Short Skirts, Hieroglyphs & Tassles

Finally a new outfit post! Always exciting because it means I got me some new clothing = happy Milena.  

Thanks to Berlin I have a new skirt from Urban Outfitters (surprise surprise), top is also from Urban Outfitters, and vest is from Bershka.  Chose not to go for shoes as I'd been outside in the garden all day barefoot anyway, and I prefer it that way!

Oopsie, I must have spotted something in the distance in this next one.

Deliciously Naughty Ice Cream Cake

So my grandma makes a mean ice cream cake, and in true grandma fashion, it is about as unhealthy as can be.  Full of ice cream, cream, meringue, chocolate and raspberry sauce, I'm about to share the recipe for this beauty with you. 

Oh yes!

This recipe is incredibly simple, and all you'll need is:

A decent sized tub of vanilla ice cream

4 cups of whipped cream, and whip it well

100g of chocolate sprinkles or shavings

Approximately 200g of meringue

50g sugar

50g almond meal

2 - 3 tablespoons of cherry or raspberry liqueur

Aprroxmiately 300ml raspberry sauce 

A decent amount of ice cream magic/magic shell chocolate sauce

At this stage I have to point out that quantities do not need to be exact.  My grandma, being a grandma, doubles the amount of chocolate and sugar in this easily.  It is completely up to you how you want to tweak it, this is just the basic recipe which we use. Now the next bit is the really challenging part - mix all your ingredients (except for the rasberry sauce) together and pop it in a springform cake tin (grease that up a bit beforehand to make your life easier later) and voila!

Crush up the meringue before you mix it all together.  I just mashed them up in their little bags.

 

Found this guy in the kitchen, ready to whip some cream!

This is the mixture of meringue, chocolate, almond meal and sugar, with the ice cream just going in.

This is what the mixture should look like once you've mixed everything together well.

Now for the last part - drizzle the entire cake with raspberry sauce.  It doesn't really matter how you do this, so don't worry about being careful.

Once you've done all this, pop it in the freezer overnight, or at least for quite a few hours.

For the finishing touch, just add some of that chocolate sauce that freezes when it goes on ice cream in any pattern you wish.  And then it's done done done and you're ready to tuck in! 

Best enjoyed outside in the sunshine and with friends and family!  Oh who are we kidding, also enjoyed inside and with anyone you trust not to eat too much of it.

Samadhi Vegetarian Restaurant, Berlin

"We cook with fresh vegetables, love, and without stress" professes the menu of Samadhi, and it does not lie.

Amongst the many vegetarian restaurants that can be found in Berlin, Samadhi is one that has great recommendations online.  So guess where we headed to dinner? Oh yes.

 

We had dinner here with Chewy's parents, so I can show you all 4 delicious dishes! Actually make that 5 because we all shared a starter too, the remnants of which can be seen below.  There were 2 rice paper rolls filled with fresh salad, herbs, tofu, rice noodles and bean sprouts, with a hoisin dipping sauce.  In the background you can see the remains of a spring roll with chilli sauce, filled with tofu and vegetables.  I can whole heartedly recommend these starters!

 

So lets move on to mains.  Main number 1 was this beauty below - stewed tofu with ginger in caramel sauce with fresh pineapple, chinese bean sauce, vegetables, onion, pepper, mushrooms and morels.  Even though it may not look like much, it was delicious I am told!

Main numero 2 - gado gado.  I'm sure many of you have had this indonesian speciality before, it is such a simple yet beautiful dish simply consisting of blanched vegetables with peanut sauce.

I decided to have the pad thai, which they were happy to make vegan by taking out the egg.  Pad thai is one of my favourite meals, and this version with fried rice noodles and tofu, salted raddish, tamarind extract, chilli powder, bean sprouts, peanuts and fresh vegetables was one of my favourites ever.  I had it medium spicy, which was just right for me, but you can also ask it to be 'extra hot'.  Go on, I dare you.

Now Chewy's meal may just look like a right old mess, but this fried eggplant in satay sauce with tofu, carrots, chillies, onions and roasted mushrooms was a winner.  It was quite spicy, but really yummy, and the addition of the pineapple was just perfect.

The decoration on the wall I thought was just beautiful.

 For dessert we were all a bit naughty, and headed around the corner for some apple strudel.  Naughty.

 

Unfortunately this is the last of my restaurant recommendations for Berlin, but hopefully I've given you all a few ideas of where to go for some delicious vegetarian and vegan food.  Samadhi, Viasko, Amici Amici, Mustafa's vegetarian kebabs and Grandmeister Burger all provided us with incredible food in Berlin, and it was so refreshing to have so much choice.  Now tuck in and let me know if you enjoyed the food as much as I did!  

Heading off to my hometown in Germany next, so see you in Eutin.

Berlin, Day 4

After a couple of days in Berlin, we decided to do a self-guided graffiti walking tour through the city.  We thought it'd be a great idea to walk from our hostel in Kreuzberg all the way to the Eastside gallery.  We were wrong.  After a solid 4km walk I was starting to get quite hungry, and so we stopped off at this burger place we walked, whose name I just cannot remember.  But here are the burgers - they were brill!

 

How cool are the door tables?

No one can look good whilst tucking into a big old burger, but those veggie burgers were delish.  Well worth it.  And only cost something in the real of €3, so were well priced on top of being tasty - a winning combination if you ask me.

But anyway, moving on from burgers.  We saw a heap of graffiti, and I took way too many pictures to put up on here.  So I shall put up some of my favourites, and if you'd like the locations of more then please let me know and I'll try and help.

We went to the Eastside gallery and the Hackesche Höfe to see most of the above pieces.  After more walking I was once again hungry, and managed to find myself some delicious strawberries, after which we went to the Kunsthalle to have a drink.

 

  

Visiting the Jewish memorial is a must do while you're in Berlin. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

By the time we made it back to the hostel, we were 2 very tired little vegemites in dire need of more sustenance.  So we walked down the Mehringdamm just around the corner from our hostel, and found an absolute gem of a food place called Amici Amici.  They have a proper sit down restaurant, and next door is a smaller bistro/take away version, which is where we decided to go.  Descriptions can't do the food justice, it was heavenly! And the service was hilarious, truly Italian.

I went for the mini pizza (by no means mini) whereas Chewy opted for the focaccia, both of which were made right in front of our eyes.  The focaccia has all sorts of fresh veggies in it, is then drizzled with olive oil and put in the oven, after which it gets a sprinkling of parmesan and some more olive oil and various herbs, and then its goes into your stomach.  The pizza I had was also incredibly nice, with no shortage of mushrooms.  Yum!

So all in all not the healthiest of days, but we walked it all off right?!