Fishy goings on
I was a naughty girl last night and had fish & chips on a school night after my boy had requested them. I went into a fish & chips shop in Caversham and asked for two haddock and chips:
Chippie: “Sorry, no haddock, only cod”
Me: “Ok, two cod & chips please…is it fresh?”
Chippie: “Yes, it’s freshly cooked”
Me: “Has it been frozen?”
Chippie: “Yes”
Me: “So it’s not fresh then?”
Chippie: “No, you don’t expect us to get daily deliveries of fresh fish do you? We can’t have fresh fish delivered everyday and we couldn’t afford it”
Me: “Well, it would be nice don’t you think?”
Chippie: *shrugs shoulders”
Me: *sigh*
Now I am acutely aware that we don’t live in Reading-on-Sea, however we are blessed with having a fabulous fishmonger in Smelly Alley (Union St), Frosts the Fishmongers and as we know fishmongers are a precious commodity these days and Frosts is the only one around for about 50 miles.
Obviously, this is a bizarre idea *achem*, but why don’t the fish & chip shops in Reading, of which there are a fair few, not form a collective and buy from Frosts, negotiate a deal with them. Not only would this allow them to have a premium product but would allow them not to have a ridiculous price point should they be purchasing direct from a supplier themselves (or god forbid actually visit a fish market!). Re-investing in the local market seems to have been forgotten.
Pinched from Frosts website:
“Why “The Smelly Alley Fish Company”? We’re in a street that has had food shops in it for hundreds of years. In the 1600s it had an open sewer running down its length, so it became known as Smelly Alley. Now there is just one fishmonger, one greengrocer and one butcher, and we are in Reading, Berkshire.
Don’t fall for that old chesnut that fish is best from coastal fishmongers. They don’t have the variety of fish that we do, and what do they do when the fishing boats don’t go out or the weather is too bad for fishing? We are centrally located and can get fish from Newlyn or the Shetlands 12 hours after it has been caught!”
It would be a fishy win win, in my book!
