so my last few meals here have been hit and miss...a BIG miss was this japanese restaurant in Kreuzberg called sumo. it was awful.  the pic's not that great, but i ordered the shrimp tempura bento, which came with over-cooked shrimp, iceberg lettuce in a cloyingly sweet teriyaki sauce, and the worst part - long grain dry rice.  if there was one thing that could have saved this meal, it was the rice.  japanese rice is short grain and sticky.  this was the opposite of japanese rice.  reviews were fairly good online...but i give this a big NO!

my other ventures were much better.  first, let me make a comment about the coffee i've had.  you know i love coffee...roast my own beans, press my own espresso, etc. while i like drinking espressos when i'm sitting down to read a book and relax, i like american-style coffee, which of course they call americanos here (and most places around the world).  it's basically espresso with hot water.  i've LOVED the americanos i've ordered here.  the best part of it is that they serve it with a little cup of steamed milk.  isn't that cool? not cold cream or half and half...but steamed milk.  i drink my coffee black, but this is still cool.  couple of good places i've visited are coffee cult and espresso lounge.  my only issue is that neither place has free wifi (or wifi at all)...

i had this skillet salmon dish the other day at rubens coffee lounge.  it was very well prepared. i'm not a huge salmon fan (can think of a couple dozen fish i'd choose over salmon) but it's ubiquitous and usually the only fish dish. i've been very pleasantly surprised by how good the food is here...

and today i had some pizza at pizza a pezzi that was fantastic. the crust was thin, crusty, and chewy...with huge pieces of anchovies, arugula...so delicious.  the eggplant one was so-so, however...but two big slices and a drink for 5 euros.  not bad...

tomorrow, i look for another sunday brunch buffet...stay tuned.

i passed this kebab stand yesterday...it's right outside the south exit on the U7 Mehringdamm stop.  the line was even longer yesterday, so i took a pass...but today, i decided to stop by.  i had what they listed as a gemüse kebab, but it was really a döner, which is like a stuffed vegetable sandwich.  the bread is toasted, but so nice and tasty, and only one side is open, so it's kind of like a pita sandwich, but with much better bread.

there were grilled veggies (lots of grilled potatoes), lettuce, tomato, cucumber, a couple of different sauces, onions, and feta cheese.  it was so delicious.  and only 2.50 euros, which is a little more than $3.  definitely stopping here again as it's on my way back home from the institute.  i can get off the subway, pick up a kebab, then get back on if i need to...

walked around berlin today...around dinnertime i headed back toward the neighborhood i'm staying in, kreuzberg.  the berlin lonely planet recommended a veggie hamburger joint in the area called yellow sunshine.  in addition to the hamburgers they have a veggie version of a berlin favorite - currywurst.  currywurst is a sausage cooked with curry and other spices, topped with a curry/spice ketchup sauce.  on the streets or stands where they serve currywurst the sausage is usually cut up into bite-size pieces.

this currywurst was very tasty.  came with some of the best fries i'd ever eaten! not kidding.  there's this vegetarian place in scottsdale that my friend jenny loves...she calls it veggie fast food b/c they deep fry everything.  it's super tasty.  yellow sunshine is the same; they deep fry everything.  the burgers, the sausage, the fries.  no wonder it tastes great.  the burgers looked really good, so i may go back and try one later.  in any case, i walked around kreuzberg and it's an awesome little area of berlin.  it's older and more dilapidated.  but there's a lot of ethnic people and ethnic restaurants.  saw thai, japanese, singaporean, italian, vietnamese, chinese, and a bunch of turkish and middle eastern restaurants.  i'm definitely looking forward to trying some of those places and wandering around the area.

got into berlin alright...spent the whole day roaming the various public transportation lines to pass the time.  had 5 hours between arriving and meeting the guy at the apartment where i'm renting a room.  

just got back from the supermarket, where i picked up some staples and other food-stuffs.  one thing i love about the food here - the dairy products and the bread.  picked up a bunch of different yogurts...and a pack of quark, which my friend julia (who's from berlin but studies at asu now) raves about.  i remember driving her around tempe/phoenix looking for quark...she said it was "cheese curds" so naturally we went to whole foods.  if they don't have it, who will?  of course they didn't have quark (though they had some awesome cheese curds...maybe for the canucks?).  but i later found out that quark is kinda like cream cheese but more like the neufchatel cheese that you can find near the cream cheese.  i'm excited to try it later.