Darwin would have tried it. They say that, on his journey aboard the Beagle, Charles Darwin threw every exotic animal he found into the pot. Óscar López-Fonseca invites us to tour the kitchens of the world with culinary experiences that, surely, the father of the theory of evolution would have ventured to try on that trip.
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It is not necessary for a dish to be a display of culinary technique or have sophisticated ingredients for it to become the gastronomic emblem of a city, a region or a country. There they are, without going any further, the famous Madrid squid sandwich, the fish and chips (fish and chips) British or the moules-frites (Belgian mussels and fries). It is also the case of Currywurst, that pork sausage with French fries bathed in tomato sauce (often ketchup) with curry that has become the most recognizable dish in the gastronomy of Berlin, the German capital, converted these weeks into the epicenter of football by the celebration of the Eurocup. Usually tasted without any type of luxury – it is usually served on a cardboard plate and with plastic cutlery – the success of the Currywurst It is largely explained by the historical moment in which it emerged: just after the end of the Second World War, when Germany was suffering serious shortages as a result of the devastation of the war.
It is a dish that is historically linked—although there are skeptics who question it—to two proper names. First of all, to Herta Charlotte Heuwer, owner of an imbiss (small street food stall) located on the corner of Kantstrasse and Kaiser-Friedrich-Strasse, in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district. And secondly, Max Brückner, a butcher who made a pork sausage without using natural casings, since these were a scarce product at that time. The first is considered the person who devised, on September 4, 1949 – there is a plaque in the place where her imbiss was that gives official status to this exact date – a sauce that mixed tomato paste and a powdered spice. which a British soldier had given him, and which was nothing more than curry. Brückner, who had difficulty marketing his skinless sausage, went to her to try to sell them, convinced that the sauces she prepared could help him sell it by covering them and hiding the lack of it.
Whether the prominence of both is true or not, the reality is that this dish, the result of the typical shortages of the post-war years, was very successful and over the years it ended up becoming a gastronomic emblem for Berliners despite the fact that the Strictities gave way to economic prosperity. In 1982, the German singer Herbert Grönemeyer popularized a song whose lyrics were an ode to him: “Gehste inne Stadt / Wat macht dich da satt? / ‘Ne Currywurst / Kommste vonne Schicht / Wat schönret gibt et nich’ / Als wie Currywurst (If you go to the city / what can satisfy you? / One Currywurst / If you leave work / there is nothing better / than a Currywurst)”. There was even a museum dedicated exclusively to this recipe, the Deutches Currywurst Museumwhich ended up closing at the end of 2018 after being open for nine years.
For all these reasons, it is not surprising that, according to statistics, more than 800 million drinks are consumed each year in Germany. Currywurst. Or what is the same, almost 10 per inhabitant. Of course, asking for the real recipe is a trickier question. The historian Petra Foede stated in her book How Bismarck invented herring: culinary legends, in which he dedicates a chapter to the popular Berlin dish, which Herta Heuwer’s original curry sauce – which he always refused to reveal – has little to do with the mixtures that currently accompany most of the dishes offered with that name. No problem. He Currywurst It does not have a designation of origin that establishes how it is prepared or what ingredients it must have. It is not defined whether the sausage should have skin or not, whether the sauce should be served hot or cold, or whether other ingredients can be added. Some famous German chefs have made their own versions, such as television broadcaster Tim Mälzer, who adds olive oil, onion, red pepper and fresh ginger to natural tomatoes and the essential curry.
Knowing where to taste them is a much more complex issue than their own preparation if you take into account that in Berlin there is no restaurant, small or large, that does not include it in its menu… without forgetting the numerous existing street stalls. A safe option is Konnopke’s Imbiss, opened in 1930. Its famous establishment is located at number 44 Schönhausser Alle, just below the elevated tracks of the Eberswalder Strasse subway station and very close to the Mauer Park flea market. In this imbiss, which has numerous gastronomic awards, serves it on the ubiquitous cardboard plate and recommends tasting it accompanied by a Berliner Kindle, one of the local beers. As in the imbiss Traditionally, they serve it already cut into pieces, with French fries and generously sprinkled with tomato sauce and curry. You can’t ask for more… or less. Guten Appetit.
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