Local seafood the home made way: The Highwayman Inn, Kirkby Lonsdale

The Highwayman Inn is a part of Nigel Haworth's Northcote Manor empire, which now features three pubs in the Ribble Valley Inns group as well as the mothership hotel. Located on the A683 between Lancaster (M6 junction 34)and Kirkby Lonsdale in the village of Burrow, the Inn was reopened in Spring 2007 following a £1m+ refit to much publicity, including a write-up in the Financial Times. Clearly this is not just any old roadside pub! Great emphasis is placed on sourcing from first-rate local suppliers, and presenting good food without too much fuss. I have visited several times in the last couple of years, and always found a warm welcome and excellent grub. This time, though, with my Seafoodshack hat on, I was setting out to give the seafood a good look.

This was an icy December evening, and although the place was not full all the fires were blazing and the staff very welcoming. I settled down with a pint of German Warsteiner lager (not easy to find here in the UK – draught Thwaites ales including Wainwright and Lancaster Bomber are also on offer) and perused the menu. The local seafood platter clearly had my name on it as a generous starter. What with the cold outside, I couldn't resist the minced rump steak burger to follow.

The seafood platter was sensational. Port of Lancaster Beech and Juniper smoked salmon (I wrote about the PoL smokehouse in an early seafood shack post) was dark and rich, yet subtly flavoured. Kipper fillet from the same source (a surprising inclusion in a platter like this) was served hot, quite robustly flavoured. Hot smoked trout, served cold (the 'hot smoked' refers to the cooking process!) was very tasty and delicate. Potted Morecambe Bay shrimps, warm in a ramekin, were absolutely delicious, the tasty spicy butter being mopped up with home-made brown bread. Pickled mussels gave a nice sharp element, along with pickled cucumber and beetroot relish. Horseradish cream (light yet rich) added a lovely savoury element. A generous cube of butter to go with the bread, more of which arrived unbidden as I finished the first lot. £8.50. Brilliant – what a starter! They also do a large version to share (or not, if you're feeling greedy).


The main course was no less superb (though inevitably less fishy). To describe it fully: minced organic Far Cappleside Farm rump steak topped with Dewley creamy Lancashire cheese, English muffin, real chips (cooked in dripping, as God intended, and dressed with sea salt), tomato relish (quite runny, good for dipping the chips), mustard mayonnaise, piccalilli, salad. This was all fantastic once again – the meat cooked medium (pink) as I requested, and easily good enough to take serving this way. £9.75. Wonderful quality and supreme value for money.

I was lucky enough to be invited into the kitchen to meet chef Michael Ward and his team. Michael was originally a sous chef with Nigel Howarth quite a few years ago. He left to continue his sous career at various Lakeland restaurants, one of which gained a Michelin star, and kept in touch with Nigel. Offered the chance of the chef position at the Highwayman, Michael says he was dubious at first - “I didn't want to be a pub chef!” - but changed his mind on seeing the scale of the kitchen and the operation planned. Everything – really everything – is home made, including the excellent potted shrimps I had enjoyed earlier. Michael described the process over a mince pie.

A butter containing mace, tarragon, parsley, paprika, lemon juice and finely diced shallots is made up (15kg at a time!). The shrimps are brought in frozen in 1kg bags from local suppliers (Morecambe Bay is only a few miles away) and allowed to warm gently next to the char grill. The dish is combined and served warm. The only other place I've eater something similar was at Heston Blumenthal's Hinds Head pub in Bray, and I fancy that Michael's are even better – the combination of herbs and spices is interesting and flavourful, yet does not overpower the delicate shrimps.

The Highwayman is a real beacon of great food and cooking, well worth a detour if you're coming up the M6 and a must if you are staying in the area. The Highwayman Inn, Burrow, Kirkby Lonsdale, LA6 2RJ, 01524 273338, http://www.highwaymaninn.co.uk/.

Oysters and Guinness in the City: Sweetings Restaurant, London

Sweetings is a real City of London institution. Open on its current site since 1889 and apparently pretty much unchanged over time, it is also one of the very few London oyster houses to be rated by Toronto shucker supreme Patrick McMurray of the Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill (http://www.starfishoysterbed.com/) in his excellent book Consider The Oyster. I’ll be writing much more about Patrick as this series continues.

Back to Sweetings, which I visited on a chilly Wednesday in November. The place is on a street corner near Mansion House tube station, but in that part of London nowhere is very far from anywhere else, St Pauls and Bank are only a few hundred yards away. The window is filled with seafood laid out on plates to attract passers-by. Most of the clientele, however, didn’t look as if they needed attracting, being almost as much a a part of the scene as the quirky ancient décor.

The layout is rather unusual – counters along the sides of the place, facing outwards, with waiters positioned between the counters and windows or walls beyond. Presumably this allows for maximum top secret insider city gossip. There are also long tables towards the back which one is expected to share, two by two, as it fills up. Downstairs are the original 1889 loos (at least, that’s how they looked to me! But in quite a good way.)

The menu is totally given over to fish and seafood – not even a steak for the not-so-piscinally oriented. Excellent! I opted for half a dozen West Mersea oysters, described as native flats but a little smaller than one might expect. Anyway they were very tasty, nice and cold, bread and butter and lots and lots of lemon wedges on the table definitely added to my enjoyment. I do hate it when places scrimp on the lemon. A pint of Guinness – served in a pewter tankard no less – completed a great combination. I think it’s the only time I’ve ever been actually served beer in such a receptacle, rather than just seeing them hanging on the wall. Full marks. My companion’s lobster bisque looked very inviting on a cold day.

On to the main courses – scampi with bacon, and fish pie. This place is very much about good fish cooked simply and the way you want it. I asked for my scampi (8 tails) grilled, and it duly arrived such, with two thick slices of smoked bacon alongside. A side order of chips completed the picture – everything is extra. My companion’s fish pie again looked just the job for a cold day, mashed potato atop fish pieces in sauce. Lots more lemon on the scampi and an excellent and not-too-fattening lunch proceeded.

