Cods Scallops II – This Time it's Haddock

quercuscommunity

Jun 18

Ys, it's a paper bag - I'm easily impressed

We had to go to the gardens last night to run an errand which should, and could, have been done by someone else but, as usual, Julia got landed with it.

She offered to buy me fish and chips in return for the lift and I was happy to accept. We decided that another visit to The Cod's Scallops was in order, but this time decided to try the takeaway in Carrington, which is our local branch. This is all part of our "try something new" initiative for the summer. We have been getting into a rut.

I parked while Julia went to order the food. They cook to order and they also have a click and collect system, which basically allows people to push in. It took a bit longer than I would have liked, but it was nice and fresh and still hot when we got home.

The fish was nice and fresh, and a nicely shaped portion. I recently had a piece of fish from another shop which started off life as a thin fillet and after it had been battered, fried and generally over-cooked began to resemble a cross between a sword and a shoe sole. It's all about attention to detail and they seem to be getting it right. A good piece of fish, cooked by well trained staff and the result is good. Poor quality ingredients and uninterested staff, on the other hand, lead to bad results and lost custom.

Inside the bag, it's a lot of packaging - what position do you thinks they occupy on the list of UK chip shops?

There's not much else to say. The fish and chips were good, the peas were also good. However, it was undeniably expensive. For a few pounds more we could have gone to Harvester and eaten free salad with our meal. Or, if we'd used Julia's discount card, we could probably have eaten cheaper. I don't want to deny anyone a fair profit on their labours, or to ignore the fact that the cost of raw materials is rising, but there is a level at which yo have to do the sensible thing and eat at home. It's nice to eat out, or have food delivered, but we have other things to do with our money at the moment and although it's giving me something to blog about, we need to economise.

Fish stocks, meanwhile are still declining, so we might not even have fish and chips in future, regardless of price. For those of you who don't know what nephrops are, here is a link. I didn't know either. It turns out they are scampi.