A small stop at the Eel nursery and smokery, what a random find!

Well, what do you know. Sometimes when being on the road towards something else, you actually kind the biggest surprises which you never had known that were there.

This weeks random adventure, finding a landlocked Eel nursery and mini restaurant where all the eel is smoked right there. And that in a region where there is absolutely zero water to be found. Aint that something?





This was such a random stop in the middle of nowhere. I was just on the road running errands and while that flirting with the idea of getting some kind of snack or food somewhere. A small google session learned that there was an Eel factory closeby which seemed weird to me.

Why is that weird?

Well in my mind it would be a strange place to have an Eel nursery in an area which is not close to sea water at all. Because in my mind an Eel is a salt water fish and that is where the first mistake was made. There are a couple of Eel species that thrive a lot better in fresh water. During their life span eventually they will head out towards the sea and 'turn into' a salt water species.

Cool that this is possible right?

But these guys over here are bred in tanks and kept for consumption and apparently this place is one of the bigger exporters even. I literally had no idea of this all.

Just for the idea again, an Eel is a fish that looks a bit like a snake and wiggels through the water. You probably know this guys from its brother called the 'electric eel' that can actually zap its pray with electricity.





These guys are a lot more calm

The fish farm

I am just going to call this place a fish farm, because that is what it actually is. So I was also way more surprised by the size of this fish farm. Since it was the weekend not everything was open to the public, but sometimes this is the case.

Here is a map of the premisses and here you can see how big everything actually is together.





With a little farmer shop on the outside, behind there are the bassins, transport region, the cutting part, the local smokery and everything else this small 'factory' needs. And actually....it is huge

You even have a parking lot outside for the public passing by, and it was filled the whole time.

Funfact: Eel in Dutch is 'Paling' and you can see here it is a sign for the 'paling'-parking. Or is this too much of a language inside joke?

And busy..even on a sunday

I was really surprised to see so many people passing by here for a small stop. Smart as they are they have a small outdoors terrace as well, and a place to eat something or have a coffee.

An admitting...up until this day, I didn't know that I even like smoked Eel, but these guys did some magic with smoke it in combination with this perfectly fitting sauce on there. I just might be hooked!

They also had a ot of other salads and soups made with Eel, so there was enough to find over there.

So a super random find this fish place between all of the land agriculture that is here in this region, but these guys are doing a decent amount of business...That is one thing that I know!