Sweetings doesn’t actually have a website (presumably as they weren’t around in 1889… I guess the adverts on the sides of sedan chairs are still running somewhere), but the various online reviews all rave about the puddings. I’m not much of a pud person, but the apple pie was really excellent, something like a pain au chocolat slightly-flaky pastry surrounding the apple. Two generous scoops of vanilla ice-cream and all was well. We didn’t have coffee – Sweetings is the only restaurant I have ever visited which doesn’t even offer it, apparently to encourage punters to move on a make room for someone else. Even though it wasn’t full when we went, the current financial crisis was not preventing a fair few besuited types gathering for a good lunch. So we wandered off to the nearer Costa coffee to continue our discussions. Not cheap at all, the bill came to £70+, but a unique London seafood experience. Why not get your financial advisor to take you?

Sweetings, 39 Queen Victoria Street, London , EC4N 4SF, 0844 5672326 but no point phoning as they don’t reserve tables, open 11-3 lunchtimes Mon-Fri only.

Finest crab on your doorstep – SEAFOOD & EAT IT Ltd

One of the great tastes of the British seaside is surely fresh crab – in salads, in sandwiches, latterly in pasta, or even on its own with lemon and brown bread. While our seaside towns often have lots of places to get and enjoy crabmeat, it’s much harder away from the coast. Even upmarket places like Waitrose, even though they stock dressed crab with mayonnaise and egg, have not been a source of fresh crab for the discerning diner – until now!

Browing around the seafood department of our local Waitrose I noticed a new offering – fresh Cornish crab, hand picked, in white, brown or potted versions, from a company wittily calling themselves Seafood & Eat It Ltd. (The company website confirms that this is after the glorious old joke “I’m on a seafood diet. I see food and eat it!”.

Seafood & Eat It was started by two brothers – Neville, a skipper fishing for crab from Newlyn in Cornwall, and Richard a former London office worker. While many crab fishermen were giving up, Nev has persisted and when his brother decided that his future lay away from the PC and the monthly sales target they set up together with a little help from the Prince’s Trust and the Fisherman’s Mission. The aim was simple – to supply the best quality crab meat to a wider audience. To this end they cook their crab in small batches and painstakingly hand-pick it to get the very finest meat onto your plate. They have been supplying the wholesale trade in Cornwall for some time, and in August 2008 the Waitrose chain began stocking their crab meat products for public consumption.

We first tried the potted crab, deliciously rich and absolutely ready to eat on bread or even (as their website suggests) with pasta. It was so good we moved on to the white and brown meats, and I used them in my own version of a classic crab with linguini and chilli pasta dish. Simply put about 50ml olive oil, a couple of chopped garlic cloves, two or three chopped red chillis, a handful of chopped spring onion and about two strips of finely chopped lemon zest into a pan and cook until it starts to sizzle. Meanwhile cook about 200g of linguini and drain, keeping some of the pasta water. Into the now-empty but still hot pasta pan put the chilli and oil mixture, and add the pasta, 200g crab meat (we used 100g white and 100g brown), the juice of half a lemon (and optional capers) and heat through till it’s hot. Use a splash of pasta water to loosen the mixture if it gets dry. Stir in a good handful of chopped parsley and serve with lemon wedges (serves two).

Seafood & Eat It crab meat is available nationally at Waitrose stores. Now’s an excellent time to try it out in whatever form of crab dish you favour. (And do answer our poll about your crab preferences!) Seafood & Eat It Ltd, Newlyn, Cornwall TR20 8TL, http://www.seafoodandeatit.co.uk/.

Crab delights in North Norfolk - Cookie's Crab Shop

The windswept North Norfolk coast is a popular spot for bird-watchers and Islington residents in search of a weekend away. From the Victorian resort town of Hunstanton in the West to Cromer in the East, the coast is a fascinating and hard-to-find place. The sea and land seem to merge in a series of shallows, dunes, flat lands and lagoons – a haven for a vast range of seabirds including the rare bittern. The coast road is a mile or two back from the sea for most of the time, and towns with names like Wells-Next-The-Sea are very well named. The sea is indeed next…after a while. The visitor centre at Cley Marshes affords an excellent place to find out more, as well as being an impressive example of sustainable and low-impact development.

Cookie’s Crab Shop is on the coast road in the small village of Salthouse (what more seasidy name could there be?). And it’s a good half mile from the sea. It could well be called Cookies-Next-The-Sea though – this is the last bastion of civilisation before the dunes and reedbeds. Cookie’s has been in business since 1956, when Peter Cooke (father of current proprietor Suzanne and her husband Robert Mcknespiey) set up in this tiny cottage by the road and facing the North Sea. From just supplying crabs, the enterprise has spread out into the garden and now features clusters of tables in a summerhouse, a gazebo and in the open air as well as inside the shop.

This is a down-home as it can possible get – and much the better for it. Suzanne and Robert look after cooking and picking the crabs and prawns, making pates and soups and source their other supplies locally. You order at the counter and take a seat to await the arrival of the goodies. And what goodies they are! I started with a warming prawn bisque (this being a chilly October lunchtime), which featured lots of prawns as well as a hint of spice. Just the ticket. My sister’s prawn and garlic pate may have been the most garlicy thing we’ve ever tasted. In a good way.

