This is a new discovery that is pretty much underrated for no reason. Sao Paolo is our destination of 2015. Amazing Food, great weather, no tourists, low prices, top shopping, friendly people and interesting – soon interesting. Check it out and book a week on the beach afterwards to recover from all the silliness. Possibly the biggest city in the world.
Category Archives: Reisen
TrendEngel Award 2015 – Best Restaurant
If you want cool, comfortable and delicious – Industry Standard in Berlin (Neukölln of course) is hard to beat. The cooks are from Canada and Mexico, the menu is always changing and the tartare and the chicory with stilton to die for. 
TrendEngel Award 2015 – Best Shop
This award goes to Mohawk General Store in Los Angeles. Tis amazing shop on Sunset Junction in Silver Lake knows style better than anyone else. If you have a bit of money to spend you can be sure to find something you will cherish for a long time. And the best thing: You can shop online and snatch up all the cool things Mohawk has to offer.
Cordobar – A Berlin Gem With a Twist
Cordobar is this small place in Berlin Mitte. Cordobar collecting accolades like other people stamps. Cordoba might just be the hottest restaurant in Germany and the blood sausage pie the best dish. The name? It is derived from Austrias only win in a football world cup against the mighty Germans. 1978 in … of course Cordoba(r). The giveaway is the toilet “music” – the original commentary from back in 1978 – I wärd närrisch”.
The food is exceptional, the wine remarkable and the prices make the evening even more fun. Go to Cordobar
Coffee Lab – Coffee is a Science in Sao Paulo
People in Sao Paulo take their coffee very seriously. The best of the mall is the Coffee Lab created by Isabella Raposeiras.
The cafe is split up into indoor and outdoor seating. Towards the back of the cafe is an open kitchen furnished with an espresso bar, tools of the trade, and minimal kitchen appliances with staff dressed in mechanic inspired onesies working away. The front of the cafe is equipped with the industry’s best Diedrich coffee roasters since Coffee Lab roasts its own beans and creates its very own unique blends. Beans are also sold for retail in individual packages in store.
The menu is essentially an educational coffee booklet consisting of a variety of in house coffee blends with four main brewing methods including aeropress, pour over, french press and clever. Hot and cold espresso beverages, food, and desserts are also available. The most interesting part of the menu is the “Coffee Rituals” which pretty much schools you in coffee. Each ritual is essentially a lesson on coffee such as “compare the coffee Brazilians drink every day with one of our specialty coffees” or “enjoy the same coffee prepared with an Aeropress and a French Press.”
For a short course on coffee, order Ritual 13, a “Rare Brazilian micro-lot tasting” which involves an in depth tasting and analysis of coffee served in wine glasses perfect for coffee nerds.
Taglio – A Great Concept in Milano
Taglio is located in Milan, at number 10 via Vigevano. On the ground floor of a typically Milanese block of flats with communal balconies, it is just a few feet away from the Navigli canals. The idea was to create a multifunctional space where a restaurant, a food shop, a bar and a café could coexist – a place designed to be bustling all day long, where customers could indulge in the ritual of coffee drinking or enjoying gourmet food.
A patchwork of blackboards covers the entire counter. From a long, cedar-wood bar the staff can be seen at work in the kitchen. The opposite wall is decorated with drawings by the food illustrator Gianluca Biscalchin. Globe light-bulbs attached to a dense network of copper tubes illuminate the rooms.
The food is divine and the concept genius. Why can’t we all have a Taglio in our neighborhood.
Madero Burger – The Best In the World
It’s always more than a little suspicious when a company claims they do produce the best in the world. It is one thing if it’s a New York deli saying it has the best coffee in the world. The credibility of that claim is pretty low. But if a commercial franchise chain with the ambition to conquer the world says it has the best burger in the world and makes it part of the companies promise – this is pretty bold. Well, Madero does exactly this. 
