FOR THE LITTLE HUNGER IN BETWEEN

Germany eats differently. Instead of regular meals, especially at lunchtime and for dinner, Germans are increasingly satisfying their small appetites with snacks and nibbles. “Snackification” is the name of this wave of enjoyment on which fish is swimming at the very top. On the basis of the fish roll, even gastronomic successes can grow and flourish – as the example of the 2022 Seafood Star winner “Fangfrisch Lübeck” shows. The gastronomic establishment now has cult status in the Hanseatic city.

IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS A VACATION AT THE BOSPORUS

When Tristan Wilcken (36) and Constantin Teichert (32) spent a few days in Istanbul to complete their business studies, they came across “Balik-Ekmek” rather by chance. This mackerel sandwich is a common and popular street food in the border city between Europe and Asia. Fishermen sell it below the Galata Bridge directly from their boats. “Selling fish sandwiches directly from the cutter, that’s what we wanted to do at home,” Wilcken recalls of the early days. Even though the two founders failed due to German bureaucracy, they were finally able to celebrate their success in their hometown of Lübeck – albeit in a slightly modified form: instead of selling fish rolls from the cutter, they first opened a snack bar and then a store. Their restaurant “Fangfrisch Lübeck”, located between the old town and the Kulturwerft Gollan, has long since become a popular all-day meeting place in the Hanseatic city for a snack in between meals or for an evening restaurant stroll.

From the snack bar out front, the two friends sell fresh fish sandwiches; inside the restaurant, they serve sailor bites (with a schnapps from Hamburg, house-pickled salmon on a honey-mustard-dill sauce) and their fresh-catch bowls with a “warm, cheeky mix of regional vegetables and nuts” (according to the text on the menu), as well as new interpretations of classic fish dishes. At lunchtime, the squares in front of the restaurant and the out-of-house sales are crowded by tourists and office workers, in the evening the people of Lübeck meet in the restaurant for fried plaice or fried turbot fillet with bacon from farmer Schramm from the neighborhood.

BY TRADITION, FISH PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE FOR THE NEW TREND

The small meal in between is announced. And so the “snackification” trend ensures that new epicurean creations are constantly establishing themselves on restaurant lunch menus, corporate cafeterias, specialty food stores, and supermarket shelves. By tradition and due to increasing nutritional awareness, fish plays an important role in this development. Sea delicacies have long since come in a modern guise. The innovative offering ranges from dried and smoked jerky to chips and wraps to poké bowls and salad creations.

Norwegian salmon farmer and processor Lerøy, for example, has launched the “new sushi” snack, the “Superfood Poké” from Hawaii. For this, simple ingredients such as marinated salmon, sesame seeds and finely chopped spring onions combine with four different sauce variations to create a new taste experience. Deutsche See has also long been dedicated to “snackification” and offers a variety of convenience products for “Lunch 2 go”. These include Bremerhaven’s quick treats from A like “Arabic bread salad with shrimp” to W like “Wanpaku sandwich with smoked salmon.” “From Bismarck herring to fish’n chips and sushi, fish products have long defined gourmet trends and are now doing the same with snackification,” says Sabine Wedell, project manager of fish international at Messe Bremen.