But the real treat is the arrival of the Royal salads. This is Cookies flagship dish, and mine featured crab as the main ingredient. The delicious dressed crab even came with a smiley face (as you can see in the picture). Not only crab, but also…(deep breath) hot smoked salmon, smoked mackerel in three different guises including pepper and chilli, crayfish tails, anchovy fillets (yum), cockles, pickled herring with delicious sauce, prawns… and beetroot, potato salad, tomatoes, cucmber, bread, mayonnaise, lemon and lime wedges. What a fantastic spread, a real cornucopia of the best of what’s around in the British autumn. The cost? A ridiculous £6.30. The best value ever. No wonder Stephen Fry wrote in the Independent recently that this coast, and Cookie’s in particular, is his favourite place in the British Isles.

Cookie’s is a real king amongst seafood shacks. Get over there at once. Cookie’s Crab Shop, http://www.cookies.shopkeepers.co.uk/, 01263 740352 (and it’s worth calling to reserve a table).

Singapore Swing II - bargain Japanese in Orchard Road

One of the great Singapore features are food courts and hawker centres. These places can easily feature 30 - 40 different outlets or stalls, each specialising in a particular cuisine, food type or even dish. There will also be a dessert stand, a fruits stand (in Singlish the plural of fruit is fruits - obvious really), a drinks place with juices, and lots more. These are sometimes found in neigbourhood settings - in Singapore everyone basically eats out all the time and why not, when you can get a great meal for $Sing 4 (about £1.60). However, they also crop up in upmarket places - including the bustling Orchard Road, mecca for shopping (the other national sport for Singaporeans apart from eating).

The Food Republic centre in the Wisma Atria, Orchard Road, is one of our favourite places to catch a bite after some exhuasting electronics shopping and book browsing in the excellent and well-stocked branch of Borders at Wheelock Place. There are dozens of places there, with a good emphasis on Malay food and lots of choice...but somehow we always end up at the Koh Grill & Sushi Bar. This is a Japanese eatery, with a counter to sit at or tables for larger parties. Behind the counter are a small army of chefs preparing sushi, rice, frying, broiling and generally preparing some excellent and bargain Japanese food.

We started with a selection of sashimi (sliced raw fish) including some unusual items - raw prawns (really raw, translucent and not at all pink), and sliced clam. Yummy, and not at all easy to find. You can of course get more regular items like salmon, squid, umagi (eel) etc. We followed up with wonderful bento box meals - mine featured grilled salmon, tempura prawns in delicate light better, tempura veggies, rice and tofu with pickles. These set meals are fanstastic value, arouen $Sing 14 - about five English pounds. There are lots of different options too, including sukiyaki, teriyaki chicken and salmon, plenty of help in working out what's what and a range of sakis and cold Japanese beers to wash it all down.

This is not, of course, a place for a relaxing and intimate dinner. It's a bustling place with people coming and going, action all the time and a great spot for food on the way home or indeed on the way out. A great way to get some fine Japanese good at bargain prices right in the heart of the shopping area - and therefore a really good example of a top Seafoodshack! Koh Grill & Sushi Bar, Wisma Atria, #4-21 (Food Republic), tel 65-6836 0609. No website, just drop in and eat.

Singapore swing I - Chilli crab at Jumbo Seafood

We were passing through Singapore last week running some workshops in team coaching and change management. I've visited the Lion City quite a number of times in recent years, and the food is always a highlight - you can get just about anything, particularly Asian food, at great prices and in surroundings anywhere from palatial to pavement. Our hosts Debbie and Dave were good enough to welcome us off the plane from London and take us straight for a great Singapore food tradition - chilli crab.

This dish has become something of a national symbol over Lee Kuan Yew era. Mr Lee, the first leader of independent Singapore from 1959 until he stepped down in 1990, is still alive and takes on the role of Minister Mentor. He took to eating chilli crab on Singapore's national day, 9 August, at one of the seafood restaurants on East Coast Road. One of the leaders amongst the many seafood places along this stretch, which links downtown to the airport, is Jumbo Seafood.

Founded in 1987, Jumbo has become the leading up-market seafood restaurant group in Singapore. They now have seven outlets, including the one on the Kallang river near the Indoor Stadium we visited. Having ordered a jug of cold cold Tiger beer (another Singapore tradition - it's more convenient to have a jug a several cold glassses!), out hosts ordered the food. We nibbled on peanuts and chilli & ginger sauce and waited for the first food to arrive. This was deep fried fresh baby squid, marinated with oyster sauce, sprinkled with sesame seeds and served over crispy noodles. These 'crunchy squidlets' as we called them were really delicious - much tastier than they sound, about the size of a thumbnail, and very tasty - an ideal starter!

More dishes arrived - sliced beef fillet with pepper, kailan (green vegetable) with garlic, prawns in cereal (lovely shell-off prawns covered in a dry flaky mixture of cereal - to go with yummy sweet sauce). The sun went down, evening fell, we sat by the river in the heat as the skyline of downtown lit up about a mile away, just the other side of the Formula 1 pits area (the Grand Prix has been in town two days earlier).

And the the piece de resistance....the chilli crab. This comprises, basically, an enormous crab! In this case a King crab from Sri Lanka. Cooked. Cracked (with still with work to do). And smothered in the most delicious sweet, hot, sticky chilli sauce with egg stirred into it. Mmmmmm. This is served, as is traditional, with steamed buns, delicious white and soft, with which to mop up the sauce. (I only wish these were more absorbent - they are delicious but hardly serve the purpose!) Crackers are provided, the crab is split into large pieces and everyone pitches in. Prizing the delicious crab meat out of the shell while getting your fingers (and possibly much else) covered in chilli sauce is really what it's all about. It's worth taking care by the way - on a previous occasion I spilt some sauce on a nice cotton shirt and the stain proved totally permanent.

Jumbo Seafood is at East Coast Road, Indoor Stadium, Riverside Point (near the excellent Brewerkz brew pub), the Riverwalk and other locations. More information at http://www.jumboseafood.com.sg/.

