daimler – w w w . x e .s . c x

Berlin, Germany – Schweinske

I had lunch at one restaurant by the name Schweinske. I found this place by accident.

I got lost around this area when I found Schweinske

The theme of this restaurant is based on pigs. Schweinske was established in 1983 in Hamburg and expanded throughout Germany. It has now around 34 outlets.

Upon sitting down, I was given a menu. The menu was in German but I knew what I wanted i.e. Curry Wurst. One of the items in the menu is titled “Miss Piggy” and on the menu, drawings of pigs were everywhere.

So were the walls and ceilings.

The piggies are peeping!

The Currywurst tasted extremely great although I’m not a big fan of sausages. Fries were served on the side and the sausage was topped with a barbeque sauce and curry powder. It costs around 4.95 Euro.

I ordered a bottle of Apollinaris to complement my Currywurst. Apollinaris is some sort of carbonated table water. The taste is extremely weird. It tasted like a mixture of salt and water. I wanted to try Apollinaris because there is a famous English case on Intellectual Property regarding the Apollinaris. This 100 years old case is quoted in many commonwealth jurisdictions.

Website: http://www.schweinske.de (In German)
P/S Sorry for the Haram post.

Berlin, Germany – Food!

Many said that Germany is the land of sausage, beer and pork knuckles. Being a foodie (and perpetually hungry), I took every opportunity to try whatever I could fit in my stomach. I came home with a bigger tummy and my pants felt tighter.
Like Ho Chi Minh City, I notice that some of the chairs are arranged facing the road. I wonder they can’t face the chair toward the table – so that people can face each other and talk. But I understand is that the purpose of doing so is to enable people can enjoy the view (of the road?) and have a conversation on anything they see.

Our first meal was at a local pub by Kurfürstendamm. I had a huge pincher of Berliner Kindl (quite tasty, only 0, 41e! Cheaper than water!) and sausage. It was delicious!

The stuff on the right was tastty! Cant remember what’s the name.

Cheapo beer
I also managed to try their well known pork knuckles. I ordered mine at one pub recommended by our hotel concierge. In the menu, it was titled “Super Pork Knuckles”. It was indeed super in size. It was so big that I couldn’t finish it and the fat was enough to power a generator. However, the meat was tender and soft.

They also sell Maggi products here. And I notice that most condiments have yellow packaging.

Sushi also got!

Sliced octopus. Yummy.

Currywurst is one of the most well known dishes in Berlin. It consists of pork sausages with curry sauce and curry powder seasoned on top. And I had it at one restaurant dedicated to pigs. Will talk about it next time.

Warao, dilated pupils. This stuff must be good.

Berlin, Germany – Back from Berlin

I was fortunate to be selected by my firm to represent the firm at the 130th International Trade Mark Association Conference (INTA) at Berlin, Germany.

ICC, official venue for INTA

This yearly conference is attended by as many as 8000 trade mark owners and Intellectual Property practitioners from all over the world. It was a great eye opener and it was a wonderful experience to meet loads of people throughout the 5 days event. By the 3rd day, I ran out of business cards.

Name cards that I collected for the past 5 days.

The Chinese law firms and intellectual property firms were very aggressive on their marketing. They setup many booths at the convention centre and Chinese IP practitioners are everywhere. The Indians were fairly aggressive as well. I met one lawyer by the name Xerxes.

Xerxes: People in India had a hard time remembering my name. Some call me Xerox (well known document management company).

I also had the opportunity to bump into actor Randall Duk Kim, also known as the Keymaker from Matrix Reloaded. Initially I didn’t believe that he was the guy from Matrix Reloaded but after he recited a line from Matrix Reloaded, I believed him. He was in Berlin to shoot a film by the name Ninja Assassins with the Wachoski Brothers.

When I was called to attend this conference, I knew it was no holiday.

My day usually starts at 7am and thereafter meetings after meetings until dinner time. After dinner, we will attend all sorts of receptions held by large international companies or Intellectual Property firms. The whole process usually lasts until 12am. Since its a reception, we had to run around to make new friends and hence didn’t have the chance to sit down. It was truly a one night stand – I was standing the whole night.

We went home exhausted everyday. It was worst than working in the office. Sitting in the office from 7AM to 12AM everyday is not that bad.

Receptions were held in all sorts of unique places. We had receptions at places such as an embassy, a museum, old town hall and even rooftop of a building.

Old town hall