Brunswick fisherman seas new record

Seafood lovers swam into Brunswick’s famous fish and chip shop on Good Friday to dive into a fresh feast.

Da Silva’s Seafood shop owner Joe Da Silva said Good Friday was his busiest day on record.

It was probably even the busiest day of my life.

“People kept coming and coming and they did not stop.”

The Brunswick fisherman said he went through 200kg of chips, 50kg of fish, 10kg of prawns and 10kg of squid.

He began work at 11am and worked 10 hours straight in order to keep up with the demand over lunch and dinner on the Christian holiday — where red meat was usually not eaten by Catholics, hence the demand for fish.

“I had three fryers going at once, but I always want to deliver quality over quantity, that is the most important thing,” he said.

“We had a customer place an order every five minutes so it was go, go, go.”

Mr Da Silva said he was sorry to the people who missed out on the day.

He also said the heat was intense all day, with temperatures reaching 50C in the kitchen.

Mr Da Silva has been operating in Brunswick for half a decade and has supplied the South West with seafood for 17 years.

Originally from Portugal he has been in the industry for 40 years.

His father was a fisherman in the Madeira Islands in Portugal.

I learnt everything from my family.

The Madeira Islands are the “European paradise” of big-game fishing, with record-sized fish being caught off the island.

He said the secret to cooking good fish and chips was cooking at 180C with ice-cold beer batter and adding turmeric ground to the fish batter.