Fish and chips and other balms for the soul

[Missy Hellfire]

Fish and chips - a magnificent vintage survival that has survived and indeed thrives in modern day Britain. Battered cod or haddock, chips made fresh from real potatoes (not deep frozen rubbish) and occasionally some mushy peas (if I'm eating them at home, mushy peas whilst walking should only be attempted once!) Unless one gets exceedingly lucky, the parcels are no longer wrapped in old newspaper and alas the chips are not fried in beef dripping but rather vegetable oil, but fish and chips remains almost a national dish to this day. I am within walking distance of a least three 'chippies' and within easy driving distance of a dozen more. Fish and chips is a comfort food, and walking back home eating a parcel of them as my grandmother and mother used to makes me feel warm inside, and not just because of the chips!

To those of you not in the UK - Firstly, do you also enjoy a good bag of fish and chips, or is it a purely UK foible? Secondly - do your respective nations have such a surviving dish so readily available, that a person transported from the Golden Era would find instantly familiar?

 

[PADDY]

What an inspired thread..!!

I'm originally from the North of Ireland (Norn Iron). We have a dish called a 'Pastie Supper' which is chips with a deep fried 'pattie' made up of leftovers of sausage meat, peppery seasoning, onions, mashed potatoes...and it just makes me feel that 'I'm back home' whenever I have that. Sadly I cannot eat it out of the old edition of the Belfast Telegraph (unless I then decant it into one myself after purchase! ), but something about eating it out of newspaper soaked in vinegar and salt...yum!! - oh and eating it on a cold day is just heart and body warming!

 

[Ethan Bentley]

I find some of the best are when you have it on the seafront, particularly when it's cold and blustery.
I have seen a few places where their wrapping has a newspaper print pattern printed on it but isn't actual newspaper.
I could never get on with those little wooden forks though. [huh]

 

[BellyTank]

I like Fish and Chips but when I moved from NZ to England, I found the
English F&C to be a bit too greasy and stodgy.
I prefer a little less of the grease and more of the crispy batter on the fish
and well cooked chips, rather than fat, white ones.
I was mainly in London, though...

Maybe I haven't had enough regional Fish and Chips experience.
Maybe that's it.


B
T

 

[BinkieBaumont]

"Whenever I take the train to Olde Fremantle Town I go to "Sweetlips" or "Cicerelo's" the best fish and chips in Freo! Caught that day and served with a scrumptious coleslaw (that includes greated apple!) you sit alfrescoe and watch the trawlers comming in, pure heaven!"

 

[LizzieMaine]

Fish and chips is readily available stateside, especially if you live in an old fishing town -- it's very popular locally at roadside stands, right next to the hot dogs and hamburgers, and it's also featured at all all the local pubs. It's a real crapshoot as to whether it'll be *good* fish and chips though -- usually the fish will be OK, good sized chunks of haddock being the most common, but the chips leave a lot to be desired: you're just as likely to get McDonalds-type fries as you are the hand-cut style.

There's only one place in town here that serves F&C with the correct malt vinegar -- usually you end up with a little cup of bottled tartar sauce and a wedge of lemon, which I presume would be considered barbaric on the British side of the pond.

As far as an American/regional equivalent, here in Maine, a Saturday night bean supper hasn't changed in generations -- small pea beans baked for hours in a sauce made from molasses, brown sugar and mustard, along with a big slab of salt pork. Properly served only with brown bread to sop up all the sauce. Ketchup is nowhere in sight. Home cooking at its finest, and the only correct place to have this meal *away* from home is down at the Methodist Church on a snowy night in February, where it's dished up by the W. S. C. S. ladies out of huge crocks and eaten at folding tables lined up in rows in the church hall.

 

[tortswon]

Hoagies

After the US entered the first world war, the sons of thousands of Italian Americans volunteered to join the service. The induction station was located on Hog Island. For a final taste of home, the leftover antipasto enjoyed the night before the son shipped out was placed in a large loaf of fresh Italian bread which could travel to the induction station. These sandwiches became known as "hoggies," so named for the induction station location.

Flash forward to the present. The sandwiches are now known as submarines, heroes, blimpies, zeps, and by dozens of other names. Here in Philly, the name "hoggie" has evolved into "hoagie," a dish which has not changed in a century. People from the 1920's to the present would recognize it and enjoy it. Hoagie shops abound in South Philadelphia where the original hoggies were created. Best, Sam

PS I love a traditional fish and chip meal. Here in Philadelphia the preferred fish were smelts and were available in almost any taproom especially on meatless Fridays. Many of our traditional tap rooms continue this tasty tradition.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

The equivalent of Fish and Chips are available in NYC, good at South Street seaport.. the old Sloppy Louie's (which closed in 1998) for example

But if I want that "other balm for the soul" I go for a

Big Slices :essen:

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Dr Atkins says topping is OK , however, Base is a big "No Go " zone "

 

[csmiller]

Real Fish and Chips

To those of you not in the UK - Firstly, do you also enjoy a good bag of fish and chips, or is it a purely UK foible? Secondly - do your respective nations have such a surviving dish so readily available, that a person transported from the Golden Era would find instantly familiar?

