Smoked Fish on the Baltic Coast

The fishing villages along the Hel peninsula and the Kashubian coast keep small smokehouses, often a brick chimney behind the house with alder wood burning under racks. Fish go in whole, come out hot and are sold by weight over a counter, usually wrapped in paper with a bread roll. Flounder is the local flatfish and the one to look for; herring and sprat are cured here too, and cod appears when catches allow. Mackerel is the biggest seller and is imported rather than Baltic, which nobody hides but few announce. You eat standing at a bench, and the smell stays with you for the rest of the day.

What you actually see

• The smokehouse chimneys - brick smokers behind village houses, alder wood burning low.
• Flounder - the local flatfish, hot smoked whole and eaten off the bone.
• Sale by weight - fish weighed at the counter and wrapped in paper with bread.
• The harbour boats - the small inshore fleet at Jastarnia, Kuznica and Hel.

When to go

May to September, when most smokehouses are open daily and the peninsula has a ferry and train service; many shut for the winter. Buy in the late morning, when a batch has just come out. August is very busy and the queues are long. Avoid anything that has clearly been sitting under a lamp for hours.

Honest expectations

Prices by weight look modest until the fish is on the scale, and a large mackerel costs more than a restaurant main. Much of what is sold as local is not: cod catches have been cut back sharply and mackerel is imported. Quality varies from excellent to dry and over-salted. The smell gets into clothes and cars and does not leave quickly.

Nearby

The beaches and dunes of the Hel peninsula, the lighthouse at Rozewie and the harbour at Wladyslawowo.