We already got over these few hundred kilometres that we passed since Friday when we went skiing from Warsaw to Switzerland. We had some rather pleasant stops on our way.. sausages and potato salad in Nurnberg, pizza at one Sicilian fellow’s place in Meersburg by the Bodensee and a walk in Spring Zurich. On Saturday we finally got to Laax! There’s still time for skiing ahead. Right now we’ll stay in Lofoten for a little longer! We’ll be sailing the Norwegian Sea, eating fish soup (yummy!), fishing skrei – a seasonal Atlantic cod, visiting fish processing plants and admiring the beauty of fishermen’s villages… It’s going to be a beautiful and picturesque entry, a fishermen’s and a bloody one! The end of the entry is not for the faint hearted! 🙂
After rafting on the Norwegian Sea on the first day we have an even more fishy day report for you – we’re not going only to eat the fish and see the fishing boats but we will also have close encounters with Norwegian salmon and cod!
We start our cod fishing trip early morning, reinforced after a Norwegian breakfast – delicious, delicate bread with salted butter and an obvious addition – lots of smoked salmon! That’s a living! There’s a boat waiting for us by our Bryggehotell and on the boat there are jumpsuits waiting for us again – similar to those we wore during our rafting trip. The jumpsuit makes you feel a bit like a big clumsy bear or a teletubby from the cartoon. Your motions are limited but no wind can do you harm! Even after long hours spent on the sea. Let’s go!
We start our day with a visit to a salmon processing plant… We depart from our fishermen’s Henningsvær village and sail to Skrova island group inhabited by around 237 citizens. Ellingsen is obviously the biggest local employer. We get in, put on protective clothing – a cap, foil coat and two pairs of shoe protectors (one pair goes as far as knees!)! The plant is loud, wet and bloody. Also, very Polish! That’s the first (and not the last) place in Lofoten where we encounter Poles at work! It turns out that we can get everywhere – even to the end of the world! 🙂 Work in the fish processing business does not sound too attractive, does it? For me it doesn’t but the ladies working at their stations according to specific procedures seem quite content. And the money is supposed to be really rewarding! 🙂
Salmons in Lofoten are fished in a specific way that allows them to end in the processing plant while being still alive. They are sucked into water-filled containers on the fishing boats and then, transferred to the plant directly. In the end, after cleaning and gutting they land on ice in big polystyrene boxes and in those with a little help of trucks they travel to other countries, including Poland. If the temperature is correct throughout the trip, they remain fresh for 2 weeks and during this time can be delivered fresh anywhere, including your favourite sushi bar 🙂 Next time you eat salmon, Philadephia and avocado maki, think about Lofoten. 🙂
The visit in the processing plant is just the start! We spend the rest of the day admiring views and cod fishing. There’s no dinner without a cod in Lofoten! 🙂 On the boat, we eat fish soup from little plastic bowls and nibble on thin bread crisps. Tastes delicious!
Łukasz is constantly amazed by the fish wealth of Norway and the size of cods that can be fished there. Because the cod in Norway is something completely different to our Baltic ones, which I’m not a big fan of as they remind be of fried fish with chips and salad served in one of Polish seaside resorts such as Jastarnia, Jastrzębia Góra or Władysławowo. Here, cod is delicious and served in a hundred different ways. But we’ll get to that later. No it’s time for fishing! And we don’t fish any cod but skrei, a cod strain that is characteristic for this season, one of the best strains of this fish!
Skrei in Lofoten is only fished in the Winter time – from 1st January to 30th April. Apart from Vesterålen it’s Lofoten that is one of the main skrei fisheries. Skrei comes from the biggest Atlantic cod cluster on the Barents Sea, but after maturing, the cods migrate to their birthplace in Norway. Therefore, if you order a cod between January and April, you can be sure that you’ll get a skrei. Supposedly it’s one of the healthiest sea fish with white meat (whitefish) and one serving of skrei contains the recommended daily dose of Omega-3 acids.
How is it different from the cod we know? Most of all, the cods fished in Norway are gigantic! The biggest “monster” fished out in Lofoten was 64 kg heavy!!! Having no fishing skills, you can easily fish a 10-15 kg fish! That’s why Łukasz envied Norwegians so much during our stay – our cods usually weigh between 4-5 kg!
We’ll tell you more about the taste of skrei in the culinary entry. We already know that the way of life of the fish affects its taste (a sociological approach to the cod:)). What’s important is the fact that skrei is a sexually mature cod and in the Winter months when it’s fished, it’s in best condition. The muscles are in optimal condition and have solid texture. Have you ever thought about it eating a fish? 🙂 On the other hand, Skrei supposedly does not eat too much after migration to Norwegian shores. That means there’s not much in its stomach and the meat is better. (Did anybody knew that? 🙂
They say that some people can easily sense the difference between cod and skrei while others don’t see it at all! Apart from fillets you can eat tongues, cheeks, liver, roe and stomachs. We see how cods are processed in a cod processing plant. Similarly to salmons, skrei are fished from the sea, delivered to the plant alive, drained from blood then processed and kept in temperature as low as 0 degrees. That way they can stay fresh for as long as 12 days after being fished out. The cod tongues draw a lot of attention – usually they are cut off by 12-15 year old kids. It looks quite surreal… I still cannot digest gutting the fish and here a little girl cuts one tongue after another…. creepy!
If you’re not into tongues, liver or fillets you can still try dried cod known as stockfish that is quite a landmark in the picturesque, wild and unusual Lofoten landscapes… Se for yourselves!
Coming up next: what we liked the most in Henningsvaer and is etaing tongues and smoked cod roe really worth it! 🙂
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