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Festival Grill · Whole Fish on a Stick

Steckerlfisch

Steckerlfisch — street food from Bayern, Germany
Photo: Kritzolina / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

The fish is skewered vertically, head to tail, on a wooden spike and leaned into the coals at an angle — no grate involved.

Usually mackerel or trout, salted and speared lengthwise on a stick, then propped beside an open charcoal fire until the skin blisters and the flesh flakes. It's a fixture of Oktoberfest and Bavarian folk-festival food rows, eaten straight off the stick with bread.

Why it's made this way: The stick-and-open-fire method predates grills at outdoor fairs, and it stuck around because it's fast, mess-free, and lets vendors cook dozens of fish in view of the queue.
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Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.