Spreewald Gherkins on crackers with herbed cheese called Quark

I decided this needed its own post, because while we are eating some awesome stuff (I had a super Belgian Waffle like food for breakfast today – the sugar was baked inside!) Nothing we eat in all of Europe is going to come close to today’s experience at the restaurant attached to the DDR museum (the museum of all things East Germany) the Domklause.

A bit of explanation about this place. The original Domklause served food in the DDR between 1979 and 1992. East German food was about what you can imagine during those years. Luxury foods and meats were scarce and the restaurants of the day needed to do the best with what was available from the DDR, the Soviet Union, and the brother nations like Bulgaria and Romania. Recipes well known to West Germans like Jagerschnitzel (pounded thin pork breaded and fried with a mushroom sauce) were entirely different in the DDR.

The new Domklause tries to recreate those dishes – part nostalgia and part history. How could I pass that up?!?

Starter course was the above pictured Spreewald Gherkins which were manufactured in the DDR and remain a favorite in Berlin. It’s a variety of pickles on crackers with something akin to a weird spreadable cheese like Alouette in the States.

Jim’s entree:

Kapernkochklopse!

They are Köningsberg meat dumplings served on rice with a caper sauce. Jim said it reminded him of his poor college days food: watered down cream of mushroom soup over rice. (No meat then) I tasted it and was glad I didn’t order it, it was wonderfully awful. It tasted like the DDR!

My entree: (and a secret message to Mike and Erika)

Chicken Parm!

No, it’s the aforementioned Jagerschitzel.

“But that doesn’t look like thin pounded pork with a mushroom sauce!” I hear you say.

Nope, not even. It’s sausages ground up and sausaged over again, into a patty, then breaded and fried. Then it’s serve over pasta in a generic tomato sauce. This was better than Jim’s dumplings but I would not call it fine dining by any stretch. But still, authenticity!

Dessert went a damn side better. Baked apples in a fried crust with a vanilla sauce with raspberries. Like apple fritters. Delicious even by the standards of today.

Overall the meal was incredibly awful. Jim’s went down better with a flagon of Berliner Bürgerbraü (Berlin Citizen’s Brew) which has been brewed in Berlin since 1969 and was very popular in the DDR. Jim said it tasted like many of the other pilsners he’s had. (And anyone who knows Jim knows he’s having a field day with the beers)

Dinner tonight was a very civilized room service meal that cost the EXACT SAME as it would have if we went downstairs to the hotel restaurant. No grand overcharging, no service charge, no room service food tax, and a more reasonable price than we expected from Berlin. It was a fine respite after an afternoon at the “naked man spa.”

That’s all from us for today. I hope you liked your twofer, don’t expect more of them.

Thus endeth week 1. It’s gone so fast already!

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