Easter: and my very first visit to Mr Vega

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Easter Saturday. And the sky looks promising. I’d thought I might linger under the duvet, after a very jolly night out with the irrepressible Paul GB and the lovely Birgit Simmler, sipping cocktails and devouring delicious vension at … where else? … my favourite  Katz Orange in the Bergstrasse, but …

Tinkle. Come on, get up, it’s a lovely day for a walk and you need some shopping, and we’ve got to arrange our train tickets to Magdeburg, and I’ve got the concert listings if you want to go to something tomorrow…

An hour later, Paulie (as opposed to Paul) turned up, and we started on the list. Train booked, concert listings scanned in vain, sun now shining gently and welcomingly. Time for the walk. At 12.30? Well, logical then that the walk should lead us to LUNCH.

Well, it just so happened that, on our way back from the movie and meal in the Hackeschermarkt the other day, we had passed an attractive looking restaurant. Kopps. It’s what? Vegan? What’s that? Omigod, it’s not what Keith Michell went, and ended up looking like a ghost?

I was assured that Vegan would be to my tastes (Paulie knows about these things), so what better for a sunny Saturday than to give it a go. Off we set: a nice 15-20 minute stroll through Mitte and there we were. Lots of lovely little tables outside, but a wee breeze and oh no! steps up to the interior and the food! I don’t do steps with a plate of goodies in my hand, so indoors it had to be.

A nice table in the window and the filtered sun, looking out on a pretty park, horse-drawn buggies, expensive, parked motor bikes, and the occasional pedalling-person … mmmm ..

Then: lunch. Kopps charges a mere 12.50 for what they call brunch. It’s a buffet full of delicious looking bits and pieces, hot and cold, and, if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t even think of it being no-animal, no-dairy …

We hogged in. Iced tea with orange and cranberry juice, instead of my usual cocktail. Delicious. Soup. OK, this soup was a triumph. Carrot and ginger. And I don’t know what else. Coconut milk, I suppose. Anyway it was a triumph. If they sell it by the litre I will bring some home. Then all the little veggie-salady things. Yes I went ‘cold’ rather than ‘hot’. All delicious: beans, lentils, mushrooms, celery (what! no chick peas?), something tasty approximating cheese, something not-so-tasty made to look like sausage ... and, of course, it’s Spargel-saison, so lovely lush, soft white asparagus, perfectly cooked. Then, for heaven’s sake: pudding! I had the pureed apple (OK, baby food, but yummy) and – how did they make it within the rules – chocolate mousse, which is way outside my repertoire in the ‘real’ world …

We both enjoyed our lunch enormously, and I am now largely convinced about ‘Vegan’. In spite of Keith Michell. So were the nicely plumpish, healthy girls next us, who got a thorough 12.50s worth by going back to the buffet five times …  We shall go back soon. Nice one, Kopps!

Kopps is situated on the korner of Linienstrasse and Ackerstrasse. My Rewe supermarket is on Ackerstrasse! So, we even shopped for my frig on the way home. Lots of chickpeas, cucumber, avocado .. and I’m sorry Mr Vega, I can’t do with out my chicken-liver pâté … and my smoked salmon .. there are limits, you know!

The energetic Paulie got my groceries home, then zoomed off to the gym, while I sit here listening to my new CD of the Quatuor Ebene, sipping a wee whisky and thinking of that carrot soup. I can’t cook, but I wonder if I could try to make that…..

PS I think Keith was macro-biotic, so I'll probably be OK