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Fish and Chips in London

The English love to adopt traditions from other countries and make them their own, especially when it comes to food. Like the Great British Balti, Fish & Chips take a couple of staples from other cuisines mixes the together, adds some condiments and becomes a British favourite.

Fish, Chips, and All Things Fried

The standard ingredient at any chip-shop, or chippy, is chips of course. There are potatoes, cut into thick chunks, and deep fried. Like a French fry but thicker, and cooked softer.

The type of fish that used for fish & chips will usually be cod, but it might be replaced with plaice, or haddock. More recently fish shops have offered a wider variety of fish to accompany a bag of chips and you might see thing on the menu like marlin, swordfish, and skate. Due to problems to do with sustainability mackerel has been added to fish and chips menus all over the UK.

If fish isn’t your thing there’s plenty more to choose form. There’ll be pies, cheeses patties, deep fried saveloys, battered sausages, and maybe even spam fritters. To go on the side the only real option is mushy peas, unless you’d rather go for a sauce like curry, gravy, chili, or garlic mayonnaise.

If you want something you can eat on the go. A chip butty is always a prefect option. It will be a big, buttered bread roll filled with chips and served with your choice of sauce, or salt & vinegar. Another integral part of the fish & chips experience is the batter. Almost everything on the menu is deep-friend in batter from onion rings, to pineapple chunks, and mars bars. You can have a sprinkle of batter bits on your fish supper; just ask for scraps.

Buying Fish & Chips in London

There are two main ways to have your perfect fish supper in the UK. The first is to try it on a Friday which is the traditional day for a fish supper all over the country. It’s got something to do with Good Friday, when it is forbidden to eat meat, meaning British people will opt for fish instead. Even normal pubs, and restaurants will have a special on fish & chips on a Friday.

The other way to enjoy fish & chips the traditional way is to take a trip to the seaside. From anywhere in London you can reach the seaside in around an hour. It doesn’t really matter where you end up, any sea side town worth its salt will serve perfect fish & chips, in the paper so you can eat with the sea wind in your face.

If you’re only around for a short while and don’t have time for a trip there’s no need to worry. It’s pretty difficult to find bad fish & chips in the UK; the bad places don’t last long. If you can see a queue of more than a few people, you can be pretty sure that your dinner will be a good one.

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Fish and Chips in London