ROOT | VERSE

Simplicity in food is an underrated art. For me, it is also the most important and abiding quality of my most favorite meals. How do we transform simple chords into new songs? I’ll forego sophistication for consistency on any occasion. Time and again I am drawn to places that provide very simple meals, but somehow do it better than everyone else. 

Rotisserie chicken restaurants dot the Berlin landscape with the same ubiquity that taquerias do in the mission district of San Francisco, or pizza parlors in mid-town Manhattan. Every place promises to be better than the rest, and city’s residents can easily be divided into hardline camps according to their gastronomic preferences. As far I’m concerned, there’s only one rotisserie chicken restaurant in Berlin. That restaurant is Hühner Haus. 

The chicken is perfectly seasoned, always fresh, and cheap. What makes Hühner Haus incomparable to any of its competitors however are the sauces. A creamy garlic and yogurt sauce, a curried garlic, mayonnaise, and curry ketchup each compliment the tender roast chicken in different ways. And that’s it. There is no need to embellish, or change a winning formula. In the span of a month I ate at Hühner Haus four times. Each time I received the exact same meal as I had at the previous visit. Which is harder than it looks.