What a whopper - Amirul and his fish

EXCLUSIVE

by Dan Bloom

dbloom@thekmgroup.co.uk

When Amirul Islam asked his favourite shop for the biggest fish they could get, he was left reeling.

He ordered a whopper for a family barbecue, and in came a nine-stone catfish from Bangladesh.

More than 100 friends are now set to eat the 'Rita rita' fish - which weighs the same as a 16-year-old boy - at the 50-year-old's home in Ordnance Street, Chatham.

The Bangladeshi-born chef has run the Zeera curry house in Rochester High Street for 25 years. He was stunned when the order arrived on Thursday.

"It is a very big fish for the Medway towns," he said. "I have never seen anything like it in my life.

"I was very surprised but I have no regrets. I definitely wanted it."

The father-of-five plans to slice up the £315 catch, including the head, and do everything from barbecuing it to making a catfish bhuna.

The 57kg whopper has enough meat to provide almost 300 chip shop portions - which in turn would need 100kg of chips.

Abdul Hannan, who owns Sani Globe Food in Luton Road, Chatham, ordered the monster.

He had no idea how large it would be - and he has been invited to the feast as a reward.

"It's massive," the 42-year-old said. "I asked my suppliers to get something more than 12kg. I didn't expect this.

"Luckily my customer is so pleased. He's really going to be able to show off with this."

The father-of-three sells giant fruit, spices, fish and meat from his store among other produce.

A large carp in the shop weighs up to about 10kg - while the catfish was the size of two freezers.

Mr Hannan offered a discount to his loyal customer, despite several offers to take the fish off his hands.

He said: "Everyone's been so amazed by it. I had to call the suppliers in Bangladesh and ask if they had three or four more.

"They said it was the biggest one they'd ever had. They'll never be able to repeat it."

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