Mitte Meer Charlottenburg — Specialty Store in Charlottenburg, Berlin

Mitte Meer Charlottenburg is a specialty shop on Kantstraße, and the first thing you notice inside is how much is packed into the space: shelves of oil, coffee, wine, salami, capers and seafood, with a fish and meat counter along one side. It looks like a supermarket, but the stock is Spanish, Italian and Latin American rather than everyday.

Start with the Spanish wines, the bottles that give the shop its reason to exist, with Italian and Chilean labels alongside. Ham is the other anchor: Serrano and Iberico sliced at the counter, and a seminar where you cut and vacuum-seal your own to take away as a gift, apron included. From the fish counter come prawns, salmon and tuna, the things people buy to make sushi at home.

Smaller finds fill the gaps: olive oils from the Mediterranean you can taste in the shop, Portuguese custard tarts, Argentinian alfajores, and ham-flavoured potato chips that end up in the basket next to the prawns and red wine. Much of it is hard to track down elsewhere in Berlin, which is the point.

Spend is modest for a few items, roughly €5–15, though some things cost more than you would pay in a standard supermarket. Cards are accepted. Sunday is the day to plan around, since the shop is closed.