fishy business - welcome

Welcome to the Fishy Business website. We are now in our 16th year with the business and much has changed in that time. When we took over in 1993, we thought the name 'Fishy Business' was a nice, catchy one so we kept it. As well as quickly building a great reputation locally for service to retail customers, we very quickly got into supplying hotels and catering outlets. This was influenced by my wife's family who have been in the fish trade for generations and who supply most of the major hotels in central London. It was a natural progression for us to keep up the tradition.

Christmas Turkeys
As well as fulfilling orders for fresh fish and shellfish over the festive period, we are also proud suppliers of top quality fresh Turkeys, and have been for the last 10 years!

Our prices for 2011 are as follows:

4 - 5kg - £4.41 per lb / £9.72 per kg
5.5 - 6kg - £4.20 per lb / £9.25 per kg
6.5 - 7kg - £4.01 per lb / £8.85 per kg
7.5 - 8kg - £3.81 per lb / £8.40 per kg
8.5 - 10kg - £3.63 per lb / £8.00 per kg
10kg + - £3.45 per lb / £7.60 per kg

Crowns - All sizes are £5.00 per lb / £11.00 per kg

fishy business - development

With great responses from local customers and a growing wholesale business with restaurants and hotels, there was not much time at our disposal. However, many customers had been asking advice on dieting and cholesterol control for a long time. There seemed to be an air of apprehension about cooking fish and many people were unsure of what was best. In response to this demand we opened the fish and chip shop, Fishy Business 11 in 2000. We wanted it to be a fish and chip shop with a difference though so we started to grill fish as well as fry it.

Our fish and chip shop is only a takeaway at the moment, but watch this space.

Our next development is taking shape too. With the small number of professional fishmongers in these troubled times, the difficulty of getting to out of town superstores and the cost of transport, we have recognised a need for regular local deliveries of fresh fish.

In time this service may also be extended to our barbecue marinated fish. Our range of tuna, tiger prawn and monkfish kebabs all marinated in different fresh herbs as well as sardine and red snapper fillets have become incredibly popular over the years, so deliveries could well be in great demand.

fishy business - fish and chips

Fish and chips is a British national institution. Cooked to perfection it offers a meal that is great-tasting, easy, quick and highly nutritious. Fishy Business 11 is our own fish and chip shop where we serve all the traditional favourites plus options like red snapper, shark and swordfish on the menu. You also get the choice of whether you have your fish fried, or freshly grilled to make it even healthier. You will never be bored at Fishy Business 11 as there is a great variety and we always have specials on offer too. You can save time as well, just phone us with your order and it will be ready when you arrive.

Fish and chip meals have always been associated with fun, being a great seaside and holiday favourite, even romance! How many couples would not be together today were it not for sharing piping hot fish and chip suppers on early dates? Here is what Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia has to say about fish and chips:

History of Fish and Chips
In the United Kingdom, fish and chips became a cheap food popular among the working classes with the rapid development of trawl fishing in the North Sea in the second half of the nineteenth century. Before then, fishermen had used long lines to target only large, high-quality demersal (bottom-dwelling) fish, especially valuable sole. Trawlers, on the other hand, landed a mixed catch of high-quality "prime" and cheaper "offal" fish, most of which fishermen initially threw back into the water due to the lack of a market. However, as railway charges fell, it became viable to transport this cheaper fish inland, and demersal fish became a mass-market commodity rather than a costly luxury.

Deep-fried "chips" (slices or pieces) of potato as a dish may have made their first appearance in Britain about the same period: the OED notes as its earliest usage of "chips" in this sense the mention in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities (published in 1859): "Husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil". (Note that Belgian tradition, as recorded in a manuscript of 1781, dates the frying of potatoes carved into the shape of fish back at least as far as 1680.)

The modern fish-and-chip shop ("chippy" in modern British slang) originated in the United Kingdom, although outlets selling fried food occurred commonly throughout Europe. According to one story, fried-potato shops spreading south from Scotland merged with fried-fish shops spreading from southern England. Early fish-and-chip shops had only very basic facilities. Usually these consisted principally of a large cauldron of cooking-fat, heated by a coal fire. Unsanitary by modern standards, such establishments also emitted a smell associated with frying, which led to the authorities classifying fish-and-chip supply as an "offensive trade", a stigma retained until the interwar period. The industry overcame this reputation because during World War II fish and chips remained one of the few foods in the United Kingdom not subject to rationing.

Deep-fried fish and deep-fried chips have appeared separately on menus for many years, though potatoes did not reach Europe until the 17th century. The originally Sephardi dish pescado frito, or deep-fried fish, came to the Netherlands and England with the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in the 17th and 18th centuries. (History credits the Portuguese with introducing the dish to Japan: see tempura.)

The dish became popular in wider circles in London and South East England in the middle of the 19th century (Charles Dickens mentions a "fried fish warehouse" in Oliver Twist, first published in 1838) whilst in the north of England a trade in deep-fried "chipped" potatoes developed. The first chip shop stood on the present site of Oldham's Tommyfield Market. It remains unclear exactly when and where these two trades combined to become the fish-and-chip shop industry we know today. Joseph Malin opened the first recorded combined fish-and-chip shop in London in 1860 or in 1865 while a Mr Lees pioneered the concept in the North of England in Mossley, Lancashire in 1863. For more information go to the Wikipedia fish and chips page

fishy business - fish delivery

fishy business - seasonal fish

When we started, some 16 years ago, we only used to sell tuna, swordfish, scallops etc. at weekends in the summertime. Now tastes have changed and we sell them 5 days a week 52 weeks a year.