Eel and Ammerland Ham @museum.de

M: Ammerland cuisine isn't something for delicate palates.

F: The fatty smoked eel – "smoortal" in Low German – is served whole on a plate. You use your fingers to remove its head and skin – and then you eat it. It's served with rye bread or fried potatoes and scrambled eggs. And to get the smell of eel off your hands after the meal, you rinse them in schnapps.

M: This is probably what Hans Ehlers, the Local History Society's resident poet and composer, was thinking of when he wrote the following verses about the inner values of an eel:

Zitatorin:

"De Schmoortaal hört to dat Geschlecht

Dat sienen Wert inwennig dreggt."

A smoked eel belongs to a dynasty

That carries its values internally.

F: Hans Ehlers not only composed the melody for the famous "Ammerland song"; he also came up with the aphorisms that accompanied the annual gifts of eel, ham and sausage dispatched by the Local History Society to Reich President Hindenburg – back in the 1920s and early 1930s.

M: About the famous Ammerland ham, he wrote:

Zitatorin:

„Wenn du di an to argern fangs, Once you start to get mad
hol örnlich is vör’n Schinken langs!“ It's time to bring out the ham

M: Here in the Spieker, you'll have no cause to get mad! And even if you don't, you're welcome to enjoy a hearty ham sandwich. The Spieker's team serves up the legendary Ammerland dishes in a very traditional style.

F: And if the eel seems rather indigestible, we recommend trying a "Löffeltrunk" – “a spoon drink” to conclude your meal. If you're wondering how that works – just ask!

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Sprüche De Burn, S. 26