We were lucky to visit two fishing villages in Zeeland - our most southwestern province - in the course of two weeks, when they held their respective, yearly festivals: Breskens, famous for its shrimps and Yerseke, immersed in mussels and oysters.
Breskens was the first.
We live close by kilometer wise - think a whopping 100 km as the crow flies - but for us it's like going abroad: after a full two hours trainride you arrive in flat, windswept and beautiful Zeeland, where you swap the train for an half hours ferry ride.
The place you arrive then feels more like Belgium than Holland - hm - must start blogging about Belgium as well so you can see the difference too ;)
Anyway, we headed for Breskens, to visit their annual Fishing Days.
Breskens is situated on the Westerschelde, part of the Schelde estuary (the Schelde is a long and wide river) flooding into the North sea.
It's the route for ships going from the North sea to the Antwerp harbour in Belgium: a tidal, salt water stretch of 'sea' cutting deep into Holland.
Breskens is into shrimps.
In the old days shrimps were shelled by the local women. Nowadays they're flown into Morocco, shelled by Moroccan women in facturies, generously chemically treated against decay and flown back again.
But for this festive occasion Breskens shows the art of old skool shelling these minute shrimps: two beautifully dressed women, in their costumes with the intricate, gold adorned caps, sat at a table and shelled at an amazing speed the tiny, delicate, supertasty Dutch shrimps.
Resulting in a considerable heap of shells, to be thrown away into the waste bin - my - this is wonderful material to make a real good fish fond - I could really do something very tasty with it - imagine, a stock of frozen shrimp fond ready for use - we appealed to the women, left a large plastic bag and came back an hour later.
Dear readers, one whole whopping kilo of fresh shrimp shells. I slightly roasted them, next they simmered for hours and hours on end, and I gathered from these fresh shells the most wonderful fond imaginable.
Our biggest treasure when we returned home.
In the meantime we were part of a great outdoor festival, with the meeting of the Fishing Queen and the Shrimps Princess as a culmination of another wonderful day. Enjoy!
Breskens was the first.
We live close by kilometer wise - think a whopping 100 km as the crow flies - but for us it's like going abroad: after a full two hours trainride you arrive in flat, windswept and beautiful Zeeland, where you swap the train for an half hours ferry ride.
The place you arrive then feels more like Belgium than Holland - hm - must start blogging about Belgium as well so you can see the difference too ;)
Anyway, we headed for Breskens, to visit their annual Fishing Days.
Breskens is situated on the Westerschelde, part of the Schelde estuary (the Schelde is a long and wide river) flooding into the North sea.
It's the route for ships going from the North sea to the Antwerp harbour in Belgium: a tidal, salt water stretch of 'sea' cutting deep into Holland.
Breskens is into shrimps.
In the old days shrimps were shelled by the local women. Nowadays they're flown into Morocco, shelled by Moroccan women in facturies, generously chemically treated against decay and flown back again.
But for this festive occasion Breskens shows the art of old skool shelling these minute shrimps: two beautifully dressed women, in their costumes with the intricate, gold adorned caps, sat at a table and shelled at an amazing speed the tiny, delicate, supertasty Dutch shrimps.
Resulting in a considerable heap of shells, to be thrown away into the waste bin - my - this is wonderful material to make a real good fish fond - I could really do something very tasty with it - imagine, a stock of frozen shrimp fond ready for use - we appealed to the women, left a large plastic bag and came back an hour later.
Dear readers, one whole whopping kilo of fresh shrimp shells. I slightly roasted them, next they simmered for hours and hours on end, and I gathered from these fresh shells the most wonderful fond imaginable.
Our biggest treasure when we returned home.
In the meantime we were part of a great outdoor festival, with the meeting of the Fishing Queen and the Shrimps Princess as a culmination of another wonderful day. Enjoy!
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