If ever there was a British national dish, this has to be it. Loved from John O’Groats to Land’s End, fish and chips is the perfect Friday night supper.
A fisherman’s tale
In mid-19th-century Britain, the worlds of Irish immigrants – with their potato dominated diet – and Jewish fried fish vendors collided, and a national dish was born, spawning countless chippies on high streets and seaside piers up and down the land. About a quarter of all white fish and 10 per cent of the potatoes now sold in Britain are sold in fish and chip shops. Not to mention the pickled onions and eggs, curry sauce and mushy peas that go with them.