Berlin: KaDeWe – Gourmet Bouillabaisse

On my last day in Berlin, it was raining and the wind harsh. Stay indoors was the advice offered by the hotel concierge.

KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens) is the second largest department store in Europe, after Harrods in London.  But the food hall on the sixth floor, in my opinion, is bigger and better than Harrods.  They have numerous counters selling every gourmet item that you expect a “westerner” (it being located on the west German side of the Wall) would consume.  Several brands of champagne each has their own tasting areas on the floor. Lenôtre has an area in the middle of the floor and the woman behind the counter told me not to take pictures of their cakes.  The cake decorations are superb and people must have been copying them.

The best feature is the gourmet counters that allow you to consume the food, freshly prepared, on the spot – there were at least 20 or more specialties.  I had breakfast and lunch there.  There were counters for fried seafoods, lobsters (see below), sausages, roast chicken, Thai curry, Sushi, … and even a counter named Paul Bocuse which served food by his recipe, and Cantonese stir fry!  My lunch was at a counter that is dedicated to Bouillabaisse – one of my favorite ! And it was good.

All cleaned, waiting to be put in the pot.

I got a medium portion without the seafood platter but the bowl was packed with fish.  A cheap (by Swiss standard) and delicious lunch !