REVERSE ADVENT CALENDAR — DONATE GIFTS AND ESSENTIAL ITEMS THIS CHRISTMAS WITH LA CASE PAULETTE

As you’ve probably noticed, it’s (almost) the festive season again. But as we stock up on goodies to share with loved ones, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the people in Berlin for whom the season might be less joy-filled. Luckily there’s a great way to give something back: the Reverse Advent Calendar from the La Case Paulette store in Prenzlauer Berg, which lets you donate gifts and essentials to Berliners who are homeless or in otherwise difficult circumstances. What you put inside is up to you: everything from Christmas cards, drawings and chocolates to the essential items that rough sleepers or people in tough situations need. For more ideas on what to pack check out the initiative’s website. On Christmas Eve, the calendars will be distributed by the team across the city in partnership with Moabit Hilft e.V. Now in its second year, the concept comes from sisters Anne-Cécile and Audrey Picardo, who brought the idea over from their native France. While you are dropping off your gift, don’t forget to check out the store itself: it’s full of sustainable garments and design objects curated from young French designers and brands.

Text: Rosie Gilmour / Photos: Zambaputa, Audrey Cecile & La Case Paulette

La Case Paulette, Sredzkistr.52, 10405 Berlin–Prenzlauer Berg; map
Donations can be handed in until 11.12.2021. For more information about the Reverse Advent Calendar see online.

@lacasepaulette

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Shops, Sponsored Post, Miscellaneous

CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS OF PRO-PEACE COFFEE, TEA AND MORE — CONFLICTFOOD

If you want to change the world for the better, you can do worse than starting with breakfast. Besides offering a caffeine kick, your morning coffee can also alleviate poverty and make the world a more peaceful place. At least that’s the promise of Conflictfood, the Berlin startup selling food and drink that makes a difference. Sourced from conflict-hit countries, its delicacies provide fair incomes to producers whose lives are affected by war. The Jadae coffee, for instance, is farmed by members of the Akha ethnic minority community in the highlands of Myanmar. Buying these farmers’ beans gives them an independent existence and gives you a great brew, with rich hazelnut and caramel aromas thanks to the hand-picked harvesting and gentle processing of the coffee.

But Conflictfood is about more than just coffee beans. The social enterprise was founded in 2016 by Salem El-Mogaddedi and Gernot Würtenberger, who began working with farmers in western Afghanistan to bring top-quality saffron to Europe. Where opium fields once stood, crocus plant meadows began to flourish. Since then, the duo have expanded the range with the likes of organic tea and aromatic dried ginger powder from Myanmar. A highlight is definitely the organic freekeh, an ancient grain that is produced in the Palastinian West Bank. Chewy and nutty, freekeh is full of fiber and is a great addition to Middle-Eastern inspired salad and meat dishes. Good dinners that do good: what’s not to like?

Text: Benji Haughton / Photos: Conflictfood & Savannah van der Niet

The Conflictfood range can be ordered online.

@conflictfood

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Culture

ART IN SUSPENSION — MICHAELA MEISE AT SCHERBEN AND JOHANNA DUMET, LENA MARIE EMRICH AND HANNAH SOPHIE DUNKELBERG AT OFFICE IMPART

Clouds of mist can currently be seen filling the interior of Scherben, the new exhibition space on Leipziger Straße. It gathers around Michaela Meise’s “Trans Columns” – a series of sculptures created in 2009 in the wake of the financial crisis. The sculptures are reminiscent of the monumental pillars of the New York Stock Exchange, except that Meise’s pillars are not marble but fragile wooden sticks. Out of balance, they’re too unstable to support a house, let alone an entire system. The mist connects Meise’s pillars with a neighboring series: Berlin artist Markues’s watercolors, with their abstract text-like forms. Both artists attempt to break down patriarchal structures to give space to the ambiguous, and both refer to the feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray, whose writing deals with male role models and corresponsding female critiques. The exhibition’s title – Your Horizon Has Limits Even Holes – is also taken from Irigaray, who inspired Meise to make a ceramic relief portrait of her during a train trip to Paris.

On to Moabit and the Hof of Office Impart gallery, where you can find works by three artists who evoke the new normal in sculptures, objects and paintings. Lena Marie Emrich’s wall sculptures resemble the devices you find at airports to measure hand luggage: oft hated by frequent flyers and barely used during the pandemic, here these bag sizers are transformed into something desirable and defiantly not low-cost. Similar thoughts on speed and stoppage can also be seen in paintings by Johanna Dumet, who arranges colors into grazing and galloping horses. Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg also operates between comic and meme, with sculptures that recall the two-dimensional quality of painting. Dunkelberg’s oversized bow that hangs at the front of the exhibition suggests a kind of gift; an invite to come and unpack all the layers the artists have created.

Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Thomas Love and Markues & Marjoire Brunet Plaza

Scherben, Leipziger Str.61, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map
Markues and Michaela Meise: Your Horizon Has Limits Even Holes, until 28.11.2021, Fri–Sun 11–18h and by appointment.

