Top Tips For Buying At Billingsgate
Today Billingsgate gets though 480 tonnes of fish a week, although in its heyday the figure was nearer 400 tonnes a day. Anyone can buy fish from the market; the London Paper ran an article the other day and gave some handy tips on doing so
- Billingsgate wakes up early in the morning but the best time for the public is from 6:30am. It is generally all over by 8.
- Prices vary from stall to stall, but all sell for a fraction of supermarket prices.
- For rock bottom prices try last thing on a Saturday morning when the sellers will be trying to shift the remainder of their stock before the week’s end.
- Buy in bulk - that’s what freezers are for.
- Be prepared to gut and fillet the fish yourself as the stall holders will not do it for you.
- The freshest fish have sparkling eyes with a gold outline around the iris. Anything dull or sunken is a sign of age.
- The freshest fish also have a thin sheen or slime on the body, they should be gleaming.
- Oily fish should be be in rigor mortis when you buy them; they shouldn’t flop about.
Billingsgate Fish Market, Trafalgar Way, London E14. Open Tuesday to Saturday 5.00am - 8.30am.
There is a Seafood Training School offering both morning and evening courses. The full day Knife Skills program, for example, costs £165, or £190 if you want to include a formal tour of the market. You get to keep the fish you tackle during the course.
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