Osborne’s Seafood & Old Leigh Delicacies

August 25, 2015 by Rich - Foodie Reviewer

Osborne’s Seafood & Old Leigh Delicacies

I’ve been reviewing restaurants for a little while now, and we’ve covered most bases I reckon. Chinese, Indian, French, Turkish and more; haven’t we travelled well! We have a wonderful melting pot of cuisines right on our doorstep, and some great restaurants to match. But that got me thinking, have I neglected our local cuisine? I don’t mean just the local restaurants, but the real local cuisine. The cuisine, which brings tourists far and wide to our little corner of Essex. I guess I really mean local ‘delicacies’, the sort of food you can’t find anywhere else. Where do you find that? It’s just got to be Old Leigh and the Cockle Sheds.

I love Old Leigh! I can be found there most weekends, more often than not propping up the bar in the Mayflower. They’ve got some bloody good local ale on offer. When I say local, I mean local, often travelled no farther than Great Wakering or South Woodham. But, me being the self-confessed food addict, what do I eat when in old Leigh? Of course, the pubs are serving up some pretty good grub. I am sure nobody would turn down a pint of local ale and fish and chips in the Mayflower. Or, how about cockle chowder in the Peter Boat, very nice they are too. But it just doesn’t seem right if I don’t pop down to Osborne’s for some good ol’ seafood, its just makes my day complete! Osborne’s have been serving up seafood for well over a hundred years, and a lot of it caught from their very own boat, the Mary Amelia. They’ve really put Old Leigh on the map, and it’s so popular. As we all know, just visit Osborne’s on a sunny Sunday afternoon, its packed, locals and holidaymaker’s alike enjoying wonderful seafood.

Now, I eat most of the seafood on offer at Osborne’s, brown shrimps, winkles, I love em all. But, there’s one thing I am unsure of; those ghastly ‘imitation lobster tails’? I mean what the hell are they? Where the hell do they come from?? Not from a Lobster that’s for sure!! But hey, I guess you’ve got to cater to all tastes, not just the seafood purists! For me, the real jewel in the Old Leigh seafood crown are jellied eels! I am sure quite a few of you wont share my love of all things eels, but I would encourage you to give them ago, they really are tasty, and local to only the East End and Southend. We need to embrace them as our own. Not forgetting the cockles, oh how I love these little beauties, synonymous with Leigh for years; its what the sheds themselves are named after. So guys, you don’t get more local than this!

Just to add, and to further prove my point, a couple of years ago Lou and I were lucky enough to enjoy an evening with Rick Stein in Padstow. He demonstrated some recipes, and with only a small audience, everybody had a good opportunity to interact with Rick. Well, one of the dishes he cooked should have included eels, most people in the room cringed at the mere thought of an eel, and were glad when Rick explained he was unable to obtain the slippery little critters. Not me, I was disappointed! He asked the group if they had ever seen eels on sale locally. Nobody had, apart from yours truly; I know I can often get live eels in the Leigh Fisherman’s Co-op. When I shared this with the group, Ricks ears pricked up, ‘You must live somewhere like Leigh on Sea!!’ he said. Well, there you go, I rest my case, we are famous for Eels! As we left, I shook Ricks hand, ‘give my love to Leigh’ he whispered! But its not just Rick who holds a soft spot for Leigh, Jamie Oliver was spotted a few months back outside the Billet sipping ale and enjoying a plate of cockles. Not forgetting the hairy bikers, they came down a few years ago, and who can blame them! They know as well as we do how wonderful Old Leigh is.

Well, Last weekend Lou and I trundled off to the old town to see our local dealer for my weekly seafood fix. We managed to get a bench outside the billet, equipped with the obligatory white pepper and vinegar which is so important, but I will come on to that later. I grabbed us both a pint from the Billet, our discussion then moved on to our pending seafood lunch and what it should include. As you’d guess, for me it just has to be jellied eels, and cockles. We added a couple of roll mops, a few prawns, a whelk or two, ohh and how about half a dozen oysters? Not forgetting a couple bread rolls. After a short queue at Osborne’s I returned to our bench with a tray full of seafood treats; we just had to wait for the oysters to be freshly shucked.

I dived straight in for the eels. But you cant eat these naked, oh no, they have to be doused in malt vinegar with a generous dusting of white pepper. Just going back to Rick Stein, he once described jellied eels as similar to strawberries and cream. Strange I know, but I could relate to it. Strawberries, cream and sugar are just a match made in heaven, but which is better? The sugar and cream or the strawberries? As with jellied eels, which do I prefer, the jelly, pepper and vinegar or the eels? I think only the real jellied eel aficionado would understand this comment, but it’s so true; I really cant decide which is best! Well, the Eels at Osborne’s were fantastic as always. The cockles? These received the same treatment as the eels, pepper and vinegar; they were sweet, tangy and just a great accompaniment to my pint of ale. We always go for shell on prawns; they just taste so much better and sweeter than the shelled alternatives. I do love Roll Mops, ok, these aren’t really local, probably manufactured somewhere in Europe, but they are delicious all the same. The whelks? An acquired taste I think, but Lou and I really enjoy them. But, if I had to be honest, in the big whelk showdown, the Leigh Fisherman’s Co-op may have a nose in front here. As good as Osborne’s whelks are, the Co-op’s are generally smaller, which makes them a little more tender and sweeter too. The Oysters finally turned up to our bench, and what a lovely way to end to this seafood feast. With just a squeeze of lemon, they slipped down perfectly. Raw Oysters aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but they are so tasty; a seafood lovers experience, often described as diving straight in to the fresh clear briny. They just taste of the sea! Beautiful, invigorating, and an aphrodisiac too; apparently!!

Well, there you go folks, that’s a little run down of my weekly fix of seafood. You didn’t really need me to tell you how wonderful Old Leigh is; I just wanted an excuse to share my love of seafood! As I said earlier, Osborne’s have been serving up seafood for over a hundred years, and here’s to the next hundred. Restaurant fads and food move in trends, but the simplicity of Osborne’s has remained pretty much unchanged for years, and I am sure it will continue this way for years to come. Isn’t eating seafood in the open air, by the sea, just perfect, its one of life’s simple pleasures which I will never tire of. We need to embrace everything about our local area, including the seafood. So come on, lets all get down to Old Leigh and grab a tub of eels! Remember, plenty of white pepper and vinegar, and dive in. Ok if you don’t like eels I will let you off, but lay off those imitation lobster tales!!