Early morning tips to Smithfields meat market and Billingsgate fish market

[South-east boy]

Oops! The title was meant to say 'trips', not tips, but I can't edit it! Anyway!

My friend phoned me the night before and asked if I wanted to go up to the Smithfield meat market in London early the next morning and as I had the next day off I said yes, so he said he'd pick me up at 3.30am the next morning! So I went to bed the earliest i had for a long time! We got there at 4.30am to find it pretty busy already and we walked around seeing what we might be interested in first before buying anything. I later bought a large pack of 24 fresh chicken breasts for only £18 and a large pack of 35 large pieces of back bacon for £7.50. It took a while to get out as some idiot in a van had parked on a corner, so an artic lorry couldn't get out and because of this was holding the whole road up!

On the way back we stopped to look around Billingsgate fish market which was more interesting to look as and I wish I'd taken my SLR camera. There were lobsters, Crayfish, Tiger-prawns, prawns, shrimps, octopus, squid, mussels & cockles etc and many types of fish from many different countries and some were quite colourful, some of which I'd never seen before. I did feel a little sorry for some of the crabs and lobsters that were still alive and moving about! I took these rubbish pics with my iphone - See if you recognize any here?!
















Later after I had got back, I seperated the bacon up and put it in the freezer and cut the chicken breast up, so it's ready to use in stir-fires or curries etc. Took ages to do though! lol!

[LEAHnew]

Made me miss Birmingham market..quite similar what they're selling..
Nice photos indeed

[eagles]

nice photos, some fishes are also here in the phils, the swordfish, the red ones looks like our lapu lapu..

[South-east boy]

nice photos, some fishes are also here in the phils, the swordfish, the red ones looks like our lapu lapu..

They also has snappers & red snappers which I think you also have in Phils? was also a colourful one called a Parrot fish, but not sure where in the world that is from?

[Tawi2]

Billingsgate is certainly an experience,I went several times when I lived on the Isle of Dogs years ago.The parrot fish are general reef fish,I have seen and eaten them in Pinas,malaysia,indonesia etc,if your diving on a reef the colours are really vivid when the fish is alive,they have the small "Beak" for feeding on the hard corals I think The "swordfish" are a generic species of Gar,you get smaller ones here in the UK,odd fact about british Gar,when you cook them their bones take on a greenish tinge Caught the pinoy version freelining small fish liphooked on a treble,the visayan name for them was BaluI think theres also salmonite in one of your pics,and the crabs look like alimasag or lambay?But I have also seen a type of alimango with blue shell markings similar

[fred]

Live parrot fish are about 100 Quid each if you want one in your aquarium in the UK..Here their about 180 PHP a Kilo dead or alive..
We used to use Smithfield meat markets early houses (pubs) before a West ham away game...(about 5.30 am)...Atmosphere was always great and so was the liquid breakfast!
We used to go to Billingsgate once a week back when it really was in Billingsgate!!
Me ole fella had cockle and winkle stalls outside a couple of North London boozers..
Luuuuverly!!!! Ahhhh....Memories of Jellied eels and Scampi are making me belly rumble!!

[estherboaz]

i love scampi.billingsgate is where we buy bangus, tilapia, dilis and king prawns.fresh salmon is cheap there.

[South-east boy]

Yes, the Billingsgate buildings & car park there are all pretty new. The Salmon there were very cheap and for £20 you could buy a huge salmon! I didn't know that you could find different types of swordfish around the UK! I've never seen colourful crabs like that before either.

What are bangus, tilapia and dilis?

[estherboaz]

bangus is milkfish.dilis is anchovy.i dont know if tilapia has english translation.

[Tawi2]

The english for Tilapia Esther is simply.........Tilapia I think they originated in africa,fast growing freshwater fish that were introduced to Asia as a food fish,nowadays they are also introducing the siamese catfish to Pinas,I caught a few earlier this year when fishing in Mindanao.The salmon in the pic are farmed,hence the price,uniformity in size,and the tatty state of their tails,wild atlantic has a better taste and probably adds two or more times onto the market value,I used to catch hundreds of them every year helping a relative who had a drift net licence.The rainbow trout in the pics are darkening because of the cold temps in the water this time of the year,they look more flambouyant in summer.We dont have genuine swordfish,maybe the odd stray,but they arent resident in UK waters,those fish are Gars,pinays call them swordfish because of their swordlike nose,they are Balu.