Traditional British seafood - the Trawlerman, West Bay

As part of our recent Jurassic Coast outing, Jenny and I found ourselved in West Bay, just to the south of Bridport in Dorset. We were in search of a quick lunch and were wandering around wondering whether to have fish and chips from the many kiosks on the harbourside. Then Jenny noticed a sign down a small lane - 'Seafood Garden'. We wandered over and discovered The Trawlerman.

The Trawlerman is a fish shop - well, more of a seafood shop in fact - set in a quiet back street just a few yards away from the bustling harbour. It has a small patio outside, with some table featuring river/harbour views - this was the Seafood Garden we had seen. We had a look at the shop and were told by a very authentic-looking fisherman emerging that the seafood platter was the finest in West Bay. "It's pricey, mind", he added, "but you won't go away hungry." Whether around £16.50 is pricey for seafood for two could be described as a moot point, but we certainly didn't go away hungry.

What you get is absolutely traditional British seafood: dressed crab (very good), large tiger prawns, smaller tail-on prawns, even small shrimps/prawns with shell-on (very link and traditional), cockles (pickled in vinegar), mussels, large green-lipped mussels, winkles (and a cocktail stick with which to winkle them). All served on a big platter.

Everything else is extra. Bread and butter, lemons, drinks (diet Coke), whatever. You can take your own wine. It's very basic, very British and somehow just the job for a lunchtime seafood fest. Nothing to worry the hip Riverside restaurant next door, but that isn't the point. This is the kind of place I have searched for in vain in several seaside resorts (Morecambe, hang your head in shame!) - I was delighted to find it here.

The Trawlerman5 George Street, West Bay, BRIDPORT, DT6 4EY, Tel 01308 425776

Serious fish in a super-Lyme setting - Hix Oyster and Fish House

We chose to visit Lyme Regis in August for several reasons. The Jurassic coast crammed with fossils and geology. The ancient Cobb harbour, redolent of Meryl Streep looking out to sea in the movie adaptation of John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman. The splendid museum, where Fowles was curator for many years. The historic links with the Civil War and James Earl of Monmouth’s doomed landing and invasion which culminated in the Bloody Assizes of Judge Jefferies. But the main reason was a more modern one – the opening of Mark Hix’s new Oyster and Fish House (http://www.hixoysterandfishhouse.co.uk/) .

After many years as executive head chef at Caprice Holdings, overseeing both Le Caprice and The Ivy in London, Hix has now set out to run his own show. That should be ‘shows’ really – this is his second establishment. The first, Hix Oyster and Chop House in Smithfield, opened earlier in 2008. The Fish House has a fantastic setting above the Cobb, in what appears to be a newly constructed affair of wood and glass. The views over Lyme harbour and towards the dramatic cliffs to the east are unrivalled and certainly provide an epic setting for dinner. There is even an outside terrace for lunches – there’s a thought which should get the fish-lover walking up the rather steep Cobb Road to the restaurant.

The menu is not too long and changes regularly. We started with oysters – Portland Royals (from the sea off Portland, in sight on a clear day some 20 miles to the East) and Devon Yealms (estuary oysters from the South Devon river of the same name) were very much to our liking – not too big and served with great care to include all the delicious liquor held within the deep shells. They were presented, unusually, with the top shell replaced and shucked in the French style, without severing the tissue connecting the oyster and the shell. Shuckers in France always do it like this, to prevent any accusations that they are using tinned oysters rather than fresh ones, whereas the norm in the UK and USA is to sever the oyster completely so that it’s ready to gulp down. Nice fresh bread and butter went along very well.

We went to to Lyme Bay fish soup with Julian Temperley's (not very noticeable) cider brandy and Fowey mussels with Burrow Hill cider. The soup was rich and delicious, even though served without the (somewhat traditional) grated gruyere and croutons – fine for a starter. The mussels were excellent, the sauce creamy and plentiful. I washed the mussels down with a bottle of Harviestoun’s excellent Schiehallion lager (http://www.harviestoun.com/) which has a bit more body than your average lager and went well with the food. I am delighted to report that Hix has quite a substantial selection of bottled beers and ciders along with a well chosen wine list – even including Rick Stein’s Chalky’s Bite beer (a confident move if every I saw one).

Main course was grilled fish for two. And pretty serious fish it is – the selection of the day included gurnard and john dory alongside Torbay sole and lobster. All this arrived on a wooden board, well cooked (after a longer pause than might be expected). All the fish fell off the bone – just as well in the case of the dory and gurnard, which arrived whole. The sole (also known as witch) was delicate and generously thick, and the half a grilled lobster added a little garlic into the proceedings. We had side orders of tomato and lovage salad (featuring three different kinds of tomatoes – very nice indeed) and chips.

Usually Jenny and I miss out on the desert course – but the offerings looked so tempting we pressed on. Jenny had cheese (of course) – Dorset Blue Vinney in this case, being the only one on offer. FOH manager Jonathan Jeffrey recommended another Temperley apple drink, Somerset Pomona to go along with it (http://www.ciderbrandy.co.uk/) . Apple juice and cider brandy are aged for two years in oak, producing a nice and not-too-sweet digestif that reminded us a little of Pineau des Charentes. He also had us trying Shipwreck, a 10 year old cider brandy finished in French oak casks salvaged from the Napoli, the container ship which spectacularly went aground off the coast of Devon in January 2007. Delicious!

Hix Oyster and Fish House, Cobb Road, Lyme Regis, Dorset DT7 3JP, Tel: 01297 446 910

Perfect seaside squid - the Hive beach cafe, Dorset

During August the Seafoodshack team took a short break in Lyme Regis in Dorset. We went partly to take a look at the Jurassic Coast (www.jurassiccoast.com), now a World Heritage site, where 185 million years of geology are visible along around 95 miles of England’s southern fringe. Weathering and the sea’s erosion keep working away at the cliffs, ensuring a ready supply of fossils along the beach. Indeed, it was here that Mary Anning (1799 – 1847) made the first discoveries of complete fossilised ichthyosaurs and a plesiosaur, and generally started the idea of fossil collecting.

