00:00Can you tell me what your favourite takeaway is?
00:01Yeah, my favourite takeaway, I'm very old-fashioned I'm afraid, fish and chips.
00:05It has to be. On the seaside? Oh, come on.
00:07Erm, I love fish and chips. Yeah, fish and chips is probably my favourite.
00:11Along Kent's coast, the answer is obvious.
00:14Fish is king.
00:16But not everyone agrees.
00:18To be honest, it's a fish supper, but only in Glasgow.
00:20Not in Canterbury or Kent or Whitstable or anywhere else.
00:24But yeah, that's what it is.
00:26So how do you determine where the best cod is cooked,
00:28the chips chopped and the haddock heated?
00:31It's sort of like the Oscars for chippies,
00:33called the National Fish and Chip Awards,
00:35and Newington Fish Bar in Ramsgate is one of the last three
00:38in the race for the Quality Accreditation Champion.
00:42It's meant to recognise fish and chip shops that have higher standards
00:45and seek to improve the quality of their food.
00:47And the owner of the fish bar, Nigel,
00:49says that the greasy, unhealthy reputation that chip shops have
00:53is something he wants to get rid of.
00:55Well, we're in the National Fish and Chip Awards,
00:57which is run by the National Federation of Fish Fryers.
01:01They've been the custodians of this award for quite a few years now.
01:04And we have reached the top three category
01:08in Filter Fryer and Quality Accreditation Champion.
01:12There's 13 categories altogether,
01:14and also the main big one is to take away of the year,
01:17which we've managed to get to a top 20 place
01:20out of the 10,000 shops in the country that are eligible to enter.
01:23So we feel quite pleased, we've done rather well.
01:26Nigel suggested I pick up a spatula and give it a go.
01:28But I was a little nervous,
01:30as my pot noodle cooking skills probably weren't going to help me here.
01:35Well, in order to make some good fish,
01:37I'm going to have to be well-dressed for the occasion.
01:39I'm going to see if I can make some award-winning fish of my own.
01:42Taking some of the fish and putting it in the batter.
01:45I've been warned to not let the oil bite me on the way down.
01:48Apparently, you've got to go really close to the oil.
01:50So here we go.
01:52And it wouldn't be proper fish and chips without, obviously, the chips.
01:55So I've got my chips from my bucket and same deal with the oil.
01:58Just need to pour it in here.
02:05There we go.
02:06Now, I'm quite scared of the oil, but we're going to do our best.
02:08So make sure they don't overcook.
02:11Take them out and just...
02:13Oh, I'm not very good at this bit.
02:15There we go.
02:16I've got most of them, I've got most of them in.
02:19Now, I've had a go at making my own fish and chips
02:21and I thought I did pretty well.
02:22But I'm being told that there's a piece here
02:24that just could have used a bit longer in the oil.
02:26But for my first time, I think it was all right.
02:29In the end, Nigel gave my fish a three out of five.
02:32So no awards for me.
02:33Finn McDermid for KMTV in Ramsgate.
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