It’s autumn, and Sulina is slowly sinking into silence. The tourists have left, they will only return next spring, when they will be able to once again admire nature in all its grandeur and birds of all kinds, go out with boats or kayaks on narrow canals, and enjoy the beauty and tranquility of this blessed land that is the Danube Delta.
At the guesthouses, there are only a few fishermen left who have come from around the country to enjoy the last fishing sessions of the season. They are the ones who fish for pleasure, but in Sulina there are also those who make a living out of it. One of them is Paul. Paul Frangeti. He says he comes from a Greek family, one of the last families in Sulina.
„I started fishing at the age of 14. My father was a fisherman, this fishing tradition comes from our grandparents,” says Paul. He is now 39 years old, so he must have been fishing for about a quarter of a century, casting nets and reaping the rewards from the depths of the waters.
When I met him, he was preparing a large pot, about 30 liters, of fish soup. He caught the fish a few hours ago. He cleaned and portioned it, ready to put it in the pot. I took advantage of the opportunity and, like any tourist arriving in the Delta, I hoped to leave with the secret of the famous fish soup. I questioned him in every way possible and eventually found out what gives the distinct flavor to the fish soup. And no, it’s not the water from the Danube. That’s a myth, let’s make that clear.
„I caught the fish, cleaned it, washed it, cleaned the vegetables, prepared them…,” Paul briefly listed the steps for the soup he was preparing. Catfish, carp, pike, and crucian carp. That’s what Paul caught, about 15 kilograms, and he will make the soup with them. „It’s based on what you catch. If you caught three fish, you put three fish. If you caught ten species, you put 10 species, because you have them. If you don’t have them, you make do with what you have,” says the fisherman.
Here’s the first little secret: good soup doesn’t have a fixed recipe, but here, in the Delta, it’s the result of a day of fishing. „The more fish and of various kinds, the better the soup turns out,” Paul reveals.
Bingo! So that was it!
I even find out that, unlike traditional soups, fish soup doesn’t need a lot of water, because „the fish cooks more in its own juice.”
Okay, so fish of different kinds and not too much water, I quietly draw a first conclusion…
**The text continues with more details about Paul’s fish soup preparation and his life as a fisherman.**