seacow

[Louisa]

Asset, you obviously dont venture out of London because the chippies in places like Hastings Hull amongst other places not necessarily starting with the letter H (hehe), actually do sell fish straight out of the sea, and thats the freshest you can buy, if its sold in a London chippy, dont expect fresh, you can kid yourself in your own little world as much as you want, but it isnt fresh! if you fancy red snapper, go to the carribbean, then its definitely going to be fresh I can assure you :)

[Asset]

Louisa, as you will see I edited my post to comment on the type of fish available. 'traditional' chippys don't serve what I wan to eat as a general rule, so yes on occasion I will go to the seacow which as I have said twice now is not trying to be a 'traditional' chippy.

And I'm afraid an inverted snob is exactly how you come across in your posts. I'm glad you find it amusing. Personally I think you are living in your little dreamworld of the 1950's.

[Ted Max]

Fresh fish is just not factual sorry to destroy your illusion, very typical in London may I add

In fact I come from a fishing town/ village, with generations of family working in the industry one way or another, but thanks for the lecture all the same.

My point about it being as fresh as you can buy in central London was a nod to your valid point that unless you live in a beach hut and eat the thing while it's still moving nothing is really "fresh". But, it's as fresh as you're going to get round here - hence you pay more (plus a little bit on top for the lifestyle experience stuff, but so what?).

You say that sometimes the "very best fish you can buy" is fish that has been frozen immediately and then defrosted. Those sometimes are when there is no actual fresh fish available.

[Asset]

We are talking about London chippys here though aren't we Lousia. In fact ED chippys to be precise.

OK so red snapper is likely to have been frozen previously but you can't get it in a 'traditional chippy' which was the point I was making.

[Louisa]

Living in the 1950s? ermm actually no, I think in terms of whos living in what era, i'd say you are living on a different planet to me and most people in the UK ... If you fancy Red Snapper, either have a nice trip around the carribbean, or go to a fancy London restaurant, it's not the domain of a chippie, and places which are trying to pretend to be something better than a chippy even though thats pretty much all they are, selling the odd fancy fish from some far flug location, are deeply annoyingly found in gentrified/posh bits of London.. Glad to see you support the local fishermen who work hard for low wages in the UK btw by eating produce which has been flown thousands of miles across an ocean (though still apparantly fresh) to be served in some pretentious excuse for a fish and chip shop in ED. :)

[Asset]

Cripes - get down off your soapbox. You don't know what I eat most of the time so don't give me that preaching. You said on another thread you ike ASDA for gawds sake.

If I want to go to the seacow twice a year and have a bit of flipping tuna I don't see why it's such a big issue for you how I spend my money.

[mockney piers]

>> placebo effect seems to pull the wool over some peoples eyes apparantly

I love mixed metaphors :D

And just what placebo effect are we talking about. That would surely have to be some sort of pseudo fish made from nutritionally neutral matter for the wool over eyes effect to become apparant(sic).

Mayhap you were after the emperor's new (woollen) clothes.

[Louisa]

Feel free to be ripped off - and by the way, ASDA before it was bought out by Walmart, started a specially targeted campaign to get it's produce from local locations, and alongside Tesco and Waitrose, is now helping dairy farmers in this country by sourcing from small holders and local suppliers, I wonder if your treasured Sainsburys is doing this too?

[Louisa]

mockney, for all we know they may well be doing this... let's ask one of the fish experts on the forum, I believe Asset know his stuff :)

[Nero]

The mushy peas, as I was prewarned, have become sloppy. I pointed this out to the waitress, who brought me more peas, which were equally slushy. I told her I didn't like them as much as a few weeks ago, and she curtly said 'no need to pay'. That wasn't the point of my complaint, I said. She was brusque and really did not seem to care whether I liked them or not, and just seemed more concerned about making sure I was 'placated' in some way. It's still a good place, but not as good as before either in terms of service, customer satisfaction and produce, in my personal opinion. Nero

[Asset]

Louisa - I have never held myself up to be an expert - unlike you I may add. And Sainsbury's is certainly not 'treasured' to me. I just cannot abide it when some people's lifestyle choices are shot down by inverted snobbery and small mindedness as is happening on these threads. It really gets my back up and I am retaliating.

[Louisa]

It gets my back up when whole areas are forced to change to accomodate people with these "lifesyle choices" - what you choose to do is your business, but when I have to have it forced upon me with "Seacow" and all other sorts of places, including a Sainsbury's which goes out of it's way to sell a wider range of products (dubious) to accomodate these "lifestyle choices", and then hike the bloody prices, i'm not best pleased, so thats what gets my back up Asset :)

[RosieH]

hmm, it's getting a bit heated in here. I'd just like to say that I really like the Sea Cow, even though their chips have gone downhill, they're still better than any other chips I've found in East Dulwich (please feel free to disabuse me - I do like chips). And I like being able to have a bottle of wine with my haddock. And actually, looking at the haddock first, before it goes in the fryer might be an affectation, but at least you know it's COOKED fresh (frozen or no, it hasn't been sitting under a heat lamp for hours). And surely the whole cost debate is slightly redundant because you're not comparing like with like - they're cheaper than getting fish and chips from the Ivy, which I believe is also a restaurant selling the deep fried deliciousness.

