Today, Secret Food Tours is launching its new Berlin food blog. And our very first is designed to make you feel hungry! But still leave plenty of euros in your purse or wallet!
We’re looking at eating on a budget with street food or food that is quick to serve in a restaurant. But it’s got to be good – Berlin, like all big cities has plenty of places that no self-respecting food fan would deign to go!
So avoid the Tourist Traps and come dine with our first guide to Berlin eating.
To start with, stop googling “Berlin Restaurants”. Or going for lists of the “Top 10”, or “Cheap Eats” or sites like Thrillist. All you get is seemingly the same lists recycled over and over again. You end up with creating tourist traps where standards fall because the owners know they have a constant stream of visitors who won’t be in Berlin forever.
So now get off the beaten path and towards some seriously good eats, to the places where Berliners dine.
We start with Die Maultasche.
This is affordable, delicious and different.
This restaurant specialises – as its name indicates – in Maultasche. This is a traditional food from Swabia in south-west Germany.
It is a “cheat dish” for Lent. Catholics must refrain from eating meat in Lent (the weeks before Easter). But they can get round that ban by eating Maultasche because the meat is hidden under a pasta dough and so, the theory goes, cannot be seen by God. You don’t have to believe this to enjoy this dish!
They are our equivalent to ravioli. And they are now served all round the year.
These delicious large ravioli are prepared in several ways. You may have them in Broth (my favourite) with Potato Salad but don’t neglect the other German specialities while you’re here like Oxtail Soup, Veal Meatballs and Liver Dumplings.
Dishes cost around €9 with salads at about €6.
The legend is that Maultauschen were created by the Cisterian Monks of Maulbronn Abbey, in fact the nickname for the dish is HergottsbescheiBerle, adults may Google this phrase, it is a bit too colourful to translate on this site.
It is open 7 days a week (a rarity anywhere in Germany!)
Monday to Saturday 11.00 to 22.00
Sunday and public holidays 12.00 to 18.00
Address Charlottenstraße 35 – 36 10113 Berlin-Mitte
Phone 030 – 310 11 686
Website http://www.die-maultasche.de/ (use the Google translation button for English language version).
Transport take the S5, 7 or 75 to Friedrichstraße station
Karl Wilder