Delicious fish shack /AlteFischereigenossenschaft

Y (May '23)

SCORE: Tell yo' friends - weird location, but worth it if you're on a road trip

ORDER: Dornhai Schillerlocke

VALUE: Yes - €21 for a radler and a beer, and 5 different fish, bread, potato salad

My work entails going to a lot of rural locations, and I often end up stumbling upon hole in the wall gems that are decidedly local, yet absolutely delicious and worth highlighting. This is one such example. I was out in the north german countryside, and the person I was visiting was showing me around for the day. For lunch, he asked me if I wanted to try something traditional and local. As I was in a professional setting I had to fight the urge to sarcastically reply "no doi". So he brought me to this shop that can best be summarized as a fish shack.

As best as I can understand it, it was a place that butchered, smoked and brined fish that they either bought from the market or that their contracted fishermen caught for them. This was quite the unique concept as I had never been to a "fish shack" like this before. It was one of the shops amongst this group of shops that seemed to be the effective commercial center for this village. German is a prerequisite when going there, and that too a reasonably advanced level there of, as their description of cooking and smoking processes were well beyond the capabilities of my paltry abiliities.

The set up is simple. You get served carbs by default, a stodgy loaf, and 2 different potato salads. I would encourage you to get the dill and lemon potato because that had a lightness to it that was very refreshing. You then pick your choice of prepared fish. Your selection is weighed out, and handed over to you to enjoy in either their sunroom or the little dining area within the shop itself. Also a prerequisite is cash... ain't nobody got time for any credit card faffing about.

I had a couple of things that I was familiar with, like dill smoked salmon, paprika smoked salmon, and halibut (although the brining was completely novel to me). Then I had my local counterpart pick a couple of things as well. Almost everything we chose turned out to be absolutely delicious. Soft fish, and nothing pungeant or stinky as I was worried it would be. I may have watched one too many videos of people reacting to surstromming and was worried karma may have been like- you laughed at them, now it's your turn. I was hugely relieved that the brining was delicious, and there was no overly pungeant salinity or ammonia to the flavors. Just the taste of smoke and the fish itself.

My highlight was the dornhai schillerlocke, which was something that looked like an eel when prepared. It was flaky, but had a delightful chew to it, and the smoke really went through and through the flesh. I could have eaten 2 full plates of the stuff.

Not sure when I would come back to this part of the world, but I will just store this here in case I have some spare time in Hamburg the next time, and have time to go up to the Danish border.

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