Food, absolutely first class glorious food!

I’d had a strange day. Up after midday after a difficult sleep. Well, sitting up till 1am reviewing The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, without being totally bloody, is not easy. Nor restful. One tosses (no pun intended) and turns … I hate writing bad reviews. It preys on me. Maybe I’m in the wrong job.

No one was coming to see me today, so I switched on the tennis and started the month’s ironing.

Shriekapova vs Halep. The former’s theatricals meant I had to turn off the sound. Apparently and sadly she won. I do hate noise.

Dinner time, and still no one. Well, in that case, I shall dine alone. At the best Berlin has to offer. And – since I’m only paying for me – I’ll do the whole hog.

I’m lucky. The restaurant in question is a few hundred metres from my flat. And there I hied.

It was April 2013 when Thomas Hermanns introduced me to the Katz Orange (‘my favourite restaurant’) and I’ve been there 30 or 40 times since, usually hosting friends to whom I want to show this hidden jewel. But tonight was just like at the beginning: Kurt solo popping down for a bit of dinner …  lovely. And it was truly lovely, one of the most delightful meals I’ve had in years.

Enter. Ushered to my usual table. Outdoors, for the first time this year, because the heatwave is coming. Olli the world’s best cocktailer

has already got my Gold Fashioned on the make. Oh yes. The afternoon’s ironing aches vanished in a splash. I am alive! 

Then ..? The menu at the Katz is tiny but exquisite. For the third time in succession, I order the sweetbreads with green and white asparagus (etc) and blood sausage bread. I am a small, but hugely fussy, eater. I wished, tonight, that I could eat more. I would have ordered seconds. The first time I had this dish, it was grand, the second time it had some tough ?lemon grass in it, tonight it was mind-bendingly perfect.

I wish I had a photo of the chef, but he was busy, so here is Flavio who looked after me.

Next, 15 minute pause – and, OK, a second Gold Fashioned – after which cheese and wine. Jacob, whom I have known since Day One here, brought me a German cheese board. Not to choose from (which would have been nice) but chosen. I asked for the names. Here they are: Regonbert Zieger (delicious), Berliner Brikott (nice, interesting), 14-month Bergkäse (nice), Schwarzbier käse (boring).

Since I trust Jacob, I told him to give me the ‘right’ wine. He chose a ‘Barbera d’asti, coppo Camp du Rouss’. It served nicely and self-effacingly to accompany the cheese.

Anywhere else, I would have now gone home. But …. a little lime rum sorbet? And who can quit the Katz without one of Olli’s Turkish Coffee martinis ..

Why, when one can eat such immaculate food, and drink such …… would one go anywhere else? I’ve already booked us in  (who’s coming?)  for tomorrow night.