BUT: Ted Max - your comment about the extractor fans is fundamentally flawed - have you ever come out of there not stinking of chip fat? I haven't, but I don't mind it. Where I come from (in the north where we're no better than we ought to be and chips are good and Morrisons is king and we despise poncey southerners with their Sainsburys and ohmygodhaveyouseentheprices, Waitrose) it's considered on a par with Chanel No. 5.

AND: I miss the banter I used to get from Mr Elaine's, who told me about his son's circumcision party (bad at sums but good at trumpet) and used to say of his chips "make 'em little, make 'em good".

[Asset]

nobody's forcing you to go to these places - you've still got plenty of crappy chippys and low quality supermarkets to choose from.

areas change, always have and always will - nowhere stays the same. Good thing too. Or would you prefer that we all still lived in the slums of the Victorian age?

[Jeremy]

Asset - leave it. Louisa has nothing but contempt for the "newcomers" who have ruined "her" East Dulwich, what with all their "posh" bars, restaurants, and shops. Compromise and logical debate will not prevail, and getting p!ssed off certainly will not!

[Louisa]

The fact you dont think Sainsbury's is on a par with any of the other major supermarkets is deluded and amusing, but anyway back to my point. "crappy chippes" ooo now thats getting defensive for no apparant reason, have you tried any of these other chip shops? I've been to the Seacow ONCE, so maybe you should broaden your horizon a little.. and as for Sainsburys, well they have hiked their prices for the same products you can get in other places, thats a fact..

"slums of the victorian age"

Actually no, although the way you wrote that seems to suggest that ED was once a slum from the victorian era, which of course is not true, and those who think the area has naturally changed for the better because they are living their should remove the plum from mouth and d*ldo from ar*e, and get on with it! :)

[Ted Max]

BUT: Ted Max - your comment about the extractor fans is fundamentally flawed -

You're right, it is.

So if it smells of chip fat inside, how is this authentic smell not invading Macroban's nostrils when s/he passes by. It must be, in fact, because of the very poor extraction, keeping all those wonderful odours inside.

[mockney piers]

lounged

Though if i could have put it in the Soviet, I would have.

[RosieH]

maybe we're all so uptight about chip shops that even our nasal passages have contracted and we can no longer smell the delicious chip fat

mmm, chip fat. might nip in for a takeaway tonight

[SimonM]

To me, all fish and chip shops lost their je ne sais quoi when they abandoned good old beef dripping and began using oil instead. Now oil may be fine for greasing your bike or car, or making your hair shiny, but cooking chips in it is just so wrong. And mushy peas should be made by soaking a sack of dried peas in a bucket overnight with them white tablet things. And there should be large jars of pickled onions and eggs, and bottles of Tizer & Dandelion & Burdock.

I am a dinosaur of course...>:D<

[LostThePlot]

SimonM Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> To me, all fish and chip shops lost their je ne

> sais quoi when they abandoned good old beef

> dripping .......and bottles of Tizer & Dandelion & Burdock.

>

> I am a dinosaur of course...>:D<

No Sir, you are a man of exceptional taste.....

And if anyone cares we didn;t make it last night after all. Mrs Plot was a bit too knackered, so we ordered in. Still never made it there then....this is possibly fate at work.

Still, can't believe what a fuss there has been on here about a chippy!! Free speach, don't you love it!

[mockney piers]

Good effort Sean, was it being picketed by crusties who hate the getrification of Glastonbury, or were they just grateful for some hot food and a brief respite from the rain?

 

[SeanMacGabhann]

Satire MP? On this thread? ;-)

It did do very good business - and I couldn't help but ask a few people what they thought of it - everyone loved it

[Louisa]

Jeremy ED is not mine, it belongs to the whole community, but sadly some people feel the need to change the existing community for the "better" of the wealthier people choosing to move here from other locations :)

I wonder if those guys with the hoods on their jackets were told to move away from the area once they had purchased their red snapper and french fries? :)

[SeanMacGabhann]

Louisa - wouldn't matter if they were told or not to move on - by the time anyone got served in any Q they had to spend 10 minutes just to get the boots out of the mud - it was that bad..

I thought the staff at the Sea Cow stall were also some of the friendliest (just an observation - again I'm not a customer - not sure what my problem is with seafood, wish I would get over it!)