February 29, 2008
OK, la fin de ma 3ème semaine de cette 3ème période à la Fontaine s’approche vite, et notamment, la fin d’une semaine de 2 coupures (qui n’est tjrs rien par rapport aux autres dans l’équipe qui font au moins 4 coupures sur 5 jours de travail !).
Je ne voulais pas écrire une tome sur le déroulement de cette semaine – suffit de noter que votre “apprenti chef anglais”…
fait du progrès – cette après-midi (pendant ma pause) j’ai noté ce que je devais faire au début de soirée pour ma “mise en place” et celle des cuisiniers au chaud de manière générale. J’ai noté les “mots” suivants comme aide-mémoire des choses à vérifier en reprenant le boulot….épinards, pommes de terre, aspèrges, endives, truffes, poireaux, pain / painure, riz et garniture à l’ancienne pour la blanquette, haricots verts, légumes à rassembler dans portions – carottes, panais, céleri rave, citrouille, navet, aspèrge, artichaut, pdt - citrons, ail, persil, mise en place pour Manu / Guillaume / moi, assez de sauce basilic ?
se sent enfin bien dans cette équipe de jeune cuisiniers
sait qu’il a bcp, bcp de choses à apprendre - du métier de cuisinier (technique, organisation, créativité) / de restaurateur / d’entrepreneur, des produits et des fournisseurs…..mais qu’il a soif de se nourrir de tout ce qu’il peut sur ce beau et noble métier…et il sait qu’il à l’énergie, cerveau et désir pour réussir !!
s’est fait crié dessus par le chef, s’est laissé dire “Oui Chef” (même s’il avait tellement envie d’expliquer pourquoi il a fait ce qu’il a fait….mais il sait que cela ne se fait pas dans ce monde….POINT!) et il a passé (enfin) de Consultant Sénior avec Capgemini à qqn qui fait partie du monde des cuisiniers
sait qu’il a besoin de sa famille – ma femme et mes 2 enfants vont devoir s’habituer à me voir de moins en moins, ou au moins d’avoir un rythme différent, mais pour l’instant, ils m’ont donné tout le support (et plus) nécessaire. Sans eux cette reconversion n’aurait pas de sens.
Pour vous donner une petite idée de l’environnement dans lequel je travaille, ci-dessous 2 photos du “chaud”….
Enfin bon…je me lève dans 5h et demi pour ma dernière journée (cette fois-ci, “en continue”) de la semaine.
Bonne nuit et à bientôt.
February 24, 2008
Ma 2ème semaine de ma 3ème période de stage s’est bien passée…..oouff, je n’arrive pas à le dire souvent, hein ?!
Mes évènements de cette semaine étaient,
intégration dans l’équipe à la Fontaine - j’ai une tendance à être très sensible aux remarques des autres….essentiellement, je veux que tout le monde m’aime, et donc je suis tjrs sensible à comment ils me percoivent….ou comment je pense qu’ils me percoivent !! Cette semaine, j’ai essayé de m’en foutre un peu, laisser “pisser” les choses….et ça s’est mieux passé. On ne peut pas être sensible dans ce monde….point !
je suis en stage / apprentissage….et donc, je ne dois pas tjrs faire les petits boulots - je me suis laissé reclammé des tâches un peu plus technique, et donc j’ai fini cette semaine avec plus de temps à travailler les merlans, les coquilles st jacques, les saint pierres, et mes béarnaises !! Je travaille bcp mieux avec les merlans (après du conseil de la part d’Akio, notre chef de partie japonais) – meilleure précision – même si je ne suis pas très rapide.
travailler en coupure - et voila, enfin, une journée en coupure !! Jeudi j’ai travaillé 8h-14h30 et puis 17h30-23h30, avec une séance à la salle de gym, une autre à la librairie gourmande (pour acheter le magazine “Gusto“….très intéressant, d’ailleurs, même si les traductions en anglais sont un peu approximatives parfois !!!) et un café entre les 2 services. Quoi dire….géniale !!!! Le soir, nous avons fait 126 couverts, mais bien étalés entre 19hrs et 23h20….à la différence du service de midi où le 100aine de clients arrivent entre 12h30 et 14h. 2 rythmes différents, mais passionnant.
quoi faire après le CAP ?? - j’ai parlé un peu avec mon chef au Zephyr de la suite, mes dilemmes, quelle stratégie – bosser en intérim / “extra”, mi-temps avec mon “ancien” boulot de consultant…….ce n’est pas clair en ce moment.
