January 19, 2023
Viasko, Berlin: It Makes You Think of Fiasco But It's All Goodby Randi / September 19, 2014Kopps, Berlin: This Is How Brunch Professionals Do Brunch
When traveling, your best bet for finding good food is to listen to locals, letting them dictate which path your food tourism follows. In Berlin, we were lucky to have two friends there who planned an epic buffet brunch for us all at Kopps. Buffet brunch is like the big hip thing to do in Berlin, and I can’t imagine any other place’s offerings being as awesome as the all-vegan, never-ending spread at Kopps. The restaurant itself featured modern, Ikea-inspired decor (which I loved), and really great enormous picture windows (which let the sun bake my back and add a level of intrigue/sweat to the whole thing). It just seemed like such a chic place, you’d never guess it was an all-vegan establishment – there was no wicker furniture or patchouli smells (joking). Also, it was freaking packed! Reservations are required!
Early round plate
We quickly learned just why this place was so crowded. The food was ridiculous! There was very little labeling so I can’t say oh try this and try this. JUST EAT EVERYTHING. And then get four more plates. And then get dessert. Seriously, I don’t think anything was not delicious. (Except those little orange and green discs in the top picture. I don’t know what I thought they were going to be, but they were fancy pats of butter. Hahahahahahaha. Don’t just eat that plain. Oh man gross. Blechhh.)
Look at all this hot food and cold salads and stuff! It went on forever! There were pancakes and potato things and then all these amazing bean and grain salads. Oh now I remember something that was gross. See those little white cups of custard or something? I assumed (NEVER ASSUME) that it was going to be a sweet vanilla custard or cream of some sort – meaning, dessert. It was not. It was peppery and gross.
That is a tray of vegan cubed cheese surrounded by various salads, including an ‘egg’ salad that was amazing.
So many vegan lunch meats! Not my thing but dayum!
Lolol some wise person left their little cup of grossness at the buffet.
Yummy creamy potato something |
In the back were pancakes and this ridiculously amazing cherry sauce that people devoured |
Another savory plate. So freaking good. |
Those mini pancakes were the greasiest, oiliest, heart-attackiest most delicious things ever. |
I cannot wait to go back and continue to eat everything in sight! What a spectacular place! Why aren’t there fantastic brunch buffets in other cities? Does London even do brunch? I need to open a Kopps copy here. Have you been? Do you remember what any specific things were or is it all just a blur of deliciousness like it is for me?
KOPPS, BERLIN
Water speed: Decent, but the waiters were freaking super busy with that crowd.
Bathrooms: Very nice!
Food: Never-ending, delicious, just insane.
Bonus: They had fresh juices!
Related Posts
Mothers Day Feast: A Feast for Mothers
Holidays invented by the greeting card industry have annoying origin stories, true. But they are, with the exception of Valentines Day, great excuses to spend time with loved ones and eat good food. OK, Valentines Day is fine too. I love chocolate.
Mothers Day in particular is special for me, because I have the best mother in the world. Seriously, I know a lot of people say that, but it’s true in my case. (Actually, scratch that…I don’t know a lot of people who say that.) To celebrate my mother and the other mothers at our motherloving party, I cooked an epic vegan feast. One of my favorite things about family gatherings is that I can introduce free and delicious vegan food to my very suspicious relatives. There’s nothing more rewarding to a vegan cook than to have a staunchly carnivorous grandfather not only eat your food, but enjoy it.
READ IT ALL!
Mothers Day in particular is special for me, because I have the best mother in the world. Seriously, I know a lot of people say that, but it’s true in my case. (Actually, scratch that…I don’t know a lot of people who say that.) To celebrate my mother and the other mothers at our motherloving party, I cooked an epic vegan feast. One of my favorite things about family gatherings is that I can introduce free and delicious vegan food to my very suspicious relatives. There’s nothing more rewarding to a vegan cook than to have a staunchly carnivorous grandfather not only eat your food, but enjoy it.
READ IT ALL!
Guest Post!! Cauliflower Soup with Cara W. in All Her Amazingness
Hello friends!! Today we have a guest post! How exciting is that! Did you even know we could HAVE guest blogs on Laughfrodisiac? Because I didn’t! But I like this idea – I do very little work – so if you are interested in writing a guest piece, please email me at the link at the top right corner. I do still get to write the headlines as you can see. The W stands for WIN. Anyway, today’s amazing piece comes from Cara W., a dear friend of mine who is also the best short story writer you’ll probably ever read in your entire life, so I’m a little hesitant to post this because you’ll prob be like ‘damn she is much better she should take over the site.’ And no her real name is not Alice Munro but I can see why you’d think that!
