Category: fish

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Goan Monkfish Curry

Out with friends in Birmingham we went to Dishoom. This is an Indian cafe that sells some amazing Indian street food. It was quite dark inside and as result I did have some issues reading the menu. There was lots of choice, and I wasn’t quite sure what to have. 

In the end I went with the Goan Monkfish Curry, described as choicest monkfish simmered in creamy coconut, tamarind, tomatoes and kokum. Strewn with fragrant curry leaves. 

This was a delicious curry which I really enjoyed. The sauce was aromatic, and the monkfish was cooked well. Alongside I had rice and a naan bread.

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Fish and Chips from the Morrisons Cafe

The last time I had fish and chips from Morrisons I was not impressed. So, when I was in Minehead the other day I was never intending to go to Morrisons, however my plan to revisit The Cod Shop was scuppered as they were closed.

I needed to go to the supermarket anyhow and time was against me, so I thought I would give the fish and chips another try.

Fish and Chips

This time the fish and chips were much better. The large portion of fish was nice and fresh, the batter was deliciously crisp. I also like the chips. The only downside were the mushy peas which were not nice. They looked dried out and were quite solid and underneath were grey. I did not eat them.

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Time to visit the Pelican State

When visiting London earlier this year I had gone for a walk around Bloomsbury before heading back to my hotel for steak and chips. On that walk I had noticed the brand of Pelican State and added it to places I thought I might like to try.

So on a more recent visit to London I decided I would head to the Pelican State and try out their food. I went with the Crispy Seafood Lunch Deal. This was prawns, green-lipped mussels, squid rings, red potatoes, large portion of fish and a sauce of my choice. I went with the aioli. 

It was served very quickly.

plate of crispy seafood

It was quite a substantial plate of food. I found the crispy coating more crunchy than crispy. It was a nice selection of seafood. I liked the prawns and squid, the mussels could have been better, as the crunchy coating made the mussels difficult to shell and eat. There was a large portion of fish. I think I should have had a side of coleslaw with it.

Overall I did enjoy the dish. They also do a Prawn Boil lunch deal, but I did think that it might be a bit messy to eat.

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Haddock Goujons

It was a grey Wednesday in Bristol, so I headed off to the Finzel Reach street food market to get some lunch. It wasn’t as busy as it can be, so the queues were shorter.

Across the Bristol street food market, one stall stands out as being slightly different and that is King Fin, which sells freshly cooked seafood.

street food stall

Over my many visits to King Fin I have enjoyed many different kinds of fish dishes. My usual and my favourite has to be the calamari. I also enjoyed the monkfish tempura when I had that last year. The soft shell crab burger was a great concept, but I do feel it lacked the intense crab flavour I would like from it. I was though less impressed with the fritto misto I had back in 2022.

One of their offerings I have never tried is their fish wrap with fries. This week it was haddock goujons with pea puree, tartare sauce, lettuce, in a wrap with double cooked fries and house sauce. Other times they have had cod goujons on the board.

As they messed up someone else’s order (who didn’t want tartare sauce) I got my food quite quickly.

wrap and chips

As the fish was wrapped the photographs doesn’t really do the food justice. The haddock was cooked well, and I liked the crispy coating. The pea puree was quite rough, but I liked that it added texture and taste. The double cooked fries were a little limp, with double cooking fries, I like them to be crisp on the outside and fluffy in the inside.

Overall though it was a delicious dish, which I really enjoyed,  and would certainly have again.

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I forget about those Fish Tacos

Whilst writing another blog post I realised I had not written about a meal I had eaten last year. Back in March 2023, I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing. I have been staying here for a fair few years now. It is significantly cheaper than central London, and with the Elizabeth Line, hitting central London is really fast. West Ealing Station is a few minutes walk from the hotel, from there you can catch a train to central London in less than twenty minutes. The hotel has an Ealing comedies theme, there are rooms named after films, and there are numerous photographs from the films framed on the walls.

I was going to have the steak sandwich, but I misread the menu, they stopped serving sandwiches at 5pm. So instead, I had the fish tacos and then the Florentine pizza.

I’ve had the fish tacos many times before at the Drayton Court Hotel. These are crispy strips of battered fish served on flour tortillas, with salad, dressings, and a mango salsa.

It’s in many ways quiet a simple dish, but isn’t one I have recreated back home. I have made similar tacos using crispy chicken, and I have also made my own salsa as well. Though I’ve not made a mango salsa. 

These tacos were delicious, and I really enjoyed them.

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Time once more for the Fish Tacos

three fish tacos

I was back in London and staying at one of my regular haunts, the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing. I have been staying here for a fair few years now. It is significantly cheaper than central London, and with the Elizabeth Line, hitting central London is really fast. West Ealing Station is a few minutes walk from the hotel, from there you can catch a train to central London in less than twenty minutes.

The hotel has an Ealing comedies theme, there are rooms named after films, such as Kind Hearts & Coronets and Passport to Pimlico. There are lots of photographs from the films on the walls.

Going down for dinner, I went with the fish tacos. I’ve had the fish tacos many times before, and these were just as good as the ones I’ve had previously.

