Mushroom Madness in Berlin: A Fungi-filled Adventure in Spandauer Forst and Grunewald Forest

Berlin, a city known for its vibrant culture, rich history, and eclectic culinary scene, is not the first place that comes to mind when you think of mushroom picking. However, the Spandauer Forst and Grunewald forests surrounding the city have proven to be hidden treasure troves for those in the know. Armed with baskets, a sense of adventure, and a dash of humor, we embarked on a mushroom-picking escapade that left us with a delightful harvest and a newfound appreciation for the world of fungi.

The Magnificent Six: Mushroom Edition

our motley crew of hobby mycologists stumbled upon an impressive variety of mushrooms during our foraging expeditions. With not one but two mushroom experts in tow, we proudly identified the illustrious Boletus mushroom, the communal giant parasol, stone mushrooms, leccinum and butter mushrooms, and the pièce de résistance – the delectable chanterelles.

It was a fungi fashion show, with each specimen vying for our attention, and we couldn't help but marvel at the diverse shapes, sizes, and colors nature had on display.

Forest Frolics and Foraging Fun

Spending a whopping seven hours on our maiden mushroom-picking venture and a shorter yet equally satisfying four hours on the second, we traversed the forest floor in search of our hidden fungal friends. Navigating through the underbrush, we embraced the challenge with laughter, sharing anecdotes and marveling at the wonders of nature. A commun piknik is always part of the programm as well, where we share hot tea, sandwiches, boiled eggs, pickles and salad. 

The cleanup process, a post-foraging ritual, became a ritual of its own, with a minimum of two hours dedicated to meticulously cleaning our bountiful harvest. The time spent varied, of course, depending on the abundance of our fungal finds.

Cooking Up a Storm: From Forest to Fork

The real magic happened in our kitchens as we transformed our wild harvest into a series of mouthwatering dishes. From a simple and tasty appetizer featuring fried mushrooms atop crusty bread to a classic potato dish with sautéed onions, our culinary creativity knew no bounds.

A creamy spaghetti dish, comforting mushroom soup, and a decadent risotto rounded out our mushroom-inspired menu. The satisfaction derived from preparing a meal with ingredients gathered by our own hands added an extra layer of flavor to each bite.

Mushrooms: The Health Nut's Best Kept Secret

Beyond the gustatory pleasures, our nature escapades enlightened us on the nutritional wonders of mushrooms. These humble fungi pack a punch when it comes to health benefits. Full of essential nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, minerals, microelements, and a variety of vitamins (yes, even vitamin D, a rare gem normally bestowed by sunlight), mushrooms are a powerhouse of wellness.

In conclusion, our mushroom-picking adventure in the Spandauer Forst and Grunewald forests was a delightful journey into the heart of nature's pantry. The camaraderie, the laughter, and the culinary creations born from our wild harvest made it an experience to remember. So, the next time you find yourself in Berlin, don your mushroom-hunting gear, and get ready for a fungi-filled adventure like no other.

Happy mushroom hunting! ;)

Unforgettable Day of Wine Exploration! 🍇🍷

A few weeks ago we had an absolutely amazing time meeting Peter Toms, the director of Diamond Estates Winery. We embarked on a wine adventure that took us through three incredible wineries: Lakeview Wine and Co, Queenston Mile Vineyard, and Creekside Estate Winery. 

Just in time for harvest season!

Harvest season, also known as the grape harvest or vintage, is a crucial period for wineries as it marks the time when the grapes are picked and brought in for wine production. This time usually varies depending on the grape variety, the specific region, and the prevailing climate conditions. In general, the harvest season typically occurs between late summer and early autumn, often between August and October in the Northern Hemisphere.

Our journey started at Lakeview Wine and Co, where Peter gave us an exclusive tour in the Barrel Cellar of the winery's manufactury. It was fascinating to see the craftsmanship that goes into making these exquisite wines.

After the tour, we enjoyed a delightful wine tasting experience that showcased an array of wines, from rich reds to crisp whites, refreshing rosés, including Eastdell’s delicious Riesling with notes of lemon-lime, peach and honeycrisp apple.