Cara brings us her own take on a cauliflower soup recipe. Her take means she removes the garlic and tries to make up for it in other ways. I KNOW! We are very different in that regard because as you know I have eaten 5 types of garlic in one dish. But this is nice for all of my vampire readers out there. I can’t believe that I haven’t posted a recipe of my own in over a year (!!) (too busy eating at amazing restaurants?) so thanks to Cara for easing us back into this section of the site! Obviously I do not have the self-restraint to let someone else talk without me interrupting (have you MET me) (could I BE any more interrupty?) so when you see bracketed comments in italics in the body below, that’sa me! Mario! It’ll look like this [it’s me! Mario!]. So thank you Cara and, readers, enjoy!
CAULIFLOWER SOUP WITH CARA W.
THIS IS THE FUTURE LIBERALS WANT
So, I am not as amazing as our fearless vegan leader and blogger, Ms. Laughfrodisiac herself, [correct she is more amazing and is also the first person to spell the site name correctly wow] and I’ve actually never been adamantly vegan or even casually vegetarian in my life. Instead, I do the far too common thing of over-analyzing calories and obsessing over sugars versus carbs versus proteins. I fall into diet fads and once even tried to straight green juice it for a month–CLEANSE ME YOU MAGICAL GREENERY!! (This is actually a really great story that ended pretty dramatically with emergency gallbladder removal, but I digress.) [holy crap, you need to tell us this story. Next guest post?! THE DANGERS OF DETOX BULLSHIT.] The point is, I admire our blogger’s fearless dedication to do no harm and to love all around her and am often quite jealous of her food voyages and the seriously wide variety of foods she gets to experiment with. Now that she lives across the proverbial pond, I guess I sort of felt like I should try to fill Southeastern Pennsylvania’s Veganess Void by attempting to prepare the following amazing recipe for Cauliflower Soup.
I know it sounds gross. Cauliflower seems to be a divisive vegetable; my sisters despise it while my mother and I devour it. So when this recipe popped up on my Pinterest home page (or whatever you kids call it, is it a dashboard?), I just had to try it.
I am not historically well-known for my cooking skills. In fact, until a few years ago, I despised cooking. Everything about it grossed me out and made me nervous. You mean *I* have to literally saute the onions and decide how much salt and pepper to add for spice?!?!? What happens when the onions turn black? I remember those mini-panic-attacks with fondness now. Starting in late April of 2014, after battling a nearly month long craving for buttercream frosting, I decided I’d research recipes for frosting and made some kick-tushy double chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting for a friend’s work gathering. They were the hit of the party and I basically started an obsession with cooking and baking from that moment on.
Cauliflower Soup really does a good service for the saying “Less is More” and also for the idea that you don’t actually need cream for a soup to taste bisque-y [lolol this is a treat for my PPKers out there. the filter will never die]. It is FULL of flavor and also very comforting warmth for these 7 degree winter days. [WHY IS IT STILL SO COLD I AM SHIVERING CARA MAKE ME SOUP.]
Some Cara Thoughts on Carrots:
I despise carrots. I have no idea why, but starting maybe 5 years ago, I started to think that carrots taste like people. [ . . . ] I realize this makes little to no sense, and I’ve been laughed out of a number of cocktail party conversations by bringing this bizarre personal, uh, quirk to light, but hey, I swear to you: If people were a thing that people ate, I like, am 99.8907% certain the dish would be a little carrot-y tasting. I know it’s weird, but I tend to avoid carrots in all forms, and am particularly frightened of them in their cooked form, so uh, it’s weird that I decided to make this recipe, as there are cooked carrots. BONUS: you really can’t taste them.
I despise carrots. I have no idea why, but starting maybe 5 years ago, I started to think that carrots taste like people. [ . . . ] I realize this makes little to no sense, and I’ve been laughed out of a number of cocktail party conversations by bringing this bizarre personal, uh, quirk to light, but hey, I swear to you: If people were a thing that people ate, I like, am 99.8907% certain the dish would be a little carrot-y tasting. I know it’s weird, but I tend to avoid carrots in all forms, and am particularly frightened of them in their cooked form, so uh, it’s weird that I decided to make this recipe, as there are cooked carrots. BONUS: you really can’t taste them.
