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8b. Fish and Chips (Part the Second) Well, we’ve sorted out the fish and the chips, now we need to decide where to eat it. Fish and chips wrapped in paper for takeaway. THE VENUE Fish and chips is available all over Britain in dedicated fish and chips shops, known as “chippies” in most of Britain, but, I’m told, “chippers” in Northern Ireland. Often run by Italian families,these only sell for takeaway, your fish and chips wrapped in paper. Traditionally this was old newspapers, but this practice was outlawed long ago for health and hygiene reasons. Also, there are dedicated sit down fish restaurant selling fish and chips and other fish dishes. Many of these sit down places also do takeaway. The dish is also available in many pubs, cafés and regular restaurants. Perhaps bizarrely, many Chinese and Indian restaurants also offer fish and chips. Some of these venues are wonderful; some are awful. Those on the well-travelled tourist trail in London are usually moretowards the awful end, although there are exceptions. On the interwebs there are several sites listing recommendations and sites like Tripadvisor may or may not be useful. My suggestion for any visitor is to try one of the take away places first. They are more traditional. The sit down fish restaurants didn’t appear until 1896, almost 40 years after the takeaways. Pubs rarely served fish and chips even in the 1970s (my student days). In fact, they seldom sold food! THE MENU Chip shop menus are often on the wall behind the fryers. ’In Scotland they will list “suppers”. A “fish supper” is fish and chips. A “haddock supper is “haddock and chips. “Single cod” means cod without chips. Non fish items often sold are sausages in batter, haggis in batter, pies and chips etc. THE CONDIMENTS Fish and chips from chippies is normally served with salt and malt or spirit vinegar. In Edinburgh, Scotland, brown sauce (referred to just as “sauce”) is favoured. Curry sauce or gravy is popular in some areas. In sit down restaurants and pubs, fish and chips may be served with lemon and tartar sauce. Traditionalists consider that close to blasphemous. Tomato ketchup and even mayonnaise may be served, but again are not traditional. Restaurant fish and chips. EXTRAS To accompany your fish and chips, the most common choice in England is a serving of mushy peas. These are dried marrowfat peas which have been soaked overnight then boiled until soft and yes, mushy. Not my favourite. Other accompaniments include pickled onions, pickled eggs, gherkins etc. TWO PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS My favourite place in London is the North Sea Fish Restaurant in Bloomsbury at 7/8 Leigh Street, London WC1H 9EW Tel: 0207 387 5892. My London home is just around the corner. Originally it was just a take away but in 1983 expanded to include a 60-seat restaurant. It still does takeaway or you can eat in the restaurant. Booking for the restaurant is advised. The menu is here. Takeaway on the left; restaurant on the right. The North Sea is one of the places every London taxi driver must know to be licensed. The Norfolk Arms pub opposite is good for a beer afterwards or before. My favourite anywhere is in Scotland. The famous Anstruther Fish Bar and Restaurant at 42-44 Shore Street, Anstruther, Fife, Scotland, KY10 3AQ; Telephone: 01333 310518 is my must-go-to place. The restaurant overlooks the lovely small town’s harbour and the Firth of Forth as it enters the North Sea, where the fish are caught. Again it is advisable to book ahead. The restaurant and takeaway specialises in haddock. The only cod on the current menu is used to make fishcakes. They fry in the traditional method, using beef fat. Utterly delicious, especially sitting outside by the harbour. Menu here. Famous customers of the restaurant include Prince William, Tom Hanks, Tim Hinkley, Robert De Niro and me! Please be sure not to pronounce Anstruther the way the narrator does in this video. It isn’t “Anstroother” as she says it. The ‘u’ in the name is formally pronounced like the “u” in brush. However the locals pronounce the town's name “Ainster”. Picture Credits 1. Fish and chips wrapped in paper for takeaway. Image by Andy Mabbett; licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0 2. Restaurant fish and chips.. Image by Matthias Meckel; licenced under CC BY-SA 4.0 3. North Sea Fish Bar. Image by me. 4. North Sea Fish Bar. Image by me. 5. Anstruther Fish Bar. Image by Robert Young; licenced under CC BY 2.0

I've asked my cousin, who is contacting his siblings to see if they have it.

These are goose livers stewed in soy sauce. 卤鹅肝 (lǔ é gān). Sold pre-cooked on the deli counter of the local supermarket. I bought them to use in a fried rice, but have been munching on them all afternoon. I'll have to go back for more.

Another alligator fan here.

My aunt's rhubarb and ginger jam was to die for. Unfortunately, she is no longer with us and I don't have the recipe. A call to my cousins may be required.

Same as Britain.

