A trip down (food) memory lane
Apart from its remarkable sights, a city is also memorable for its food. When one visits a particular city for the first time, it’s almost customary to sample the food for which that place is famous. In Berlin, where I stayed for 5 wonderful months during my professional training, currywurst is the signature street food. Although wurst (or sausage; pronounced as voorst) is popular all over Germany, Berlin prides itself as the city from where this curry version originated.
Imagine my glee when I found this German Sausage Factory stall in Glorietta (where else?) last week. It’s impossible to miss those German and Philippine flags proudly displayed on both sides of the kiosk. I was even more surprised when I saw that the staff was wearing costumes–the Dirndl and Lederhosen–if only to show how authentic their sausages are. Funny. It’s only in the southern state of Bavaria that I’ve seen those outfits.
Anyway, I just had to have the currywurst mit pommes (P89/order) and it’s basically prepared the same way as in the imbisses of Germany–you take a sausage, deep-fry it, slice into bite-size pieces, pour a tomato-based sauce and dust with curry powder. Pommes is, of course, the fries, which is the perfect accompaniment to this street food. Some people prefer to eat it with Brot (bread), though, but I loved dipping the fries in the special sauce.
Mmmm…das schmeckt sehr gut! There’s nothing like the familiar taste of a certain specialty food to conjure up fond memories. I remember walking alone, as I always did, along Ku’damm, stopping by a stall by the side of big department stores like Karstadt or KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens), and enjoying my currywurst while standing like the rest of the customers, oblivious of the shivering cold.
A word of caution: it’s an acquired taste, so it’s not for everyone. Discovery Travel & Living host Samantha Brown tried the currywurst in her Passport to Europe feature on Berlin and said she didn’t like it–"like sausage with ketchup." I believe that was my first reaction, too. But then I kind of grew to like it very much that it became one of my favorite street foods in Berlin (the other one being the Turkish döner kebab, a best-seller). And besides, Berlin is my most favorite city in the world, so I’m partial to its superstar fast-food.
