Fish & Chips - The Most Famous of All British Recipes
When you think of British food, what's the first thing that comes to mind? If you're like me, you think of that most famous of all British recipes, Fish & Chips. But what exactly is fish & chips, and why is it so loved among the British people? These are questions we will endeavour to answer in this brief article.
The Fish & Chips Recipe
Fish & chips is a very simple recipe which is as common in Britain as hot dogs are in America. It consists of large piece of fish, usually cod, plaice, or haddock, coated in a flour-based batter and deep fried in hot oil. It's served with chipped potatoes, also known as French fries in North America, which are also deep fried. In the northern parts of Britain it's not uncommon for fish & chips to be served with a small portion of peas. The food is generally eaten with one's fingers, though more and more it's becoming common to be given a small wooden fork along with your order.
The Popularity of Fish & Chips
The popularity of fish and chips as one of the greatest British recipes probably lies in the history of fast, take-away food in an industrialized England. In modern Britain, the vast array of choices and take-away meals include Chinese, Indian, American, Greek, and Italian offerings. In fact, it's quite normal to see international chains like Subway and Burger King dotting the streets of major British cities. But it is the staple fish & chips restaurant which has long been the anchor of British take-away food.
Fish &chips owe its monumental success to the introduction of the railway system which brought fresh fish inland from the coast on a daily basis. History has it that the first fish & chips shop opened in London in 1860. The owner, a Jewish man by the name of Joseph Malin, combined a Jewish favourite of deep-fried fish with the British staple of fried, chipped potatoes. Other food proprietors latched onto the recipe and the rest is history.
The Stereotypical British Meal
Almost every country and nationality has one or two foods which the rest of the world associates with them. For Britain, that one food is fish and chips. In many places around the world people assume that fish & chips is more or less the only thing the Brits eat. Obviously that's not true; there are a plethora of wonderful British recipes that get equal play in British culture. Nonetheless, fish and chips remain the stereotypical British meal. If you've never had the opportunity to try authentic British fish & chips, you don't know what a truly great recipe you're missing.