Tummy Adventures

Our food haul! Left to right, we had the Pork Bulgogi Burger (mine), the Ramen Burger (my significant others), and sweet potato fries (also mine, although my S.O. STOLE HALF OF THEM).

If you ever visit, I definitely recommend you'd try the Ramen Burger first. First off, I don't believe there's any other place in Berlin that does Ramen Burgers, so there's the novelty value. Secondly, the kimchi and gochujang sauce go SO well with the perfectly cooked patty and ramen bun. It's a little foodgasm in your mouth, trust me. 

My Pork Bulgogi Burger was good as well, but I personally would have ordered more meat on it if I had the chance. Since it was a bulgogi burger, the meat was the thinly sliced kind instead of a big juicy patty, like the Ramen Burgers patty, so the bun and vegetables definitely overwhelmed the burger and made me think, well, why not just order a vegetarian burger if you can barely taste the meat? Still, I'm just being nitpicky here about the proportions, it was still very nicely cooked with good seasoning. 

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix the cornstarch and wine until the cornstarch is all dissolved.
2. Add the everything else, and mix well! 

Method 1: Wontons

Once you've wrapped the dumplings, either cook them immediately or store them in the freezer, or else the moisture from the filling will seep into the wrappers. 

You can either boil the wontons and make wonton soup, which is what I've done here, or you can deep fry them. I personally hate deep frying things myself, because it makes a complete mess in the kitchen, so I opted for the easier (and also healthier option). Simply bring the broth to a boil (I used powdered chicken stock, for simplicity), dump the wontons in, bring the pot to a simmer and wait for them to float to the top! That takes approximately 5 minutes, but you can cheat and just cut a wonton in half to see if the filling is cooked. 

You can throw in some veggies or noodles to make a more hearty meal. I opted for regular chinese cabbage, but most people pair this dish with Bok Choy. 

Et voila! You should have a wrapper that looks more or less like this. Similarly to the wonton dumpling, either cook straight away, or freeze the gyozas. You can also boil the dumplings, but we want more variety in our lives, so I'm going to show you the traditional pot-sticker method, which involves pan frying, and then steaming in the pan.  

First of all, heat the oil on the pan on medium heat. Once the oil starts to sizzle a bit when you touch it with a spatula, place the gyozas on the pan like so. 

 Pan fry it for about 2-3 minutes, or until the bottoms have turned a crispy, golden brown. Then pour cold water in the pan to about 1 cm depth. Turn the heat up to medium high, and cover with a lid. If you don't have a lid for your frying pan, use aluminium foil. Steam the dumplings for 6-8 minutes, then remove the lid and let the rest of the water evaporate. 

The end result: slightly wrecked because the Hermes delivery guy came to the door, and I had to leave the pan unattended to sign for a package, which resulted in the bottoms sticking slightly to the pan. 

No big loss though, they're still perfectly edible. Serve with a dipping sauce of vinegar mixed with soy sauce and fresh ginger cut into fine julienne. 

And finally, sit back and savour your creations! Hopefully this tutorial was helpful, and that I didn't confuse anyone with my wrapping instructions. 

First off, look at how gorgeous this looks. Fluffy rice, topped with decadently fatty pork belly, hardboiled egg(my personal favourite part of the dish, aside from the pork belly of course) and a heavily spiced sauce to top it all off. Not to toot my own horn here, but it tastes even better. Enough of the food porn though, what you want to know is, what do I need to get? Well, here goes. You're going to need (for 3-4 servings):

• 5 pieces of star anise
• 1 cinnamon Stick
• 6-8 cloves
• 3 bay leaves
• 4 thin slices of fresh ginger 

First off, some notes about the ingredients. Can't find pork belly in your local Lidl? You won't find it there. You're going to need to go somewhere with a proper meat counter, and that can either be your local Metzgerei(butcher's) , or you can find good meat counters in big supermarkets like Real or Kaisers. I got mine for approximately 1.78 euros at my local Kaisers. Total bargain if you ask me. 

