Detailed review by fizzytom
fizzytom
Gateshead, United Kingdom96%
Currywurst is probably Germany's most popular fast food and, from modest travels in Germany, I'd say that nowhere is it more popular than in the capital. Sold in restaurants and fast food kiosks alike, Currywurst has become an intrinsic part of German culinary culture since it was created in the late 1940s. The 'Currywurst Museum' explains the origins of the snack and shows how widely it has entered the national conscience.
Currywurst varies little from place to place: it's sausage with a curry flavoured tomato sauce poured over it. The flavour of the sauce will vary according to the particular ingredients and people have quite strong opinions about what should and shouldn't be included. I would stress that the sausage is not topped with a 'curry sauce': this is most definitely a tomato sauce with a mild curry flavour.
The admisison price includes a sample of currywurst which you can have before or after you've seen the exhibition. As curry sauces can contain nuts I tried to check with the receptionist as to whether I'd be able to eat the currywurst and she helpfully spoke to the gentleman who works in the snack bar who then checked his files and reported that the sauce they are currently using is nut free.
Before we started our self guided tour the receptionist explained that everything is interactive and that we were welcome to take photographs so long as they aren't used for commercial purposes (respecting this request, I've carefully chosen which photographs to publish and have not included anything from the actual exhibition).
All of the exhibition is on one level so it's ideal for wheelchair users and families with pushchairs (it's probably not that exciting for very young kids but families may happen to also have younger children with them who are in pushchairs). There are also a few opportunities to grab a seat as you walk round which is good for people who have mobility problems (and people who simply have tired feet - it was our second museum of the day and it wasn't even lunchtime).
Although I learned a lot from the exhibition the emphasis is on fun and the first things you encounter as you start the tour are two kiosk style tables on which are standing ketchup bottles. If you lift up the bottle and hold it to your ear you can hear songs that have been written in homage to Currywurst. Later you'll be able to sit in a mini cinema and see some clips from films and popular television shows in which Currywurst is mentioned: I was very exicited to see one of the shows - a sit com set in a fast food joint - on television late that evening.
The presentation is colourful and fun with lots of easy to understand diagrams and photographs. There are plenty of things to open, push and pull which adds some variety to the exhibition. There's a section that looks at the ingredients for a good sausage, and then the spotlight turns to the sauce with a wall of draws containing the many herbs and spices that might go into a curry sauce for Currywurst; all of the draws can be opened as they contain a sample of that ingredient so you can breathe in the aroma. The captions are all presented in German and English.
The reputed inventor of the Currywurst Herta Heuwer gets a section of her own and there's even a mock up of a 1970s living room in which you can watch a looped sequence of her appearance on Germany's version of 'What's My Line?'
Things do get a little tenuous when you start learning about the life cycle of the little paper trays that Currywurst is served on but, on the whole, the creative approach to making this a decent attraction is quite commendable. One part I really liked was a line of refrigerators, from old models to the latest thing, each one containing a different selection of food and drink items that show how not only how tastes have become more cosmopolitan but how we went from cooking from scratch to convenience foods; it was a really well presented look at a fascinating aspect of social history.
The standard admission fee includes a 'cup' of Currywurst so you get a few slices of sausage topped with the sauce and a sprinkling of curry spices. We added a drink to go with it, beer for Himself and a soft drink for me. If you want something more than the basic sample there is a higher admission charge which includes a Currywurst meal.
Personally I can take or leave Currywurst; I don't really like to eat standing up (there are chairs in the cafe at the museum) so it's not really a food I'd stop off for in Germany as most kiosks just have high tables or counters to stand at.
At the Currywurst Museum the sauce was tastyy enough but I'd much rather eat a proper curry and in my experience Currywurst are barely curry-flavoured at all. Still this was included in the price and it was a handy stop gap until lunch proper.
WURST A VISIT?
If you like Currywurst and are interested in the history of it and how it has become cemented in popular German culture then this is an interesting way to spend an hour or so. I was pleasantly surprised by how much mileage they'd managed to get from the subject and I think they had presented it very creatively.
I think German kids would find this more interesting and enjoyable than non-German kids. There's no particular adult content in the exhibition but there's a sense of Currywurst portrayed as a novelty or a cult subject and I think it's the sort of quirky museum that would appeal to adults with a sense of humour.
I do feel that the admission price is a little bit steep when you consider that it's a limited subject. For us the price didn't seem so steep; I felt we got a lot out of it because of our particular interests but I can appreciate that others might find this less interesting.
It's full marks for accessibilty, facilities and staff: everyone was really friendly and the staff went out of their way to check food ingredients for me. For content I'd give it four stars out of five: what there is is presented brilliantly and with a great deal of imagination however a couple of areas seem like fillers and overall there isn't a massive amount to see in comparison with other attractions priced similarly.
Deutsches Currywurst Museum Berlin8