We also went, of course, in search of seafood. First stop was the Hive Beach Café (www.hivebeachcafe.co.uk) just outside the village of Burton Bradstock near Bridport. The gloriously sandy beach is under the ownership of the National Trust, and the enterprising owners of the café have a wonderful position. There is a large outdoor patio area as well as seat under an awning (useful for the dubious British summer we’ve been having).

The seafood here has been praised highly by many writers, and so I was looking forward to sampling the trademark Crab Sandwich. Sadly the weather had been poor in the days before our visit, and there were no crabs to be had! The boats had been unable to get out. This also meant no seafood platters. Quel dommage! So I settled for a perfectly respectable jacket potato with prawns – generous and yummy and served with a nice home-made Marie Rose sauce and salad. This was washed down with a bottle of splendid local ale in the shape of Palmers IPA – brewed just down the road in Bridport (www.palmersbrewery.com). It’s a nicely hopped brew and at 4.2% is an ideal lunchtime imbibement.

Jenny, however, plumped for a more special dish – pan-fried squid with salad, which was absolutely superb. The squid (not called calamari here!) was wonderfully tender, absolutely melt-in-the-mouth. It was served with salad and generous doorsteps of brown bread – perfect seafood shack fare. Not the cheapest at £14.95, but well worth it. We went back later on for a local ice-cream from Lovington’s (www.lovingtons.co.uk) and saw the most wonderful looking scones appearing – enormous, with generous cream and jam. They open from 12 noon to around 7pm in summer, with the lunch menu running all afternoon. It gets pretty full around one o’clock but is quieter later on, so why not take the chance to check out a real British seafood shack! Hooray!!

Lobster Chinese style in Chepstow - The Shangri-La

I must admit that if asked to think about likely spots for some excellent food of any kind (let alone seafood), then Chepstow would not be the first place to come to mind. Situated at the unfashionable end of the old Severn bridge (now called the M48 and presumably even more of a back water than it used to be), this border town actually turns out to have some interesting narrow streets once the brave traveller leaves the main road and avoids the hideous Tesco near the centre. It also boasts a fine castle.

We were there to celebrate the birthday of my brother-in-law, and had been invited to join him and his wife (my sister, aforementioned on these pages) at a favourite restaurant. Somewhat to my surprise this turned out to be a Chinese. The Shangri-La has been at 17 St Mary Street for two years now, and seems to be very popular indeed - we visited on a Tuesday night, and just about every table was taken. There is even a nicely cordoned-off area near the door for customer awaiting takeaways (so the sit-down diners aren't troubled by them asking for 10p for a cup of tea, one half thinks).

Actually, the Shangri-La is a pleasant and invigorating find. It's run by (at least) two generations of the Ong family who come originally from Malaysia, and so the menu features plenty of Malay-style options which comes as a nice surprise. Having visited Malaysia several times, I can also confirm that it's pretty authentic! Mmmmm...chilli (in Homer Simpson voice). I had heard good reports of the crab here, and we had pre-ordered two lobsters for this particular birthday feast.

But wait... we started off with a nice range of starters. Salt-and-pepper fried squid with marvellous green chilli sauce, pork and prawn dumplings, smoked chicken with spicy salty chillies, lettuce wraps with prawns and hoisin sauce... And they have draft Sun Lik beer too, all the way from Hong Kong. All these were excellent.

But the lobsters - they were sensational. The first one arrived cooked in ginger and spring onion, cut into pieces and served on a bed of crispy noodles. It was easy to eat (you just pull away the meat from the shell), and the way the sauce dripped through onto the noodles was outstanding. The second lobster arrived 'Shangri-La style', which means served in a spicy and sour sauce rather similar to the sauce accompanying chilli crab in Singapore - brown, with egg stirred into it, and a nice step up from the more delicate ginger flavours. Wow!

Taking this in our stride, we followed on with scallops sliced and stir-fried, delicious prawns with egg (fried into tiny yet crispy strands - how DO they do it?), pak choi with oyster sauce and rice. An excellent seafood-based blow-out, and one well worth sampling. The Shangri-La is at 17 St Mary Street, Chepstow NP16 5EW, telephone 01291 622959. They do have a website at http://www.s-la.co.uk/, but at the moment it's a triumph of rotating logo over content. Just get along and try it out - it's much better than it should be, if you know what I mean.

Brixham fish in the heart of the Cotswolds - the Inn For All Seasons

We’ve been driving along the A40 between Cheltenham and Oxford for many years. It’s a winding road which can be annoyingly slow if you get behind a lorry, but it does pass through some glorious countryside and past quite a few roadside inns. Some of these are clearly struggling for custom, but this can’t be said of the Inn For All Seasons, just before Burford at Barrington. The car park often seems fullish and there’s a sign outside promising FRESH FISH (in big letters). Is this the secret of their success?

The fish is delivered from Brixham in Devon, and does indeed seem to be fresh. It’s also varied and well-prepared. There’s a cosy bar (for this is very much still a pub where one can drop in for a pint) as well as a restaurant alongside, and the atmosphere is very much English countryside – local farmers alongside Cotswold society and visiting tourists. The menu has a good choice of meat and poultry – but our attention was riveted on the fish specials board in the bar. And what an excellent choice it offers: gilt-fin black bream (with stir-fry of fennel and lime butter sauce), roast loin steak of monkfish (on Paris mushroom with chorizo sauce), or fillet of Bibury trout (and lightly curried brown shrimp butter).

