Visited Berlin last April on a one month backpacking trip across Europe! Studying and living in England introduced me to the kebap and the döner, of which I was told were Turkish... later I was told that the döner is originally German! Regardless of whether that's true or not, you can guess what my first meal in Berlin was then...
Yes, that is the Brandenburg gate in the background! Anyways, this döner, from a cart in the road (go street food!) was the best one I'd ever had. Probably one of the cheapest too. The döner-kebap is closely related to Greek gyros. The meat in the döner, whether chicken, lamb or beef, is roasted on a rotating spit and sliced off into flatbread and then accompanied by sliced raw onions, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes and a yoghurt sauce similar to tzatziki. The veggies were so refreshing after coming out of a carb-saturated tour of Italy!
Amidst a free walking tour, my eyes landed on this famous chocolatier:
Going as far back as 1863, Fassbender and Rausch were chosen as the official chocolate suppliers to the royal German family. That spells quality, no?
After the tour, my travel buddy and I made a beeline back to the chocolate shop (shop is a bit of an understatement as the place consists of multiple floors lined in marble, gold gilding and glass).
After drooling over the truffles, buying samples for ourselves and friends back home, we took the elevator up to the 2nd floor cafe. In the late afternoon there were plenty of people having their between-meals coffees. We popped open the menu and perused a bit after we were shown to a table with a pretty fabulous view.
The menu's prices were around what we expected for a pretty fancy place, but we figured, hey, we're staying in a hostel, not a hotel; we've been eating cheap (but amazing) street food, and we've been walking everywhere, thus saving lots of money. Why not?
What's an afternoon coffee-break without coffee? And they gave a complimentary chocolate!
Traditional apple strudel. Excellent, light, flaky, buttery and perfectly sweet! Great presentation as well!
The eisschokolade (ice-chocolate drink) was definitely my favourite, being a chocoholic. They didn't skimp on the cocoa neither. Plus, who doesn't love fresh whipped cream? Heavenly!
Another venture with sweets that I partook in was a trip to KaDeWe, a fancy superstore of an establishment with a famous gourmet food court.
The inside was absolutely glorious! Fancy glass shelves and cases filled with beautifully plated pastries--everything you can imagine! Cakes, cupcakes, streudels, macarons, truffles, meringues, tarts, brownies...
It was such a difficult time choosing what to sample! So four of us settled to split these two beauties:
Our friend on the right is an apple pastry with streusel on top, a bit resembling a bear claw. The pastry on the right is a strawberries and cream tart (the whipped strawberry cream was spiked with some liquor and pretty strong). I must say, I gave the award to the apple pastry, which was buttery and rather donut-like.
In addition to sweets and street food, we also tried to sample more formal traditional cuisine. Our tour guide recommended a place to us called zum Paddenwirt that was slightly touristy, but served up reasonably priced German food. I decided to order herring with potatoes and sauerkraut.
Being the seafood-lover that I am, I enjoyed the herring quite a lot; it definitely needed the potatoes and yoghurt sauce to balance out the saltiness. The sprig of dill on top was a pretty touch as well.
My friends, feeling quite adventurous ordered pork knuckle/ankle with sauerkraut and potatoes. They enjoyed their fare a little less, so I probably ate most of it, to be honest. A little background: at home I eat pork ankle quite a bit, being of asian heritage and all, so it didn't freak me out. In fact, it was really good trying it pickled instead of braised in soy-sauce, which is also delicious.
Am I making your stomach turn? Maybe I can convince you: if you're willing to eat hot dogs or sausages (assuming you know what these are made of), what's to stop you from trying ankle? Really, it's just another piece of the animal (although, disclaimer: there are parts that I would not try).
Next up, wursts! (I spared you so many terrible puns just now...) Of course one has to sample the various wursts/sausages of Berlin when trying to get a good grasp of the country's culture. It's what Germany is known for, right?
Over our month's worth of trips, we made a habit out of looking up famous eateries; one of them was Currypoint (above). That was actually the last place we went and since we'd already had bratwurst and currywurst, we went for bockwurst!:
Bockwurst is different from bratwurst in that it is usually made with veal; it is also often simmered instead of grilled. It came with a side of potato salad. 
Bratwurst is generally made of beef or pork, but it can be found made of veal; eaten with a sweet or hot German mustard, it can be then called currywurst!
Aside from the flavour, something else you should look for in a wurst is that snap you get when taking a bite; when cooked/grilled, the ground meat inside the casing expands, making the casing taut and giving you that satisfying snap on first bite!
Also bought a popular German drink called Mezzo Mix; the best way to describe it is orange Fanta mixed with Coke--in fact, when I spent New Years with my friend Lena in Germany, she and her friends made their own with Coca Cola and Fanta. Alas, we don't have it in the U.S...
Want to hear a secret?
My favourite sausage EVER is actually the käsewurst... which I ate in Leeds at the German Christmas Market.