je participe plus au service à la Fontaine - je vois mieux ce qui se passe, ce qui va venir, et donc j’arrive à mieux anticiper les choses à préparer….merlan…..purée uniquement….noix de st jacques….beurre fondu et endives à poêler / sauter…..filets de st pierre…..aspèrges à faire revenir dans du beurre et de l’eau……ravioli pour l’Ecaille (le “petit” resto de la Fontaine qui propose principalement les crustacés avec qqs poissons et qqs viandes)…..mettre à chauffer les poireaux coupés en fine paysanne. Si je veux me mettre à cuisiner vraiment à la Fontaine, je pense qu’il va falloir travailler plus le soir….c’est plus détendu, on a plus de temps, et donc mieux pour apprendre comment organiser ma production et comment cuisiner le poisson de manière générale.
je me suis occupé d’une commande – au chaud - tout seul ce soir au Zephyr – 2 Déclinaisons de Fois Gras (cuisson des escalopes de fois gras à gérer, brioche et crumble de fois gras au four, pain grillé au salamandre), 2 Planches Bord de Mer (cuisson à la plancha des brochettes de saumon et st jacques, prép de la salade avec fruit de mer, et coupe de saumon fumé et glace de concombre). Tout bête, mais ça m’a fait du bien.
AMAP, autrement dit, “Association pour le Maintien d’une Agriculture Paysanne” – aujourd’hui nous (ma femme, mes enfants et moi) sommes allés voir l’un des “points de ventes” pour l’AMAP du 19ème ici sur Paris. Des beaux échanges avec qqs gens intéressants…..idée de se faire une “bouffe” avec d’autres 1 fois par mois dans un lieu qui est parfait pour faire la fête ! Je ne suis pas sûr que l’AMAP me corresponde particulièrement, mais ça m’intéresse d’en savoir plus. Déjà, 16,50€ pour un panier de légumes BIO d’un producteur du coin…..en faisant la comparaison avec les légumes de notre primeur, les mêmes légumes nous seraient revenus à 16€….mais avec une grande différence…..les légumes de notre primeur ne sont pas BIO (donc pesticides, etc) et ils ne viennent pas d’un producteur local…..à voir…..mais intéressant…et en tout cas, c’est exactement ce type d’initiative qui m’intéresse….mais il ne faut pas que cette organisation perde vu du rapport qualité / prix….je veux absolument soutenir les producteurs locaux, mais les prix doivent être justifiable (et transparent). Je me demande comment cette organisation travail avec les instances de Slow Food sur l’Ile de France
Et voila…..c’est tout.
Salut et au prochain billet.
February 18, 2008
They say that a picture is worth a 1000 words….well, the picture below should tell you one thing – whatever it was, it certainly seems to have been enjoyed given that less than one quarter remains.
Anyway, the above picture is infact the remains of a steamed sticky treacle pudding (albeit a slightly “brutalised” one !), and it was lovely…no, gorgeous.
My wife made it today, taking a recipie from the book “The Great British Menu”. We had never made one before, and so we didn’t have a clue if it was going to work…..especially with all of the chat about greaseproof paper, silver paper, putting a fold into both sheets of paper, tying with a string…..deary me, what a “perlarva”, as one could say !!
As it turned out, my French wife managed to produce a marvellous example of traditional British cuisine, and our French guests even seemed to like it.
The trick was…..well, there is no mystery…..it’s dead simple. Just prepare the mix (ingrediants listed below, as per recipie in our book), prepare the orange juice and rind, pour this orange mix into the pyrex / glass dish (pre-buttered), add in the cake mix, place a circle of greaseproof paper on top of the pudding (touching and covering the cake mix), wrap the whole of the bowl / mix / everything in the silver foil and then place this into a steamer (we used our pressure cooker, without using the pressure cook options), and steam for 2 hours.
When ready, take it out of the silver foil, get it onto a plate and onto the table….and into your mouth….hmmmmm 
Ingredients
self-raising flour – 175g
golden syrup (mélasse) – 4 tbsp / 40g
light brown sugar (cassonnade) – 175g
softened unsalted butter – 175g
eggs whole – 3
grated zest and juice of 1 orange
black treacle (mélasse noire) – 1 tsp / 5g
for the mascarpone and vanilla cream….
mascarpone – 200g
icing sugar – 75g
1 vanilla pod
single cream – add just enough to make the mascarpone a bit more “fluid” / runny
February 17, 2008
Reading Aidan Brooks‘ (newly qualified chef) latest article in the Observer Food Monthly blog, I got to thinking about what I have experienced these last few months – notably when eating with either the team from the Zephyr or the Fontaine Gaillon.
