A battered reputation

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32494, 2 January 1971, Page 14

A battered reputation

After more than a century of undisputed popularity fish and chips are in need of a refurbished reputation, according to the “ Fish Quarterly Review ” in Britain. Changing tastes, the rising standard of living, and a greater variety of “ take away ” foods are to blame. Yet not long ago a fish-and-chips tour of England was a gourmet’s delight, a different fish available in almost every town. Even now, whether in Britain or New Zealand, what other dish can offer the indefinable flavour and aroma which comes from a combination of grease, salt, newspaper, and batter? No hamburger or hot dog (foreign imports, both of them) ever set taste-buds a-tingling like this. Fish and chips for mass consumption became possible when the gas-fired vat appeared. The food might stand as a symbol of the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century; the potatoes of Ireland joined with the fish of the world’s greatest naval Power, wrapped up in the penny newspapers which universal education made possible, and sold over a thousand counters by a nation of shopkeepers. One can only pity the Russian exchange teacher in Bradford who is reported to have dismissed fish and chips with the remark: “ I don’t know how you survive ”. This is one British secret, at least, which is safe from the Russians.

Melbourne, a city where millions of meals of “shark and taties” are consumed every year, may offer a guide to Britain now. New “ sea food bars ” are reported there with carpet, piped music, and airconditioning; one shop, in the fashionable suburb of Toorak, provides containers bearing a facsimile of “ The Times ”, of London. This trend should not be allowed to go too far. The crinkly chips and choice of fish available in some New Zealand shops may be quite enough sophistication. The charm of fish and chips lies in simplicity and cheapness; add too many trimmings and the whole dish becomes something quite different, at quite a different price. And that would never do in Coronation Street.