Curry & Chili Imbiß

Berlin is full of superlatives—bigger, better, higher, deeper, older. Being number one in some category or another is a sales-boosting unique selling proposition.

If you say to someone in the Wedding district that they are "der Schärfste" (literally, "the sharpest"), this is youth slang from a bygone generation of the eighties for "the best, coolest, most beautiful, etc."

At this place, which celebrates itself as the "sharpest" snack bar (Imbiss), the owners flirt with spiciness: Curry & Chili initially looks like a completely normal snack bar, just like hundreds of others in Berlin. The menu also offers nothing that you couldn't find elsewhere. The special business idea is the chili sauces, which are available in all, and above all, increasing levels of heat. The sauces are presented in a fiery ranking. Skulls, devils, and flames on the labels foretell impending doom.

The culinary experience becomes a test of courage or an endurance test. You learn that heat levels are specified in Scoville Heat Units (SHU), which indicate the capsaicin content. Regular Tabasco sauce has 4,000 SHU; the hottest sauce at this snack bar has no less than 7,777,777 SHU.

The effect on the tongue and palate is similar to what the alien blood in Alien 1 had on the metal decks of the spaceship... The antidote—milk or cocoa—is also sold; carbonation increases the pain.

To fuel masculine bravado and increase sales, there is the Curry & Chili Club, which you are admitted to if you have consumed all heat levels within 6 months, verifiable on a stamp card. You are then immortalized with your name and photo on the side wall. The photos predominantly show real guys, captured in the process with teary and red eyes or with a tortured and distorted expression. But a few ladies are also among them—this is the Wedding district, after all!

If you take this risk, you might as well bring a tunnel piercing with you to keep the holes open. And don't forget: You always get something from chili sauces twice...