Some Cara Thoughts on Garlic:
Call me Edward Cullen, but I actually hate garlic, too. I know, I know, you’re probably thinking, “Cara, how could you study abroad in Italy and hate garlic?” or the more common, “Cara, how can you possibly enjoy good food if you hate garlic?” but here’s my stock response: whatever you love about garlic, I guarantee I can create with a nice mix of sweet onions, shallots, and fresh spring onions. (Seriously guys, garlic is icky. It tastes like burnt. And it makes me breathe fire. Can’t we just move on from this? Call it a fad (of the past million centuries)? Bring on some more varieties of onions? Eh?) [BUT I LOVE FIREBREATHING.]
Call me Edward Cullen, but I actually hate garlic, too. I know, I know, you’re probably thinking, “Cara, how could you study abroad in Italy and hate garlic?” or the more common, “Cara, how can you possibly enjoy good food if you hate garlic?” but here’s my stock response: whatever you love about garlic, I guarantee I can create with a nice mix of sweet onions, shallots, and fresh spring onions. (Seriously guys, garlic is icky. It tastes like burnt. And it makes me breathe fire. Can’t we just move on from this? Call it a fad (of the past million centuries)? Bring on some more varieties of onions? Eh?) [BUT I LOVE FIREBREATHING.]
When I wanted to make this recipe, I asked my mom to grab some of the ingredients from the store. She didn’t. I found out why: my mom had read the recipe all the way through, and it requires a food processor. We do not have one of those new fangled machines, so Sheila, in all her wisdom, just didn’t buy any of the ingredients for the soup and also didn’t explain to me why. [LOL Sheila this is amazing.] [Also I don’t have a food processor either! I make do with the good blender and with the little crappy 1/2 cup processor bowl that comes with the immersion blender.]
While at the store, I learned that coconut oil is very expensive [Indian grocery stores for the win!], and also that my locally owned grocery store (with a checkered past, one of its founders was murdered several years ago and the crime remains UNSOLVED, it’s like all we have for intrigue around these parts) sees it as reasonable to put coconut milk in like 102398098 different locations throughout the establishment. Which I guess is good for disorganized shoppers (like me) but also confusing for others, especially those who want to price compare because MAN is there a disparity between Goya’s coconut milk and the Thai label coconut milk. Sheesh. Marketing.
CAULIFLOWER SOUP
Inspired by http://shrinkingkitchen.com/creamy-cauliflower-soup/
Ingredients:
- 1 large head of cauliflower
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 large carrots, diced
- 1 tbsp of jarred SHALLOTS
- 1 bunch of diced spring onions
- 3 cups water
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup coconut milk (unsweetened)
Instructions:
- Wash and core the cauliflower. Although Cara did not core her cauliflower, because she had no idea what that meant. It did not affect the turnout.
- Heat a large pot over medium-high heat and add the oil, then add the onions, carrots, and onion-y deliciousness that is standing in for garlic. Cook and stir with a wooden spoon about five minutes, until they’re soft and golden. I did not use a wooden spoon, and, still, the soup came out delicious.
- Add the cauliflower and cook until it starts to brown. Please note, seriously the cauliflower isn’t going to BROWN really, it’s cauliflower. Just don’t burn it. I trust you will know when it’s time to add the water. You’re not dumb.
- Add the water and bring to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer, and cover, and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.
- Add in coconut milk, sea salt, and pepper.
- Puree soup in a high speed blender or with an immersion blender.
Despite the hilarious thirty minute attempt my sister and I had at reassembling an old food processor, neither she nor I could actually make it happen. We did try though. So instead I just poured the mixture into the blender, hit puree, and the rest is history. Everyone in my family adored this soup and right now I am craving more. No, seriously. I’m going to hit “send” and then heat up my leftover bowl. OMG THIS SOUP.
Yay Vegans. Yay soup. YAY! [yay!]
Yay Vegans. Yay soup. YAY! [yay!]
2 Comments
OMG I’m so excited. I’m in Berlin right now and made reservations for Kopps, so I was just trying to get the inside scoop… It all looks so amazing. I hope it’s still every bit as good now!
Omg jealous! I hope you have the best time in Berlin! Let me know what you think, it has been a while since I went to Kopps so I hope it is still amazing!