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'Fish and chips' or 'fish 'n' chips', a popular take-away food, consists of deep-fried fish in batter or breadcrumbs with deep-fried potatoes, traditionally sold wrapped in newspaper.^[1]
Popular tradition associates the dish with the United Kingdom; and for decades fish and chips dominated the take-away food sector in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Fish and chips also has considerable popularity in parts of North America (New England, the Pacific Northwest and Canada generally), the Republic of Ireland and South Africa. Establishments in Denmark and in some coastal towns in Norway serve fried fillets. In the Netherlands, the popular deep-fried, battered fried fillet dish called ''lekkerbek'' sometimes appears served with chips.

Contents

Naming and terminology

History

England

Scotland

Ireland

Folkways

Culinary variations

The operation of frying

The "chips" component of "Fish and chips"

Batter and its variants

Choice of fish

Accompaniments

Fish and chip shops

Packaging and wrapping

Chip vans

Other dishes

Scotland

Northern Ireland

The British Isles generically

Australia

New Zealand

Footnotes

See also

External links

Naming and terminology

People from the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and many Commonwealth countries refer to fried, chipped (slab cut) potatoes as "chips", whereas most people from the United States of America and Canada call their common stick-cut fried potatoes "french fries". People from South Africa, specifically, refer to them as "slap chips" — pronounced /slup/. The British usually serve thicker chips than the "french fries" popularised by major multinational American hamburger-chains. Despite the differences in terminology, the combination still has the name "fish and chips" in most American restaurants which serve the dish. The snack that Americans term "potato chips" equates to "crisps" in the UK, and a few American restaurants will offer "crisps" instead of "fries" when a consumer orders "fish and chips".^[2][3]

History

In the United Kingdom, fish and chips became a cheap food popular among the working classes with the rapid development of trawl fishing in the North Sea in the second half of the nineteenth century. Before this, fishermen had used long lines to target only large, high-quality demersal (bottom-dwelling) fish, especially valuable sole. Trawlers, on the other hand, landed a mixed catch of high-quality "prime" and cheaper "offal" fish, most of which fishermen initially threw back into the water due to the lack of a market. However, as railway charges fell, it became viable to transport this cheaper fish inland, and demersal fish became a mass-market commodity rather than a costly luxury.
The modern fish-and-chip shop ("chippy" or "fish shop" in modern British slang^[4]
) originated in the United Kingdom, although outlets selling fried food occurred commonly throughout Europe. According to one story, fried-potato shops spreading south from Scotland merged with fried-fish shops spreading from southern England. Early fish and chip shops had only very basic facilities. Usually these consisted principally of a large cauldron of cooking-fat, heated by a coal fire. Insanitary by modern standards, such establishments also emitted a smell associated with frying, which led to the authorities classifying fish-and-chip supply as an "offensive trade", a stigma retained until between the wars. The industry overcame this reputation because during World War II fish and chips remained one of the few foods in the United Kingdom not subject to rationing.^[5]

England

Deep-fried fish and deep-fried chips have appeared separately on menus for many years — though potatoes did not reach Europe until the 17th century. The originally Sephardi dish ''pescado frito'', or deep-fried fish, came to the Netherlands and England with the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in the 17th and 18th centuries. (History credits the Portuguese with introducing the dish to Japan: see tempura.)
The dish became popular in wider circles in London and South East England in the middle of the 19th century (Charles Dickens mentions a "fried fish warehouse" in ''Oliver Twist'', first published in 1838) whilst in the north of England a trade in deep-fried "chipped" potatoes developed. The first chip shop stood on the present site of Oldham's Tommyfield Market, however many other locales make similar claims. It remains unclear exactly when and where these two trades combined to become the fish-and-chip shop industry we know today. Joseph Malin opened the first ''recorded'' combined fish and chip shop in London in 1860 or in 1865,^[6] while a Mr Lees pioneered the concept in the North of England in Mossley, Lancashire in 1863.^[7]

Scotland

''See Scottish cuisine''
In common with the rest of the United Kingdom, Scotland experienced a wave of immigration from Italy toward the end of the nineteenth century. Many of the new Scots Italians set up ''friggitoria'' or ''gelateria'' businesses, catering for their own communities as well as for the native population. Such Italian traders in Scotland originally hawked their wares from carts selling mostly ice-cream, but with the abundance and wide availability of seafood in Scotland, fish and chip shops soon became common. The Dundee City Council claims that "...in the 1870s, that glory of British gastronomy — the chip — was first sold by Belgian immigrant Edward De Gernier in the city’s Greenmarket."
Dundee Fact File

