5 ms·

Which country are you in? Had fish and chips last night, very good - in Australia.

tech2 8y ago
I always find it amusing how much the fish and chips is lauded in the UK when most of it is terrible compared to NZ/Aus. The fish is tasteless, the chips are (generally) cooked in too low a temperature oil leaving them stodgy. Add to this that the fish requires the skin leaving on the fillet for most kinds so the whole thing can hold together, etc. Haddock's about the most flavoursome of the UK fish available from a chippy, but when you compare it to Hoki (pretty much the cheapest NZ fish), Gurnard, or Snapper, there's no contest.
- fishnchips 8y ago
  100% agreed. Having lived in Ireland for years, and continuously visiting England for work, the best fish and chips I had was in OZ. NZ was meh but maybe I was just unlucky.
- fyfy18 8y ago
  Different tastes... as a Brit if I went to a chippy and the chips weren't a bit stodgy I would send them back. I ordered chips, not fries :-) I do agree with you a bit on the fish though, as I understand a lot of this is to do with fishing quotas which push the prices up so most places use cheaper fish. Ifou go to a good chippy in a seaside town, and specifically order cod or hadock, then you can get something good. As others have said the quality of restaurants really vary, even in the same town.
  - tech2 8y ago
    I don't think the taste of the fish is necessarily quota-based, more to do with water temperature. Cold water fish are either "tasteless" (like cod, haddock, etc.) or oily (like herring and similar). As for chips, I think we'll have to agree to disagree there. :)
jwdunne 8y ago
I'm in the UK. I don't think they use cod or anything like that. They just call it battered fish because it's not cod or haddock.
- dazc 8y ago
  With some of the better examples you have the choice of one or either. In less good establishments it tends to be just 'fish' though.
  - JoeAltmaier 8y ago
    Are you sure? Here in the US they've given up naming fish, because the supply chain has diluted everything with trash whitefish, which they re-branded 'tilapia' to make it sound like its a thing. No flavor at all. The local restaurant chain relabeled their 'fried catfish' as 'fried whitefish' or something. Asked why they changed their fish. They said "We didn't change the fish; we just changed the menu". Presumably because it wasn't catfish all along.
  - jwdunne 8y ago
    I'll have to visit my hometown. Apparently there's now a chippy that does just that. Choice of cod, haddock and plaice if I recall. Some old friends rave about it.

I always find it amusing how much the fish and chips is lauded in the UK when most of it is terrible compared to NZ/Aus. The fish is tasteless, the chips are (generally) cooked in too low a temperature oil leaving them stodgy. Add to this that the fish requires the skin leaving on the fillet for most kinds so the whole thing can hold together, etc. Haddock's about the most flavoursome of the UK fish available from a chippy, but when you compare it to Hoki (pretty much the cheapest NZ fish), Gurnard, or Snapper, there's no contest.

fishnchips 8y ago
100% agreed. Having lived in Ireland for years, and continuously visiting England for work, the best fish and chips I had was in OZ. NZ was meh but maybe I was just unlucky.
fyfy18 8y ago
Different tastes... as a Brit if I went to a chippy and the chips weren't a bit stodgy I would send them back. I ordered chips, not fries :-) I do agree with you a bit on the fish though, as I understand a lot of this is to do with fishing quotas which push the prices up so most places use cheaper fish. Ifou go to a good chippy in a seaside town, and specifically order cod or hadock, then you can get something good. As others have said the quality of restaurants really vary, even in the same town.
- tech2 8y ago
  I don't think the taste of the fish is necessarily quota-based, more to do with water temperature. Cold water fish are either "tasteless" (like cod, haddock, etc.) or oily (like herring and similar). As for chips, I think we'll have to agree to disagree there. :)

jwdunne 8y ago

I'm in the UK. I don't think they use cod or anything like that. They just call it battered fish because it's not cod or haddock.

dazc 8y ago
With some of the better examples you have the choice of one or either. In less good establishments it tends to be just 'fish' though.
- JoeAltmaier 8y ago
  Are you sure? Here in the US they've given up naming fish, because the supply chain has diluted everything with trash whitefish, which they re-branded 'tilapia' to make it sound like its a thing. No flavor at all. The local restaurant chain relabeled their 'fried catfish' as 'fried whitefish' or something. Asked why they changed their fish. They said "We didn't change the fish; we just changed the menu". Presumably because it wasn't catfish all along.
- jwdunne 8y ago
  I'll have to visit my hometown. Apparently there's now a chippy that does just that. Choice of cod, haddock and plaice if I recall. Some old friends rave about it.