Interesting Berlin Food Facts

With 184 nationalities living in Berlin, the city is rich in culinary delights:

Pork knuckle and sauerkraut

Berlin is an international metropolis and people from no less than 184 nations are long-term residents in Germany’s capital city. It’s not surprising then that no other German city matches Berlin’s rich diversity of culinary delights.

If you’re planning a Berlin holiday, you can be assured that food will not be a problem.

Following are some interesting Berlin food facts:

Berlin has approximately 6,500 restaurants, 546 ice cream parlours and cafes, 2,800 sandwich bars, 225 bars, clubs and pubs and other gastronomic outlets offering food and drinks from all over the world. In this city that never sleeps there is no ‘curfew’ in the city, which means that in Berlin you can visit cafes, restaurants or bars around the clock.

The delicatessen section at Berlin’s KaDeWe covers 7,000 square metres of food space and offers around 34,000 different products. This makes it Europe’s largest food department. The bread, cheese and sausage sections offer 400 different types of bread, 1,300 types of cheese and a selection of 1,200 types of sausages, bacon and ham. It’s certainly worth checking KaDeWe’s food section out, if just to see the sheer size of the place.

Berlin has its own, genuine specialty beer, the Berliner Weiße (Berlin White). This is a fizzy, bitter beer made from wheat and fermented in the bottle. For a refreshing summer drink, ask for a “Weiße mit Schuss” (White with a Shot). This is the Berliner Weiße served with a shot of raspberry or woodruff syrup.

The International Berlin Beer Festival holds the record for the “longest beer garden in the world”. Stretching 2.2 kilometers, at the Karl-Marx-Allee in the heart of the capital, it involves more than 2,000 beers, 300 breweries and 86 countries.

Dining out

Berlin’s most famous recipes include Eisbein mit Sauerkraut (knuckle of pork with sauerkraut), Erbsenpüree (mushy peas), gebratener Hering (fried herring), Havel-Zander (Havel pike), kalte Bouletten mit Senf (cold meatballs with mustard), eingelegte Eier und Gewürzgurken (pickled eggs and gherkins) grüne Erbsensuppe mit Schinken (green pea soup with ham) or gebratene Leber mit Apfelringen (fried liver with apple rings).

The most famous pastry in Berlin is a ‘doughnut’ filled with marmalade. Throughout Germany this is known as a Berliner – only you will never find it called that in Berlin. Here it’s just a pfannkuchen which to the rest of Germany means pancakes. And what the rest of Germany knows as a pancake is called an Eierkuchen (egg cake) in Berlin. All very confusing I must say. If I’ve got it wrong, my excuse is “Ich bin kein Berliner” … to somewhat quote a certain famous speech.

The centuries-old tradition of viticulture has been revived in Berlin in recent years. The most famous vineyard is in Kreuzberg, but wine is also produced in Wilmersdorf, Schöneberg, Mitte, Neukölln and Mahrzahn. The most northerly vineyard is in Humboldthain in the district of Gesundbrunnen. The only Berlin sparkling wine is pressed there.

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For more Berlin Info, see HERE.