We started off with half a dozen oysters from County Louth, small yet very plump and a great start. Starters of Scallops with bacon and salad and Dart salmon nicoise (a generous piece of salmon atop new potatoes, French beans, anchovies and hard boiled egg – fantastic!) set us up nicely for the main event. I must admit I was hoping to see Dover sole on the menu, but the grilled plaice, large and meaty with butter, parsley and lemon more than made up for it. Jenny had a Thai fish curry with rice, mixed fish in a chunky and very spicy sauce. We were both very well pleased.

The wine list is not long but well-chosen and offers a good range, including a nice house Champagne at £27.50 which proved excellent value. There was no room whatsoever for dessert, but a pot of coffee nicely rounded off our evening. I noticed an excellent selection of rare malt whiskies behind the bar. The Inn For All Seasons is a beacon of great fish in the Cotwold countryside – drop in next time you’re passing, or even better stay for a couple of nights and enjoy the surrounding valleys and walks. More at http://www.innforallseasons.co.uk/.

Jazz, catfish and Tabasco

The other day I was wondering how to cook the catfish fillets sent by the splendid people at Fish In A Box and started looking around for recipes. My sister, a professional development chef, advised frying them in cornmeal, which is apparently the tradition way in the Southern US of A. Then I came across a more detailed recipe in the excellent book Jazz Cooks.

This book has long had a place on my kitchen shelf. It consists of favourite recipes from a whole range of jazz musicians, together with interviews with each, specially taken photos and background detail. The book is organised not by food categories (as one might expect from a recipe book) but by instrument! However the full index means that recipes can be located easily enough - including one for Branford Marsalis' favourite catfish.

Jazz fans out there will know that Branford Marsalis is a mean saxophone player, with a particular reputation for the soprano sax. He is also brother of Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter of great repute and part of the jazz dynasty coming from New Orleans (though he now lives in New York). He gives his mother's recipe for fried catfish - and very good it is too.

Take catfish fillets and coat them with salt, pepper and dried dill (I used about a tablespoon for 2 fillets). Leave them in the fridge for at least a few hours, up to 24 hours, for the dill to penetrate. When it's time to cook them, dip in beaten egg and coat with corn meal. Corn meal is finely powered polenta, you can get it in the Jamaican food section at Tesco (at least that's where I found mine - and at 35p for a big bag it won't break the bank). Fry in oil (I used sunflower, though the recipe says peanut oil) for about 5 minutes per side until golden brown and serve immediately.

Mrs Marsalis' recipe says to serve with cornbread and Tabasco . We didn't have any cornbread, but I did try some Tabasco - and much to my surprise it worked really well. Normally I just like some lemon juice with my fish, but there's something rich and meaty about the fried catfish that was gingered up very nicely by a few drops of McIlhenny's finest. A great surprise and a welcome excuse for some great heat in the meal. Go ahead and try it!

Oysters at 8000 feet: Sapphire in Vail, Colorado

The resort town of Vail lies (as the name might suggest) in a deep valley in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Coming in from Denver shows how these mountains form the backbone of North America – the vast plains to the east suddenly giving way to peaks of up to 15000 feet. Vail itself is a great spot to spend a few days. In contrast to the working town of Aspen some 50 miles distant, Vail seems like a recent development where Swiss-style chalet architecture meets upscale galleries and fine dining restaurants, and the Betty Ford alpine garden sits alongside ski-lifts waiting for the winter to arrive.

Sapphire Restaurant and Oyster Bar is located right in the centre of town and boasts the only raw bar in the vicinity. I ate there twice during a conference visit and was very impressed both times, particularly with the oysters and fish. Owners Susan and Joel Fritz source their shellfish from both coasts; when I visited there were large-ish Wianna oysters from Nova Scotia alongside smaller Effingham oysters from British Columbia and delicious Royal Myagis from Washington state. This being the USA, the plate came with the usual (and very good in this case) cocktail sauce of tomato and horseradish, and a rather sharp and nicely contrasting vinaigrette. Add in some terrific snow crab claws at $1.50 a pop, and you have a great plate of seafood to start your evening.

Main courses are varied and imaginative, and chef Peter Millette is clearly on top of his art. I fell in love with the miso marinated ahi tuna, seared very rare, sliced thin and served in a sushi style with sticky rice, wasabi cream and pickled ginger – a really top-class combination. I also enjoyed the crusted roast Alaskan halibut served with saffron, fennel and tomato, couscous and harissa sauce – a very savoury combination where the fish stood out rather well against the slightly spicy and tasty accompaniments. I washed it all down with a couple of glasses of Mirror Pond Pale Ale from Deschutes craft brewery in Bend, Oregon (http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/) – as usual with US microbrews this is plenty hoppy and goes very well with the food.

So when you’re up Rocky Mountain Way, have no hesitation to drop in to Sapphire and enjoy some great seafood (the menu is very varied, and has plenty of meat and other choices too). They also have the best deck in Vail and a fine lunch menu, so pretty much any time is Sapphire time. More details at http://www.sapphirerestaurant.com/ .

The world's crispiest batter? The Old Passage at Arlingham

One of our favourite local seafood restaurants is the Old Passage at Arlingham, a few miles south of Gloucester. Set in wonderful surroundings on the banks of the Severn, the restaurant is housed in the former ferry-house where for hundred of years people set out to cross the wide river. On a nice evening, a walk along the riverbank is an ideal prelude to some serious shellfish.

Sadly, the weather let us down. Arriving early, we had plenty of time to sip a drink and peruse the menu. The establishment has changed hands in the past year, and is now run by Sally Pearce and her son David. However, the welcome and feel of the place is very much the same as ever, and I was delighted to find that they now sell Cotswold Lager on draft, an ideal prelude to some oysters.

The menu offers the bet selection of seafood and shellfish for many miles around. We started with a plate of Fowey No 2 oysters from Cornwall (nice, cold and not too large, just as I prefer them – there is a choice of Bigbury and Fin de Claire oysters too). Choosing a starter was much more of a problem – scallops thermidor, Scottish langoustine, a mini-fruits-de-mer plate…? However, you just can’t beat proper dark French-style fish soup with gruyere cheese and croutons, so that’s what I had. As an alternative, the pan-fried foie gras with scallops and poached rhubarb was richly delicious.

