Lidl Currywurst - A Review
Ah, Currywurst! A Berlin institution and indeed, if you've been to Berlin and didn't eat Currywurst whilst you were there, I'm not sure we can be friends.
My first Currywurst was on my first ever trip to Berlin in August 2016 where I stumbled upon a stall at the Street Theatre Festival on Alexanderplatz; I grabbed a cheap €3 plate as well as a beer and sat in the warm sun, and fell in love. Later on that trip I visited the Currywurst museum (yes, such a thing exists) and although a novelty, I feel it was possibly the wurst (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?) eleven euros I've ever spent.
The premise of Currywurst, for those who don't know, is simple: It's effectively sliced boiled and fried sausage coated in a sweet curry ketchup and topped with curry powder; you'll usually find it served with chips and mayonnaise on nearly every street corner in Berlin.
I'd seen the famous CurryKing brand of microwavable Currywurst in supermarkets in Germany but never did I expect my eyes to cast upon microwavable Currywurst in a lowly Lidl in Norwich, and of course that's what led me to this review.
The Product:
A 220g plastic package of sliced bockwurst in curry ketchup with a sachet of curry power, and a wooden serving fork to give you that authentic Berlin street food experience. In fact I decided that instead of eating this at my kitchen table, I'd go stand outside the local corner shop with a bottle of Beck's in hand, but they told me to go away.
The Price:
It's a very reasonable £1.19 for one, or £2 for 2. Actually cheaper than CurryKing in Germany.
The Review:
They've used Bockwurst, which is possibly the worst German sausage they could have used. Bockwurst is a notoriously chewy sausage with a thick skin which makes it incredibly chewy and not ideal; it also has a very strong flavour by itself.
Currywurst sausage is typically more of a hot-dog/butchers sausage hybrid, and for the authentic East German way to eat it you ask for it without the skin.
The sauce itself is sticky, syrupy and sugary sweet; I'm not even really picking up any tomato flavour, but I get a bit of paprika. Looking at the packaging, it actually contains a whopping 26g of sugar.
The curry powder, although relatively mild, sprinkled on top really is the saviour of what is not a very good dish at all.
Conclusion:
What I thought could be a total game-changer for convenient and reasonably priced microwavable snack food is in fact a sticky, sweet mess with the wrong sausage. Of course, I didn't expect it to be on the same level as Curry Mitte on Torstrasse in Berlin, but I was indeed hoping for more.
Don't rush out. Just have a hotdog instead.
Nate
My first Currywurst was on my first ever trip to Berlin in August 2016 where I stumbled upon a stall at the Street Theatre Festival on Alexanderplatz; I grabbed a cheap €3 plate as well as a beer and sat in the warm sun, and fell in love. Later on that trip I visited the Currywurst museum (yes, such a thing exists) and although a novelty, I feel it was possibly the wurst (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?) eleven euros I've ever spent.
The premise of Currywurst, for those who don't know, is simple: It's effectively sliced boiled and fried sausage coated in a sweet curry ketchup and topped with curry powder; you'll usually find it served with chips and mayonnaise on nearly every street corner in Berlin.
I'd seen the famous CurryKing brand of microwavable Currywurst in supermarkets in Germany but never did I expect my eyes to cast upon microwavable Currywurst in a lowly Lidl in Norwich, and of course that's what led me to this review.
The Product:
A 220g plastic package of sliced bockwurst in curry ketchup with a sachet of curry power, and a wooden serving fork to give you that authentic Berlin street food experience. In fact I decided that instead of eating this at my kitchen table, I'd go stand outside the local corner shop with a bottle of Beck's in hand, but they told me to go away.
It's a very reasonable £1.19 for one, or £2 for 2. Actually cheaper than CurryKing in Germany.
The Review:
They've used Bockwurst, which is possibly the worst German sausage they could have used. Bockwurst is a notoriously chewy sausage with a thick skin which makes it incredibly chewy and not ideal; it also has a very strong flavour by itself.
Currywurst sausage is typically more of a hot-dog/butchers sausage hybrid, and for the authentic East German way to eat it you ask for it without the skin.
The sauce itself is sticky, syrupy and sugary sweet; I'm not even really picking up any tomato flavour, but I get a bit of paprika. Looking at the packaging, it actually contains a whopping 26g of sugar.
The curry powder, although relatively mild, sprinkled on top really is the saviour of what is not a very good dish at all.
Conclusion:
What I thought could be a total game-changer for convenient and reasonably priced microwavable snack food is in fact a sticky, sweet mess with the wrong sausage. Of course, I didn't expect it to be on the same level as Curry Mitte on Torstrasse in Berlin, but I was indeed hoping for more.
Don't rush out. Just have a hotdog instead.
Nate
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