Surely, when eating with 15 other “foodies” the food should be pretty decent – and certainly when those foodies are French chefs, non ?
Well, it is not always the case.
Generally speaking, at La Fontaine we eat better than at Le Zephyr, or atleast we eat a bigger variety of things. We eat what is left over from the previous couple of days of work, which in the case of La Fontaine means usually a mixture of line caught sea bass, cod as well as, quite often, either mussels or squid. There’s also a fair bit of lamb (the top end of the ribs) which is left over from preparing the rack of lamb main course for the restaurant menu – this usually goes into a ragout, such as a curry. All of this is served with the ubiquitous pasta / rice / cous-cous / chips.
At Le Zephyr, the staff meal is simpler, and prepared in much less time – usually 15 minutes maximum, consisting of 1 meat / fish with pasta / chips or sometimes rice, accompanied by a salad.
The preparation of the staff lunch at La Fontaine is always left to the saucier / rotisseur, but I often help with the prep, and sometimes I do the whole thing from start to finish (a lamb curry that I did once went down particularly well, much to my relief !). Given that we eat at 11am, this prep starts usually around 10 in the morning and consists of
look in the fridge to see what’s left over
start to imagine what decent dish could be knocked together using the ingrediants that are there
plan your production, and fit it into your other morning prep tasks which are for the midday service
make sure that any special dietary requirements have been accounted for – for example, a lot of kitchens here in Paris have Muslim dishwashers and thus pork is not a good proposition for them !
Whatever is concocted, one must not forget that feeding the staff and keeping them happy is absolutely vital – so, if you are responsable for a meal that has not been well received, you will know about it straight away, believe me !
The challenge of the staff meal is to be able to transform the leftovers into a decent, tasty meal for 15, in 1 hour – pretty intimidating for anyone, but certainly for a trainee English chef !!!
Before starting my training I always imagined that professional chefs would be chatting about food, restaurants, products and food experiences from travelling……well, not at all !!! I very rarely hear my colleagues talking about any of these things. I’ve not been in the business long enough to be able to say why food is almost totally absent from all discussions at the table, but it’s certainly the case.
OK, la fin de ma première semaine de la 3ème période de formation en entreprise (c’est à dire, la période où je travaille à la Fontaine), et ce n’était pas terrible ! Je dirais que cette semaine s’est caracterisée par
ma difficulté (toujours) d’intégrer l’équipe / la brigade et de trouver ma place
besoin de rappeler au chef et, donc, aux autres dans la cuisine, que j’y suis en apprentissage (et donc apprendre à faire des choses) et non pas pour donner un coup de main (et donc faire les petits boulots ou tâches non-technique)
il faut que je vie mieux mes “échecs” (3 béarnaises ratées et une mayo qui est tombée – ce n’est pas grave, et en plus, je pense avoir tout vu en termes de comment ne pas réussir sa béarnaise…..important pour l’apprentissage….mais c’est “con”), et que je les vois comme une partie intégrale de mon apprentissage. J’ai tout le temps peur de ce que tout le monde pense de moi. D’un côté c’est peut-être important d’être dérangé par les râtages (si cela se dit ?!) parce que cela me motive d’avancer. Mais je pense qu’il faut que je prenne plus de recul, quand même.
des doutes sur ma décision d’aller à la Fontaine….est-ce qu’elle était une erreur ou pas ?….je ne pense pas parce que, ce qui m’intéresse particulièrement, ce sont les produits de bonne qualité et notamment, le poisson. Donc, sur ces points, la Fontaine est très bien et j’apprends plein de choses. Certes, pour prendre l’habitude d’être autonome en cuisine, responsable pour une partie et plutôt proactif dans le bon fonctionnement de la cuisine, je pense qu’une stage dans un resto plus modeste aurait été un meilleur plan. Mais l’équipe est bonne, il y a des bons pros, je vois la préperation qui est nécesaire pour être prêt pour une service de 100-120, et nous travaillons des très bons produits. La manque de responsabilité est, quand même, très difficile à assumer….et donc du coup, j’essaie d’avancer trop vite…..je ressens bcp de frustration, mais en même temps je suis certain que cette période me servira bien pour plus tard dans l’année (après la fin de la formation)
grâce à mes samedis au Zephyr, j’ai la certitude que je suis tout à fait capable de gérer une partie, voire une petite service au chaud, dans un restaurant avec un effectif moins important que celui de la Fontaine. Ce soir j’ai été bien – même si j’étais moins dans la “zone” ce soir qu’il y a 2 semaines quand nous avons servis 105 couverts….mais vu qu’il n’y avait que 52 couverts ce soir, c’est normal que je sois moins intense / “in the zone”. Encore une fois, je dois dire que j’apprécis énormément le contact avec le chef, Ludo.
