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The best
fish and chip shops in the UK have been named in the latest stage of
the national Fish & Chip Shop of the Year competition.
The following shops were awarded
the title of area winners after beating off competition from a record
number of other shops to go through to the next stage of the
competition, which is in its 21st year.
They will now go head to head
against their rival area winners to be crowned the best in their
region and possibly go on to reach the ultimate goal of being the
best in the UK.
Scotland A
* Anstruther Fish Bar &
Restaurant, Fife
Scotland B
* The Chip Box, Stewarton, Kilmarnock
Wales
* Finnegan's Fish & Chips,
Baglan, Port Talbot
* Finnegan's Fish & Chips, Porthcawl
Northern Ireland
* The Galley, Annalong, Newry
* The Fish & Chicken Inn, Ballymena
North
East A
* Colmans, South Shields
North
East B
* Quayside, Whitby
North
West A
* Thornton Fisheries, Thornton Cleveleys
North
West B
* Fosters Fish & Chips,
Alderley Edge
Midlands A
* Our Plaice, Halesowen
Midlands B
* Andys Fish Bar, Melton Mowbray
Midlands C
* Merchant Fish Bar, Bewdley
Eastern
England A
* Petrou Bros, Chatteris
Eastern
England B
* Fish'n' Chick'n, Nacton, Ipswich
London
and South East A
* Scooby Snax, Brightlingsea, Colchester
London
and South East B
* Seafare Fish & Chips (on
London Road) Burpham, Guildford
Central
and South A
* Salt & Vinegar, Fairford
Leys, Aylesbury
Central
and South B
* The Plaice, Winchester
South
West A
* The Chippie, Horrabridge near Yelverton
South
West B
* Daniels Fish and Chips, Weymouth
To get this far, the shops have
already been voted for by their customers. Mystery judges from
competition organisers Seafish, the authority on seafood, then
undertook assessments which deemed them to be the pick of the crop in
the area.
The next stage of judging will
whittle that number down to the best ten shops in the UK. Each shop
will now undergo a rigorous assessment including checks on its
product quality, staff training, innovation, customer service, shop
décor and cleanliness, staff hygiene and food preparation
techniques. Shops also face questions regarding their policies on
sourcing seafood from sustainable stocks.
Andy Gray, competition judge at
Seafish, said: "The shops reaching this stage have
consistently shown high standards by offering quality fish and chips
and great value for money. In the 21 years the competition has been
running, standards have risen considerably across the UK. Shops are
now offering a much wider range of seafood and modern frying
techniques have reduced the amount of fat, making fish and chips a
relatively healthy option as a takeaway."
Each shop will know if it has
made it through to the final ten shops in early November and the
national winner will be presented with the overall winner's crown by
TV chef Simon Rimmer at a London ceremony in January.
This announcement follows the
release of NPD Crest statistics revealing fish and chip shops
throughout the UK have seen an increase in customers and sales for
the first time in five years. The number of people going to fast-food
restaurants rose by 3.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2008
compared to the previous year.
With nearly 276 million meals
sold each year from over 10,500 shops, fish and chips remains the
nation's favourite takeaway. Devotees can also tuck into their fish
and chips knowing that they contain 36 per cent less calories than a
chicken korma and pilau rice, and 42 per cent less fat than a doner
kebab with pita and salad. Recent studies also showed that fish and
chips had the lowest salt content of all the takeaways tested.
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