 Lakeview’s award-winning vidal icewine (2019) with notes of honey, lychee, and citrus was also one of the wines we tasted. The Niagara on the Lake region is famous for it’s icewines. You can serve it for dessert with an apricot tarte for example but it also does a great foodpairing with different cheeses. Each sip was a journey in itself, exploring the diverse flavors and aromas. 

Next, we headed to Queenston Mile Vineyard, nestled in a picturesque setting amidst wildflowers. The view was simply enchanting! We were welcomed with an incredible pinot noir sparkling wine that was perfectly balanced and that set the right  tone for the afternoon. Our tasting on the winery's charming terrace was a true highlight, as we savored every sip with breathtaking views all around. 

Our final destination was Creekside Estate Winery, where we were treated to a mouthwatering food board featuring a colorful variety of cheeses and charcuteries. The combination of delectable bites paired with the wines made for a memorable food and wine experience. 

We tasted a great selection over the breakaway riesling, rosé to cabernet and the undercurrent shirazé. In the end I even got to try the Madame Marmelade orange wine, it came with softness on the mid palate and little to no bitterness.

This journey was not just about tasting incredible wines but also about the stories behind each bottle and the passion that goes into crafting them. Thanks Peter for this unforgettable day of wine exploration. 

Cheers to good company, beautiful vineyards, and the love of wine!  

For more information about the harvesting:

During the harvest season, wineries employ a significant number of workers to help with the picking process, as it is crucial to ensure that the grapes are harvested at the optimal level of ripeness. The timing of the harvest is critical as it directly impacts the quality and characteristics of the resulting wine. Winemakers closely monitor the sugar levels, acidity, and overall grape flavor to determine the ideal moment for harvesting.

At Diamond Estates Winery, or any winery for that matter, the harvest time is likely a bustling period where workers are busy picking the grapes and transporting them to the production facility for processing. The winery staff and winemakers work tirelessly during this time to ensure that the grapes are handled carefully to preserve their quality and potential. The grapes are then processed through various stages, including crushing, fermentation, and aging, before the final wine is produced.

3 Questions for Peter:

Could you tell us a little about your brands and how they differ from each other?

Lakeview Cellar is the oldest, it started in 1991 by a gentleman named Eddy Gurinskas, he was a home wine maker that lived in Ottawa which is about a 6 hour drive east from here and he used to make wine with his winemaking buddies and he worked for the canadian national railway. He bought a piece of property in Beamsville not far from where we are here and started over, he planted Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. He was a big Bordeaux Fan and big Cabernet Fan. 

So he retired from the railway and decided to move down to Beamsville and all his friends said you should open a winery because you’re very good at wine making.

In 1991 he opened the doors as Lakeview Cellars. His first commercial vintage that he made with Cabernet Sauvignon won an award from a wine competition called Cuve, which was a show that used to happen here, where winemakers would judge each other's wines. 

From all the winemakers in Niagara they picked his wine being the best.

The history of Lakeview had been big rich, red, bold Bordeaux style reds and then some quirky whites and then of course icewine. 

Eastdell started in the late nineties, Susan Odell a Toronto Business Woman and her partner Michael East who sells equipment to the wine industry. 

He sells stainless tanks and other equipment. They bought a piece of property which is on the westside of Beamsville. They opened up a winery called Eastdell: partly Susan Odell and Michael East. 

They have like 100 acres (about 40 hectares) where they would start at. 

Our company Diamond Estates, back in fall of 2000 bought part of Lakeview Cellars and then in 2003 merged with Eastdell. So that's how they became a part of Diamond Estates together. 

Our current winemaker Scott McGregor. he started at Eastdell back in 2000 and continues to make wine until now. 

If you could invite a special guest to dinner at the winery, who would it be? And what Canadian-inspired dish would you serve?

That’s a tough question!

My favorite style of music is blues music so i would probably want to reach out and bring somebody like BB King or Buddy Guy or you know Robert Johnson like an old blues guy.

And because a lot of them are from the south, I would probably like to do something with BBQ.

