Freshness in abundance - German fish

Fish is best eaten in the region it comes from: on the coasts of Germany as well as near the many unpolluted rivers and lakes inland. Although it is true that a Marwaller fish in a Riesling stock from the Eifel (a mountain region bordering France) will also be tasty in Greifswald (an inland town), just as jellied eel will be succulent in Koblenz on the Rhine, eating them there lacks a certain sense of style.

A stroll through the traditional fish market in Hamburg-Altona with its cheeky merchants will make you want to try the products of the region.
You might fancy some fish in a bread roll, Finkenwerder plaice, lobscouse with rollmops (a type of pickled herring) or Hamburg eel soup with dried fruit in ham stock.

The coast means smoked Kiel sprats with scrambled eggs on the Baltic Sea and Helgoland lobster soup on the North Sea. It also means Mecklenburg eel soup and Holstein mussel soup. You will find plaice with bacon and shrimps far inland, and young matjes herring with onions and mild cream sauce is served even in the Alps.

People in the Spreewald, a forest area around Berlin, enjoy their fish in an aromatic stock made from root vegetables and refined with sour cream. You should also try to experience the way Rhinelanders prepare mussels - cooked in white wine and served with Westphalian pumpernickel. Red crayfish and black morels garnish the Leipziger Allerlei (Leipzig stew).

Franconia's ponds provide us with carp. It can be eaten either au bleu or baked, just as you like it. Pike and perch live in the same waters.

Trout is popular in the south. In the Black Forest it appears on every menu, either cooked au bleu or "Müllerin Art" (coated with flour and fried). Equally popular are the related whitefish from Lake Constance and the renke (similar to trout) found in the Starnberg and Ammersee lakes near Munich. The smoked renke has its finest hour when it is served roasted in beer gardens on sticks.