Fishmongers in the Netherlands, Belgium, and particularly in Germany, are not waiting for the official start of the matjes (lightly cured herring) season, but are increasingly selling last year's fish as 'new matjes' from as early as the end of April onwards, reports Herby Neubacher.
This year, a leading German seafood retail chain even held a matjes festival during April in its outlet in the railway station in Cologne.
The herring used to produce the early matjes, is not necessarily a poor quality fish; in fact it is sometimes just the opposite.
