EXBERLINER Issue 170, April 2018

BRAZIL IN BERLIN
FOOD
Brazilian bites
When it comes to Brazilian food in Berlin, there’s
truly something for everyone. We sampled the
wide range of options. By Aqueena Crisp and René Blixer
For Brazilians and
their friends
When we asked our interviewees in this issue
where they went for a taste of home, Café
Mori was the most common answer. The
Görlitzer Park restaurant’s owner, Berlinborn
Alexander Mori, learned the traditional
recipes from his Brazilian mother. The star
of his small menu is hands-down the feijoada,
Brazil’s national dish: a hearty black bean
stew served here with braised pork, basmati
rice, farofa (roasted manioc flour) and
tomato-coriander salad (€7/€5.90 for a small
portion). In the vegan alternative feijao marrom,
Mori omits the pork, switches the black
beans for pinto and adds roasted garlic for
almost the same depth of flavour (€5.80/€5).
For dessert, there are Sonho de Valsa
chocolate bonbons (€1) or good old Kuchen
like vegan apple cake (€3.40/slice) or carrot
cake (€3). Don’t forget a guava smoothie or,
if they’ve got it, Skol beer (€3.20), a popular
Brazilian brew that’s actually manufactured
by Carlsberg. And Mori’s Kreuzberg 36 location
makes it a perfect pit stop for a nonwatery
caipirinha during the annual May 1
melee. Wiener Str. 13, Kreuzberg, Tue-Sat
11:30-22, Sun 12-20
Café Mori
For hipsters and
super-foodies
Tapiocaria
You might associate tapioca (powdereded
cassava root) with the chewy blobs found in
pudding or bubble tea, but in northeastern
Brazil, the word means one thing: delicate,
stretchy crepes made with manioc flour (a
processed form of tapioca), served with a
variety of sweet or savoury fillings. Found on
just about every street corner in the motherland,
tapioca was nonexistent in Berlin
until four years ago, when German-Brazilian
couple Mariana Pitanga and Peter Westerhoff
decided the customiseable, naturally glutenfree
snack would be perfect for the Markthalle
IX crowd. Their mobile stand Tapiocaria
serves the pancakes (€4.50-5.50) with
a plethora of fillings, from chicken-cheese
to vegan chilli to tomato-basil-mozzarella.
“Tapioca Caprese” may not exactly scream
Brazil to you, but the Tropicana (guava
marmalade, grated coconut and banana)
is as authentic-tasting as it gets. Finish off
with a big bowl of açai sorbet (€6-8), which
was big in Brazil before anyone over here
ever deemed it a superfood. Markthalle IX,
Eisenbahnstr. 42-43, Kreuzberg, Thu 17-22, see
Facebook for other events
For Germans,
tourists and serious
meat eaters
What kind of Brazilian restaurant will you
find on Ku’damm? If you guessed “a posh
steakhouse owned by Russians”, you’re
right on the money. The gaudy, 11-year old
Brasil Brasiliero provides moneyed City
West residents with the Churrasqueira
Rodízio experience, in which roving costumed
waiters present your table with cuts
of grilled meat skewered on swords until
you’ve had enough. For €29.50 on weekdays,
you get access to imported Brazilian and
Argentinian beef, lamb, chorizo and more,
plus a salad bar and a rum-doused flaming
pineapple for dessert. If you’ve got a taste
for feather-bedecked showgirls and shirtless
male dancers, Friday and Saturday evenings
offer dinner and a show for €34.50. There
are a few Brazilians working in the kitchen,
but this isn’t the place your friend João goes
for an authentic meal; rather, it’s where you
take Jörg or Vladimir for some flashy distraction
before hammering out the details
of that oil contract. Kurfürstendamm 51,
Charlottenburg, Sun-Thu 18-23, Fri-Sat 18-1
For home cooks
If you feel like trying your hand at Brazilian
cuisine yourself, venture into the back room
of the Kantstraße clothes and cosmetic shop
Alexa Jeans Brazil. Past shelves of Seda hair
products, Nativa Spa moisturiser and Pit
Bull jeans (which for €149.90 promise to lift
and shape your butt better than any trousers
you’ll find in Germany), you’ll find a small
but comprehensive grocery section. Here’s
where you can get the ubiquitous ingredient
manioc flour, either plain or pre-seasoned as
farofa; instant pan de queso (cheese roll) mix;
condensed milk for making dulce de leche and
even little snacks like Passatempo biscuits
(€2.35). Goiânian owner Alexa Oliveira
opened the shop on Leibnizstraße five years
ago before expanding to Kantstraße and adding
the food section in 2016. How to use your
grocery bounty? At Forum Brazil (see page
17), Murah Soares leads German-language
courses where up to eight participants learn
how to make dishes like the shrimp stew bobo
de camarão (€35; sign up well in advance).
If you’d rather skip the cooking part, Alexa
Jeans turns into a mini-restaurant on one
Sunday per month, when Oliveira and her
small staff cook a dish of their choice for customers
(in March it was feijoada for €8.50).
On special order, they also prepare sweets,
fried snacks (like the chicken croquettes
coxhina) and unicorn-shaped birthday cakes.
Kantstr. 25, Charlottenburg, Mon-Fri 11-19,
Sat 11-16, check Facebook for Sunday events
APRIL 2018