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Berlin, Germany

On my yearly forays to Berlin, I always make it a point to hit the PFEFFERHAUS, ("the pepper house") a nice hot sauce store on Dirckstr. right by the Alexanderplatz subway/train station.

They got a good selection of sauces, sambals, chutneys, seeds, chilli infused frying oils, books and chilli related products, even chilli cola ! The guys working there are helpful, friendly and knowledgeable. Some of the sauces are bit pricey, presumably because they were imported from the US and UK (Mr. tax man charges a LOT for importing goods in Europe) and on the other hand I suppose because the domestic products are handmade and manufactured in small batches only. 

But I don't mind wrecking a hundred bucks on some tasty hot stuff ! The PFEFFERHOUSE guys also have their own line of products including a habanero / honey sauce, a naga cranberry sauce, etc,  and you can taste samples of most of the products they have in stock prior to buying them, which is also very cool. 

Next stop, actually 9 stops by subway train, was the CURRY & CHILLI stand. After having read some raving reviews about this place on the web I had to check this out. 

In this context, the word "curry" means "curry wurst", not Indian curry. 

According to legend, a Berlin woman "invented" the now famous currywurst by taking the common bratwurst, German fried pork sausage, and mixing tomato ketchup with curry powder. The snack became very popular, and to my understanding, is a typical Berlin thing.

Now I've had some good currywurst, and some so-so currywurst in my days, and although not a HUGE fan, when I'm in Berlin, the Old Dutchman has got to get his snacker on. So let's go. 

The gimmick with this place is, you can pick level 1 to 10 heat sauces for your currywurst, from a few hundred SHU to 7,7 million extract.  If you complete the whole chart, they take your picture and put it on the wall. You get a little certificate etc.

Now maybe it is because we arrived 10 minutes before closing time, but the sausages on that greasy gill plate looked mighty gnarly form the get go. The elderly woman behind the counter looked displeased and just wanted to go home I guess. She wasn't very friendly at all. 

My gf picked a level 3 hot sauce which was very mild. I went for level 8, which is a 1 million SHU dab of MAdDog 357 with extra jolokia powder sprinkled on top. They charged 30 cents for the splash of hot sauce. 

To my horror, the sausages ("mit darm", that's right, the skin is PIG BOWEL) were deepfried for a few moments, and dripping with old grease, or lard, whatever substance it is they were fried in. 

The "ketchup" tasted exactly like canned concentrated tomato paste.

To say this "culinary experience" was disappointing is a big understatement. 
It was downright nasty. Hella nasty. I had to force myself to finish the sausage. 
It was so brutal it made the extract sauce taste good and I won;t be going back there ever again. 















 














 
 
PFEFFERHAUS sounds awesome!  I plan to make a trip to Berlin with my brother who is an exchange student in Germany.  I'll remember to stay away from the Currywurst!  Thanks for sharing!
 
Maybe I caught the currywurst stand on the wrong day or something, but this was not good. Dismal even. 

Also, anyone can plop a bunch of extract on a sausage and make it hot. 

The Pfefferhaus guys were very impressed with my own sauce creations, which include a "reverse engineered"  HP-sauce with dates, apple, prunes, tamarind, Tennesee whiskey :D  and morougas. Maybe they can sell some ! 
 
Never got to restaurant right before closing, is bad idea. If you need to make spicy bratwurst, you should mix pepper chunks into it before cooking.
 
cruzzfish said:
Never got to restaurant right before closing, is bad idea. If you need to make spicy bratwurst, you should mix pepper chunks into it before cooking.
True dat, but I doubt they actually make their own sausage there. 
This place is not really what one would call a restaurant, There are no seats, it's more like a hotdog stand, built like a little hut.
 
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