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back to article Middlesbrough culinary giants battle for parmo supremacy

Middlesbrough culinary giants went head-to-head over the weekend in the World Parmo Competition - a battle to identify just who serves the ultimate local contribution to haute cuisine. The honours went to Mike's Return takeaway, which wrested the crown from 2008 winner Borge Ristorante in Stockton-on-Tees, pipping it into …

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  1. Richie 1

    Parmos are the best thing about Teesside

    I grew up there, and they are pretty much the only thing I miss about the place.

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    1. Rampant Spaniel
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      Re: Parmos are the best thing about Teesside

      Proper Whitby fish and chips as well! At least you can make a parmo pretty much anywhere in the world :-)

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      1. djack
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        Thumb Up

        Re: Parmos are the best thing about Teesside

        Umm.. Whitby isn't in Teesside. The fact that the Esk runs right through it might give you a clue ;)

        I've been up & down the country and haven't seen fish'n'chips anywhere near as good as you can get as good as you get around here (apart from in Whitby).

        I'm spoilt as my local chippy does old fashioned crinkle cut chips done in proper beef fat. Lush.

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        1. toxicdragon
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          Re: Parmos are the best thing about Teesside

          A chipshop on the sea front at hornsea called sullivans. Best I have ever tasted.

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          2. gizmo23
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            @toxicdragon

            Whiteheads on the Greenway is definitely superior to Sullivans. Whenever I visit my Mum she won't have any other.

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        2. Rampant Spaniel
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          @djack

          True, but it's a short walk (about 30 miles through some very nice countryside) away. Theres an art to proper chips, you have to vary the frying temp as the sugar content of the maris pipers varies over the year. Plus loads of places buy in machine deboned 'cod' from all over the place. It just isn't the same. Is Barnacles still going? I remember stopping there a few times for f&c to take down by the minesweeper.

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          1. djack
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            Re: @djack

            Yep, Barnacles is still going. Whilst I used to love them whist a student they are now a last resort for me. I don't know whether their quality has gone downhill or my tastes have gone up.

            My local takes the 'art' to somewhere near an extreme by doing stuff like looking after the fat by only opening for four hours at a time.

            Aha! Found the site : http://www.small-fry-redcar.co.uk/index.html

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            1. Rampant Spaniel
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              Re: @djack

              I think quality has taken a hit when people sold out due to increasing wage / spud / fish costs. I haven't been in barnacles for probably 10 years but they were usually reliable, cheap and ok for quality. Will try the one you suggested next time I'm in town. The chippy by ings farm primary used to be great (especially for nipping out of school at lunch) but sold to new owners and its not the same. The one at the bottom of saltburn banks alright.

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    2. John H Woods Silver badge
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      Happy

      Re: Parmos are the best thing about Teesside

      Living in Teesside one has access to stunning coastline, one of the most beautiful of the National Parks, thriving and attractive towns and an increasingly cosmopolitan city that has come on a long way since the 80s when I was a teenager there.

      Just saying :-)

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      1. Rampant Spaniel
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        Re: Parmos are the best thing about Teesside

        I can agree on the coastline and the nym are one of the most beautiful places I have been (and they do border the teesvalley) but frankly the rest of it has gone downhill for the most part. It lost too many jobs, good skilled jobs as well. A quick look at somewhere like Redcar highstreet tells the tale. Gone are places like M&S, Newboulds etc now theres Brighthouse (a sure sign somewhere has gone to the dogs), endless pound shops, bargain stores, mobile phone shops etc. Rejuvination (actual rebuilding, not stupid fish sculptures or vertical piers) needs real jobs to 'stick'. Saltburn seems to have managed to clean up the jewel streets and has improved which is great, but theres an endless list of places that have gone downhill. It's not a reflection on the people, but nowhere can survive a mass exodus of jobs like that. Just driving from Redcar past the steel works and ici (this site alone has lost what 15000 jobs?), out towards seal sands and billingham and hartlepool and you drive past hundreds of thousands of lost jobs, only a fraction of which have been replaced by low paid service industry jobs.

        I really do wish the area well, but my impression has been of a decline over the years. Most of the people I went to school and college with moved away to find better jobs.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    For those of us with that turn of mind...

    This article is as richly larded with irony as a parmo is larded with lard

    (Is the above a record for the ratio of "lard" to other words in a sentence?)

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  4. Dcope
    Alert

    Salad

    People allways focus on the chips etc, however the main thing needed for a good parmo is quality salad and a nice thick garlic sauce! Speaking as a long time parmo partaker from darlo.

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    1. Rampant Spaniel
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      Re: Salad

      Very true.

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    3. John H Woods Silver badge
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      Re: Salad

      Point of order. More than 2 tbps of salad makes one's parmo a vegetarian one.

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  5. disgruntled yank

    coram non judice, surely

    I thought that by El Reg's rules, such matters could be judged only in Spain.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: coram non judice, surely

      I'm in Spain and am quite happy to offer my services as an independent judge. Just courier your entry to me and specify the degree of intoxication required for the best effect and I will email your report back as soon as I can work a computer again.

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  6. taxman

    The Real McCoy

    A whole chicken fillet - non of that other rubbish - bashed flat, egg dip, breadcrumbs, fried, thick white fat laden sauce, loads of old cheddar, grilled to melt and mold the cheese..........and eaten! With a pint of Camerons - cask or electric.

    Tall Trees did a good one until they went all posh.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Pint

      Re: The Real McCoy

      As someone who grew up in Hartlepool, I can wholly approve of the pint of Camerons Strongarm (especially with its "puff pastry" head)!

      Struggling to find anywhere nice though to try a decent Parmo in the town but agree it has to be a whole fillet (or even 2 sandwiched together). My last decent one was at a sit down restaurant in Stockton near the Riverside a few years back.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    RIP "The Parmo King"

    "Featherstone died earlier this year". Any idea what from?

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    1. Les Dennis
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      Re: RIP "The Parmo King"

      Shot himself apparently. Found dead at home with a gun anyway.

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