Out of the Blue.

The Spanish love their fish, they eat a lot of it. Go to any Spanish supermarket and you'll see a counter four times as big as the equivalent in this country piled with gambas, langostines, little fish like whitebait and every other  type you can think of, and some you can't, as there's no English word for them. Many British people in my experience won't eat fish at all, and if they do, it's tasteless and battered and comes with chips. People are also squeamish about whole fish; heads and bones. Strange for an island really. Unfortunately, a lot of it is fished in these waters and exported to meet the huge market in Spain, as there's less demand over here.  I was in a small supermarket in Spain and there was a fish tank with lobster in it, can you imagine?

One of my favourite things in life is sitting at a chiringuito next to the Mediterranean with a basket of fried whole boquerones, chanquetes or chipirones and a large cold one. There's no equivalent over here unfortunately, partly because the weather is so uniformly awful but also because there's no such thing as a chiringuito; a beach shack bar restaurant that always serves great simple food, often fish at a fair price. You know what you can do with your 'stay-cation'!

Luckily here in Chorlton things are a lot better, as we have the demand for a fantastic fishmongers, and that is Out of the Blue.

I love a visit to this place, it always seems to be busy. I love the fresh smell, I love looking at all the fish, and I love seeing the specialist sushi chef making the superb fresh sushi. I try and catch the 2 for one offer that they sometimes do on the sushi at the end of the day.

If Mrs Bacon is in need of cheering up I always buy her sushi instead of flowers, I mean you can't eat flowers can you.

Out of the Blue
484 Wilbraham Rd
Chorlton
www.outofthebluefish.com

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