Lars eats, cooks, and travels

The attentive reader will have noticed - there was a break in my star of the week reports. Was I slacking off? Not eating my share? Fear not! To start of my week in beautiful Puglia, Italy, I had dinner at one of the few Michelin starred restaurants in the region - the Quintessenza Ristorante in Trani - to experience their high-end interpretation of Apulian cuisine. And finally, here is the report. I had made this reservation a few weeks in advance, and was really looking forward to it. I had researched typical cuisine of Puglia, already excited to experience some - and trying my best for "all" - of the bountiful abundance of the fruits, vegetables, seafood, slowfood, oils, cheeses, pastries, pasta ... However, compared to Berlin, Michelin starred restaurants are slightly further apart than just a few blocks, and thus we had specifically planned our route to be close to this one. (Staying at the picturesque Masseria Torre di Nebbia , whose kitchen deserves its own articl

This star of the week restaurant was the einsunternull , again very centrally located in Berlin-Mitte at Hannoversche Straße 1 (right next to Oranienburger Tor/U6). Having just returned from Puglia and the rich, sun-favored cuisine of southern Italy, I was ready for some German regional cooking and flavours! I choose the einsunternull because it has been described as being in the middle of a triangle formed by reinstoff, Horváth, and Nobelhart & Schmutzig by the Gault Millau 2017. Knowing two of these already, I was curious to see how they overlap (and the logical consequence is needing to visit reinstoff soon, too, whose team gave birth to the einsunternull - you can read the whole story as well). Yet, if you check their reviews on Google, you will find they rank at (as of June 2017) at a dismal 3.7 out of 5. Normally, due to rating inflation, any rating on Google below 4 effectively translates to "avoid at all cost" - yet this is an award winning, Michelin-starre

My star of the week quest continues: the Nobelhart & Schmutzig is located on the southern end of Berlin-Mitte on Friedrichstraße 218, hidden behind another minimalist exterior that does not betray the one Michelin starred restaurant within. However, it hints at some of the themes within: de-emphasizing the presentation (calling themselves merely a "Speiselokal" - "Eating place"), but also at a rebellious, wild, loud streak ("Who the fuck is Paul Bocuse?"). And, really, Billy Wagner and his team do not shy away from standing by their opinions and showing it - signs proclaiming that no cameras, no phones, no weapons, and no supporters of right-wing AfD are welcome. Controversy? Yes, please. (If anything shows the benefits from multiple cultures and free exchange, it's cooking. If basic humanity wasn't enough reason. But that's a topic for another day.) So if you have ever wondered how an award winning restaurant ends up with sub-par r