Donc, sur le dos de la mort de ma mère, ça faisait pour une semaine un peu difficile.
Pour finir, je voudrais simplement vous tenir au courant du w/end à Londres que j’organise pour moi et qqs stagières sur ma formation. L’idée étant de montrer à mes collègues où on en est à Londres (et donc, en Angleterre) avec tout ce qui concerne la bouffe. Donc, ci-dessous une copie d’un mèl que j’ai envoyé qui explique le programme prévu.
Bonsoir à tous,
suite à la confirmation de qqs restaurants / fournisseurs / école, un petit mot pour vous dire quel sera le programme pour notre petite visite à Londres à la fin de mars.
- jeudi 27 mars - départ Paris en voiture en passant par Eurotunnel, hébergement chez un copain
- vendredi 28 mars, 8h30-10h “Tom Aikens”
* rencontre Tom Aikens pour parler pendant 30 minutes
* visite guidée du restaurant et ses 2 autres restos (qui sont dans le même quartier)
* petit déjeuner à l’anglaise à “Tom’s Kitchen” (je suis en train de voir si ce petit déj serait offert !….si non, je n’ai pas trop envie de payer £££ pour un petit déj)
- vendredi 28 mars, 11hrs-14hrs “Westminster Kingsway college”
* présentation par le responsable de la formation des cuisiniers
* déjeuner offert
* visite en cuisine
- samedi 29 mars, le matin “Gordon Ramsay at Claridges”
- samedi 29 mars, après-midi “Fromage Français contre Fromage Rosbif chez Neils Yard”, un fromagerie à Covent Garden
* acheter qqs fromages “British”
* parler avec leur expert sur le fromage “British”
* trouver qqpart dans le quartier pour déguster et comparer les fromages
- dimanche 30 mars, le matin, visiter les marchés de l’est de Londres (http://www.londonmarkets.co.uk/)
* Colombia Road marché des fleurs
* Brick Lane marché aux puces et restaurants indiens
* Spitalfields marché (nourriture et vêtements et autre)
February 14, 2008
My Mum died at the end of January this year, quite suddenly, with pneumonia after a period in hospital for a broken hip operation.
Nothing to do with cookery, I know, but I wanted to pay my respects to my Mum by writing down the speech that I made during her requiem mass on Monday of this week.
Thank you for coming today – to start with, and to get a flavour of what my Mum was about, I would simply like to list the things that she liked and disliked.
Her Dislikes :
not being able to smoke in the café whilst meeting her friends
being on her own
being dependent on people or being told what to do
anyone who said anything bad about her family or close friends – life and loyalties were, for Mum, very “black and white” sometimes
Match of the Day – a football programme on BBC television
being in a wheelchair – though she grew to accept it
flying
not being able to talk – even in France, where she could not speak a word of French, she would make herself understood
disagreements in the family
Her Likes :
smoking and talking / chatting
people and company
crumpets and butter and even more butter
playing cards – whist, bridge and black jack
simply being with her grand children – not necessarily talking, just being present
reading – though, after Granny’s death she found reading difficult since she could no longer concentrate
old films after midnight
my Dad reading to her in bed
being tickled
buying clothes from JulesB and Partners, and then hiding them in her wardrobe
cold coffee
Beryl Cook cards from Sheila
When my Mum died 2 weeks ago I was in Paris, as I have been for the last 6 years or so. I got the phone call from my brother Nick, a pretty brief call, him sounding exhausted emotionally and me not knowing quite what I felt. I think that we wanted to be alone with our thoughts.
I was suddenly confronted with the reality of the distance that I’d created between my Mum and I – telephone communication with Mum had been, for a number of years, frustrating and unsatisfactory, lacking in any real contact / content. Instead of getting upset about the lack of real contact with my Mum, I took the option of creating an emotional distance between us. My trips to Newcastle to see my parents were always double-edged – delighted to be home and with my Mum and Dad again, but also very concerned about how my Mum would be and never really at ease.
