Fish and Chips

[AlanHo]

We spent 4 days in Devon this week with two friends. We had rented a splendid 2 bedroom apartment in Westward Ho which was just 10 metres from the sea wall. The view across the bay was superb.

 

We were not intending to spend the week cooking so one evening decided to slum it and have a take-away, The local fish and chip shop called "Golden Fry" was recommended by the apartment owner so we decided to give it a try.

 

Compared with such establishments in our home area it was unusual because it cooked the fish and chips to order. Back home the fish is cooked in batches and displayed in hot cabinets until sold. If you are unlucky and the fish has been in the cabinet for too long the fish is overcooked and dry. Similarly the chips are cooked in batches and kept in a heated compartment until sold - for as long as it takes to sell each batch.

When you buy it - it is wrapped in paper and by the time you get home the batter on the fish is soggy and the chips all floppy and greasy.

 

The Golden Fry was a refreshing change - you go in and place your order. The cook then batters the fish and drops it into the fryer, at the same time cooking a small batch of chips.

The chips and fish are then dispensed into cardboard boxes - for you to take away. 

Our apartment was a 5 minute walk from the shop - and when we served the meals onto hot plates the fish was still in a golden crisp batter and the chips hot, semi crisp and not greasy. Even Rick Stein would have been impressed.

 

So if and when you visit Westward Ho - you now know where to go for superb fish and chips.

[andsome]

We are lucky in that we have a local pub that serves the most delicious food possibble.  This ia NOT the usual pub grub, they are not known as a gastro pub for nothing. It is the Nelson In  at Burntwood.  The fish and chips there is exactly as you described and you have to wait while it is cooked fresh.  'Er indoors almost always has the fish and chips and struggles to finish it, some of the largest cod or haddock fillets that I have seen.  I vary my choice a little more, sometimes the fish and chips but also something different from the menu. The Nelson is not as cheap as most other pubs but you get what you pay for.  This is my review on Trip advisor,as follows.

 

Good as ever

We came here early in 2016 to try it out for my 80th birthday and were very impressed and booked it. We have been several times since and it has always been first class. We went again a few days ago, and as usual everything was great. This is not the usual pub grub and is way above that standard. Jeanie had battered fish and chips, with mushy peas and the haddock was a huge fillet cooked to perfection. I had sweet chilli chicken with stir fried veg and a salad. Absolutely beautiful. We both had a delicious pudding. The Nelson is highly recommended.

[Irene]

Beside the seaside...  There's no better place to buy and eat...  Fish & Chips 

[Belatucadrus]

If you're in the Bournmouth area and you want fish and chips try Chez Fred at Westbourne, like Golden Fry they cook to order and are extremely popular so you can find they're not exactly fast food as you get from your usual chippy.

More locally we like the HoltFleet a family run pub restaurant, not pretentious gastro food but freshly cooked and the fish and chips are always excellent.

[catgate]

Before the war (and for quite a time afterwards) one of  my aunts and her husband (who eventually turned out to be my uncle) had a fish and chip shop in Bradford.

I can remember the pantomime that followed the sudden reduction in fish at the outset of the war. One could not have fish and chips, but one could have fishcake and chips. This consisted of two slices of potato with a small amount of fish between the two slices of potato dipped in batter and fried in with the chips

The government minister in charge of food at the time was a chap called Woolton and so this strange concoction was called a" Woolton Cake"

 

Oh! what fun we used to have!!!!

 

Eventually my uncle was invited to join the carnage out in Egypt, which put the wind up Gerry and caused their rapid retreat to where ever it was they retreated.

[Belatucadrus]

The Woolton cake sounds similar to a Sheffield fishcake, slice of potato layer of fish batter and fry. Infinitely superior to the blended mush served everywhere else under the label fishcake. Also a staple part of most student diets along with the hugely nutritious Chip Butty.

[catgate]

They were a lovely generous pair. Every Tuesday they came to our house for tea. This came about because Tuesday was their "halfday closing" and they did not open at all.  So they would sally forth into the depths of Bradford and do their weekly shopping. They would come back to our house for tea and would stay until mother and her sister had talked themselves tired (about 10p.m.)

Looking back I think my uncle still had a young boys outlook on some things. Quite frequently there would be a small packet or parcel on my place at the table and it would be a couple of model porters, or a set of signals or may be a level crossing. One day I came and looked on the table and saw a couple things that looked like  bad teeth.  They turned out to be very small "lamps" to fit on the front of the engines.

[Irene]

Lovely memories, catgate.  

[catgate]

7 hours ago, Irene said:

Lovely memories, catgate.  

Since you posted the above I have had another blast from the past.

 

Next door but one to our house, at the time of the above, there lived a small boy child called David, of the same age as I. We used to "play out" together. We got up to all sorts of things.

In the early years of our "chumship", one of us must have shown an interest in the position of Australia, but I can not remember who or why, but one of us must have done.

I am sure of this because, on another day, which could not be long after getting the answer,we were chastised by father for digging a big hole (about 18" wide and six inches deep.

When we were asked what we were doing we told him that we were trying to get to Australia........and we were really serious about it.

To this day I do not know who told us what Australia was and where it is!

 

David would often come round and we would got my "train set"  out and have an hour's fun and then dissemble it all.

One evening, when his parents had gone out, (his father played the piano and his mothers was a singer and they entertained  at some hostelry or other, according to David) David suggested we took some of my railway line sections and set it up in their lounge. He could then run his railway engine. It sounded like a good idea. The lines were assembles in their lounge and then he went and got his engine. It was a working model of a 4-6-2 with tender!!! Worth a small fortune, even then. 

So the boiler was watered and  meths.  were fed into the fuel tank and the match was struck and the wonderful thing set off.

 

After it had done a dozen or so laps of the track David said he would speed it up, and so stopped it on the next circuit to reset the speed control.  This altered things greatly and all went well for about three laps and by then it some how manage to speed up. This was speedily followed by a rapid derailment and a small blaze which had to be stopped with utmost  speed.

 

Needless to say this was followed by complete panic and a faster pair of young lads would have been hard to find. We managed to put out the fire and clean up the mess, and I went home with my "warm" lines, whilst David  tidied up the floor and the engine.

 

It finally turned out the it was not David's engine,.....it belonged to his father. 

David was "not playing out" for quite some time afterwards.

 

Sadly he died In his forties as the manager of well known woollen textile mill.

[AlanHo]

Where were the fish and chips in that lovely story?  Perhaps you posted it in the wrong Plaice. Was the train's engine turbot charged?.......

[Belatucadrus]

2 hours ago, AlanHo said:

Where were the fish and chips in that lovely story?

Australia Barramundi and chips, ripper.

[Irene]

I think that perhaps we should have a new category called memories.  

I love the ‘likes’ of catgate’s memories.   ?

 

BTW, Alan:  Had turbot fish & dauphinois spuds tonight.  Delicious!    

[catgate]

1 hour ago, Irene said:

I think that perhaps we should have a new category called memories.

I fear that might not be as fruitful as just hoping or chance. One really need a stimulus to dredge up things that happened many years ago. David's dad's engine starred about 1941.