Trading One In for Another

Dear Curious,

Don't come to Berlin in the mood for nachos. You'll only find them at a couple of places. The same thing goes for your American style pizza. Instead, they serve Italian style, on which they consider cheese a topping (so if it's not specifically stated as being on there, it's not). Oh, and burritos are out. I didn't really start thinking about this until I noticed that the chicken wing deficiency is almost complete. They have exactly one flavor, which isn't quite buffalo and isn't quite BBQ. This probably doesn't even register as a problem to a person that doesn't see a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings or Plucker's as the highlight of a month.

But this isn't actually complaining. It's nice to have pizza that doesn't immediately give you the extra weight of a spare tire in the trunk. Not having the option of an all-carnivore meal with the gravitational pull of a super nova likely makes me much healthier at the end of the month and the lack of their spiciest flavors certainly saves my lips and stomach from numerous repairs.

But sometimes things remind me of America. Here the big fast food is Donner. I'll provide a picture later today, but the meat comes off a gigantic piece of pressed meat that rotates around a spit with a heat source on one side. Thus, as it rotates around meat can be sliced off of it in small strips. It is then placed on some sort of bread along with tomatoes, lettuce, red cabbage, onions, and the option of garlic, yogurt or chili sauce. The bread can be either this harder (sourdough like) bread that is cut open like a pita or a giant piece of bread that is almost exactly a tortilla. Thus, for the elusive burrito, Berlin has its substitute, the durum donner.

I spoke to someone about this on Friday night who has lived here his entire life and to him this is not just fast food. It was originally brought over by the Turks, but now Berlin has its own spin on it and, according to him, no one else does it the same. Berlin owns it. Melissa has confirmed this as she cannot get one of the basic options, falafel in place of donner meat, found in Berlin.

I'm enjoying the food here, but because so much of it is based around the sausage, I am excited about seeing what Istanbul has to offer. Mel says that I should be wagging my tail in excitement over the waffles. That's cool. I like waffles.

These nice young gentlemen are silently warning people of the dangers of Scientology.
The Scientologists have a promotional stand just behind these guys.
These gentlemen must wear masks to protect their identity b/c Scientologists don't much like badmouthing.

I join them for a brief second making a nonsense sign with my pinkies.
They were appreciative of the support, but also happy to see me leave.
Their signs read: Caution! Dangerous sect."
and they have pamphlets further explaining their presence as well.