After the visit of my brother and sister-in-law – one of the highlights of the year, and so great to have them here – and an unbelievably lazy day where temperatures reached 36C – time for an internations.org event – the annual visit to Schloßgut Schwante.

During the family visit, it had been relatively warm and sunny and our level of activity was kind of medium (none of us are getting any younger…….).

It included ambling along Landwehrkanal to eat in Vietnamese restaurant Via He Hai. The next day the almost obligatory visit to Tierpark where we inspected, among other things, the new “Savannah” area and had dinner in Chinese Restaurant Ming Dynastie on the way back, and finished the day with a stroll home along Märkisches Ufer (and of course, like all these fine summer evenings this week – drinks on the balcony). And from then on, nothing (except dinner reservations) went completely according to plan but since some people call me a control freak, that was probably only healthy :-).

I wanted to show them Das Kleine Grosz Museum and found out that they are closed on Wednesdays. But we did see some of the large murals in Bülowstraße, and stopped over in another oasis – Café Eule – SO Berlin in my view – on the way home.

Dinner in Restaurant Shiori – an experience with a difference. We all agreed that the thirteen dishes were a bit too much – we could have done without the cold soba noodles and the first dessert. Everything else was delicious, the crash course in the fine art of saké was interesting, and it was very entertaining to watch the “choreography” of the five staff.

On the last full day, the last-minute decision was to save the stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen till next time and instead take a leisurely stroll (or so we thought) through Tegel, and along Greenwich Promenade by Tegeler See to say hallo to Dicke Marie – alledgedly Berlin’s oldest tree. When we arrived lakeside it turned out that we walked straight into the almost completed preparations for Tegeler Hafenfest which was to take place the entire weekend. Something which to me is a bit of a nightmare. We did make it through and to Dicke Marie and found a nice place to have lunch outdoors while only hearing the music and other noises from the Hafenfest from a distance.

In the evening dinner at Restaurant NaNum, just a few steps from home and by now quite an institution in Berlin. The food was as always light, delicious, AND healthy :-), the natural wines were good, and it was great to see how the non-alcoholic drinks pairing is taken at least as seriously as the wine pairing. All plates, bowls etc. are made by the owner in her pottery workshop upstairs from the restaurant. She also sometimes gives kimchi workshops. She is the same age as me – I don’t know where she gets her energy, nor upper arms hahaha. Perhaps it is all those fermented greens. And thus, my 70th birthday (which was actually last year in November while I was in Reha) had been well and truly celebrated.

But back to the visit to the sculpture park.

First of all, my usual grievance: Of the seven others who had signed up for the internations event, two actually turned up. They were great company, but I am always wondering why people sign up for events and then don’t either turn up, or cancel their attendance. One or two of the names I recognise as “repeat offenders”. It is not that they do not receive reminders to do so – it is just that the majority of internations members, at least those that are expats, are spoilt, badly brought up brats with an inflated sense of entitledment.

With that off my chest :-), after that visit, I fairly inadvertently found myself back at Tegeler See and the Hafenfest. I have to say that it was nowhere near as bad as I had feared. I did force myself to take some photos, despite my dislike of humans as a species, and the German camera angst and photography paranoia. And I even sat down and had a softice without feeling crowded let alone claustrophobic.

The first photo is from the station in Hennigsdorf from where the regional train to Schwante leaves. The photo from the lake is from just before entering the actual park. Then follows two almost identical photos presenting the usual dilemma: Colour, or black and white?

And now to Tegeler See, and the Hafenfest, starting with the almost obligatory black and white tree photo from whenever I take my camera out.

And finally, the triptych of the day, and a church on the way to the S-Bahn station in Tegel.

30 small carrots or enough larger ones cut lengthways to make about 30 pieces, tossed in a sauce of 3 tblsp soy sauce, 1 tblsp sambal oelek, 1 tblsp avocaco oil, 2 tblsp honey (or maple syrup if you want to make it completely vegan), and a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper. Place in one layer in a baking tray, preserving the remainder of the sauce.

Bake in one layer for a total of 45 to 50 minutes. It is OK for the carrots to turn slightly charred at the edges.

Halfway through, turn the pieces, and spoon over the remaining sauce.

Serve as a side or, as in this case, a main course with lentils and a handful of balcony greens and finely chopped garlic. Drizzled with a tahini dressing.

I was horrified to learn in a documentary on Danish TV that there are people – quite a lot of people, by the sound of it – who throw out food for the simple reason that they can afford buying new food tomorrow.

To me, any kind of food waste is immoral, reprehensible, and unethical, and there has to be a law against it. Unless something has started to rot or gone mouldy or has otherwise morphed into some kind of health hazard, I never throw out food, but I admit I could be more creative with leftovers. Starting now:

I had some potatoes, some large white beans and some quinoa that all needed to be used up. I had fairly equal amounts, approx 260 g, and all were already boiled.

I blitzed the potatoes and the beans with 1 tsp garam masala, a half tsp paprika, a knob of fresh ginger finely chopped, and 2tblsp tomato paste, to a fine mash.

I added the quinoa, a red onion, sliced, and three garlic cloves, chopped, and blitzed a bit more but trying to leave a bit of texture this time.

I formed the mixture into patties (in this case six) and fried them for a few minutes in avocado oil. They were not easy to handle, so I shaped and flattened them once they were in the pan. I quite like the rustic look anyway, and since my plating and presentation skills are non-existent and I end up visually ruining even the nicest looking dish – who cares?

(And yes, I know the WFPB police is going to come after me for the avocado oil, but I am not ready to give up avocado oil for frying, nor olive oil and co. for salad dressings and hummus, and quite frankly, I doubt I ever will be, though I have of course reduced consumption considerably now that I know how bad they are for people who had – not to mention those who have – any form of hormone receptive cancer as apparently, they drive up estrogen levels, in addition to actually being quite highly processed.)

((Despite being “internally displaced” most of that time :-))

European Month of Photography Berlin officially takes place from 2 to 31 March, but some open earlier, and some are open longer than those dates.

IN PROGRESS