Fish and Chips

With both the older Hargreaves girls under the weather yesterday I took Hattie and Cam to the beach for a walk/coffee/ice cream. Before this I took my boy for a quick game of tennis - like I'm sure many across the country did after seeing Murray unfortunately given the runaround by Federer - it is such a great sport that I almost wish I had played it instead of football, almost. Cam and I have also made a bet of which us gets our own court first. Cam is currently the favourite!.
Back to the beach and before we had even set foot near water the remit was to buy two big ice creams and a coffee for Dad. The location was Budleigh Salterton and the eaterie was The Creamery. The coffee was spot on, carefully done with just the right blast of caffeine required. As the proud proprietor said "You wouldn't get that in Costa coffee" and he was right, you wouldn't. I am now on a support the local produce and sellers promotion push and ten minutes after our refreshment break we were given another great example of local produce at it's best.
A little fishing boat was coming in to shore and Hattie wanted to "See the big fish" so we walked down to watch as the fisherman skillfully winched in his boat. He had caught a wide range of fish including Cod, Pollock, Plaice and Sole. He also showed us some Dog fish ( called 'Rock fish' in your local chippie because no one would really want to buy 'Dog fish, chips and peas' would they!) Part of the shark family the Dog Fish really did impress the children and last week we had actually eaten Rock and chips as the chip shop had no Haddock. This major blow of a fish shop having no Haddock 'on' probably seems strange to many but us Grimsby folk love our Haddock and class Cod as a 'dirty' fish. The fisherman laughed when I told him and did know of this 'Northern' preference of haddock but has promised to convert me, suggesting eating it on the day and on the bone. He told me he is usually on the beach, with a pirates flag flying, selling his fish from about 9.30 until he sells out at about 1. Now that is local industry at it's best.
A bizarre blog I know but I couldn't resist. Tomorrow it's the dying art of the Blacksmith and a trip to a local market. I am joking of course!.

CH