Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Door to door Fish Salesman.. massive regrexit on my behalf :-(
This is a post about my recent experience with the T G Fisheries door to door Fish sales that visit the ladder. A friend has given me really positive reviews, (i think of them, unless there's more than one lot?) so when they knocked on my door last weekend, I was interested.
Here's what they said, and what i experienced:
* they say at the door that they can do you 'any thing you want love' , but once inside insist they won't do less than than large bulk orders- in my case initially 20, then finally 10 packs of fish. In fairness, i clearly let myself get bamboozled into this as my neighbour also bought fish fro them that day, and insisted she only wanted a small qty, stuck to her guns and they sold her just as much as she wanted.
* the guy i saw said it was 'all line caught, sustainable' . On reflection I actually have absolutely no evidence of that.
*i hold my hand up- it was really STUPID not to check with them what the weight of the packs was so I was completely price blind. As it turned out when i was portioning later- every single pack was around 350g-380g.
* The claim was made that 'this is all top quality best fillets, you wont get better than this'. As you'll see- that's definitely NOT the case in my experience.
* I had 10 packs, for which i was given a 'DISCOUNT PRICE BECAUSE I LIKE YOUR FACE' of £100. So that is £100 for less than 4Kg of fish -which isn't a discount at all when you check other suppliers.
* Far from being best quality, as i portioned up- i found loose bits of tail and off cuts sneaked under the top fillet, so basically 1 sea bream fillet, half a fillet under and a whole lot of off cuts underneath. same for most of the others.
* the monkfish had one very spongy fillet on top with a huge scraggly qty of scraps under that were *really* smelly. so much so that i decided to not risk it and see if the cats were interested. Nope. they weren't either.
*Unscaled fillets in several packs where the flesh was in contact with scale muck and the front cling wrap punctured so that the fish was in poor condition. (as in, the top fillet with puncture marks in it)
* After portioning I weighed all the scraps (ends of tail, odd shaped chunks that were what looked like trimmings of fillets) i discovered the weight of these was 900g. The smelly bits went and the rest i did make into a fish stew. Not the point really as i wasn't buying 'fish pie' bits or trimmings to make stock. (i thought..)
*The labour aspect- it took me a considerable time to clean portion and remove scraggy bits to portion it all up. Something i admit i am used to asking the fishmonger to do. Happily i have a good knife and tweezers to remove bones.
I admit i'm a total mug for letting them in, allowing them to use classic pressure sales and also to 'take my order' showing me produce- but then leave and 'make up the order' from the truck.
So - verdict is that I think i've just experienced the fish version of a boiler room... and, i cannot believe i just didn't order from a traceable source like Sole of discretion instead.
you live and learn eh? Anyone fancy a fish supper?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Angela on
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Sorry to hear you've been ripped off. Could you report it to Trading Standards? Did you take any photos of the packs of fish?
Remember - if it seems to good to be true, it probably is!
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I bought from them a while back and had some good fish particularly the salmon was much more like the salmon I am used to from Denmark.
I bought, like you last weekend, more salmon as this is what I particularly enjoyed and stuck to my guns that I only wanted 3 packs which they eventually sold to me for £30. But it wasn't nearly as good as the first time around and when I looked at it there really wasn't that much fish. It ended up in a coconut curry.
Like you, I won't be buying again, and also don't really like the polystyrene/cling film packaging.
Having had the worst food poisoning from salmon a few years ago I am trying to reintroduce more fish in our diet again. So any recommendations for a good fishmonger around here?
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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For very fresh prawns, lobster, scallops, sea bream, sea bass, pomfret, razor clams (but no salmon), we use North and South on Whymark Avenue. The owner buys from Billingsgate a few times a week,
My other half is a discerning Malaysia-born buyer of fresh foods and is very happy with the quality there.
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Permalink Reply by JoeW on
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I'll have to try North and South - I had no idea that supermarket was there, and even if I had been I wouldn't have guessed they sold fresh fish.
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Post about the store here from 2012. We’ve been using it regularly ever since.
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If you're after Marine Stewardship Council certified & traceable sustainable seafood then head to Aldi https://www.msc.org/media-centre/press-releases/aldi-swims-ahead-of...
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Permalink Reply by Dick Harris on
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You might be better off finding a reliable van seller by contacting this lot: http://www.londonfishmonger.co.uk/
A fairly modest web-site but the real industry nonetheless.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Harding on
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Sounds terrible. We get weekly fish drops at Harringay Local Store from http://www.soleshare.net/
In my experience, you will not find better fish. The only trade off is that what you get is down to what the fisherman have caught that week.
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Haven't used him personally but I have heard really good things about this guy:
http://www.markymarket.com/MarkyMarket/home.html
Visits Smithfield & Billingsgate and buys + delivers to you - so super fresh & high quality.
I think he lives locally also.
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Permalink Reply by kotkas on
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Is he still around - would be tempted to try him. I work a stone's throw from Billingsgate - often at unsociable hours so have often wondered whether I could pop by and stick some fish in the office fridge until I leave...
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Yeah - still active. He was selling spares last week: https://twitter.com/markymarket/status/1134373979928584193
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