recommendation worth its weight in gold

photo by swamibu

Ignoring the 50-leven million people commenting on the same events over and over again, the blogging world is full of gems. Time saving sapphires. Secret underground rubies.

Yesterday I took on two recommendations. 1) from Bowleserised, Moti Mahal – for coconut oil 2) from a native Kreuzberger and good friend, the Yamashina Japan bookstore in Charlottenburg.

At Moti Mahal, all was in a bustle at around 10am on a Saturday. Vacuuming, little kids running around offering assistance, tidying up. It was probably almost exactly on the dot 10 AM. Just maybe and just by chance. We were probably the first sale of the day but it made me feel bad. One of the bleary-eyed workers had to open the store across the street just for us to sell us this bottle of hair oil. Most of the food products I think we could score at the Afro-Asia-Latino place on Gneisenaustr. in the neighborhood (if it was wheelchair and therefore stroller accessible – another post coming). However, this little bottle will make life that much nicer during our short stay in Berlin.

Over in Charlottenburg, 30 minutes later. I found myself staring through a grate into a dark bookstore. The sign on the front door stated: Sa ca. 10:00. This may be one of the first times an opening hours sign has made me laugh out loud. I looked at my watch and thought that 10:30 is approximately 10 AM. So where’s the dude? I looked down the street in each direction for any Japanese bookstore owners. None. I came back later in the afternoon, which could also be considered approximately 10 AM, I guess. Copped a bilingual atlas for Tokyo. Very expensive but I couldn’t find this particular one on the net so it must have been worth it. Or something like that.

I’m not sure whether these experiences made me feel more faux German or more real American (c) Wagner pizza commercial. But I did kind of expect these stores to be open and ready for business on a Saturday morning. Living next to the new, snazzy open til midnight Kaiser’s raises expectations.

Moti Mahal, Potsdamer Str. 98
Yamashina Japan Buchhandlung, Pestalozzistr. 67

I’m trying to think of something Berlin-related to recommend.

Baraka, expanded since the last time I was here, is still rocking tagines. I noticed a white person serving and couldn’t decide what I thought about that. I’ve read about people opening ethnic cuisine restaurants and having trouble getting authorization for non-Germans due to laws which require to prove that the job has some necessary component that a German cannot do. So I wondered whether a server position at Baraka would get the same treatment as a server position at Creperie Bretonne. Regardless, the food is still great and cheap. Bonus points: new floor seating areas and you no longer have to sit in the creepy yet charming cave section if you don’t want to. Lausitzer Platz 6.

~ by mamasattva on Sunday 19 October 2008.