Andrew's tour of the North East Colman's fish and chips

Date Published:

11/08/2008

Map user, Garry, added Colman’s Fish and Chip Shop in South Shields to the Map saying: "These are the best fish and chips without a doubt!!!...give them a try!!!" How could I resist an endorsement that came with so many exclamation marks?

Richard Colman knows who I am when I ring up to ask if I can come and visit: "I've been following your journey with interest," he says, which is very kind. He also knows that I once had a summer job in a chip shop over 15 years ago and that I'm itching to get back behind the fryer for a go.

But first, the fish. Richard was down the quay this morning selecting fish off the day boats out of Sunderland, for his shop. Today he's got halibut, lemon sole, plaice and monkfish, all fresh and caught less than 12 hours ago. His haddock and cod are Icelandic, line caught fish and he's been working with Sea Fish and other trade organisations to promote sustainable fishing. "We've got to start looking after our food," he tells me, before we talk about the meal itself.

An underrated dish

"Fish and chips was underrated and ignored until 10 years ago, then top restaurants started putting it on, TV chefs started making it and the likes of Rick Stein and Tom Akins started opening chip shops," says Richard. It seems that fish and chips were so universal, so part of the British way of life that we took it for granted and worse began to ignore it. Richard goes on: "Fish and chips is fresh food, it's a wild food, where else can you get fresh, wild food cooked, steamed actually, in nothing more than a flour and water batter with freshly cooked potatoes for around a fiver?" And he's right. "Everyone loves fish and chips," he says.

It's a meal that crosses cultures and it's loved by the local Somali and Bangladeshi communities whose restaurants, as Richard points out, add to the vibrancy of Ocean Road as much as anyone else. It's also loved by local MP, David Milliband, who brought Tony Blair and 100 or so other Labour party members here for a sit down banquet upstairs.

We have a tour of the shop. "Cooking fish is easy; you need a hot frying medium and your batter as cold as you can get it," says Richard. Two years ago Richard invested in some new state-of-the-art fryers from Holland, which keep the oil at a steady 185/190 degrees during cooking, giving a more consistent product as well as keeping his fuel bill down. Richard fries in oil, which when spent is sent for recycling as bio-fuel. "I find it gives a cleaner, crisper product," he says.

Then it's time for me to don the white coat and mesh trilby and reacquaint myself with the delights of the batter bucket. Richard's selected halibut, lemon sole and plaice for me to cook. It's great to see these different and tasty species on offer rather than just cod and haddock taking the strain. "Pollock's good too," says Richard, adding it could be the fish that weans us as a nation of cod. And with that I'm let loose on the range, frying again.

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