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.

Fette Sau

Since my mediocre experience at Dinosaur Barbecue (festive atmosphere, meh food, unacceptable wait), I've stayed away from barbecue because....well, I like barbecue steak over a grill better. Fette Sau in Williamsburg is a dingy looking alley with a neon pink sign beckoning you into a garage. I've always been intrigued, but when I found they served barbecue, I said never mind. Time to suck it up and suck on some ribs when my friend Lauren had her birthday party there.



I wandered to the bar and ordered a cherry soda before the meat massacre and beer guzzling. (Actually I cannot guzzle too much beer. It's much more fun for others than it is for me.) And guess what! Real sugar, no high fructose corn syrup! Wow! Amazing! It doesn't take much to win me over little by little. Also, I learned that the meat was from small local farms and this restaurant buys the entire animal, so you know exactly where it comes from and more specifically, the animal you're eating. I didn't inquire about my ingested pig, but I'm sure you could. And a happy pig is a TASTY PIG. I was totally sold.



I'm sorry I ate all the meat that was put in front of me in such a hurry, that all I managed to take pictures of in my idle time was beer. Incidentally, you can order beer by the jar, half gallon or gallon. You order your meat by the pound. I loved the pulled pork, brisket and pork belly.

Sometimes when you eat a great meal, you are stuffed to the gills and feel a little sick. Other times, you know when you should stop, but have a hard time stopping. Your fingers say YES MORE and your stomach says YESSSSSS MORRRREEEE and your mouth is the happy middleman that gladly samples the goods but your brain has to put the brakes on it. Some people don't have any common sense and don't know when to stop.....sadly, that night, I did.