Some smokey meat, some tangy sauces, corn bread, creamy coleslaw and I would probably serve like Syrah or Merlot with it.

Natural wines a.k.a. Orange wines are a new thing in Ontario, with the VQA recognizing Orange Wines as a legitimate wine style for labeling in the summer of 2017.

How popular are those wines over here? 

I think it’s a very small group, it’s a bit of a selected group of sommeliers, wine educated, wine curious people that are certainly not looking for the mainstream. It’s not the most popular style, like I said we do a pet-nat at one of the wineries. 

But we don’t do something that is pure orange, certainly nothing from this facility.

The winemaking facility is too large to be able to do that. 

Because a lot of those things are made in small batches.

My juice cleansing

I had been feeling a bit drained and lacking energy for some time. Sort of a physical winter blues..
and I wanted to do something about it.

Then I saw that some people do juice cures and thus feel much healthier and can really fill up on energy. Another motivation for juice fasting was to give my body a break or to cleanse it and the desire for a new challenge. 

So I thought to myself: I'd like to try it out!
*Deutsche Version unter dem Blogpost/german version below the Blogpost
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There were 6 different juices from Beerio to drink for each day, for 3 days in total. 

For breakfast we had the Apple Elderberry Guarana Juice, and for snack we had the Mango Beetroot Spinach. For lunch we have the carrot mint matcha as an afternoon snack the almond banana blueberry. 

For dinner we had the apple kale ginger and as a midnight snack we had the apple mango turmeric. 

The great thing about the organic juices from Berioo is that they are bottled in environmentally friendly glass bottles and the juices are made exclusively from natural ingredients. 

My absolute fav's were the Breakfast and the Midnight Snack. :) 

Day 1: The first day we felt fine until about 3pm (except I had an annoying headache, not sure if there is an exact connection to the cure but highly possible), with no feeling of hunger, but by the afternoon we had started to feel a bit limp and rested a bit. 

Day 2: On the second day there was less listlessness and we also found it surprisingly easy to abstain from food. However, the headache was back in the morning.

The juices made us very full. We only noticed that psychologically, the most missing thing was sitting together at the table and enjoying a meal that we had prepared beforehand. It was like the day was not quite filled or sort of boring, lol!

On the other hand, you also gain time since you don't have to cook anything. 

(Same goes for flossing and cleaning out the dishwasher). ;)

Day 3: On the last day, we slowly became used to the juices. 

We were very inspired for the next days of the week to make a Juice Prep (prepare different juices.) and continue to drink at least 1 juice a day as a healthy ritual.

Conclusion:

I would recommend a juice cleanse to anyone who wants to purify and give their body a time out. 

I felt lighter and healthy during the 3 days, but I could not feel a big difference in the energy household, I think to feel more energetic you would have to do a longer cure. 

We had a better, deeper sleep through the cure and I sweated more than usual (this is of course very good to get rid of all the toxins in the body).

Unfortunately, I had headaches every day (I guess that my body had not yet adapted to the change).

The great thing about the cure was also that we consciously drank at least 2.5 l of water a day and also had a lot of motivation for afterwards to maintain a healthy diet.

Deutscher Text/German Text

Pfeffi event in “the Hidden” by Daniel’s Eatery

This week I got invited to the Pfeffi-event in “the Hidden” by Dabiel’s Eatery in Prezlauerberg, Berlin.
We spent a wonderful evening together, cooking a 3-course menu in combination with “Pfeffi” which is a Peppermint liqueur made out of natural ingredients only. We were a little team guided by the great Daniel who was by the way a wonderful host!
The place itself is small but has everything it needs, separated in 2 rooms. One is the spacious kitchen in the back of the place and the dining room with it’s charming interior. When you enter ”the Hidden” you feel really like in one of Berlin’s old building apartments.

You can see there is a big love for detail and you feel the cosy living room atmosphere. Just the fire place is missing! Haha ;)

“Dit Pfeffi jepimpte Berlin-menü, wa!” the Berlin menu which is pimped with Pfeffi.
As a starter we made a potato soup with mint pesto and vermouth drops and pfeffi inside. For the main course we made very typical “Königsberger Klopse” which are meatballs of beef and pork ground meat, with a creamy sauce refined with the liquor, roasted fennel seeds and an outstanding beetroot-ginger chutney everything topped with capers.

Finally for the sweet teeth we made a Naked-cake like cake with a raspberry creme and a Pfeffi-Glazing. That was really a wonderful dessert idea! I would just take less eggs in the recipe if I rebake it.

Lecker, wa!

Travels to south of France -July 2019

Last month, we’ve been travelling to beautiful south of France. We’ve been visiting the hilly port city Marseille and we’ve been to “my village” called Mireval.

Mireval is a lovely little village in the Hérault compartment in Occitanie in southern France, 25 min south west from the airport of Montpellier. 

After almost a decade that I’ve not been to Mireval I was super excited to see the village again and smell the odours of beautiful south of France! :) 

Marseille:

We’ve been visiting a good friend in Marseille and stayed for 2 days. Luckily we had Cyril who was guiding us through this interesting and divers city! 

The night we arrived, we were pretty exhausted from traveling that much in one day and happy to just relax at a beautiful little Terrasse from a new Italian restaurant in the cute neighbourhood we were staying. 

Of course in Marseille you drink Pastis. (typical Marseillais Apperitiv Drink) 

And for those who don’t know what an aperitif is: It’s the tradition to drink something like muscat, pastis or other alcohol before the actual dinner. 

Around Marseille, the tradition of the aperitif is alive and well: fresh water, anise and liquorice are combined and enriched with other macerations of aromatic plants.

You can find more useful information about Pastis and it’s historical background on this site

We ordered a couple of appetizers as for example this amazing Burrata in spicy tomato sauce as well as local melon gazpacho and a little dish with Saucisse-Marseillaise and Pasta. Everything was super fresh, it made our night!

we couldn’t resist to stop by a cute soap shop to buy the real Savon de Marseille :) A beautiful shop with a huge variety of hand made soaps! 

Mireval: 

A 10 day program of pure pleasure, good food and family quality time. What else can I say ?

Waking up by the sounds of the crickets, to then drink amazing carte noir coffee on the wooden bench outside in the garden, enjoying the still fresh morning air and calm around.

Then of course the beach and ocean I was missing so much! Relaxed moments on the beach and fun times with my little cousins in the water. 

Another thing that I really loved doing was, walking the little farmers market in Vic la Gardiole (village next to Mireval) with my mam and walking around in this adorable little village. 

Also we got super spoiled by the great kitchen of my grandfather! Among Paella, home made Cannellonis and different amazing fresh salads we also ate a lot of fresh Oysters! (Plus learned how to open them!) Not speaking of the famous muscat de Mireval we drank as an aperitif! 

A real Foodie vacay! Hopefully soon to be repeated!

Travels to St-Petersburg & Moscow - Mai 2019 

I just got back from my Travels from russia and thought I’d tell you a bit about my experience.. 

Every time I go back it’s a different feeling.. now it was the third time I’ve been traveling to Russia. 

I’ve been experiencing new things there, as climbing the roofs of St-Petersburg (more or less, haha!)

We went with a friend on his roof, that was more or less safe..so we didn’t spend too much time on there ;) 

Among la lot of other nice moments, I’ve been touching the hand of the statue of “Peter the great “ Emperor of Russia back in 1682-1725 known for founding and developing the city of Saint Petersburg, which remained the capital of Russia until 1917.

Throwing coins on the rabbit statue at Admiralteystvo in order to get some luck ;) Unfortunately my 0,40 ct drowned deep in the water of the channel. 

In St-Petersburg I discovered one nice french-style inspired café called: “O Petit” which was close to our friend’s place where we were staying. 

We had a nice breakfast with delicious baguette topped with herbal omelette and salmon tartar and a croissant with smoked salmon and for a little sweet snack after we took two macarons (which were not bad, for Russian macarons ;) hehe!

Here you can find them. :)

Located in one of my favourite streets of the city: Gorokhovaya in the city center you can find another fantastic place we’ve been back to, called: “zoom café”. I recommend everyone to visit this place (!) it’s a family-friendly place with a unique interior, decorated like in cute children’s room. 

But it’s also an amazing space to relax with friends over a lunch date or just work on your laptop or read in a calm and laid back atmosphere. Fun fact: while waiting for your order you get to draw on a paper underlay. 

Not mentioning their food and service which are amazing!

This time we took two dishes from their updated menu which were: codfish in a spicy curry sauce with rice topped with sesame and Jenia ordered the teriyaki chicken with Kimchi. Both dishes were super flavourful and prepared with Love. 
Here you can visit their website.

The time at the Dacha was the only really resting moment of the trip. Catching the sun, hand-picking fresh radishes from the garden and eating all this fresh greens + delicious Shashlik was again such a pleasure! Not mentioning the relaxing Banja ritual. :) 

Two things I was missing during my stay was: to eat good pelmini’s and to watch people take a risky-walk on the bridge of (over the Moskwa river, right at Gorki Park, but unfortunately can’t find it on google maps) but instead of pelmini’s I had really good Pho at the Pho Bo restaurant in Gorki Park which now expanded to a bigger restaurant (but I have to admit that I prefer the authentic vibe and location they had along the channel last ye

This time, my time in russia was very limited (1 week) and as we had just 4 days in St-Petersburg and 3 days in Moscow we were flying instead of spending 8 hours in the night train..
The weather contrast was incredible.. from 10 degrees and rain in St-Petersburg we jumped over to a high of 28 degrees in humid Moscow. 

Suddenly it was summer. 

Singing verses from Juli’s song “Tage wie dieser” (german pop-rock band I loved) which reminds me of my early teenage years.. :)

It’s grey but I can’t wait to get outside to walk under my umbrella enjoying this autumn afternoon in our beautiful district here in Berlin.

Hopefully finding some treasures on the flea market.. Enjoy this beautiful day!

12.11.2018

House-of-Food Berlin 

27.09.2018

As the capital of Germany, Berlin has a lot to offer. Not only in the music industry, nightlife and architecture but also in the Food industry: for Food-Enthusiasts, Entrepreneurs, Food-Blogger and much more Berlin offers a variety of very original events during the entire year in different districts of the city.

For instance at the Berlin Food Week which happened the 17-23. September  ( http://www.berlinfoodweek.de/programm/ )

I personally just made it to the House of Food which was an interesting event.
A 2 days event taking place in Bahnhof Zoo with 60 innovative and exciting food concepts, presenting the newest Food-trends.
Different start-ups were presenting their Quality Products in a warm and friendly environment where everyone can join and discover, taste and buy the offered products. 

What I discovered  for example is an interesting (great) start up from my home town(!) Hamburg. :) Yay! - called Foodist.They offer “Abo-boxes” Abo standing for: Abonnement, which means subscription in Germany and French boxes of finest food products from all over Europe, often not even launched in Germany which is pretty exciting. They come in “gourmet” or “vegan” options. The vegan ones don’t contain any refined sugar. Here is a link to check out their website: https://www.foodist.de 

There were also a lot of delicious brands offering tasty things like: superfoods in form of organic dried fruits, finest chocolates, honey, a bunch of vegan stands offering protein products, a stand offering handcrafted spirits for cocktails or straight up purely enjoyable.

So if you’re interested in an independent German distillery start-up you should definitely check out their website: https://freimeisterkollektiv.de/das-konzept/?v=3a52f3c22ed6



One beautiful stand was also the one from Arzberg porcelain dishes, showing their new collection. An old traditional German company producing beautiful high class quality tableware since over 80 years. You can get up to 20% of your next order with the code: Arberglovesfoodies_20 until the 31.10.2018
I think I’m also going to have a look on one of their beautiful new collection called: JOYN, in my eyes pure Hygge vibes. Here is a link to their website: https://www.arzberg-porzellan.com/de/

Another product that woke up my curiosity was the Matcha Lemonade from Matea. It comes in 2 variations: Matcha + Lime (very refreshing) and Matcha+ Raspberry (very berry ) both are super tasty matcha tea lemonade made out of green tea. I would recommend you to try It out. Matea has a very genuine philosophy of their product as the product itself has a very genuine taste and effect. Here is where you can find them: https://www.ma-tea.de

Hope you enjoyed reading about my experience at the House of Food. 

I would definitely recommend this event to all Foodies and Food Bloggers for inspiration, culinary discovery and fun times!

26. of February 2018

Follow my #SoupChallenge

Every week a new Soup until SPRING (20th of March)!

As I was making soup every week for the last 3 weeks. I thought about a Soup Challenge for myself and that I of course want to share with you guys! I got very inspired by some amazing recipe’s from the magazine of Canadian Living that I got in Toronto. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m really a Soup kinda Person. 

Clearly in wintertime, it’s a real MUST to eat soups regularly, almost on a daily basis. 

As we can say: a Soup a Day keeps the doctor away! Haha 

It doesn’t matter which style of soup it is, I can eat them everyday at least once a day!  And for those who think this is too much, they can eat a soup at least once a week! 

That’s were you can find every Monday your weekly inspiration from my @goldenspoonstories Instagram Account. 

I’m as you know maybe about my previous post in Urban Discoveries a big Pho-Soup Fan. Here a little link to the Pho Soup Post: Pho Soup

The Feeling I get when I have this intense broth smell in front of me is just amazing! I just want to dive in this Detox Soup and feel reborn! 

But I also got more into Russian Borsch Soup which I really like, cold soups, simple clear-broth (veggie-noodle) soups or hearty mashed ones, the list is long! haha! 

Why eat Soup? 

It’s just a great way to eat your Greens, get your Vitamins! heat your body up from the inside, recover from a bad  cold and it’s just super fun to make and super light to eat! AND you can easily make a big pot for the entire week which is really convenient.

Here’s a List of my (currently) Favourite Soups : 

• My Mam’s French Onion Soup

• My grandma’s “Käsesuppe” = melted-cheese Soup with meat

• Pho Soup

• Borsch Soup

• Green Soup with Sorel

• Creamy Wild Mushroom Soup

• Broccoli Soup with Cheddar Croutons

• Coconut chicken or shrimp soup with rice

• Sweet Potato Lentil Soup

I wish you a lot of fun with my weekly new recipe's of my #SoupChallenge! I hope it will inspire you to recreate my shared recipe's and cook more soups until SPRING! 

✨ Love & Hugs! 

7. of January 2018

Reflections of 2017 

First of all, of course I wish you all a Happy, successful and powerful New Year 2018. 
Full of Light, Love & Discoveries.

I’m personally reflecting about a lot of things all the time. But of course we all tend to make a reflection on our past Year mostly at the end of the year. 
On our experiences, memories, discoveries & achievements of the past year.

With my MacBook being broke for the last weeks, I didn’t had the chance to post anything in the meantime. Nevertheless I feel like it’s a good moment to have a look on my Highlights of 2017. 

My Highlights: 
 

• Officially moved to Toronto (and met a big bunch of crazy cool people + got to know this beautiful city)

• Discovered myself more in terms of developing a passion which is now my profession (Food Styling)

• Launched this inspiring and beautiful Food Blog. Yay!!! So happy to share that with you!

• Traveled to Vancouver for the first time & fell in love with the West Coast!

• Experienced camping at one of the most mystic and adventurous locations I’ve ever been: “Mystic Beach” on Nanaimo Island. Had the best time ever there! (below you can watch the incredible video Dima made!)

• Got a super surprise at my Birthday on the Kajama Boat Party, celebrating with many friends & my Love!

What were your Highlights of 2017? Take a moment to reflect. It feels good and opens up your mind.

27th of December 2017

Welcome to Germany! Country of Christmas Markets

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Time with your loved ones!

Christmas is over, but let’s enjoy some more of these nice vibes.

I want to share with you my impressions of the Christmas Markets I have been to this season. This year it’s more exciting, because i show my friend the tradition and diversity of the different German Christmas Markets as he is from another country.

A Christmas Market a.k.a. “Christkindlmarkt” (literally means “Christ child market”) or “Weihnachtsmarkt” is a streetmarket associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent. These markets come from Germany and that’s why they are so popular here. But nowadays they are also held in many other countries.

Germany is famous for their Christmas Markets, of course they have their reasons.

One of them is that it’s not only a commercial-based event. But also you can feel the Tradition and Genuinity of the history of German Christmas Markets.

This year I’ve been for the first time to the Christmas Market “Gendarmen Markt” known as the most beautiful town square in Berlin. It was very nice especially surrounded by the beautiful concert Hall and churches.
I’ve been surprised to see that you had to pay 1 Euro to get inside. The German sausages we had were very tasty so was the Gl ü hwein.

There were also selling other cute things that people would buy for Christmas gifts.

As I spend Christmas with my Family in Hamburg, I was also going to different Christmas markets in Hamburg. And holy shit! They have a lot of them here ;)

A very cute and moody one, is the one in Altona. Where you can find more alternative things.
As local art for instance or a variety of products for example as honey wine and soap made in Germany. or handmade international stuff as I was lucky to find for example a hand crafted fruit basket made in Madagaskar. Amazing! 

On the biggest and most famous Christmas Market of Hamburg at Rathaus, the townhall in downtown Hamburg you have of course even more choice to find some unique and beautiful Christmas gifts.

Fun Fact of Christmas Market shopping: Everything is at one place, you can shop and eat and drink all next to each other which makes it a lot of fun!

Seasonal Food & Drinks are often accompanied by traditional dancing and singing.

On the so called: “Alley of craftsmen” you can find beautiful hand crafted Things as: wooden angels, wooden kitchen accessories, pottery, candles, soaps and beautiful decorations especially for the Christmas season or just for your home.

Now I’m looking forward for New Year’s Eve! Have a good one :) 

8th of December 2017 

My year in Toronto

Toronto, is with it’s population of 2,6 Million the biggest city of Canada and the capital of the province of Ontario.

The city is situated next to it’s beautiful Ontario Lake which makes it absolutely a stunning view when you live at the Lakeshore. 

We have the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets with the view on the Harbourfront with the CN Tower and Downtown Toronto. Also at Night it’s magical to watch all the city lights. 

Knowing you are in a calm area surrounded by beautiful nature, but that on the other side there is the concrete jungle where the city trembles from the party’s, people and the traffic is very moody.

During the first months I have been in Toronto, I felt a little bit like a stranger In the middle of nowhere. But the more the time passed I made so many great connections and met incredible people which made me feel more secure for what i’m super grateful. 

It’s actually the people who inspired me, who made the city for me and exciting and interesting city.

I also was positively surprised about the Dj’s in the Toronto nightlife scene and the variety of cool and interesting events. 

Toronto is a metropolis which has a lot to offer and which has many very interesting Neighbourhoods. 

Such as Roncesvalles, Park Dale, The Fashion District, The Entertainment District, Liberty Village, The Distillery District, Little Italy and many more. 

The first thing that impressed me when I first came to this city, was the incredible (overwhelming) amount of Condos this city is made of. 

Also the amazingly slow streetcars in Toronto, to which I have a kind of love-hate relationship. On one side I love them because I think they are super cute because old and unique but on the other side it takes too much time! 💤 

Last Winter I went with friends to the Christmas Market there and we had a very fun experience though there was only one Mold wine stand and it was overpriced.

As an European I can say it is a cute copy of German Christmas Markets. 

3rd of October 2017

Montréal - A City for Young Souls

As we all know, it's Montréal's 375th anniversary! Happy Birthday Montréal! 

It’s a city for Dreamers, a city for Lovers, a city for Families, for Artists and Party Heads.

It’s a city for people who like to live in a peaceful multicultural society, one of the cities in the province of Québec with a French & English background and language with lot’s of different communities surrounded by beautiful nature and endless long streets.

What I love about Montréal are for sure the beautiful parks you can enjoy during summer time, the Mont-Royal view over the entire city, the charm of the old port, the easy-going Lifestyle people have, these positive vibes you catch when you look at stranger on the street that just walks by and smiles at you. 

I also love Montreal’s unique shaped stairs, often painted in beautiful colours! That was one of the things that fascinated me, when I first came to Montreal! It’s totally different than back in Europe!

Montreal has a large choice of great and diverse restaurants! Whether you are in China-town, (check out my latest blogpost: https://www.goldenspoonstories.com/urban-discoveries/

Or on the very urban and cool street of Mont-Royal or in the old little jewel of the city’s central: Outremont. Every neighbourhood in Montréal has it’s very own individual character. 

(That’s why this text could be endless..but I will keep some of my ideas and imagination for the next blogposts about some particular hotspots in Montréal.)

Some more Positive-Fun-Facts about this city: 

The fast transport system (with a new subway now!) and the fact that there are Bixi (bike sharing) Stations at almost every corner of the streets and subway exits, which makes you very flexible for easy and comfy trips through the city.

Beyond that, There is a huge variety of Outdoor Activities you can do in Montréal! 

Especially in the summer! One of my favourite season there, Montréal offers a lot of free music, humour and art shows in downtown Montréal.

As for example, Festival de Jazz, Francofolies, Festival juste pour rire (Just for Laughs festival) and Montréal complètement cirque and much more. 

If you chose to go to a more specific event (mostly indoors!) of course there are tickets for sell. 

One of the most popular events in Montreal is the “Where-it-first-started & Oh-So-known , now: worldwide-extended “Piknic électronique” And Last ut not Least, of course the MUTEK 5 days-festival of electronic music and digital arts which as well as “Piknic électronique” are both hosting international versions of it’s events. 

here you can check out their websites: https://piknicelectronik.com/montreal/ and http://www.mutek.org/en/ 

During winter times there is the Igloo-Fest, which is a fun electronic music event with international Dj's and real build Igloos, of course you can get yourself a hot mulled wine there and some tasty food! Real Montréal Locals resist the freezing winter time! ;) 

Here you can see nice pictures from Eva-B Shop in Montréal: 

There are excellent and endlessly many stores where to shop in Montréal!
But one really unique one is called: “Eva B” Founded in 1987 by Gabriel Croteau. It has an eclectic selection of modern and vintage clothing. You could also rent special outfits for any kind of Party! Since a couple of years they build a café on the first level of the store. Overall a very moody and artistic atmosphere where you can spend a lot of time.

During the time I lived in Montréal I experienced to love 3 seasons which are: spring, summer and autumn!

The autumn season is gorgeous in Montréal! Where the entire city radiates from being immersed in a sea of copper colours.~ W o n d e r f u l ~

Enjoy the beautiful Autumn! 

Hi Everyone & Welcome on my Blog! 

Yaaayy! I'm super happy to launch my very first Blog. I've been wanting to do this for quite a time..and now finally have the focus, courage and inspiration to share my passion with you! 

I’m pretty sure,  Golden Spoon Stories is going to tell you a lot of mouth-watering stories!
Sometimes it just takes this extra kick or Change in Life, where it unlocks a new door. A new way to exciting adventures. 

So, here we are! I’m super excited to start this new journey into the world of culinary expressionism with you!!! 

On “ My Blog “ i’m going to share with you inspiring videos about Food or playlists that are motivating for cooking, as well as Ideas or Questions about Food Blogging, Health, Cooking, Food Styling and much more! 

It’s more a place of interaction, sharing and learning from each other! 

No doubts, this is going to be FUN!!! 

1st of September 2017 

Hello September!

August has been such an amazing time! So many beautiful and unforgettable moments I collected during this summer! My first summer in Toronto. With so many awesome people surrounding me!

September brings with us: NEW INTENTIONS, NEW BEGINNING, NEW INSPIRATION, NEW FOCUS, NEW ENERGY and NEW RESULTS -

- Anthony Newley &  Leslie Bricusse