The brasilian burger chain with outlets as far away as Miami is bold. Super bold. But surprise surprise – they deliver. As Trendengel’s favourite In N out Burger Madero promises not to use anything out of a can. They bothe have a few things in common. But it stops with the meat, The Madero meat is out of this world. This is what flame grilled should taste like (sorry Burger King). The bun is the other surprise. What looks like a dry roll is the perfect alternative to the brioche or the old school hamburger bun. Well, what can I sa: last it if you have the chance.
Trancoso – A Little Piece of Brazilian Heaven
The beaches are beautiful, the food is amazing, the location stunning. If there is a place in the world where you would rather do nothing than something – this is it. This is one of the hottest vacation places on earth. Not yet discovered by the mainstream. Enjoy this beautiful place. If you can’t afford the 600$ a nicht Uxua – stay in one of the poussadas where you can spend the night for around 100 $ and be pampered all around.
After the hippies came other free spirits: painters, sculptors, dancers, musicians. The actress Sonia Braga visited frequently in the 1980’s, as did the tropicália singer Gal Costa. Her former summer house on Praia dos Nativos is now a Relais & Châteaux resort, Pousada Estrela d’Água (with the best bar on the beach). Elba Ramalho, the high priestess of forró music, owned a local club called Bar Bossa, where she often took the stage.
Since the turn of the millennium, another breed of biribando has arrived, landing private jets at the Terravista airstrip and flying choppers into town. The new wave uses not fish or dentures but actual money—a lot of it—to scoop up beachfront villas and rustic pieds-à-terre. Naomi, Eddie Vedder, and Gisele have joined the Quadrado promenade. Sig Bergamin, a Brazilian interior designer with an international clientele, and Olivier Baussan, founder of L’Occitane, both own property nearby. With them came outposts of fabulous Brazilian boutiques like Lenny and Richards.
Like Goa and Ibiza before it, Trancoso would seem to be at the tipping point between high freak and high fashion, hippies and hipsters. Yet despite recent incursions, Trancoso is curiously glamour-resistant—high-end shops are usually dead-empty, and besides, nobody wears heels on the Quadrado. Here the dominant pretension is the lack thereof.
Sushi Tetsu – Definetely the Best Sushi on the Planet
Yesterday TrendEngel gave asked the question if Kinoshita is the best sushi on the plantet. The answer is: Close but not quiet. The best is Tetsu sues in London – Promise. Size isn’t everything when it comes to sushi restaurants: even the smallest venues can have big reputations. Since opening in July 2012, this seven-seat sushi bar in Clerkenwell has proved so popular that finding a perch is nigh-on impossible. Try your luck, though, as chef Toru Takahashi offers one of the most authentic Japanese sushi experiences in London. Opt for the omakase (chef’s choice) if your budget can stretch to it (up to £70 per head), then sit back and let the artfully crafted pieces keep on coming
Chef Toru Takahashi (ex-Nobu) is centre-stage behind the imposing pale wood counter, where he carefully compacts glistening grains of rice into plump pellets before topping them with shimmering slivers of fish. Each nigiri is inspected with a contemplative look and finished with a dab of soy, sprinkling of sea salt or lick of flame from a blowtorch before being placed on a glossy bamboo leaf in front of the diner. Each piece arrives individually to be eaten by hand.
For the full experience, go for the omakase menu, and let the chef choose what’s freshest that day. Just say when you’ve had enough – be warned though, the bill can add up.
Kinoshita – Possibly the Best Sushi Ever
Sao Paulo is not only the biggest city on earth it is also the home to the most Japanese outside of Japan – more than 1.5 million… This makes the more than 1000 Japanese restaurants easier to comprehend. Kinoshita has won numerous Brazilian accolades and operates at the very highest level.
If you want a benchmark, think Nobu, and were this restaurant in Europe it would certainly be Michelin starred. The more cutting edge dishes – like seared foie gras – are underpinned by ultra-fresh, ultra-traditional nigiri sushi and whisper-thin crisp tempura. The presentation is elegant in the extreme – for once you really do get a “picture on each plate”. The master himself is behind the sushi bar and will strike a conversation with everyone around him. Worth the trip!