Fresh fish

Fresh fish was something I really did miss when I lived in landlocked Switzerland.  Being so far from the sea, I not only missed the fresh fish, but the smell of the salty ozone.  The Swiss tend to favour all things lake and river, so Perch and Carp with a little Sole and Salmon here and there. The Swiss also seemed to consume large amounts of Pangasius, or Vietnamese River Cobbler.  It lives eating rubbish off the muddy river beds, and I really did not like the taste of it.  Swiss like to coat it in batter, and no amount of coating made it taste any better either!  I don't mind Sole or Salmon, but after a while, I did pine for smoked fish.  Today, as I write, I can sit smugly on this lovely sunny day knowing that I have already cooked 2 smoked fish pies, 1 for now and 1 for later.  When I saw line caught Grimsby natural smoked haddock on sale in Waitrose, just had to snap some up.  OK, maybe it does not look that appetising like this:

....but once cooked, is the height of comfort food in the form of fish pie or in smoked fish chowder.  I would have made the former, but Steve thinks that soup does not constitute a meal.  Chunky soup with a cheese topped roll does in my opinion, and was a favourite when mum used to make it at home.  We were brought up on the freshest of fish when I lived in East Anglia.  The fish came to us in the shape of a small van driven by a man who passed the business to his son (I think he was called Colin) and the whole family including the wife, used to deliver fish all the way from Lowestoft to our estate in Martlesham Heath.  The little van used to stop in every street after constantly blowing the horn, so you could tell how far away he was from the noise! The white fish van never used to smell, as the fish was so fresh.  The haddock was not dyed a lurid yellow, and instead properly oak smoked themselves.  I used to love the smell of that before it was packaged and wrapped.  I remember seeing mussels, and huge chunks of cod, haddock and crabs all nestling in the ice in the back of the van, and of course, it varied according to the time of year.  He had knowledge of what was best for the season which you just would not get from a supermarket these days.  I was very excited to see the sight of a trailervan in our local Wokingham market, with 'Fresh fish from Lowestoft' written on the side.  I hope one Friday that I am free, I will get to sample some of that fish, and once more bring back memories!  My sister, Emma always taunted me in Switzerland, as she new that I could not get the fish I loved.  She works in and around Aldeburgh and they land some of the freshest fish, including large cod, it tastes amazing.  The flesh is almost meatlike and pure white in colour.

I can, however, see that the British love affair with cod is not waning despite the dwindling stocks of cod in the North Sea.  In some ways, I could remain quite pious in Switzerland, as COOP sourced quite a lot of Sustainable MSC fish.  I used to buy alot of Coley.  Thinking that my local Morrisons is a store for the cost conscious, I reckoned on maybe finding some there.  No, the shelves were packed only with Cod.  I do feel that there is still work to be done here in the UK with regards to sourcing sustainably, otherwise we may end up eating Salmon and Chips instead of Cod and Chips.....

However pious I have been in the past, Fish and Chips was one of the first things I had to try on returning back to the UK.  They may be a little more expensive these days, but they still taste as good as ever (with a little English beer of course)....!