Choice of main courses presented another difficulty. A lobster from the tank? Not today – we tried a range of fish including line caught sea bream from Cornwall served (deliciously) with cockle, clam and samphire risotto, and fish stew (clearly a cousin of the soup I’d had earlier, and none the worse for that). I personally went with the beer battered fish and chips, served with proper marrow-fat peas. The fish was wonderful – the batter was the crispiest I have ever experienced with extra crispy parts having (I think) been drizzled on during the cooking in tempura style. It was still crisp at the last mouthful. Inside, the fish was moist and perfectly cooked. The business.

The Old Passage has been with us for some 7 years now, and continues to hold its place as the top seafood destination in the area. The place also has rooms, so you could consider staying over. Long may it continue. More details at http://www.fishattheoldpassageinn.co.uk/.

Halibut from God's Island

The island of Gigha lies just to the west of the Mull of Kintyre, some three hours from Glasgow in Scotland. After a long history of underdevelopment, the island was bought by a Trust on behalf of the islanders in 2001. I must confess I had never heard of it until a delivery from our friends at Fish In A Box arrived containing four generously sized halibut fillets ‘from a new farm in Scotland’. The fish was superb, so I decided to find out more about Gigha Halibut.

Halibut has long been considered a prime fish for the table. However, stocks of Atlantic halibut have reached dangerously low levels (unlike the Pacific – in Vancouver Island halibut is served in every fish & chip shop!). There is yet hope for us halibut enthusiasts here though – there are good prospects for farmed halibut off the West coast of Scotland.

Gigha Halibut are connected to Otter Ferry Seafish, the only halibut hatchery in Scotland. Young fish are transferred to facilities based around a former salmon farm on Gigha to mature and grow – a process which takes several years. However, growth rates are good on Gigha, and the halibut is a relatively efficient fish to produce – some 55% of the weight ends up being sold as fillets (compared to 45% for haddock and only 35% for turbot).

I prepared our fillets of Gigha halibut along the lines of a recipe from Legal Seafoods of Boston USA. The halibut was lightly coated with seasoned flour and pan-fried in 1 oz butter and a tablespoon of oil. Meanwhile, I roughly chopped a generous helping of cashew nuts and fried them for 3 minutes in melted butter until they started to brown. Spoon the nut mixture over the fish and serve with blanched asparagus and a little chopped hard-boiled egg. Delicious!

The Gigha Halibut website does not, alas, give information about where to find this fine fish. However, I can reveal at least one source – try Fish In A Box and see if they’re selling it. If my experience is anything to go by, they’ll have trouble keeping up with demand.

Fish In A Box - fresh fish direct to your door

Last week saw the first Food & Drink festival in our home town of Cheltenham. Lots of cheeses, sausages, local beers etc...but our eye was caught by one of the few fish suppliers to exhibit, Fish In A Box. In particular my eye was taken by a smashing-looking box of fresh fish on ice. We have a good frozen fish supplier here, and Waitrose and Tesco have wet fish counters, but Cheltenham has (shockingly) not supported a proper fish-shop for several years. So, we were excited at the prospect of getting some good fresh fish.

Fish In A Box (http://www.fishinabox.co.uk/) is run out of Newport, Shropshire by business partners Fiona Asson and John Perry. They offer a service whereby customers can not only order fresh fish, but also (and this is what excited me) order boxes by quantity of fish (for example a meal for 4 people) and leave the choice up to Fishinabox, depending on what's good that particular day. Jenny and I saw this as a chance to break out of our usual grilled salmon rut, so ordered two boxes - one meal for 4 people and two meals for 2 people - for delivery the following Wednesday.

Wednesday came, at 8.30am the doorbell rang and a large box marked' this way up' arrived. Inside were two recycleable polystyrene boxes with our fish - and an excellent selection it was too. We had fillets of lemon sole (absolutely delicious, I grilled them and served with a salsa verde) and catfish fillets (my sister says to fry this with cornmeal in the good-ol' Suthern style). The meal for four was halibut fillets from a new Scottish farm - more on this next time.

The fish has not been frozen, and so can go into the freezer if necessary. It's not the cheapest option and normal delivery is around £7 per consignment outside their catchment area in the NW Midlands, but we're very impressed with the quality of the fish we've had. What an excellent way to explore some new fish eating for people like us who can't decide what to have!

New Cheltenham food pub - The Reservoir

Looking for a Sunday lunch, Jenny and I found ourselves on our way to the Reservoir. Not the place which supplies our town of Cheltenham with its drinking water, but the pub opposite, on the A40 just east of the town boundary near the village of Dowdeswell. We've driven past this place dozens of times and always looked uninspiring. However, we had read that the place was under new management and that our favourite chef of all time Martin Blunos was involved. So, we had to check it out.

The Reservoir is run by Andy and Susan Proctor, who have a wealth of experience between them. Andy had worked with Martin Blunos at the sadly missed Lettonie restaurant in Bath while Susan had experience alongside Heston Blumenthal at the legendary Fat Duck in Bray. The two had subsequently been landlord(s) at Heston's pub The Hinds Head. They seek to offer " a celebration of British food, cooked with fresh, seasonal and locally sourced ingredients". Nothing wrong with that then. Blunos has a stake in the place and is helping with menu creation and has even been seen cooking on the premises since the pub opened its doors again at beginning of April.

The decor is really excellent, nicely light with Farrow&Ball type greens to the fore. We ate some fishy starters (a splendidly creamy and peppery smoked mackerel pate) and mains (smoked haddock fish cakes - 4 of them, so the plural is definitely justified) along with other tasty food including terrine of ham hock and roast beef with excellent Yorkshire pudding and creamy home-made horseradish sauce. For afters we tried the wonderful (Heston-ish?) mixture of double and single Gloucester cheese, fruitcake and pickled shallots - a winning combination!

