Kaan Yıldırım

My parents came from Kayseri in 1978 and opened a vegetable shop on Kottbusser Damm, so I grew up behind a counter of peppers and aubergines. I studied geography, worked in a Neukölln youth centre for years and started guiding because friends kept asking me where to eat when they visited. Honestly the answer is never one place. Berlin food is a mix of what the Turkish, Arab, Vietnamese and Polish communities brought here, and the best of it is cheap and eaten standing up. I will also tell you the less happy parts of the neighbourhood story, like rents doubling on my own street. I speak German and Turkish at home and English with half my friends. I play five-a-side football on Thursdays, so no evening tours that day. Today my sessions are live video walks through Berlin; you join from home, and I answer whatever you ask as we go.