By Austen dack
The excitement surrounding the NFFF Fish & Chip Awards is palpable, especially for the winners of the prestigious Takeaway of the Year category, who are afforded the incredible opportunity not only to visit Norway (Ryan went without Kimberly) but to fry in Japan’s equivalent of Selfridges! This unique experience not only brings recognition but also opens doors to cultural exchange and culinary mastery on an international stage. To further enrich this journey, Ryan and Kimberly have graciously agreed to share their insights and experiences through a regular blog from the land of the rising sun. Their adventure promises to remind us all of the global appreciation for our beloved dish. As we follow along, let us be inspired by their journey, and inspire others to follow in their footsteps!
Ship Deck Blog Day One by Kimberly and Ryan Hughes
Day 1 at Hakata, Fukuoka. After a long night flight, we arrived to Japan and settled for the night. We spent the first day exploring visited a shrine/temple and experiencing Japan’s culture, food and way of living. Japan is a very friendly, chilled & spotlessly clean.
We then visited the department store where the British fair is based and familiarised ourselves with the Ship Decks pop up store to see what we was working with!
We went in in bright and early for the grand opening of the British fair to give us the head start we needed. So far, it’s been a great experience, the team we have working with us are excellent and the customers are so friendly. Everyone is so excited to see us and try our amazing British fish and chips, we are loving every moment of it. On the first day alone, we served hundreds of portions of fish and chips, and had queues wrapped around the store all day long!
We were a little sceptical of the equipment and products we were given to use however are really pleased with the quality of food we are producing out here, and proud to represent team fish and chips in Japan.
Day Two!
By Ryan Hughes
We are really enjoying our time here in Japan. Although we will admit we are already missing the kids, they come everywhere we go and experience the world with us. We have been setting alarms to call them before and after school just so we can tell each other about our days. Thank God for face time!
We took a break from frying for a hour today and got to stroll around the British fair and see what it had to offer, it was a bit of a strange feeling really we were worried how they were getting on, if the queues where moving quick enough and if the food remained to the standards. Exactly how we would with Ship Deck back home.
It’s a pleasure to put in the same league as big companies from the UK. Harrods, Nicholas from the Savoy (you should see the queues he has for his scones, they are also going crazy for pies, our pop up is joined to Taylor’s pies, it’s a mind-blowing experience when you think about it!
Customers are loving the fish and chips and are so pleased to see us! We even had a guy return today because he enjoyed it yesterday, I think there is a huge gap in the market for fish and chips out here.
I am so fortunate to have visited Norway and now Japan. These are two of the very long benefits of winning the Best Takeaway at the National Fish & Chip Awards so please enter your shop for one of the remaining awards still open!
Day Three
Hello it’s Kim, Ryan’s still flat out it’s been a very busy day ..
Today was our busiest day since opening at the British fair, and we completely sold out by 7pm! We’ve been told tomorrow (Saturday) will be even busier so an early night is the plan!
The staff have been amazing! it was great to take a short time away from the fryer today to catch up with some customers, with all good feedback 😁. We have 1 full day and a 3pm close on Sunday left at Hakata, Fukoka before the pop up shop is taken down and moved to our second fair in Osaka.
It’s difficult to get pictures of customers eating our fish and chips as in Japan you are not allowed to “eat on the go” but we did manage to catch this lady sat down just about to eat. (I’m so missing walking with a coffee in hand)
Melrose and Morgan, our neighbour stall, has been treating us with lovely lemon scones and coffee today!
We did our last day at Hataka, which was a sell out by 2:30 so a really busy day with long queues and a great atmosphere to the day, the following morning we made our journey to Osaka via a bullet train checked into Hankyu hotel and spent the evening sight seeing. We visited Osaka Tsūtenkaku tower and it really did have amazing views, then jumped on the tube to dotonbori had some amazing traditional Japanese food And went to visit the most pictured spot in Japan full of billboards over the canal.
The following day we had a jam packed day of sight seeing visiting a temple in Kyoto where we where given a tour by a monk and taken to areas which is not open to the public, a great experience!
So we really have soaked up much of japans culture. Followed by the opening ceremony of Hankuys British fair. Then it was back to work today at straight in the deep end extremely long queues.
We have loved seeing so many people excited to sample fish & chips and so pleased to see us, in a nut shell we are loved every singe minute out in Japan!
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