My first question for my Dad whenever ringing my parents would always be “How’s Mum ?”.
So, when my Mum died, there were a whole mix of emotions – deep sadness with a certain amount of relief. But I certainly didn’t want to leave it at that – despite creating a distance between Mum and I, I knew that she deserved to be remembered in a much more positive way.
As a result, these last 2 weeks I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Mum with my Dad, mainly, and with my brothers Nick and Adam, Sonia (Nick’s wife) and my wife – trying to create a contact with my Mum again, to rebuild the positive images of this incredible woman. I have also read the many deeply felt wishes of sympathy from the numerous people who were touched by Mum during her relatively short life.
Out of all of these exchanges, are a multitude of stories and anecdotes, but more importantly, a number of characteristics that shine through time and again.
She enjoyed people : and loved company, especially that of those people that many of us would simply let pass by without engaging in conversation. How many times did I see my Mum chatting away for hours with Joan (previous cleaner), Alice (a carer for my Grandma), Anne (previous cleaner), George (previous gardener) or Jimmy (previous window cleaner) instead of letting them do what they were being paid to do. She had a number of good friends from her mornings in various coffee shops on Gosforth High Street. She developed real relationships with people who worked in the places that Mum would visit whilst on her mornings out and about in Gosforth and Jesmond (the teams from Katherines flower shop, from Penny Farthing tanning shop and then Vicky’s Tanning Shop, from Michael Dominic and then Transcend hairdressers, from Francesca’s italian restaurant [who were present at the funeral, by the way], and from the famous Gosforth and then 5-Star Taxis). Not forgetting “Tex” the road sweeper !
Unconditional Love : especially for her “boys”, as she would call us, and her grand-children. She would make a point also of welcoming and accepting any of our girlfriends. My wife told me recently that “from the very beginning she accepted me, fully, without question, despite my doubts abut her. She accepted me even though I did not accept her at first”.
Cheerfullness and Warmth : this was summed up nicely by neighbours, Stella and Tom “We will miss Susan. I have always been captivated by her bright spirit, her warmth and her sense of fun, not to say “naughtiness” indulged with inimitable Irish charm”.
Loyalty : always defending the family through thick and thin, for example when she looked after Grandma during her final few months even though their relationship had not always been easy.
Courage : an unspectacular “daily” courage which meant that she could leave Buncrana for London and drama school when very young, could go to lonely isolation with a 2 week baby when Dad got a job in Jersey, and could accompany Dad to his dull and intimidating work functions where Mum would play the beautiful and charming wife, despite feeling totally out of place (and never complaining).
Resourcefullness
Instinctive Understanding / Primal awareness of peoples’ emotions
Over and above these key characteristics, whenever I think of my Mum, I invariably think of Dad as well. The “couple“. I think that it’s pretty fair to say that over the last 10 years or so, Mum and Dad have been almost a single entity, in “fusion”, inseparable. However, often people can make the mistake of thinking that Dad has been a great chap putting up with and looking after Mum. What a great support he has been and how wearing that must have been on Dad.
Well, even if recently Dad has been giving most of the physical support, Mum has for many, many years played a pivotal role in this family, giving support to all of us, none more so than to my Dad.
To close this brief hommage to my Mum, I would like to say to Mum that you live on in us, even if physically you will no longer accompany us in our many adventures over the next 10, 20, 30….years. As far as I am concerned, she has passed on her loyalty and her unconditional love to me, as well as the capacity to “feel” emotions and sense things very quickly – even if I don’t always know how to interpret the feelings straight-away or at all, sometimes.
So, as my Mum and Dad would say to one another every night before turing to go to sleep, regardless of the events of that day…..
“Good night, God bless and sleep tight”.
Je t’aime Maman.
February 4, 2008
2008 hardly started and I have had 2 trips back home already to see my family in Newcastle Upon Tyne. One visit was for pleasure, the other for more personal and painful reasons (which I will cover in another post when the time is right).
During this extended time in Newcastle I have been able to set in place the initial “stones” upon which I hope to build my first “post-CAP Cuisine” culinary experience. As I have said in earlier posts (I think), I have an overall plan to
qualify,
get relevant experience,
leading up to setting up my own restaurant in 3 years – in France.
All of this is being planned by myself at the moment, even though I would greatly appreciate advice from an experienced chef – someone who could play the role of my “mentor“. My general strategy (for gaining the experience that I will need to prepare me for setting up and running my own restaurant / kitchen) is to get a varied experience, in several different kitchens with different chefs and different styles of cooking. I am particularly interested in learning about the “products” – be they French or English. I will also make sure that I spend time delving into the accounts and running of a restaurant.
