Ah, fish and chips
The perfect end to a busy week. A busy week, can you imagine? I’d gotten used to bone idleness. This is better, I suppose – at least in an “eat your broccoli” kind of way.
Traditional chip shops are on the decline, partly because young people don’t eat a lot of fish. Most places selling it are run by foreigners. Chinese restaurants are big on fish and chips, for some reason.
We’re at the seaside, so we’re lucky to have several in the area. Our favorite is really very good. Food looks awful in black and white, so you’ll have to trust me it was a lovely drop of fish.
They were open for takeout right throughout the lockdown. We tried to go once a week, to keep him afloat and to break up the dull monotony of those weary months. Yes, he’s a foreigner. But then, so am I!
Good weekend, everyone.
Posted: August 6th, 2021 under food.
Comments: 13
Comments
Comment from ea
Time: August 6, 2021, 9:32 pm
I know the fish is crispy but are the chips crispy or kind of floppy? Do you use malt vinegar or lemon? And mushy peas or coleslaw?
I would have to go to the KFC that also serves Long John Silvers here to have anything even slightly like this-so jealous.
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: August 6, 2021, 10:01 pm
Oh, yum! Fish and chips are on my short list of favorite meals (please add tangy coleslaw). For the chips, I can make do with mayonnaise but prefer malt vinegar. Top it all off with a glass or two of a tasty lager, and I’m all grins.
We’re on the coast, also, so we’ve got lots of fish’n’chips options, and most are excellent.
p.s. For a change-up, try your chips dipped in Thai sweet chili sauce. You’ll have to bring your own if you eat at the shop!
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: August 6, 2021, 11:56 pm
Mrs D’s GPs were a couple of Brits who ran a chip shop in Fall River.
And that photo looks good, the golden goodness of that fish shines through.
Nom nom -Lager! Coleslaw! Fresh horseradish and catchup too.
Comment from HTL
Time: August 7, 2021, 12:03 am
Fish and chips is/are one of our favorite meals. Looks like a tempura-style batter on yours, but our favorite place does a double-dip batter process (flour, egg wash, second flour) that incorporates panko crumbs as part of the second coating that makes it even crunchier. So good that I learned to make it at home. Pro tip: add some baking powder to the mix for your second flour dip to enhance the crunch still further. By a remarkable coincidence, my wife just called from the store to say that cod is on sale, so I guess we’re having fish and chips this weekend.
Also, a question. I remember reading somewhere that British fish and chip shops used to never change their oil, just top it off, but eventually some government somewhere (either London or Brussels, I guess) made them stop. Any idea if that is true or not?
Comment from BJM
Time: August 7, 2021, 5:27 pm
Oh yum! We don’t get Atlantic cod on the West Coast (Duh!), but the local black cod is pretty darned close. Alaskan Halibut makes tasty fish & chips too….but nothing beats the “real thing”.
@Stoaty..it’s a pity that the younger generation isn’t eating fish given they are living on an island in the best fishing grounds in the world.
@Al… Thai sweet chili sauce! Oh Hell yes! My mantra is if Sriracha doesn’t work go to the Thai sweet chili, and then Cholula or Crystal.
@HTL…I remember reading something about that too…I assumed it was EU overreach. Although one can imagine some sort of oversight might be needed as it is food service, but this overregulating all our shit has to stop.
Comment from Armybrat
Time: August 7, 2021, 10:14 pm
Have I ever mentioned that I am deathly allergic to shellfish and fin fish? My husband is not. This was not so much a problem in my life when I lived in Bavaria, south Texas, upstate NY or Kansas. It’s kinda a problem living in Boston and now south Florida. My restaurant selection is carefully vetted and decidedly mediocre. Luckily for the hubby we have non-allergic friends that when he wants some water animals to eat he gives them a call.
Comment from BJM
Time: August 8, 2021, 3:22 am
OT…this photo gave me chills.
There are more informational stories re Khufu’s 4600 yr old solar boat elsewhere, but the Mail has a smashing set of photos.
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: August 8, 2021, 3:27 am
@BUM – Tim Powers, Anubis Gates. Good story using the sunboat in the plot.
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: August 8, 2021, 11:12 am
HTL – I suspect that isn’t a true story.
Traditionally, F&C were cooked in beef dripping but that solidifies when cold which makes clearing up and replacing it quite a chore, so most shops these days use vegetable oils of many varieties. One shop we know of began by using dripping but grew tired of the hassle and switched to peanut (ground nut) oil. Yeuch! It tastes completely wrong with fish.
Some of the vegetable oils are OK but most people agree that beef dripping is better. You can still find the traditional kind of shop that uses it, but they seem mostly to be in the North of England. And we’re not.
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: August 8, 2021, 11:22 am
Oh, and BJM, just an aside. Although cod is the fish of choice in the South of England, in Scotland and the North haddock is favoured, so cod isn’t mandatory.
In the past you often used to get the choice of cod, haddock, plaice or rock salmon (actually a kind of shark). It’s made more complicated because different fish are called by different names depending on whereabouts you are in the country, though I suspect that’s true in most countries.
Most fish and chip shops these days seem to limit the choice to cod or haddock. In really bad joints heaven only knows what they dip in the batter – I’ve had some pretty weird tasting ‘cod’ at times!
Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: August 8, 2021, 12:30 pm
Congrats @LavenderGirl who takes the most recent dick with Bobby Bowden.
Now we wait on pins and needles for Friday as our favorite selections get older, we hope.
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: August 8, 2021, 3:49 pm
I haven’t eaten fish & chips in ages. Never been a fan of frozen fish, but I may need to buy some cod and try my hand at fish & chips. My MIL used Pan-Kits pancake mix to dip the fish in. She mixed the batter on the thin side, and fried the fish in a Fry Daddy 🙂 Remember those? She also made a great sauce, by mixing minced onion into Kraft Sandwich Spread, making it crazy tasty. My contribution was mixing up the hush puppies. Now I need to go buy a Fry Daddy.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 9, 2021, 5:51 pm
Typically, the chips are squishy, ea. But I can’t bear that, so I get the little crispy bits that fall to the bottom and Uncle B gets the big squishy ones on top.
And if I don’t watch him like a hawk, he makes them the filling in a sandwich.
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