Suppenküche, which auf Deutsch simply means "Soup Kitchen", is located over in Hayes Valley. This place has a nice German Bierhaus atmosphere to it with long wooden tables which can be (and usually are) shared with total strangers, much like you would in a crowded restaurant in Germany. Suppenküche only serves "Brunch" on Sundays.
http://www.suppenkuche.com/
When I was living in (which was at the time still "West") Berlin, a good local Frühstück for me normally was a simple fare of just some nice rolls/breads (Brötchen ~ again with the umlaut) with butter and jams, some cheeses (Käse ~ also with an umlaut), and a small pot of coffee (Kännchen ~ umlaut ~ Kaffee). Sometimes there would also be either a hard boiled egg (gekochtes Ei ~ no umlauts) or a sunny side up egg (Spiegel Ei ~ again, ohne umluate); but that was normally only at my favourite (and sadly now defunct) breakfast restaurant on the Kurfürstendamm (mit umlaut), Möhring (mit umlaut) Cafe (and especially without an accent aigu, as that is the Französisch ~ mit umlat auch ~ Scweinehund way of spelling it). The last time I was in Berlin (December 2003), I was very displeased to see that there is now a St*rbucks® where one of their locations used to be.
For breakfast today, I had the Reibekuchen** mit hausgemachten Apfelmus (Potato Pancakes with Homemade Applesauce***). This was exceptionally good and made with extra thick pancakes, not the normal flattish kind I was used to, and they had an very crunchy/crispy outer shell. The Apfelmus was good and fresh, but it was the smooth variety; I would have preferred it to be the chunkier/chutney-style. With the meal, I also had a side order of Gurken Salat (a fresh cucumber salad) and a HUGE cuppa coffee (eine große Tasse Kaffee); both were very tasty.
My only complaint with the entire meal was that it was kinda early in the morning and I was pretty full from all the food so I had no room (or inclination) to get one of their imported Deutsch Biere, of which they have several very good ones to choose, and many vom Fass. Not to worry, though, I have been there many times for dinner and have tried several different brands.
I am not sure what any of their soups taste like for breakfast, though…
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Reibekuchen ~ 7.0; Gurken Salat ~ 6.5
*(Useless cunning linguist story #1:
"Frühstück" is German for "breakfast". It is interesting to note this word has two umlauts in it. In German, the umlaut is just a way of accenting certain vowels ~ ä, ö, and ü ~ to have it pronounced differently. The word "umlaut" comes from German: um- "around"/"the other way" + Laut "sound". Hence, Frühstück is pronounced more closely to "froo-shtook".)
**(Useless cunning linguist story #2:
I am not sure what the difference between "Reibenkuchen" and "Kartofellpuffer" is; I assume it is just another regional way of saying "pancakes", much like in 'mericaland we can say "hotcakes", "flapjacks", "johnnycakes", "flat tire", etc. I also don't know why there is no umlaut over the "u" in "Reibenkuchen". Lowell Skelton never taught me that word. Now, "Brennt meine Nase?", he did teach me.)
***(They spelled this as two words on the menu as "Apple Sauce"; however, I prefer the one-word spelling, Mr. Chapman.)
It's a little strange that the animation on their website has two beer steins float into the man's head and a sausage go into the lady's. That's after you get past the squirrel in Freud's brain manning the projector. Do I need an umlaut?
ReplyDeleteAnd if you mix German with Russian, instead of ordering half of a chicken, you order half of a puppy and get yelled at (true story)
ReplyDeleteKärl:
ReplyDeleteYës!
Penny:
ReplyDeleteYou had me scared there for a minute. When I got the e-mail notification that there was a comment on my 'blog and it only showed the name "Shmoo" and the message. I had no idea who "Shmoo" was and your post actually reminded me of this very bizarre (even for my standards) individual from the Red Sox Fan Forum Message Board. You wouldn't happen to be a closeted Red Sox fan that goes by the nickname "FromCal", would you?
"Hühnchen" ~ "Hündchen", they all taste like chicken to me... (and they both have umlauts, Karl.)
Here is another big linguistic faux pas: the word for "bread" in Greek is "ψωμί" ~ pronounced "psomi"; if you change one letter in that word to "ψωλί", now pronounced "psoli", and ask for a pound of it at a bakery, the baker's name had better be Ron Jeremy.