Sushi

[Miss J]

Kiku, I've think you've hit on the solution. We'll go out all night, and stop by Billingsgate at the end of it. That way, by time we've bought things the tube will be running and we can all head off to bed.

Like it.

[Charlene Leonard]

what are you lot talking about? getting up at 4am to buy some fish? good God, the Christmas spirit is getting to you, I challenge you to keep to this in the harsh reality of a miserable Jan morning....

[Kikujiro]

Fish. FISH. Fi-i-i-ish.

[Simon Majumdar]

Some of us are always up at 4am. But, then again,some of us have no life at all

5am to buy fish sounds perfectly reasonable, but I am not a newlywed

S

[Basildog]

I visited Billingsgate on the morning of the Chez Bruce Lunch.I got there a bit late for the main action, but was surprised by the amount of frozen exotic fish on offer.My mate John had me eating oysters at 7.30am...fantastico The Cafe there is full of "characters"

[Matthew Grant]

I used to work just around the corner from Billingsgate and regularly paid trips there at 5am, just when the rest of my team was getting on my tits after a 12 hour nightshift

As Basilidog says, you will probably be very surpirsed at the amount of frozen fish on offer, you should also be warned that it is not always easy to source good fish at Billingsgate unless you are buying in bulk, the other problem you will find is that if you do find somebody to sell you an individual fish you will pay a premium price for it. I know that my fishmonger visits Billingsgate everyday and is happy to take special orders for exotic fish, trouble is, most of it is going to arrive frozen. I have certainly never bought a piece of fish from Bilingsgate myself that was better than my local fishmonger could provide. It is a myth that you will arrive and pick up fantastic fish at a good price.

Most top end restaurants are supplied direct form small boats or dealers at fishing ports and would very rarely see fish from Billingsgate. Also be prepared for long queues at the weekend and especially before public holidays, I mean REALLY long, police guiding traffic, queues heading towatrds the limehouse link etc.

Having said all this, if you haven't been, I really recommend it, a fantastic piece of foodie theatre!

[Akiko]

Hey guys,

I missed this thread as I've been on holiday but you can't imagine how excited I got about the trip to billingsgate... I had images of tsukiji market in London dancing in my head... and then was crestfallen to read about the reality...

The fishmonger in the main area of borough market does EXCELLENT sushi quality salmon... and sometimes has very good sushi quality yellowfin tuna... various sushi quality tunas show up.

Other than that, I would also visit Arigato on Brewer street, I plan to order a New Year's plate of sushi from them later this month... I'm hoping for good quality as I always see other Japanese people taking away from there.

Has anyone been to Zuma yet?

[Adam Balic]

Vanessa - I would add to what others have said and say that making sushi as part of a meal is really fun, tastes good and for some reason, really really easy. Obviously what you can make isn't going to be the essence of faeries dancing on you tongue, but it will be better then 90% of what you can go out for. YO SUSHI's Sushi really really sucks, if it wasn't for the beer comming out the tap on you table I would never go there.

Ah, I am flying through to the UK tomorrow. Willl buy some smoked eel to make sushi.