Interestingly, the Chinese meal often incorrectly referred to as dim sum* is known as 饮茶/飲茶 in China. (I have given it in two forms: simplifed Chnese as used on the mainland and traditional Chinese as used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and by much of the Chinese diaspora.) 饮茶 is pronounced "yum cha" in Cantonese, spoken where the meal originated, and "yǐn chá" in Mandarin spoken in most of the rest of China. It literally means "drink tea". An alternative name is "叹茶/嘆茶" (tan cha / tàn chá) meaning "enjoy tea". Chinese speakers of English normally refer to the meal as "morning tea". * Dim sum (点心/點心; Cantonese: dim sum; Mandarin: diǎn xin, literally "touch heart") is the food served at a yum cha meal; not the meal itself. So here I can have morning tea, dinner at noon, afternoon tea at 4 pm and tea as my main meal in the evening. But I don't.

I agree. I'll witter on about fish and chips tomorrow, then move on to other myths.There is no shortage.

Yes, I think you are correct to an extent. Until I was 18 (so long ago!), dinner was the mid-day meal and tea the evening meal. Then I left Scotland to go to university and that all changed. "Tea" as a meal disappeared and I switched to lunch and dinner. However, that part of my family who still remain in Scotland still have dinner at noon and tea in the evening. The practice remains strong there and across much of northern England. I am the "ex-pat" who hasn't kept the tradition. Guess there had to be one. Not that I ever consider myself to be an "ex-pat". That seems to be a term reserved for white people who live abroad. Non-white people in the same situation are more often "immigrants" (often assumed to be "illegal") or refugees! I met one idiot here in China who was, I'm sorry to say, Canadian, who whined on and on about how terrible the "immigrant problem" was back home, with particular reference to Chinese emigrants. He was a second generation immigrant to Canada working here in China illegally on a tourist visa - an illegal immigrant himself! But he couldn't see it! He was caught and his visa revoked. Bye-bye! I am an immigrant to China and far from ashamed to say so.

My two children. More on topic - my "killer crab" recipe. Not so much because I want it to be, but I know it will be what people here will remember. Basically, it's blue crabs in a very spicy, garlicky base with oyster sauce.

I call it linguistic diversity. A good thing. 😆

My late mother, whom some of you "know", was very prim and proper. She hated anyone cursing or swearing, to the extent that I grew up believing that saying "bloody" or "drat" or "besooks" would result in immediate death and anything stronger would instantly destroy the universe at the very moment of utterance. Big Bang Two - The Sequel. Bodily functions didn't exist for her, or at least were beyond unmentionable. Sex was a myth promoted by communist bandits out to destroy interplanetary balance and therefore even more unmentionable. But, at the same time, she absolutely loved Billy Connolly despite his apparent inability to get through a sentence without dropping an f-bomb or getting scatalogical. I never mentioned to her that I knew Billy personally, though we were never close friends. But my brother "accidentally" told her. I expected to be told never to darken her doorstep again, but she just complained that I had never brought him home for tea! I remember sitting with her later, watching a video of a live show. She had tears of laughter running down her face and at one point said "Pause it! I'm going to pee myself!" I was never so shocked in my life! Like the Queen, my mother never had any need for micturation or worse. She didn't even eat peas in case anyone misunderstood! Anyway, this is the segment of the video she was watching when she got the urge for going and wanted the video paused. I may have posted it before, but I'm happily posting it again in her memory. Miss you Mum!

