Konnopke's Imbiss

Currywurst is Berlin's most consumed street food: a steamed and pan-fried pork sausage, sliced into rounds, blanketed in a curried tomato ketchup sauce, and dusted with curry powder. It is sold at Imbiss stands across Germany, but Berlin claims it as its own invention. The sauce is the point. The sausage is a delivery mechanism for the sweet, spiced, faintly vinegary tomato base that Herta Heuwer developed in 1949 at her stand on Stuttgarter Platz in Charlottenburg. Germans eat roughly 800 million currywursts per year, and Berlin alone accounts for about 70 million of those. Two versions divide the city: mit Darm (with casing, which gives a snap on the bite) and ohne Darm (without casing, softer and finer-textured). Most East Berliners default to ohne Darm; in the West, mit Darm is the classic choice. Both come on a paper plate with a small plastic fork and, almost always, a side of Pommes frites or a Brötchen.