Tradition vs. Modernity: Konnopke's World: Berlin's Most Famous Sausage Stand Fights Changing Times and Tastes - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Konnopke's World: Berlin's Most Famous Sausage Stand Fights Changing Times and Tastes - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

My Turn: Food allergies are answer to medical mystery - latimes.com

My Turn: Food allergies are answer to medical mystery - latimes.com
by Ed Rockey Special to the Los Angeles Times, April 5, 2010

"After a series of tests and misdiagnoses, he discovers his weakness and nausea were caused by allergic reactions to milk, wheat and other foods."

Döner Kebabs Surpass Hamburger in Germany

The German Missions in the United States publish a Newsleter "The Week in Germany" [TWIG], which is also available online and contains some remarkable facts about "the real world" which suggest, as a recent TWIG article titles one of its paragraphs, that "Integration Through the Stomach" is the key solution to the world's political problems - after all, you are what you eat:

"Integration Through the Stomach

The döner kebab is one of the most popular fast foods in Germany.

(© picture-alliance/ ZB )

The döner kebab is one of the most popular fast foods in Germany, and is often available at Turkish-style eateries in cities across the country well into the wee hours of the morning.

"They have even set a record. Last year, more kebabs were sold than hamburgers," actor Adnan Maral, who presents Turkish and Bavarian cuisine on the regional TV station Bayerischer Rundfunk, said in a recent interview published by the Goethe-Institut and at Germany.info.

According to gourmets like Maral, the way to integration is through the stomach."

Food & Wine Magazine | Recipes, Menus, Chefs, Wine, Cooking, Holidays, Entertaining

Food & Wine Magazine | Recipes, Menus, Chefs, Wine, Cooking, Holidays, Entertaining

Folie à Deux: The Mind-Boggling Street Foods of the Philippines

Folie à Deux: The Mind-Boggling Street Foods of the Philippines

De Gustibus - Snacking Nation - When Did Grazing Take Over Our Children? - NYTimes.com

Jennifer Steinhauer at NYTimes.com and "Snack Never Ends" at De Gustibus - Snacking Nation - When Did Grazing Take Over Our Children? - NYTimes.com

Secret of a healthy old age may lie in right balance of proteins - Times Online

Secret of a healthy old age may lie in right balance of proteins - Times Online

"They found that an amino acid called methionine had a particularly significant effect. When this was added to a low-calorie diet, the result was increased lifespan without decreased fertility. A reduced methionine intake in an otherwise full diet also had a similar effect.

"Methionine is found at high levels in foods such as sesame seeds, Brazil nuts, wheat germ, fish and meat."

The cookie eaten around the world : Julianne Glatz : Illinois Times

From Julianne Glatz : Illinois Times

The cookie eaten around the world

FuturePundit: Lymphoma Progression Linked To Low Vitamin D

Take your vitamins, especially in the winter. FuturePundit reports that
Lymphoma Progression Linked To Low Vitamin D.

Top Ten Restaurants in New York City according to Zagat

The Sunday Telegraph of April 20, 2008 had a highly palatable article by Douglas Rogers in the Travel section, Critic's Choice: Tim Zagat's Gourmet Tour of New York, who (nearly) toured the New York top ten restaurants in one day with Zagat, "who knows them better than anyone". They did not make it to all ten, but to most of them. Here is the current Zagat list of the top 10 New York restaurants (for more, see Zagat New York Restaurants):

1. Daniel 2. Sushi Yasuda 3. Le Bernardin 4. Per Se 5. Peter Luger Steak House 6. Jean Georges 7. Bouley 8. Chanterelle 9. Sushi Seki 10. L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Bon Appetit!

Some Food and Beverage Blogs

Take a look at the following food and beverage blogs:

One of my favorites, Kate Hopkins has a food and beverage blog at Accidental Hedonist. In 2004, Kate launched the "Food Blog Awards".

Food and beverage blogs are touted at many websites.

FOODBlog has a comprehensive list of blogs and other food and beverage resources, including coffee links, wine blogs, other drink blogs, Chicago food resources, food blog meta-sites, food forums, food podcasts, food industry links, other food-related sites, non-food related but food named blogs, and (this is quite handy to weed out the blogs) dormant food blogs. Globe correspondent Ethan Gilsdorf points to many of the leading food blogs in his January 12, 2005 article, Food bloggers chronicle their delicious obsessions. Forbes has a list of "Best Food Blogs" by Breckinridge Ely while a Guardian article by Vicky Frost serves us up with The world on your plate, "a taste of the best of the blogs". There are also many articles online on gastronomy.

Here is a small selection of food and beverage blogs on the web.

Chez Pim is the blog of Pim Techamuanvivit, which has been hailed for its restaurant reviews and also contains things like a recent series of postings on the wine harvest in Burgundy by a Burgundian wine maker.

Heidi Swanson, a cookbook collector out of San Francisco, goes into the world of 101 Cookbooks.

Clotilde Dusoulier has a very popular blog in English, Chocolate & Zucchini. Her new book Chocolate & Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen is set to launch soon and can be pre-ordered at Amazon. Vicky Frost at the Guardian lauds Dusoulier's blog for "great photography and inspiring recipes".

Andy Hayler's Food Site contains "notes on restaurants around the world".

Meg Hourihan was cofounder of Pyra, the company behind Blogger before it was purchased by Google. Megnut is Meg Hourihan's site about food.

Amy Sherman's blog Cooking with Amy hails out of San Francisco and focuses on "original food writing providing recipes, restaurant and product reviews, contests, essays and insight into culinary news."