So, this is not just a seafood post, more of a celebration of a great addition to the eating possibilities in Gloucestershire. Go along and try it. Find out more at http://www.thereservoirinn.co.uk/.

Maimon - hip oyster bar in Tokyo

Well, we aim to bring you the best of British seafood - but that won't stop us also running news and reviews of the world's top oyster and seafood locations.

This is Maimon, in the Nishi-Azabu junction district of Tokyo. Brought to you by the people who also run the ultra-hip Megu in New York, this is a stylish blue-tinged place that opens from 6pm - 4am - clearly a night-crowd pleaser. See that blue rim in front of the counter in the pic - that's real ice, with real oysters on top of it. Very cool.

They specialise in oysters from all over Japan, we had a dozen selection and liked the Kitakai oysters from the south the best. They came with a splendid collection of five sauces - cocktail, white wine vinegar, plums and shiso, yuzo-ponzu and 'japanese sauce with hot radish' which I liked the best. We also had grilled chicken skewers with paprika and marmalade (much better than it sounds). They have a huge ranges of sakes and shosu, and some good beers. Not at all a cheap place, but a must-try for any oyster lover lucky enough to be in Tokyo with an evening (or early morning!) to spare. Get the full low-down, in English or Japanese, at http://www.maimon.jp .

Nordsee - fast food fish in Germany and Austria

We were in Vienna last week, where I discovered a new idea (to me at any rate) - fast food fish. The Nordsee chain is very well-established in the German-speaking countries of Europe and has 355 outlets in Germany alone. Founded in 1896, they offer fish and seafood in a fast food format, but not at all the same as fish and chips! We found salmon and other white fish served with sauces, along with shrimps, mussels and even lobster tails. The ambience is somewhat reminiscent of an upmarket Macdonalds - a place to grab a bite and get on with your day rather than somewhere to go for a special occasion. However, the prices are pretty good (salmon with potatoes and salad for Euro 7.95, for example), and we had platters of lobster tail, shrimps and mussels for around Euro 25. Special offers at the moment include hake with arctic shrimps, dill sauce and potatoes for 7.95 amd a shrimps-and-chicken roll for 2.95. They also have a thriving take-away service.

I think that anything that gets fish and seafood back onto the everyday eating agenda is good news. While this is not a particularly gourmet experience, it's worth trying if you are in Germany. The company has a website with an English language section at http://www.nordsee.de/en/. And you can even find out about how to become a franchisee... might be an opportunity for somebody.

BBC Radio 4's Food Programme features British oysters

The popular Radio 4 weekly Food Programme today 23 March 2008) focused on British Oysters. Here's the blurb for the programme:

Oysters are truly a taste of the sea, and reflect the terroir, or perhaps merroir, of the area where they are grown. Native or Pacific, farmed or wild, from Colchester, Cornwall or Carlingford they all have their own unique character. Oyster enthusiast Hardeep Singh Kholi puts his taste buds to the test sampling some of the best oysters available, and finds out whether the native oyster’s recent decline might be on the brink of being reversed.

Hardeep Singh Kohli visits Wright Brothers Restaurant at Borough Market, London’s biggest oyster wholesaler, and now producers of their own in the river Fal, to taste some oysters and talks to co- owner Robin Hancock and Dr. Tom Pickerel from the Shellfish Association of Great Britain, about the state of oyster fisheries.

Reporter Dilly Barlow visits Richard Haward (pictured above), a traditional oyster fisherman in the creeks around the river Blackwater in Essex and discusses the history of oysters, how they are cultivated, the disease bonamia, and the emergence of the newly naturalised “wild” pacific oyster. Dr Lawrence Hawkins, National Oceanography Centre University of Southampton explains the impact on the native population of the disease bonamia.

Hardeep Singh Kohli talks to Rob Blyth-Skyrme, Senior Marine Fisheries Specialist for Natural England about the nature conservation threat of the naturalised pacific oysters.

You can listen to the programme for at least the next week at the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/foodprogramme.shtml. I note that programmes seem to be available for about three months at the moment. Well worth a listen, particularly for the discussion of the differences between Rock oysters (crassostrea gigas, native to the Pacific and now grown worldwide) and native Flat oysters (ostrea edulis).

Furness Fish, Flookburgh - Morecambe Bay shrimps

Furness Fish is located in Flookburgh near Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria. They make and sell delicious Morecambe Bay shrimps - the very best way to eat toast! Locally caught by men with tractors, their shrimps have won awards, and they also supply Scottish salmon and many other fish and meat products. Order some shrimps from the website at http://www.morecambebayshrimps.com./

Port of Lancaster Smokehouse

The Port of Lancaster Smokehouse, situated in the little and out-of-the-way village of Glasson near Lancaster, is a real seafood shack. Not only does it look exactly like a shack (see the picture), they also make and sell some of the finest smoked salmon (including wild Lune salmon), kippers and mackerel, and potted Morecambe Bay Shrimps (not smoked). Absolutely delicious and well worth a visit. Their website is http://www.polsco.co.uk.

Welcome to SeafoodShack

Welcome to SeafoodShack, the place to discover the very best of British seafood on the web.

You know those little places serving fresh crab, delicious shrimps or even delectable oysters? Here at SeafoodShack we aim to find them, visit them, eat their food and report on it all - right here online. If you know a place - from the poshest restaurant to the smallest hole-in-the-wall, let us know!

We'll also be listing great places to buy seafood and fish, and the places where they make, farm and catch it too. And also a smattering of our favourite places around the world.


So, get reading, get eating and let us know your favourite places to go eat seafood in the UK.