BERLIN - Generally eaten from a paper plate with a tiny disposable fork while standing up, it is the most popular food in this city and a culinary contradiction: a greasy pile of pork sausage (very German), smothered in ketchup (quintessential American), sprinkled with curry powder (thank you, Britain, India).

“Currywurst is a culinary symbol of Berlin and of all Germany,” said Birgit Breloh, who said she eats currywurst once a week, stays fit by doing yoga and is the director of the world’s only Currywurst Museum, near the better known Checkpoint Charlie.

Germans, or at least Berliners, look a bit puzzled when asked how they could be so health conscious, with their regular walks and emphasis on organic foods, and yet devour the fat-laden dish, often accompanied by a shimmering pile of fried potatoes doused in ketchup, mayonnaise or both.

According to Ms. Breloh, currywurst is eaten in huge quantities, with Germany’s 82 million people consuming 800 million curry sausages annually.

“You can eat a lot of currywurst without getting fat,” said Mario Ziervogel, the strapping, svelte owner of one of the most popular currywurst stands in the city, called Konnopke’s, in the trendy neighborhood of Prenzelauer Berg. “You have to move! If I sit and watch TV, all day, of course I will get fat.”

Currywurst is not merely extolled as a meal. It is a political statement, as well. Berlin, in particular, likes to see itself as egalitarian, and currywurst fits neatly with that image. It costs about $2 for a sausage, and the sloppy nature of the dish generally requires diners to stand together eating off chest-high snack tables .

“Currywurst is very democratic, poor or rich love it the same way and at the booth, all people come together,” said Ms. Breloh, as she gave a guided tour of the museum, which tended more toward the kitsch found along a beach boardwalk.

Currywurst has its roots in the last world war and its aftermath. Ms. Breloh says the dish was first fixed in 1949 by Herta Heuwer, a Berliner . Sausage, or wurst, has long been a staple, the hamburger of Deutschland. But Ms. Breloh said when Berlin was divided into occupied sectors, Germans saw Americans eating steak with ketchup. They could not afford steak, but they could manage to whip up ketchup.

Ms. Heuwer, a rather stout woman who despite her eating habits - or perhaps because of them - lived to be 86 years old, traded some alcohol to someone in the British sector for curry powder.

Or at least that is how the story goes. There is some dispute about this, with Hamburg also claiming to be the birthplace of the now beloved dish.

The rest of the recipe is rather straightforward: Plop the sausage in oil and fry until crisp. Slice it into five chunks. Squirt on a mess of ketchup (Ms. Heuwer took her ketchup recipe to the grave) and then shake on curry powder.

And that’s it.
Even as Berlin has become more of an international city, the currywurst continues to hold its own over noodles, kebabs and sushi.

“Currywurst,” said David Schultze, 19, a high school student, “is a German tradition.”


By MICHAEL SLACKMAN