Fish for Thought

It's odd the ideas we now take for granted - like ordering fish on the internet but it makes abundant sense when you think how few people have access to a decent fishmonger these days and how second-rate supermarket fish counters are.

So I confess I really didn't need convincing when the PR for Fish for Thought, the new(ish) name for Cornwall-based online fishmonger Martins Seafresh asked if I'd like some of their fish to try. Including a lobster and who'd look a gift lobster in the mouth?

In fact I was rather more excited about the sardines and mackerel which were sparklingly fresh and reminded one how delicious - and healthy - these simple fish can be. (Maybe that's why they call it Fish for Thought - all that brain-boosting Omega 3?)

As we didn't want to stink out our flat with fishy smells we bought a disposable barbecue and cooked them down in the gardens below with some grilled fennel and courgettes I'd pre-cooked on a ridged grill - a simple, summery feast that made us feel as if we were camping by the sea.


The Cornish lobster was fine too although I never feel lobster is quite as good if it hasn't been freshly cooked - it seems to lose a bit of texture and sweetness in transit. But you can have it sent live if you're brave enough to dispatch it yourself.

It was much tastier than the ubiquitous Canadian Lobster you get nowadays though ironically more expensive given the shorter distance it had to travel - from £14.37 for a 0.6kg lobster to £29.94 for a 1.25kg one. At just £6.95 a kilo you could buy a lot of mackerel for that.

I'm lucky enough to have a good local fishmonger near where I live in Bristol - Mitch Tonks's Rockfish Seafood Market - but if I hadn't, and had a big enough freezer to store a delivery - I'd certainly use a service like this.

* Incidentally I noticed on the site that pollack which has been much touted as a sustainable catch is now £11.95 a kilo, the same price as haddock which has a much better flavour. Or go for the very reasonable whiting at just £8.96 a kilo.

Have you ever bought fish online and if not where do you buy it?

Bread by post

Now you can buy almost every other kind of food - and drink - online there seems no reason why you shouldn't buy bread but it feels slightly counter-intuitive. Bread costs so little that it seems a bit mad to spend half its worth in post and packaging charges. But I'm lucky enough to live in a city (Bristol) which has some excellent bakers. If I lived out in the country and didn't have the time or inclination to bake I'd probably regard it as a boon.

Anyway I discovered that one of our local bakers Hobbs House Bakery is now offering a home delivery service from their website. You can buy a selection of their breads as a sample box (for £35) or a 2kg spelt sourdough called The Shepherds Loaf for £21 - the one that was featured on the BBC4 programme In Search of the Perfect Loaf the other day (which at the time of writing you can probably still catch up with on iplayer)

Baker Tom Herbert claims that the service is an 'industry first' but in fact another local baker, Richard Bertinet, pipped him to the post by offering his bread online prior to Christmas. You can buy it on its own for a rather more reasonable £6.50 (for a 1.2kg loaf + £4.95 p & p) or as part of a Breadlovers' Gift Box (£40.25) which includes the wonderful Opinel bread knife I wrote about last year

Obviously these loaves aren't as expensive as they seem on the face of it: they're dense and they keep so you can use them for days but it does seem a fair amount of money to spend nonetheless.

What about you? Do you - would you - buy bread by post? If not where do you buy it or do you make your own?