Grimes reviews The Chipper

[Liza]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/14/dining/14JOUR.html

Fish and chips.

[Wilfrid]

I don't know why Grimes is reviewing this kind of restaurant, but that's another subject. Might I just observe that "smoked cod" is not a recognizable dish to this Britisher. Deep fried smoked cod? Weird.

Has anyone been to Salt and Battery?

[g.johnson]

Yes. Don't.

And ditto with the smoked cod. Very nice in kedgeree or poached in milk with an egg for breakfast. But deep fried?

[Liza]

Ohmygosh...you're not suggesting a reviewer might be misinformed?

[Jinmyo]

Quite agree about smoked cod.

Still, I'd take just about any fish and chips at the moment.

What NYC needs is a good meat pie shop.

[yvonne johnson]

"My advice is to eat it on the spot".

Oh, come on Grimes, the practice of eating fish and chips over the ages mandates that you eat it on the spot. Hardly a Grimian revelation.

[Wilfrid]

Smoked cod in kedgeree? Smoked haddock I grew up with, of course, but I just don't remember seeing smoked cod at all.

Thank you for saving me a visit to Salt and Battery. I have been peering through the window recently.

[g.johnson]

Yes, of course. I was guessing that smoked cod (which I've never heard of either) would be like smoked haddock and therefore a reasonable substitute.

[g.johnson]

This site says that cod is cold smoked like haddock. Interestingly, Arbroath Smokies, the king of the smoked haddock are hot smoked.

Anyone think that 'smoke' looks an odd word? Or am I just having a petit mal attack?

[Wilfrid]

That may indeed be Grimes's confusion, but I am still having trouble believing it was deep fried. Maybe they had a regular smoked haddock dish on the menu, but he assumed it went into the deep fryer.

Edit: Have someone pull your tongue out of your mouth.

Edit edit: Looked at the article again. He doesn't actually state that the smoked cod is deep fried; there's a sliughtly ambiguous juxtaposition with his description of the fryers.

Edited March 14, 2003 by Wilfrid (log)

[yvonne johnson]

No, Grimes is right. Looks like they really do deep fry smoked cod. "It's an Irish and English practice," I was told during a rigorous telephone interview.

Well the Scots don't do that sort of thing to the best of my knowledge.

By the way, Wilf, remember the "A" in "A Salt and Battery"--you don't get the horrid name of the place otherwise.

[Wilfrid]

Nor the English. And sorry I missed that excellent pun.

[tautog]

Think it might be smoked cod rather than haddock due to the winter restrictions on the commercial haddock fishery. In my opinion, fried smoked cod seems to busy and strong. Have one or the other. Right now I am enjoying some smoked amberjack and a cold bass ale. Yum.