“True Stories” is a movie that came out in 1986. It was directed by Talking Heads’ lead singer, David Byrne who also was the movie’s main character.

Despite bad reviews (I think that the movie was way ahead of his time), I really liked the movie, but it was also released at a time when I thought Byrne couldn’t do anything wrong.

There is one scene in the movie, taking place in a fictional place in Texas, that I remember very vividly. There are two white people sitting in a mall. The camera is following what they are staring at. First, they are looking at three old white women, and then their stare, and the camera, wanders to three young and very attractive black girls.

“What do you think?” One of them asks the other.

“Hmmmm, too old for me,” comes the answer.

Yesterday I went to buy a costume… weiter lesen

With all due respect to the revelation about what our leaders think of each other, it is quite clear that to anyone with the right priority in life the most important thing today is the “El Classico”, the literally billion dollar game between Barca and Real Madrid.

I know that most Germans will align with the team that include two Germans in its roster, but I would like to use this stage to remind everyone about the obvious connection of a certain club to the Fascist regime in Spain, and also to the fact that Real irresponsible monetary ventures should be a prime reason why Germany and the rest of Europe shouldn’t shoulder Spain in its upcoming economic crisis.

Anyway, I will see the game at Magnet Bar , where for the first time I will be also serving my homemade Hummus. I Expect at least quarter of my… weiter lesen

I like to cook. I like Falafel. I like to cook (actually to prepare and fry) Falafel at home. This fascination grew mostly out of frustration: most of the people that sell Falafel in Berlin should stand trial in front of the Hague international court in the tribunal dealing with crimes against culinarity.

I am very particular when it comes to cooking. When I was into my Asian phase, I talked to my daughter only in Mandarin and I was  reading only “The Art of War”, and when  I was into my Russian cooking phase we were dividing the Borsch equally between us, and then everyone of us would storm the other’s plate and grab whatever they could.

So when I started with Falafel I made sure to have the freshest herbs and made sure that someone will send me the special Tahini from Nablus. I bought the special iron net that… weiter lesen

A young Jewish student who finished his studies in New York and decided to move to Berlin for a while told me the foloowing story:

He met here a former student of his father, a professor at at an American university. The former student finds out that the American will be traveling for a week to a city where her parents live just at the same time that she will be there, and offers him to spend the weekend at their place. 

Of course, the story starts to blow out of proportion from the moment the former student is telling her parents that they are having a Jewish guest for a Shabbat dinner at their place. They feel that they are on a voyage to wonderland. First, they look for the nearest synagogue and try to understand how long it will take him to walk over to their house after the prayer. Then they are… weiter lesen

I remember my first time shopping in a German supermarket. It was at Kaiser’s in the west part of the city, it was a Saturday afternoon and I was buying all sorts of stuff in order to cook on the weekend. Naturally, coming to Berlin after 10 years in New York, I didn’t carry cash with me, so by the time the cashier finished bar coding me I just handed to her my credit card. She looked at me strangely and said: nur EC.

As I said, it was in the west so the people behind me were really patient when I apologized and left everything on the counter to go to the ATM to get some cash. I took out 50 Euros which were enough to make the purchase and even to get 6 cents back. Then I grabbed two bags from beneath the counter and was planning to throw the groceries in when the cashier looked… weiter lesen