Hooked by Seafood > WORDS BY NIKI TENNANT
As the daughter of a renowned Aberdeen fish merchant, the proprietor of the recently-opened Countesswells Fish Shop has been raised to praise the harvest of the sea. Lorna Hosie whose father, George has been in the fish trade for over four decades, has always dreamed of reintroducing to her own community a fishmonger that offers the best of produce at competitive prices. Having worked as an administrator in a fish business and helped out brother John Hosie, in his Torry fish shop over the years, Lorna saw her redundancy as an opportunity to call on her experience within the industry and become her own boss. The Countesswells Fish Shop was opened in early March, just a stone’s throw from her home.
For additional convenience, Lorna and her team can even vacuum-pack your purchases. All in all, the Countesswells Fish Shop offers a very different and much more personal service to the supermarket fish counter. You’ll be hooked.
Countesswells Fish Shop, 72a Countesswells Road Aberdeen T: 01224 311609
Lorna prides herself on sourcing fresh fish daily which, wherever possible, is purchased locally. As well as making her own frequent visits to the dawn fish market, Lorna’s day begins by contacting her Peterhead-based buyer who purchases on her behalf, depending on the best of the day’s landings and Lorna’s customers’ demands. If she cannot meet a customer’s specialist requirements by sourcing from Aberdeen or Peterhead, she’ll call on market traders at Grimsby, Scrabster or even Iceland to ensure they are not disappointed. While her chilled counter offers the family favourites you’d expect to find in any good fishmonger – including tasty ownrecipe fish and crab cakes - Lorna can, with prior notice, source live lobster, mouth-watering oysters, red snapper and plump, juicy langoustine, guaranteed to wow guests at any dinner party or barbecue.