After two recent trips to the nearby market, some tasting notes:
Donkey Salami
Em and I have had the donkey salami now and it was very good. I couldn’t claim that I would be able to distinguish it from other salami in a blind taste test, but it seemed to have a slight sweetness to it, the way that horse meat does as well. Definitely doesn’t taste like chicken!
(Anti)pasti
There is a big selection of all kinds of pastes (we’re trying artichoke-sesame and red pepper-walnut), many different olives, and some fresh pasta.
All that combines nicely even for the not-so-culinarily-and-shaming-his-brother, like me.
Bread
There are several bakery stands and they offer some very large breads, fairly rich in grains (not to say crunchy). One of our favourites so far is a Viennese Sunday Bread which is not sweet at all (as Viennese might imply).
Cheese
Yes, cheese is definitely a forte at this market. There are several stands that are dedicated to particular cheeses. One not only offered raclette right there on a baguette (delicious!), but also a number of varieties of cheese I hadn’t seen elsewhere. The cheese mongers mentioned that they spend sommers in the Allgäu (stretching across Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany, into Austria) making cheese and then are in Berlin October-April to sell these cheeses. That seems about as close to producers of cheese as you might be in Berlin.
I don’t think we’ll exhaust the varieties of cheese on offer even if we stick mostly to cow cheeses.
Fruit and Vegetables
Several of the stands have vaguely exotic vegetables (lovely purple carrots) from across Germany or, possibly even around Berlin.
There are offers of local honey, some jams, etc.
The Berlin Sabbaticalers 