Office Impart, Waldenserstr.2–4, 10551 Berlin–Moabit; map
Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg, Johanna Dumet, Lena Marie Emrich, until 19.11.2021
Wed–Fri 15–18h – time slots can be booked online and via email

@scherben.scherben
@office_impart

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Bars

KASCHK BY BRLO — CRAFT BEER BAR GETS A NEW MENU AND TASTY BREWS ON TAP

“Sometimes what belongs together comes together,” says Ben Pommer of the reopening of Kaschk. Known for its fine coffee, Scandinavian beers and shuffleboard, the bar now has “by Brlo” tacked onto its name after a takeover by the Berlin master brewers. Some things have remained the same, like the focus on beer: there are 12 varieties on tap, many of them now Brlo brews. My favorite is the Happy Pils, a delicately malty beer that retains a distinct bitterness. But the biggest change is to be found on the menu. As head of gastro at Brlo’s Brwhouse headquarters, Pommer has put vegetables at the forefront, whether fermented, pickled, smoked, or cooked in salt. Now he has “Brloized” Kaschk, meaning there are lots of nice things to accompany your beer with: nuts with Brlo’s BBQ rub, olives cooked with rosemary, thyme and and lemon-orange zest plus a delicious toasted flosame sandwich with mortadella and pistachio cream. The signature dish, however, is the vegan butcher’s plate. It includes beetroot baked in salt dough which is served in wafer-thin bresaola slices and tastes juicy, salty and sweet at the same time. Other highlights include a jackfruit rillette with sweet brandy and vegetarian stock, hay-smoked celery, and a pumpkin parfait that’s far more exciting than the typical vegan pastes. For the carnivores there’s also a non-vegan snack board with cheeses from Fritz Blomeyer and cooked meats from Biomanufaktur Havelland. The accompanying bread comes from the neighboring Zeit für Brot bakery. That said, I would make the trip for the jackfruit rillette alone – not to mention the beer. As for Pommer, he prefers to drink kombucha. To find out why, listen to the latest episode of the Teller Stories podcast where we also reveal how to pronounce the name Brlo correctly…

Text: Tina Hüttl / Photos: Kaschk

Kaschk by Brlo, Linienstr.40, 10119 Berlin–Mitte; map
Mon–Thu 8–2h, Fri 8–3h, Sat 10–3h, Sun 10–2h

@Kaschk

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Events, Sponsored Post

FINE CUISINE AND A CONVERSATION WITH GERMANY’S YOUNGEST MICHELIN-STARRED CHEF — DRIVE CULINARY TABLE TALK

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of dining at a Michelin-starred restaurant, you might have asked yourself: who are the men and women behind my meal? Giving you a glimpse into the life of a gourmet chef is the foodie-focused Drive Culinary “Table Talk” at VW’s Drive Salon next Monday (15.11.2021). Part-talk, part-gourmet dinner, the intimate event will host top chef Julia Komp, who became Germany’s youngest Michelin-starred cook in 2016 and now runs Sahila restaurant in Cologne. For the first part of the evening, you will join Komp in the Drive dining space as she tells the story of her ascent up the restaurant industry ladder and how she hung up her apron to go on a 14-month recipe-gathering trip around the world. After the talk you will take a seat at your table for a taste-based journey of your own with a three-course dinner courtesy of Jonas Zörner, head chef at the Michelin-starred Golvet on Potsdamer Platz. The meat and veggie menus include the likes of eight-day matured trout with hazelnut, mojo rojo and mojo verde, and a Jerusalem artichoke Chawanmushi with currant, carrot and pumpkin seeds. To accompany Zörner’s creations you will be served perfectly-paired wines to top off a gastronomic evening par excellence.

Text: Benji Haughton / Photos: Kai-Uwe Knoth, Dallmayr & Kateryna Firsova

Drive Salon, Friedrichstr. 84, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map
Mon–Sat 11–18h

Table Talk with Julia Komp, 15.11.2021 18h30. You can purchase advance tickets for the dinner in person at the Drive Salon and via email.

@drive.berlin

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Language

REVERSE ADVENT CALENDAR — DONATE GIFTS AND ESSENTIAL ITEMS THIS CHRISTMAS WITH LA CASE PAULETTE

CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS OF PRO-PEACE COFFEE, TEA AND MORE — CONFLICTFOOD

ART IN SUSPENSION — MICHAELA MEISE AT SCHERBEN AND JOHANNA DUMET, LENA MARIE EMRICH AND HANNAH SOPHIE DUNKELBERG AT OFFICE IMPART

KASCHK BY BRLO — CRAFT BEER BAR GETS A NEW MENU AND TASTY BREWS ON TAP

FINE CUISINE AND A CONVERSATION WITH GERMANY’S YOUNGEST MICHELIN-STARRED CHEF — DRIVE CULINARY TABLE TALK