So, my first step along this “post qualification” road will be to spend 2 months working in Michelin star chef Terry Laybourne‘s English kitchen back home in Newcastle. Terry was the first Michelin starred chef in the North East of England, and is now so well known and respected that he even has an OBE (special award given by the Queen), to go along with his 5 restaurants. Most importantly for me, this is the chef who feels so passionate about the importance of quality, local products that he states
“everyone assumes that the chef is an artist. Let me tell you something. If the guy who supplies my asparagus does his job properly, and it arrives in perfect condition, all I do is sling it in a pan of boiling salted water, take it out when it’s ready, put it on a nice plate with a dish of melted butter and a wadge of lemon…and people fête me as a magician…..90% of good cooking is good shopping…..write a book about the asparagus grower. He’s the artist”
I couldn’t agree more.
The original idea was to spend 2 months, during the summer 2008, in his Jesmond Dene House kitchen – especially interesting since it is 5 minutes from my Mum and Dad’s house ! Take my wife and kids over for their summer holidays – me work as much as possible, they get out and about with their grand-parents and speak English as much as possible. The famous Ségolène Royale “Win-Win”, non ?
Why so interested in Terry Laybourne ? Essentially because
he knows what it takes to provide top quality cooking
he’s already had a Michelin star
he’s passionate about sourcing local products, which is absolutely critical for me
I’ve heard nothing but positive things from other people in the area who know him personally
he’s an experienced chef / restaurateur who will have a wealth of knowledge to share
So, we met with Terry (I really wanted my wife and kids to meet him, create a contact and make sure that they are fully with me on this first step – which they most certainly are, I can happily confirm !) at Jesmond Dene House to talk about me working there. We finished with the suggestion that I work in several of his restaurants, notably :
Jesmond Dene House : from what I saw in the magnificent kitchen, this would be a great place to continue my apprentissage. A “text book” kitchen where they have clearly had the time and space to design an ideal working kitchen, respecting the latest hygiene recommendations for keeping raw and cooked, dirty and clean products separate.
Café 21
So, with a “gentleman’s agreement” achieved about working during the summer, I set about learning about the products from the region – being a formerly industrial (coal and ship building) region, this might not have been easy, one would have been forgiven for thinking. However, using Terry Laybourne’s book “Quest for Taste” (a beautiful book which talks about 13 different types of products within the North East region, focusing on 1 particular supplier in each case) as a starting point, I took off with my wife and kids to see various producers (oysters, kippers, flour and honey). As it happens, no one was open (well it was Jan 2nd, snow was lying on the ground and the festive period was coming to an end). But simply driving around the region and talking with some locals, I started to appreciate the richness of our local produce. For an idea of some of the great products that can be sourced on our own doorstep – well if I was back home in Newcastle rather than in Paris !
Lamb, Pork, Beef, Game
Potatoes, Asparagus, wild Mushrooms
Oysters, Crabs, Lobsters, Kippers and numerous fish from small fishing ports
Cream, Cheese, Honey & Flour
For a look at other products and suppliers in the NorthEast region, take a look at the Northumbria Larder website.
During my latest visit to Newcastle I spent an afternoon discovering the little fishing port of North Shields. I’ll complete this post with some photos, but suffice to say that I was able to see “first hand” how the fishing industry is suffering because of “over fishing” by the big trawlers which stay out for 5+ days and use nets of over 1km in length ! Only 3 boats work out of North Shields, even though boats from other cities / countries stop to sell their fish. The locals complained particularly of Spanish and French boats, but from what I understand, overfishing is something that we are all guilty of – regardless of the nationality (even if some countries are suspected as being worse culprits than others !). The local fishmonger (Taylor’s of North Shields) confirmed that things would never be like they used to be – however, he also confirmed that he still has daily fresh fish coming in from small and big boats. When I was there I bought a lovely 1,8 kg Turbot (well, my Dad did !) and, at £15 per kilo, it was quite a lot cheaper than the turbot that I bought in Paris just before Christmas (approx. £19/kilo). During our visit, my Dad and I went to eat at a local restaurant – Sidneys - which takes its fish directly from the Norht Shields market, and which has a “bib gourmand” along with a recommendation in the latest Michelin guide (no star but “one to watch out for”).
That’s it for now – got to get on with my revising for my exams which take place this week.
Dom – 2:22 am