Hi Missy, My wife and I love F&C, but it is near impossible in our part of the country (upstate New York) to get TRUE F&C. Most are just small pieces of fish that are breaded or battered (not the good beer batter) and fries. I've even been to a couple places in NYC that served F&C that I felt wasn't true F&C. The only place that we found, and it is no where near where we live, was in Rehoboth Beach, Deleware while we were on a vacation. While visiting Rehoboth Beach, we happen upon a little shop on the Board Walk offering F&C. We were greeted by a woman with a great British accent. She cooked a nice chunk of properly battered fish for us right then (no heat lamp here) while we chatted. Served it with malt vinegar and real chips. We only wish it was much closer.....

As for you second question - my submission(s) would be Hot Dogs and Hamburgers. What can I say - they are everywhere today and were staples back in the Golden Era.

Craig

 

[Edward]

You can't beat a chip butty.... I'm not much of a fish - or, indeed, seafood in general - person, I do prefer a good pasty, burger or hot dog.... or a battered sausage. The ultimate, though - and one that brings back memories of childhood holidays in the Ayrshire area of Scotland - is battered haggis and chips. Food of the gods.

Full-on comfort food, staying in the chip vein, is home made, hand cut chips, deep fried until they are a dark, golden colour, almost bronze (just to the point where the exterior takes on the tiniest hint of a bitter edge), with beef sausages and beans, followed by jelly and ice cream. Very strong memories of childhood, back when my paternal grandmother, God rest her soul, used to cook this for us.

Otherwise, comfort foods involve mash, peas, carrots and either chicken breast or a nice slice of lamb, beef, or pork. Oh, or homemade broth:

- slice a decent quantity of stewing steak - a nice bit of beef shin, if you can get it, or lamb. I've also had good results with venison
- put in pan with water, bring to the boil, then simmer for 45 minutes
- add sliced carrots, celery, leek, potato, split peas, barley, and a pinch of some mixed herbs
- bring to the boil, then simmer for a further 45 minutes.

I make this regularly in Winter - I was brought up on this stuff, it's the best thing out there for colds and all sorts of Winter sniffles - that and a brisk afternoon walk round Rathmore Point :lol: - normally I make a huge vat and freeze it in batches. I often also make a smaller pot with only veg (takes only the 45 minutes then) - handy if veggie friends are round.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

I haven't even tried to get decent F&C here on the west coast since I moved back...maybe someone makes them...but unlikely.

And why sully the memory of all the lovely good stuff with substandard impostors.

The best I have ever had was from someplace on the Suffolk coast...I was not the one driving so I was paying little attention, but was not all that far from Ipswich...

mmmm

Now, Indian....thats another whole thing...for some crazy arsed reason....all packaged Indian sauces here are hot hot....I do not know who told them Korma was Jalafrezi.....but it just means I have to go to one of a few places that actually have variable -heat- dishes....

 

[BellyTank]

Cornish Pasties- Cornish ones, not London ones- no carrots, or other foreign bodies, and not minced meat. Potato, beef, turnips, or swede, onions, salt black pepper and pastry. And pronounced like pass, not like gas.

Living in NZ, with Cornish ancestry, we had, for decades, used an old family recipe for Pasties. Moving to London and tasting the local pasties- horrible,
I decided to travel to Cornwall and have the real thing- so close to our traditional family ones, amazing. Heavy on the black pepper.

They're good in Cornwall.


B
T

 

[BellyTank]

Now, Indian....that's another whole thing...

My Wife's Indian, Punjabi- we cook up a storm.
Some Indians don't eat chilli at all.

I make a mean fish curry,.... ooh and lamb... actually the list is very long,
then there's the vegetable dishes.

Indian cooking is very simple and rewarding.


B
T

 

[Lone_Ranger]

I went to a local Oktoberfest, over the weekend, so I'd have to say a good Jager Schnitzel, and a beer! I use venison, when I make it at home. Very tasty.

I'd would have said bratwurst, but I can't seem to find the right half-meter brat, that I had in Germany. You can't get the same ones in the US.

If I'm in Pittsburgh, it has to be a Primanti Sandwich.

 

[scottyrocks]

The best fish-n-chips Ive had was on the boardwalk in Blackpool.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Cornish Pasties- Potato, beef, turnips, or swede, onions, salt black pepper and pastry. And pronounced like pass, not like gas.


B
T

Interesting being of Chilean descent I make empanadas ....I start with my own wheat flour mixture for dough then put in the filling. It is of indigenous Chilean and Spanish heritage and includes Cheese or a mix of shrimp, crab or meat and onions, olives or spice. I used to deep fry them, but, now I bake.


I use the same wheat dough mixture for homemade pizza.

 

[BellyTank]

Yum, yum.


B
T

 

[Selentino]

I use to love the F&C we used to buy off the trucks in Ipswich, newspapers and all. I've had nothing here that comes close. As a boy in Philadelphia on a cold day it was always a slice of pizza from the family place at the 69th street station.

 

[dnjan]

Lots of opportunities to have fisn-n-chips in Seattle (some good and some not). Locally (close to the University of Washington) one of the best is from an Irish pub (and yes, the owner is really Irish) called FinnMcCools.
Though I don't consider fisn-n-chips a walk-away food. I have only had it served in a basket with knife and fork.
And yes, the Irish place serves it with the vinegar, but they also provide a side of tarter sause for those so inclined.