we went to KaDeWe, which we'd heard was a pretty fantastic food hall and department store. here is the outside: 

and here is the square in front of the store. my camera was dead, so i had to take all these photos on my iphone. please excuse the quality. first i saw a wall of jams, and i'm telling you guys-- there were seven shelves, with twelve types of jam on each shelf, and each one was a different type of fruit. damson, quince, four varieties of plum, orange, lime, key lime, kumquat, lemon and various mixtures of the above in marmalades, multiple varieties of blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blueberries.... it was amazing. i did not take a photograph. there were a lot of people nearby. 

since easter was coming, there were huge baskets of hard boiled, dyed eggs. 

see, marbled, gold, rainbow, etc. 

ryan called the cheese counter 360 degrees of cheese. it was sorted by country. i loved, loved, loved it. 

these are the lettuces you can choose from for a salad... 

and about a quarter of the possible toppings...

GINORMOUS lobsters!

langoustine tails. 

peach and pistachio tarts. i decided to get a sample of petit fours instead: 

because, why wouldn't you?

we stopped for a mid shopping beer. 

it's really fun. 

the sausage spread...

keeps going...

and going...

and some truly black sausages, which-- eww. 

hams. ryan likes the spanish hams, and so do i. he saw some iberico ham here that was about $150/pound. WHOA. he did not buy that!

various aspics and salamis. also. eww. (not the salami)

ditto. 

our final spread. the peppers and olives are from the antipasto counter, which was amazing too! and i got a pecorino with truffles, a german muenster-type with mustard seeds, and a taleggio. and the eggs and extra tomatoes and stuff is for the train tomorrow. 

the rest of the spread. 

this is an apple beer. it was weird, but good. weird because on first sip it tasted like apple juice, very sweet, but by the time you swallowed, it tasted like regular beer. i liked it a lot. 

ryan and his golden egg!

and i didn't eat the petit fours till later: a key lime chocolate tart, a choclate eclair, a raspberry pastry thing, and a blackberry tart. DELICIOUS.