Scots chippy selling salmon suppers - and punters can't get enough
IT’S the king of fish and a Scottish icon renowned for its health benefits.
But now an award-winning chippy in Perthshire has hit on a new top seller – salmon suppers.
The Dunkeld Fish Bar – a former winner of Scotland’s best fish and chip shop – offers salmon alongside the traditional haddock, battered puddings and other chippy staples.
And owner Scott Davie said tourists and frustrated anglers can’t get enough of the deep fried delicacy.
He said: “Everywhere you go, you’ll find white fish like haddock and cod but I looked around and nobody else was doing salmon.
“Salmon is an oily fish and people say it has to be grilled and it’ll never work in batter but it tastes phenomenal – the fish just melts in your mouth.
“People can be reluctant to try something different but once they’ve tried a salmon supper, they love it. It’s really taken off.”
Dunkeld, on the banks of the River Tay, is world famous for its links to salmon.
It was there on October 7, 1922, that Georgina Ballantine caught the 64lb whopper that still holds the British record for a line-caught salmon.
Anglers still enjoy fishing in the nation’s largest salmon river, but these days they must return their catch to the water.
So, after a day’s fishing, they buy a salmon supper from the Dunkeld Fish Bar to take home instead.
Scott, 50, said: “Dunkeld is famous for salmon but all the fishing on the Tay is catch and release now, so we offer the solution.
“A lot of fishermen come in after a day on the river and get a salmon supper for their tea on their way home.”
He added: “It’s a really big favourite among tourists though. People from all over the world come through Dunkeld on the tour buses.
“They stop for their lunch or their supper, see salmon on the menu and they have to have it.”
Scott gets his deliveries of salmon from a fish merchant in Arbroath.
He cuts the pre-prepared sides into 8oz fillets, butterflies them and fries them to order in beef fat to create a light batter.
He said: “I get the best salmon you can buy and the batter is light and crispy.
“You get such a wonderful flavour.”
The Dunkeld Fish Bar is renowned for deep frying a range of food from brussels sprouts at Christmas to the shop’s famous deep fried sweet of the week.
Scott said: “We’ve fried almost every conceivable thing.
“There are a few things that don’t work -- marshmallows and chocolate Crunchies – but we like to be
adventurous.”
Visitors to Dunkeld gave the deep fried and battered salmon the thumbs up in a taste test.
Art teacher Tina Templeton, 40, visiting from Glasgow on a camping weekend with her young family, said: “It’s delicious. We love fish but I’ve never seen salmon in a fish and chip shop before.
“I thought it couldn’t be done but it’s nice and flaky, juicy and more flavourful than white fish.
“It doesn’t need anything on it. I’d definitely order a salmon supper again.”
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