If you find yourself walking down Prenzlauer Allee and see a massive burger where the planetarium should be – don’t panic. You aren’t suffering from one too many beers or hallucinatory hunger cravings.
As readers of this blog will know, the Bavarian and I are big burger fans. It’s one of the few things we agree on. Like us, the burger is a curious Anglo-Teutonic combination. Most people associate hamburgers with the U.S – Lieferheld are using the opening of the first McDonald’s, in April 1955, as a marker for the burger’s 60th birthday – but the word hamburger does not come from the English word ‘ham’. In fact, in Germany, if you use ham in something you call a ‘hamburger’ or ‘beefburger’, you are breaking food laws.
Instead, ‘hamburger’ comes from the city of Hamburg, and therefore has German roots that go back further than 60 years.The Hamburgers, however, do not seem to take much pride in their culinary heritage – last time I was there, I couldn’t find a good burger joint.
Berlin, on the other hand, is a great place for hamburgers (check out my Top Five Burger Joints in Prenzlauer Berg) and, according to Lieferheld, Berliners order more burgers per head than the people of Hamburg – or any other German city.
As part of the celebrations, Lieferheld is offering English Man in Berlin readers a 30 euro voucher to use on their site. Of course, you don’t have to spend it on burgers – you can also order pizzas, sushi, Indian – whatever you like. Just leave a comment below, telling me which burger you think is most popular on Lieferheld: BBQ & Bacon, Chicken, Vegetarian, Cheeseburger, Hamburger? First person to guess correctly will be emailed a voucher code – good luck!
Filed under: Berlin, food, Life in Berlin, restaurants and bars
