Thirty years ago you could buy super fresh fish directly at the fish market in Hamburg. Today, only a handful of cutters are pinning at the pontoon of the fish auction hall. So where do the Hamburg people buy fish today, especially if they don‘t want to get up Sunday morning at 4 o’clock? I swear on FrischeParadies. Nowhere else in Hamburg you’ll find such a well-stocked and wonderfully presented fish display as in FrischeParadies. And where do you find this paradise for foodies? Of course, in the Große Elbstraße [Great Elbe Street]. Where else.

When I met my captain, he lived on St. Pauli. He often told me about the “FrischeParadies”. Every now and then he even got really enthusiastic about it. Honestly, I sometimes thought, “What’s he got with his Edeka store?” Nothing against Edeka [German super-market chain], there are, even in our immediate environment, one or two well-stocked branches. But when I entered the FrischeParadies for the first time… Puuuhhhh, he hardly got me out of the store again.

This is really THE shopping paradise for gourmets and connoisseurs, here you get everything, and even in fantastic, fresh quality – no matter if fish, meat, vegetables, spices, cheese or wine. The selection of top-fresh herbs alone is enormous. But the fish… as I said, unique.

The Große Elbstraße in Hamburg. Twenty years ago, still grubby and marked by the fish trade and street hookers, it has become a gastronomic and gourmet mile. The Frischeparadies has been present for 15 years and has since offered a consistent quality with its premium products.

We quit renting the apartment on St. Pauli since a couple of years. We now live on the other side of the river Elbe, but we have maintained the regular purchases in the Große Elbstraße. Already the “arrival” with the harbor ferry (in Hamburg affectionately called “flat-iron”) feels like a vacation, when you see the jetty Teufelsbrück and the museum harbor pass by. And a little “seafaring” is also good during holidays …

After shopping in the FrischeParadies, we always plan a small lunch in their bistro or at Hummer Pedersen next door. Excellent fish and a glass of white wine, this is a good base for a long walk on the Elbe towards Strandperle or a short visit to Docklands observation deck just around the corner. So every purchase feels like a little break, from which we return home with a trunk full of delicacies.