FOOD > The Best and Wurst of Berlin´s Greasy Spoons

Almost every region of Germany has it´s time-honored local specialities, like the rich variety of dumplings from Bavaria, tender Pike-Perch fresh from the river Havel in Brandenburg or Rheinland-Pfalz´s stuffed sow´s stomach so beloved by former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Not so in Berlin.

Gastromically speaking, the German capital is still a brash, soulless place that turned into a metropolis only a century ago with little time to develop a culinary tradition. Fast food from the Imbiss (the world literally means "beetween the teeth") is often the staple fare of Homo berolinensis. But when the feeling strikes that you need something more substantial than your tongue in your cheek, than pride of place in the pantheon of rapid delicacies is taken by the one downright genuine Berlin original, the currywurst.

This is a grilled or deep fried pork sausage, cut into chunks, liberally dusted with curry powder and smothered in tomato ketchup. Of course, there are rival claims from Hamburg that the currywurst is a discovery of north German provence but every Berliner will tell you that Frau Herta Heuwer invented the currywurst for her stand on the Stuttgarter Platz on September 4, 1949, using a special spicy ketchup of her own invention with she later patented (Patent No. 721 319). Seventy million currywurst are annually slaughtered in Berlin. But too often, the luckless sausages spend all day on the grill or are deep-fried and tasted oif rancid fat. That ketchup may be red but it´s never seen a tomato and the curry powder hasd a stale musty aroma of orange sawdust. This isn´t what the currywurst is about.

Choose an Imbissbude which is well frequented and you can be sure, your wurst will be fresh; its slashed skin glistening and crisp, the ketchup fruity and prickling on your tongue, suffused with spices, and the curry breathing a hint of oriental promise. One last tip: Keep an eye out for visiting policeman at your local currywurst stand, for the long nose of the law often knows whre the best ones are to be had. My team of scientifically-trained testers has been combing the city to see whre you can get the best currywurst with pommes and mayo and a fresh bread roll. Scores were awarded up to a maximum of ten points. These are some of the results, in ascending order of merit: Schnellimbiß am Bierpinsel: U-Bahnhof Schloßstraße, next to Wertheim. Cost: 5,50 marks. Unconventional beef bratwurst, flabby, without bite. 3,5 points.

Fleischerei Bachhübers: Wittenbergplatz opposite KaDeWe. Cost: 6,50 marks. Organically produced, deep-fried, wurst with a good flavour, exterior hard, interior rubbery. Let down by curry ketchup: too sweet with a strong paprika overtone. Crispy, thick pommes with a soft centre. 6 points.

104, Wilmersdorferstraße 104, Charlottenburg. Cost: 5,50 marks. Slightly rubbery sausage with thick skin. Ketchup is rather odd - a bit like a warm, watery Napoli sauce with curry powder shaken over it - but it´s nonetheless strangely adictive. (This is one of those places favored by the police.) 7 points.

Konnopke, Schönhauser Allee, U-Bahn Eberswalder Straße. Cost 5.90. Skinless sausage, tasty and fresh. Ketchup fruity but without the necessary spices. Pommes freshly fried and golden. Worth the trip to stand in the genuine East Berlin queue and very tasty, but not very curry. 7,5 points.

Curry 36, Mehringdann, corner of Yorckstraße. Cost 6.20 State-of-the-art-sausages, hand slashed before grilling, well browned and bursting with flovour. The kethcup packed with tomatoes and alost as thick as the creamily glistening mayo. Generously dredged with an aromatic melange of spices. Just go into this wurst mecca and savor the flavor. 9.5 points!

Down the photo: the "wurst" is yet to come. Every man, woman and child in Berlin eats an average of 20 curried sausages per year.