Berlin, or the Newest Old Food City in Europe
There is a stretch of pavement of perhaps two hundred metres along Kastanienallee, in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin, where you can eat lunch four times, in four different national traditions, without ever crossing a road. A Vietnamese pho place with a queue outside. A Turkish döner shop with the meat turning slowly on its vertical spit. A stand-up currywurst counter under a striped awning. An Italian espresso bar with cornetti and a proper machine. This is not, in any deep sense, unusual. This is what a Berlin street looks like. You can spend two weeks in the city and never eat a plate of what would once have been called German food, and eat extremely well. You will also notice, gradually, that almost nothing you have put in your mouth was in Berlin a hundred years ago. This is not a defect. This is the point. Berlin is a young capital by European standards. It became the seat of a unified Germany only in 1871, was flattened at the end of the Second World War, and divided ...