The dish arrived, it comprised three tacos, each was served with a piece of fish in a crunchy coating, shredded lettuce, mayo and the aforementioned mango salsa.

These were nice and tasty fish tacos. I liked the crunchy fish strips, the mango and lettuce added some nice freshness to the tacos.

They are slightly different to the first time I had them, which was back in 2022, when they also had some grated cheese on top. 

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Aldeburgh Fish and Chips

Aldeburgh is a small town on the Suffolk coast. In recent years it has become something of a fashionable place to live (or have a second home). Walking down the high street, there are many kinds of shops, cafes, and restaurants. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when we use to visit Aldeburgh. My memories of back then was about the bookshop (which is still there), the toyshop (which isn’t). I also remember the newsagents which sold sweets and comics, and the sweetshops which sold sweets. There were probably other kinds of shops, but as a child, I don’t remember them!

We use to have fish and chips from the fish and chip shop. It is still there. The fish and chip shop in Aldeburgh is often recognised as one of the best fish and chip shops in the UK. 

I did have some in 2008 and wasn’t that impressed.

Well was I really disappointed. These are suppose to be the best fish and chips in the country. Well sorry that may have been the best, but the portion of cod and chips I had on a Saturday night were terrible and very poor.

So when I was back in Aldeburgh in January 2024 I decided to have some fish and chips for my lunch, I would try them out again, so I got a cod and chips to go and headed to the beach to eat them.

This was not a huge portion, but it was lunch, so I was happy with that. I am pretty sure they advertised their fish as boneless and skinless, well mine wasn’t. There was skin and some bones. I found it challenging to eat from the bag with a wooden chip fork, but they were nice fish and chips. The nearby seagulls kept eyeing my food up, you can get a huge fine if you feed them. These were my chips not theirs.

I did enjoy the fish and chips, but I wasn’t blown away by them. 

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Small cod, well that was what I ordered

As I was just going to call the title of this blog, Small Cod I realised that people may think that this was a criticism, actually I ordered small cod and chips, so that is what I got.

We were on a day out to Minehead, travelling their on the excellent West Somerset Railway. I had planned to go somewhere for lunch, didn’t do too much planning, but had a few ideas.

Despite a lovely sunny morning, the clouds looked menacing, so the idea of fish and chips on the beach was looking like a no.

Walking up down The Avenue, there were a few choices, but in the end we went to The Cod Shop.

It would have been nice to sit outside, but it had started to rain, so we sat inside.

It was a really nice decor inside, there was a blue and white seaside theme throughout the restaurant. I thought it was really nice calming environment.

Took a table and looked over the menu. It was lunchtime, and I wasn’t overtly hungry (having just spent two hours sitting on a train) I went with the small cod special. This was a small cod, chips, a side, a dip, and a drink. I had mushy peas and mayonnaise with my cod. It wasn’t long before our food arrived.

The cod had a lovely crisp batter, and the fish was well cooked. The chips were a little underdone for me. The cod was a rather small portion, but that is what I ordered, why should I be surprised that the fish was on the small side. I did though enjoy the fish and chips.

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Swordfish in Portugal

This year we went on holiday to Albufeira in Portugal. We were staying at the Cerro Mar Garden apartments. Though we had booked self-catering, we visited the hotel restaurant a couple of times whilst on holiday.

On our first visit I looked over the quite extensive menu. I decided to go with a fish dish and chose the swordfish.

It took a while to arrive, but we weren’t in a hurry.

This was a lovely presented plate of food. The three pieces of swordfish on the dish was served on a bed of cooked vegetables and potatoes.

The swordfish was cooked perfectly was delicious. I liked the cooked vegetables as well, which were fresh and tasty.

Overall I really liked the dish.

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Smoked Salmon and Prawn Cocktail

When I go somewhere to eat and if there is a specials board, I do like to try something from the board, as if I go again, it probably won’t be on the menu again. Not all places have a specials board, and most chains don’t. Of course you then have something like Bills where the menu changes on a regular basis, they probably don’t need a specials board.

I am a semi-regular visitor to a couple of Fullers’ hotels in London, Drayton Court and the Fox and Goose. Now and again they will have a specials board (or menu). On a recent visit to the Fox and Goose they had their specials board and I had a look over it. 

Specials board

Two of the items on the board were standard menu items, they were just telling punters what the soup was and what the pie was.

The chicken shnitzel (sic) was something I had before at Drayton Court. I did though quite like the sound of the starter on the specials board. 

Fullers’ London porter smoked salmon & prawn cocktail with Bloody Mary sauce and sourdough. So I went with that.

Smoked Salmon and Prawn Cocktail

The dish arrived, without the bread! So I asked and out it came. It was a large sized starter, bigger than I thought it would be.

I did think that the smoked salmon was more like smoked mackerel. This wasn’t slices of smoked salmon, more chunks of salmon.

The prawns were plentiful and good. I did wonder about the sauce, I didn’t really taste the vodka in there, and I felt there needed to be more sauce. I did like the addition of the cucumber and the tomato.

I think the sourdough could have benefited from being toasted, it felt slightly stale and dry.

Overall it was an interesting dish and an interesting interpretation of a prawn cocktail. I think though it could have been a much better dish with a few tweaks.