8. Fish and Chips (Part the First) Our dauntless YouTubers are still on the loose, searching for yet another unmissable British meal. It’s getting on for dinner time, after all. And what is more British than “Fish And Chips”? Well, maybe quite a lot. The history of Britain’s iconic dish is a tangled one involving Sephardic Jews; Charles Dickens; Winston Churchill; George Orwell; Prince William, and Belgian (or was it French?) influences. Also, despite being a relatively simple dish of deep-fried fish with potatoes, there are many variations to be taken into consideration at every stage of the process. FISH So, let’s start with the fish. It is believed that the practice of deep frying fish originated among Sephardic Jews from the Iberian Peninsula who settled in England (via Holland) in the 16th century. They probably coated their fish in flour, in a similar manner to the modern Spanish dish pescado frito. At some point, some of these people started selling the fried fish in London. In Oliver Twist (1837-39), Charles Dickens mentions “a fish warehouse” in a list of shops to be found a poor, disreputable area of east London – a place where impoverished immigrants have settled for centuries before eventually settling into better areas and leaving their first English homes to the next wave. In 1845, Alexis Soyer published his Shilling Cookery for the People, which features a recipe for "Fried fish, Jewish fashion". Jewish fashion, according to Soyer, means using a flour and water batter. It is not recorded what variety or varieties of fish Dickens’s “warehouse” was selling, but the famous Billingsgate Fish Market was nearby, so they were spoiled for choice. The market operated informally in the 16th and 17th centuries, before being officially issued with a charter in 1699. By the time Dickens was writing Oliver Twist, Billingsgate had expanded to become the largest fish market in the world. The market still exists, but in 1982, was relocated to a new 13 acre (53,000 m2) building complex, further east. The original open air Billingsgate Fish Market in the early 19th century Technically, pretty much any fish could be used for fish and chips, but the modern preference is for a white fish with large, firm flakes. By far, the two favourites are cod and haddock (related fish). Cod wins outright in England; haddock in Scotland, partly because it is plentiful in Scottish waters so, is sustainable, unlike cod which is considered to be “vulnerable”. Haddock also makes for excellent eating.) Be sure to specify what fish you want. For example, by law, any fish sold as part of “cod and chips” must be cod. Same with all named fish; it must be that fish. If the menu just lists “fish and chips”, it can be any fish – often inferior types such as basa which are cheaper for the shop, but probably not for you. BATTER The fish in fish and chips is traditionally battered. Some fish and chip shops offer breaded fish as an alternative, but usually only in those establishments which have seating. Most fish and chips shops offer take away only. The batter is usually a simple flour and water batter, perhaps with baking powder added. Many places boast about their secret batter recipe. Often the secret is that there is no secret! Beer batters etc. are rare. COOKING MEDIUM Traditionally, fish was fried in beef fat (dripping) and many still say that is the best. Including me! But health concerns and that it is unsuitable for fish-eating "vegetarians" and some religious groups, means its use is declining and more standard vegetable oils used instead. THE CHIPS At the same time as the East End of London was beginning to see the introduction of fried fish, it appears the chip showed up. Dickens again gets credit, this time for being the first to use ‘chips’ in the relevant sense. The word had been used to mean batons of fruit earlier. Dickens is the first to use it specifically to refer to potatoes. Fried chips of potato seem to have first arisen in Belgium and not France as previously thought. So, the American term “French fry“ is probably a misnomer. (For the answer to the eternal question "What is the Difference Between French Fries and British Chips?" see this article from BBC America.) Also, there is evidence that chips arose to replace fish when rivers and coastal seas froze over in winter, preventing fishing. People took to carving potatoes into shapes and frying them to resemble fish. I don’t suppose anyone was fooled. Potatoes used for chips in fish and chip shops today are always the floury varieties which give a chip which is crisp on the outside but fluffy in the centre, as opposed to the more waxy varieties which are useless. In Britain, the Maris Piper variety is, by far, the most common. Some favour King Edwards. Today, most chips in fish and chip shops are double fried in the same oil or fat as the fish; in fish restaurants, they may be triple-fried. FISH AND CHIPS When, where and by whom fried fish and fried potatoes were combined into one dish is disputed. There is strong evidence that a Jewish immigrant, Joseph Malin, opened a fish and chip shop in east London, in or around 1860. But there is equally strong evidence for the first fish and chips being served by a Mr John Lees from a Lancashire, north England market stall in 1863. Then again, there may have been others before that who remain unrecorded in any known documents. Whatever, the meal soon caught on and by 1910, there were 25,000 fish and chip shops in Britain. In his Road to Wigan Pier (1937), George Orwell said that the reason the working classes in England didn't rise up and embrace communism was that the dish kept them happy, averting revolution. Winston Churchill refused to ration fish and chips during WWII - not because fish was plentiful - it wasn't (fishing at sea was dangerous; the fishermen were as likely to catch a torpedo as a shoal of fish) - but as a morale booster. A sort of propaganda, if you like. So, that deals with the fish and with the chips. The story is all over? Nowhere near. The complexity is only just beginning. To be continued. Image Credits Fish and Chips Neon Sign in London; image by Victorgrigas; licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0 Billingsgate Market - Public Domain

Are you saying sedimentary salt was never in the sea? Sediment from what?

Maybe conventionally to you. If it was sea salt, it's still sea salt, i.e. salt that came from the sea. I have sea salt in my kitchen. It's no longer in the sea, so it's not sea salt? I'd say the use of "sea salt" is more of a marketing tool than a convention.

All salt is sea salt!

I put muffins on my butter!

Funnily enough, when I was in Nepal, I went to buy salt and all I could find was sea salt from Australia!

Maybe they need salt. Many animals lick from salt licks to get their essential supply of minerals. Whether that includes insects, I do not know. I'm an etymologist; not an entomologist.

That would be a major work. Untangling the complexities of the British class system is PhD level stuff.

My sad emoji is for your bad beans; not for your envy. That I would normally thank, but we only get one emoji to issue!

Or Coleman's mustard. Mandarin oranges. Ham and eggs!

While I'm in no doubt there are places pimping up their offerings, I'm somewhat suspicious of that year-old, pre-latest-lockdown article by some random blogger with an "afternoon tea" website to promote.. There is no indication of how large her sample is, but if her point is, as she claims, modelled on membership of London's "gentlemen's clubs", that would be a fraction of a fraction of 1% of London's "gentlemen" - a rather sexist term as it goes.

Minced pork and and asparagus, with doubanjiang, green Sichuan peppercorns, garlic, ginger, chilli, Shaoxing wine and scallions. Served over orzi because the rice cooker pot is currently sleeping in the freezer. It's a long, dull story.

It's the end of civilisation!