A Whitley Bay chippy has announced the return of a festive favourite after high demand from its customers.
Christmas is traditionally a time for some wacky culinary experiments, some of which have worked very well, while others should never have made it off the drawing board, like the Five Guys pigs in blankets milkshake last year. Pigs in blankets are usually a good start for any experiments, as Fisherman's Bay in Whitley Bay has found - and a lot less divisive than the deep-fried Creme Egg they offered at Easter.
The award-winning chippy, which was named one of the ten best fish and chip restaurants in the country earlier this year, has offered a foot-long pig in blanket over the Christmas period since opening in 2019. And this year its release has been brought forward to the last weekend in November, with customers having been asking for it "for weeks," according to owner Steven Dhillon.
Steven told ChronicleLive: "Last year, we had kids as young as 12 trying to take on the challenge of trying to eat a full foot-long pig in blanket, which they did. It's something that people keep asking us, when's it coming back?
"We usually do it at the start of December but we've had so many people coming back for it, we've brought it back early this weekend just gone (Saturday November 25)."
The chippy has had to improvise ahead of Christmas, at a traditionally quieter time of year, with it missing the summer tourists who hit up the North East coast. Steven continued: "Obviously we lose the tourists that Whitley Bay gets but luckily enough we've got a lot of chimney pots surrounding the area because we've made a good reputation for ourselves.
"We've managed to make people travel to us from all over, and we've had people come from Newcastle, Sunderland and Northumberland, so we do well in that sense."
The pigs in blankets are not the only item on the menu this year, with cheese and sage patties with a cranberry filling, a festive chicken burger, and a vegan pig in blanket all available to order and accompanied with cranberry relish and chips. There are special desserts and hot drinks too.
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