On the ball

Susan Nowak suggests celebrating the World Cup by serving beer and food inspired by the cities hosting the matches

With just a month to go before the World Cup begins, get ready to kick off with some champion beer and food.

Your regulars might not manage to get to Germany for the world's biggest soccer tournament, but you can take them on a culinary journey as football fever takes over.

We're keeping our fingers crossed that the Germans haven't got the greatest football team in the world - but they've certainly got some of the best beers.

And with all 12 of the host stadiums in towns or cities - from Hamburg in the north down to Munich in the south - boasting at least one brewery, some several, it's a great chance to pair exciting lagers and beers with the pub food of their region.

Munich, the venue for the first match of the series when Germany opens against Costa Rica on 9 June, is home to a famous beer festival every autumn.

It is also the brewing capital of Bavaria, the centre of beer styles that range from spicy wheat to strong dark dunkels, not forgetting Löwenbräu's hoppy pilsner.

Try partnering a chilled Bavarian wheat beer with proper pretzels - big, fat ones that you can split open like bagels and fill with cream cheese and slices of Bavarian ham or deli sausages. A pale dry lager can accompany torpedoes filled with hot or cold pork - the city's favourite roast - spread with sweet mustard sauce.

Next day England kicks off its campaign against Paraguay in Frankfurt, where Binding brews export lagers and Henninger smooth pils. It's also the home of the Frankfurter, so hand out the hotdogs or dish up your Frankfurters and mash with a spoonful of sauerkraut.

Cologne has 20 breweries, more than any other city in the world, producing pale, top fermenting kolsch-style beers. If you can't find any here, serve a pilsner with some gentle malt and citrus flavours, and a "ploughmans" of Gouda (yes it's Dutch, but it's popular in Cologne), German smoked cheese and rye bread.

Hamburg, where Argentina play first, is strong on savoury pilsners - such as the best known, Holsten Export - with a malt/hop balance. Smoked herring is popular in Hamburg, so why not serve pumpernickel spread with mackerel pâté, or topped with smoked loin of pork and apple sauce?

And so to Berlin, where the final will be held in the city's Olympic stadium. Pale, thirst-quenching wheat beers are crafted here - just the drink to soothe throats hoarse with cheering. They like meatballs in Berlin: make them with ground pork and a touch of dill and horseradish.

Of course if England's in the final you can forget the German snacks - it'll be pints of bitter and Beckham bangers all round!