House specialities
Four dishes Maritime is known for.
Shrimp croquettes, from our own kitchen
Grey North Sea shrimp, and nothing else — more than forty per cent of the croquette is shrimp. You see it the moment you break one open, and you taste it in every bite.
The shrimp stock is drawn in our own kitchen. No powders, no industrial base, nothing standing in for the shrimp itself. Breaded in panko, for a crust that crackles rather than cloys.
On the card as a starter or as a main course.
Eel in green sauce
Two houses that have been at their trade for a lifetime. We have been here since 1958; our eel merchant longer still — Schilders has been in the trade since 1935.
Schilders works with wild eel from Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the United States. Every fish is selected on origin, quality and thickness, and is kept alive in the right conditions until the last moment. Freshness is decided there, before the eel ever reaches our kitchen.
Wild eel has firmer, juicier, more aromatic flesh than farmed. Its lower fat content suits a refined preparation: the flesh comes away from the bone easily and melts on the tongue.
Our chef has refined the recipe over a long career. Finely cut shallot gives the dish its bite; the sorrel brings the fine touch of acidity. Delicious.
Crêpe Normande
Baked fresh every day, with the sweetest apples. They are caramelised, and the crêpe is flambéed at your table — you watch it happen, and you smell it before you taste it.
Craft in the kitchen and craft in the dining room. Here, the second counts as much as the first.
Mussels
If there is one dish that is a house speciality at Maritime, it is the mussels.
They come from Neeltje Jans, a Zeeland family business that has been farming shellfish since 1912, right at the Oosterschelde storm surge barrier near Vrouwenpolder. The knowledge of mussel farming is passed down there from one generation to the next.
We work exclusively with Goudmerk: the largest grade of Zeeland mussel on the market. Rope-cultured, certified as a Zeker Zeeuws regional product — which means every mussel comes from the Oosterschelde National Park or the Wadden Sea, and from nowhere else.
That this inlet yields such mussels comes down to the water: the Oosterschelde is exceptionally rich in nutrients, and you taste it. Purification, processing and dispatch all happen on the former work island of Neeltje Jans — raised from the sea to build the barrier — under strict standards and high certification.
Here they reach the table with fresh fries and house-made mayonnaise. Plain, or in one of our other preparations — the chef's way above all, built on a blend of herbs and spices we keep strictly to ourselves. Unless you can taste them?
One more thing. Unlike in the past, we serve mussels only in season. The moment the quality begins to slip, they come off the card. Every product deserves to be eaten in its own season. That is how we see it, at any rate.