As we approach National Curry Week (8 – 14 October 2012), Rakesh Bhanot, our Arts Editor, ponders over an exotic phenomenon he encountered in Germany over 40 years ago.
ndependent India is barely 2 years old and a German woman called Herta Heuwer is busy patenting the Currywurst (pronounced kureewurst; meaning curry sausage) in Berlin. A concoction comprising ketchup, Worcester sauce and curry powder, obtained from British soldiers (some of whom may very well have been from the Sub-continent), is mixed with other spices and poured over grilled pork sausage; thus giving birth to one of the most iconic snacks in modern Germany.
Indeed, such is the popularity of this German (sic.) dish that every candidate for Mayor of Berlin is photographed at a Currywurst stand. There is even a song called Currywurst on Herbert Grönemeyer‘s 1982 album Total Egal which serves as a tribute to this Teutonic snack.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apdc2tZCpKg[/youtube]
This is not all! Whilst Britain has its ‘wars’ about where the Chicken Tikka Masala (CTM), arguably the UK’s favourite dish, was invented (Glasgow or Birmingham), no one has gone to the trouble of writing a novel about such debate. Oh yes, they have! In Deutschland! A gentleman called Uwe Timm wrote The Invention of Curried Sausage, in 1993; subsequently, made into a film of the same name (2008). The plot is based on an alternative, but unproven theory, that Currywurst was invented in Hamburg. Ah, German thoroughness.
However, the story does not end here. Fast forward to August15, and while India is busy with Independence Day celebrations, the ribbon is being cut to open the latest tourist site in Berlin. The Deutsches Currywurst Museum opened in 2009, commemorating the 60th anniversary of its creation.Curator Martin Loewer said: no other national German dish inspires so much history and has so many well-known fans, including one former Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder. http://www.currywurstmuseum.de/en/
by Rakesh Bhanot