The Hua Diao wine was a bitch to find. No idea why, but a lot of the little Asian markets (and even the huge Asian Warehouse in Dong Xuan) here in Berlin don't stock Shaoxing wine or Hua Diao Jiu! Well, I finally found a place that sells Hua Diao Jiu in Tempelhof, in the AsiaGo supermarket. Since it's a chain, I assume any AsiaGo supermarket should have it. Look in the alcohol section, along with the sakes and what not. You can find almost all the other ingredients there as well, including the firm tofu. Take note, this isn't silken tofu that you find in hotpots and miso soup, but a firmer variety that can also be sold under the name Tau Kwa. The Natur Tofu that they sell at DM is also of this variety. 

HOWEVER, some Asian supermarkets may only sell the star anise and cinnamon sticks in huge packs that you will never finish unless you open up a food truck and start selling lu rou fan for the rest of your life. So, an alternative, if you're too lazy to go to an Asian supermarket, is to just head to your local big supermarkets (aka, not discount retailers like Lidl and Aldi) such as Kaisers, Real or Edeka and head to the spice section. I know for a fact that my local Kaisers definitely stocks all the spices that you need, BUT they're crazy expensive. One small pack alone of about what, less than 10g could cost you up to 2.99 a pack. To paraphrase Sweet Brown, ain't nobody got cash fo dat. So I have yet another alternative for you. Either you go around all the Asian supermarkets looking for places that sell these spices in reasonably small, cheap packets, OR you head to the Asia-Markt in Alexanderplatz (yes, the place is literally just called Asia-Markt). It'll be listed as one of the shops in the Alexa mall at Alexanderplatz, but it's actually a shop outside, underneath the S-bahn tracks. 

There you should be able to find a pack like the one in the photo above. I have no idea what it says because I am not Vietnamese. But it doesn't matter, because it also says in English that it contains cinnamon sticks, star anise and cardamom(which you won't need in this recipe, but might come in handy for something else). For only 1.79 a pack. Inside the pack you should find enough star anise and cinnamon sticks for you to cook about 4-5 rounds of this recipe, so 1.79 for this, compared to 2.99 per pack of ingredients that you'd find at Kaisers, you tell me which is the better deal. 

Now that you've got all the ingredients, let's move on to how to cook it. 

And that's all there is to it! Now you have all you need to make a steaming bowl of Lu Rou Fan to tide you over these cold, winter days. 

Not only is the decor rustic, but the waiters and waitresses are also adorned in (IMO, kitschy but each to his own) traditional Southern German attire.Think bust-enhancing Dirndls and Lederhosen. Like I said, it's kind of cheesy, but at the same time, kind of fun as well. But if cheesy rustic attire and decor isn't your thing, have no fear. The food makes up for it all. Zur Haxe is apparently one of the favourite places for Berliner's to get their roasted pork knuckle fix, and boy, can I see why. 

I went for another one of their specialties, the duck with Rotkohl (red cabbage) and Klöße and regretted it immediately. Not because it was terrible, don't get me wrong, it was abso-fucking-lutely delicious, but it was definitely way too much for even my stomach. If you're not a ravenous, bottomless pit, definitely share this with someone, or face the heartburn later in the night. 

For the unadventurous, you can never go wrong with a Schnitzel although you can pretty much get that anywhere, even in the Mensa, so what's wrong with you? Get out of the box and grab a Haxe for Martin Luther's sake! 

Another good thing about Zur Haxe is that they have English menus too, for the tourists. Call ahead to make a reservation though, especially if you're in a big group or if you're going on a weekend, because this place WILL be packed. 

Address: Erich-Weinert-Straße 128, nearest S-bahn Greifswalder Str. 

Opening Hours: 16:00 to 00:00 weekdays, 12:00 to 00:00 weekends