Local Stories

The Thai Park otherwise known as the Thai Wiese or Berlin's Little Thailand in Wilmersdorf is a spot where Thai women cook under umbrellas and sell their food.
August 1, 2013 2

Happy Weekend: Toi, Toi, Toi, Thai Park

During the summer I'm here almost every weekend, inhaling shrimp summer rolls slathered in peanut sauce, papaya salad speckled with red chili, and iced coffee swimming in globs of cloyingly sweet condensed milk. I may meander the colorful rows for food, but my coffee always comes from the same umbrella: Kaffee Oma's... [Read More!]
June 29, 2013 0

Happy Weekend: “part Korean, part American, part German, all Kimchi”

If the chance of rain deters participation in any of the street events or outdoor markets this weekend, I've got a solution: stuff your face with delicious Korean-fusion. In fact, why not learn a little about Lauren Lee AKA "Fräulein Kimchi" - the proponent of the Korean taco and the Bavarian-Korean cooking course - whose appearances in Mauerpark and Markthalle 9 are bringing in the masses (even if the retelling of my Bimbibap obsession in my Seattle years elicits more often the "Bimbi - whaaa?" than an affirmative nod). This post comes from Jessica Jungbauer of Best Wishes from Berlin, who seeks out the so-called "creatives" of the city, the culinary sort among them, initiating short auto-portraits for an interesting lens into one facet of creative engagement or another... [Read More!]
June 21, 2013 0

Lens: Warm Nights are for Cricket

And who is playing? I ask. India is playing, he answers, then pauses. A slight smile, a look of knowing softens his jaw. What is happening now is that Indians are playing cricket. On the other edge of the fence women in saris, shorts, or tunics lean on strollers, lay in the grass, take photos or at least pretend to. All the men seem to be playing or waiting to be called. All are dressed in impeccable whites, high socks, pearly feet kicking up dust into the scorch. The white-washed men scurry among the dust... [Read More!]
June 18, 2013 2

Review: Become a German (in just under 650 hours)

You must clean up after your dog. You must ride your bike in the right direction of the bike lane, recites a Russian student. The audience chuckles. First work, then... chants the teacher. The audience groans. Do you know any examples of German humor? asks the teacher. Uhhh, fumbles the Japanese student. 10 seconds go by. I'm still thinking, he mutters and scratches his head. The audience roars... [Read More!]
May 9, 2013 8

Interview: Ali, Zoe, and the Gentrification Debate

Meet Ali and Zoe. You may have heard of them. Zoe takes pictures of Ali while walking down the street and posts them on her tumblr called What Ali Wore. They share a special connection, one reflective of a city in flux and a district in crisis. He, the assumed-Gastarbeiter (politically-charged term for 'guest worker') fighting against stereotypes and categorizations since arrival // she, the ex-pat fighting off armies of criticism for displacing the very people one considers a neighbor: difficult situations that have arisen not out of malice but out of circumstance, no matter the scale... [Read More!]
May 2, 2013 0

Rave: “I am not a Terrorist”

In Berlin, the dimensions of migration and diversity may sometimes be over-simplified, but groups like Migrantas are changing that, and doing so creatively. The best part: the voice and agency of the "immigrants", so often talked-about and so seldom talking-back, take center stage... [Read More!]
April 29, 2013 4

Lens: Linsanity and Linguine

Looking up, I notice a young black man across the street. I immediately scold myself for thinking it's B, but then realize it really is him. He has a book bag swung over one shoulder and an amused look on his face. We haven't seen each other for a few weeks and never in this neighborhood, so it's a happy, albeit slightly disorienting, coincidence. B's done with school for the day and I'm famished, so we go to an Italian cafeteria adjacent to the Wilmersdorfer Strasse subway stop. He orders something creamy and rich. I ask for something "spicy" with extra spice. The men behind the counter wear shirts splattered with grease and yell in Italian when it's ready... [Read More!]
April 25, 2013 3

Lens: Lamb on Fridays

The children may eat Milka and Haribo but they will tolerate spice. Broiled fish in chili or ribs of lamb in a bed of sour stew. Onions sweated in pepper and vinegar on oily rice. Pineapple with salt. Dried cod fried in dough. Tamarind in everything. Sour, spicy, and sweet stuck to the curtains. “Africa” - as the boy says - in the carpet, on the tablecloth, in each and every pot and pan, making its way into daily life in the apartment of a Lichtenberg concrete sky-scraper. It is Friday and A is making lamb... [Read More!]
1 2 3

Copyright © 2020 | Collidoscope Berlin