Railway Platform Stall · Smoked Whitefish
Smoked Omul
Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0
Commercial fishing for wild omul has been banned since 2017 to let depleted stocks recover, so much of the fish on sale at Baikal stalls today is farmed or caught under limited quotas.
Omul is a whitefish found only in Lake Baikal, hot-smoked over alder or birch until the skin turns deep bronze and the flesh flakes apart with a rich, oily smokiness. Vendors sell it whole, still warm, from stalls along the lakeshore and on train platforms during Trans-Siberian stops.
Why it's made this way: Omul has been Baikal's signature catch for centuries, and once the Trans-Siberian Railway reached the lake around 1900, smoked omul became the classic snack sold to travelers at lakeside station stops.
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