictures. But here is their menu: