Anyone that knows us, and knows what a kroket is, knows that us + kroket = happy.
Inside the place was bigger than expected and exhibited the classic indepenendant Dutch snack shop drab, shabby and excessive use of flags and sporting jerseys.
Atmosphere not important, what is in the cooler is the main focus. Artificially coloured (bright orange, yellow) crumbed goods just waiting to be ordered and fried. Gimme gimme gimme.
We watched him as he slowly did his thing. Spying as he finally got our stuff ready. Finally...it was ready. A kroket in a bun, a kroket without a bun, the vegetarian bahmi, a loempia and chips with oorlog sauce. All up 11.40 Euros.
He brought out the stuff. No mustard on the krokets. He said to Nordine 'I asked you and you said no', Nordine said she had answered yes. He took just her plate away so I had to run after him with my mustard less bun kroket. He pumped some mustard on the first kroket and when he turned round and saw me he was seemed affronted that the second plate was getting sent back. I said to him that I had also said yes to the mustard. He took my plate and looked to be suppressing his urge to crack the shits. Not sure if this behaviour is his Dutch or German traits. People might get offended on both sides of our families so lets just say its just this guy - just him...not a Dutch or a German thing. Hah.
We finally got our stuff back and set into it.
For those that don't know this formula. Shame on you. But for those in the dark, krokets are Dutch fried gooey meat snacks that when done right are the best thing ever. Yea, I said EVER. hah.
It has been a while since our last kroket and we've both been feeling foodsick for them. One would think that with Germany being so close to Holland (hello, they are neighbouring countries) that these Dutch pieces of gold would be easy to come across. Well, we haven't seen any available while we have been out and about - not in the shops, not in restaurants and not in any of the street food vendors. Come on Berlin.
We turned to the internet and found that there is one lonely Dutch snack shop in Berlin - De Molen. It is owned and run by a German guy who had lived in Holland for a while. Interesting. Where is it? Friedrichshain - that's our patch!! Dinner plans made! Unfortunately the guy is not open Mondays so we had to postpone to tonight, Tuesday.
The place is so close to us that we can walk - about 15 to 20 minutes.
Approaching the shop there is no doubt what it is. A Heineken sign and a huge fake cone of chips inviting us in.
A big lit up menu on the outside wall gave us pause for consideration of what we would get. Would it be wrong to get everything?
Inside the place was bigger than expected and exhibited the classic indepenendant Dutch snack shop drab, shabby and excessive use of flags and sporting jerseys.
Atmosphere not important, what is in the cooler is the main focus. Artificially coloured (bright orange, yellow) crumbed goods just waiting to be ordered and fried. Gimme gimme gimme.
We ordered at the desk, and the Dutch/German guy was a bit of a weirdo Ordering was hard work - 20 questions from him and incredulous responses to our orders. Nordine ordered a 'vegetarian bahmi' and he said 'Vegetarian - Why would you want that?'. He asked if we wanted mustard with out krokets, of course we do man.
It appeared to pain him to get back to work, and we sat down as he started to fry up. He was so slow, and we thought the other patrons in the place had already eaten but he was actually making their stuff first. By making I mean frying.
We watched him as he slowly did his thing. Spying as he finally got our stuff ready. Finally...it was ready. A kroket in a bun, a kroket without a bun, the vegetarian bahmi, a loempia and chips with oorlog sauce. All up 11.40 Euros.
He brought out the stuff. No mustard on the krokets. He said to Nordine 'I asked you and you said no', Nordine said she had answered yes. He took just her plate away so I had to run after him with my mustard less bun kroket. He pumped some mustard on the first kroket and when he turned round and saw me he was seemed affronted that the second plate was getting sent back. I said to him that I had also said yes to the mustard. He took my plate and looked to be suppressing his urge to crack the shits. Not sure if this behaviour is his Dutch or German traits. People might get offended on both sides of our families so lets just say its just this guy - just him...not a Dutch or a German thing. Hah.
We finally got our stuff back and set into it.
Unfortunately, the krokets were not up to our expectations. To me they had a strange odour and not the right consistency. The current horse meat scandal wasn't far from my mind with this kroket, but it wasn't the meat that was the problem, it was the coating. Maybe he got them on discounted special from Holland past their use by date. Disappointing.
The other stuff was spot on. Bahmi (Vegetarian) = good, Loempia = good, chips = good.
Overall we were pretty satisfied with this meal, just a bummer about the kroket. He has some other krokets in the magical cooler so we will definitely be back and try a different type of kroket instead. The guy and his weird attitude are an interesting addition to the independent snack shop vibe and this won't put us off from coming back. Maybe he'll warm up once we have been back a few times. Next visit we will make sure that the order for mustard is understood.
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