Adam Roberts serves to us the Amateur Gourmet, a blog made instantly famous by CNN, which featured his photo essay on the Janet Jackson breast cupcake.

For those who speak French, Pascale Weeks has a "cuisine best-seller" at C'est moi qui l'ai fait [It is I who made it] - but not available in English.

An interesting site, not a blog but more of a message board "for those who live to eat" is the food and drink community at Chowhound.com.

For the Gourmet Blogger - 2006 Nominations for The James Beard Awards

We were looking at Epicurious, a nice site for the gourmet, and discovered they also have an editor's blog, which pointed us to the 2006 nominations for the James Beard Awards for culinary professionals. Take a look.

Creme Brulee Recipe

Trish Wilson, The Countess, has the gourmet posting of the year today, October 2, 2005, because it is a recipe for creme brulee, one of my favorite desserts.
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German Top Restaurant "Waldhotel Sonnora"

German Top Restaurant "Waldhotel Sonnora"

Today we visited the charming restaurant and hotel "Waldhotel Sonnora"
just outside the small village of Dreis, Germany. Dreis is near the medium-sized town of Wittlich, in the greater Moselle Valley vacation area, not far from the city of Trier, but also accessible to gourmets from the Rhine and Main River Valley metropolitan areas such as Frankfurt, Mainz, Wiesbaden, Koblenz, Bonn and Köln.

In fact, of course, people come from far and wide to dine exceptionally at the Waldhotel Sonnora. Indeed, many guests who come principally to dine, also overnight at the hotel. Sonnora is not only a highly acclaimed gourmet restaurant, but in past years has unanimously been ranked by the major gourmet guides to be among the best five restaurants in Germany. Do not expect to dine here without a reservation. Sonnora Chef Helmut Thieltges has a tremendous reputation in gourmet circles and was for example Gault-Millau "Chef of the Year" in 1997. The expert gourmets continue to sing his praises in 2004.

See for example also the report The Best of Germany where Thieltges is quoted as saying, "We don't just serve dishes - rather, culinary masterpieces". The reporter, who had eaten there - agreed.

We unexpectedly encountered the Thieltges Sr. today and had some wonderful conversations about the history of the hotel and the restaurant. Particularly interesting were the stories about the origin of the name Sonnora and the architecture of the recent renovation of the hotel. It was a delightful meeting on a delightful spring-like day.

To obtain more information on restaurant ratings in Germany, one should consult, e.g., the 2004 Red Michelin Guide, which rates restaurants in Germany based on reports issued by the guide's testers.

Michelin in 2004 grants its top rating of - three stars - to only five restaurants in Germany. These are:

Residenz Heinz Winkler, Aschau - Chef, Heinz Winkler
Schwarzwaldstube, Baiersbronn - Chef, Harald Wohlfahrt
Dieter Müller, Bergisch Gladbach - Chef, Dieter Müller
Im Schiffchen, Düsseldorf - Chef, Jean-Claude Bourgueil
Waldhotel Sonnora, Wittlich/Dreis (near the Moselle) - Chef, Helmut Thieltges

To show how difficult it is to get three stars from Michelin, one should note that the Michelin Guide grants two stars - the next highest rating - to ONLY thirteen restaurants in Germany in 2004. These are:

Bareiss Restaurant, Baiersbronn - Chef, Claus-Peter Lumpp
Vendôme, Bergisch-Gladbach - Chef, Joachim Wissler
La Table, Dortmund - Chef, Thomas Bühner
Hummerstübchen, Düsseldorf - Chef, Peter Nöthel
Residence, Essen - Chef, Berthold Bühler
Zur Traube, Grevenbroich - Chef, Dieter L. Kaufmann
Tantris, München - Chef, Hans Haas
Steinheuer Restaurant Zur Alten Post, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler - Chef, Hans Stefan Steinheuer
Gourmet-Restaurant Schloss Berg, Perl/Moselle - Chef, Christian Bau
Karl-Rudolf Obauer, Salzburg/Werfen - Chefs, Karl & Rudolf Obauer
Speisemeisterei, Stuttgart - Chef, Martin Öxle
Hirschen, Sulzburg - Chef, Hans-Paul Steiner
Kastell, Wernberg-Köblitz - Chef, Christian Jürgens

176 restaurants in Germany received one star from Michelin.

See also the ranking of restaurants in Germany by major lists, including not only Michelin, but also Gault-Millau, Varta, Aral Schlemmer Atlas, and Der Feinschmecker.

King's Teagarden - Berlin - World's Best Tea Shop ?

King's Teagarden - Berlin - World's Best Tea Shop ?
(website pages in English and German - order in English by e-mail)

Is it possible that King's Teagarden on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin is the world's best tea shop?
Many of the unique mixes of tea are named after famous composers....
so it is no accident that classical music delights the shopping customer during his or her sojourn in the shop.

We were there just this weekend and found Werner F.J. Schmitt and his tea shop to be highly recommendable.

Check out the online shop at
Tee in Berlin von King's Teagarden - Tee und Teezubehoer - Gruener und Schwarzer Tee aus Ceylon, China, Indien und anderen Ländern.
(website pages in English and German - order in English by e-mail)

The address in Berlin is

King's Teagarden Teehandelsgesellschaft mbH
Teefachgeschäft - Tearoom
Kurfürstendamm 217 - 10719 Berlin
Tel.: 030 - 883 70 59
Fax: 030 - 322 31 92
Email: info@kingsteagarden.de