''Brattisani's'' in Edinburgh's Newington district promotes itself as the oldest operational chip shop in Scotland, having traded since 1889.
Originally situated only in the larger cities and ports, fish and chip shops have proliferated in Scotland. Many Scottish chip shops remain Italian-owned, with names such as ''Crolla's'', ''L'Alba d'Oro'', and ''L'Aquila Bianca''.
Scotland made the transition to polystyrene containers later^[8] than some places, and although polystyrene containers have become a common sight in Scottish fish-and-chip shops, some shops still sell the food with its traditional wrapping of paper —- but not newspaper, with the ink a poisonous substance and illegal for food use in the UK. Some people prefer paper wrapping, as polystyrene cannot absorb any excess oil, vinegar or condensation coming off the hot food, possibly leaving the food less crisp. In Scotland a portion of fish and chips is often called a 'fish supper'.
In Edinburgh a combination of spirit vinegar, ketchup, and brown sauce, known either simply as "sauce", or more specifically as "chippie sauce", has great popularity.^[9]
Many Scottish comedians have made capital out of the difference in condiment choice between Glasgow and Edinburgh, with Glaswegians eating salt-and-vinegar, and Edinburghers preferring salt and sauce.

★ See also Anstruther Fish Bar

Ireland

''See Irish cuisine''
Similarly to England and Scotland, Ireland experienced a wave of immigration from Italy. However, this occurred not at the end of the nineteenth century, but rather forty years later, into post-1945 Ireland. Many of the new Irish Italians set up ''friggitoria'' or ''gelateria'' establishments; however, the gelaterie mostly wound up during the 1960s and converted to an increased market-share of Italian "chippers". Many Italian families from the areas around Rome and Naples came to Ireland to set up shop — hence many of the chippers have "Roma" as part of their name ("The Roma Grill", "Roma Takeaway", etc.) or "Napoli". Famous Italian-Irish families include the Borza family, the Macari family and the Mizzoni family.
Most establishments in Ireland continue to serve fish and chips in paper-bags with greaseproof inner-lining bags. Consumers in Ireland normally eat chips with salt and vinegar. Since many of the Italian families didn't have a high standard of English when they first arrived in Ireland, it has become popular to order a "one and one" (originating from pointing at a menu and asking for "one of those and one of those"), in the Republic of Ireland, meaning "a fish fillet and chips". A "single and fish" (often ordered in Dublin) or a "fish supper" (in Belfast) means the same. Another Irish Chipper favorite is the Potato Pie - a spoon of mashed potato (sometimes with chopped onion and/or cheese) deep fried in batter. It is a local favorite in Cork. In Wexford, the same thing is known as a Rissole. Although the battered variety is available, one can also find spicy rissoles - deep fried in spicy breadcrumbs.

Folkways

The long-standing Roman Catholic tradition of not eating meat other than fish on Fridays — especially during Lent — and of substituting fish for other types of meat on that day — continues to influence habits even in predominantly Protestant, semi-secular and secular societies. Friday night remains a traditional occasion for patronising fish-and-chip shops and many cafeterias and similar establishments, while varying their menus on other days of the week, habitually offer fish and chips every Friday.^[10]
Chips may have become associated with meals of fried fish because the fat used for frying the fish often became too hot for good frying. To return the fat to an optimal temperature, chefs dropped cut-up potatoes into the fat. Legend has it that shops initially gave the resultant 'chips' away free with the fish.

Culinary variations

Regional differences exist in the United Kingdom for preparing the fish before battering. Some outlets, particularly those in the south of England, leave the skin on one or both sides of the fish, while others (mainly in the north of England, in Scotland and in Northern Ireland) fry a fillet with no skin at all.

The operation of frying

Traditional frying uses beef dripping or lard; however, vegetable oils, such as groundnut oil (used due to its relatively high smoke point) now predominate. A minority of vendors in the north of England and Scotland still use dripping or lard, as it imparts a different flavour to the dish, but it has the side-effect of making the fried chips unsuitable for vegetarians and for adherents of certain faiths. Lard continues in use in some other cases in the UK, especially in Living Industrial History Museums, such as the Black Country Living Museum.

The "chips" component of "Fish and chips"

American-style "french fries" typically have a slimmer shape than their British counterpart "chips"; thicker "fries" sometimes appear on US menus as "steak fries". These still do not have the thickness of British "chips", which typically measure 1 cm² (½ sq in.) in cross-section.
Some maintain that Lincolnshire Whites or Maris Piper potatoes produce the best chips, although the Belgians and Swedes tend to use the Bintje variety.
Most traditional fish and chip shops in the United Kingdom make their own chips from fresh potatoes. Most Australian chips (or "hot chips") undergo pre-frying, then freezing before their final cooking.

Batter and its variants

The covering of the fish may also vary with bread-crumbs available alongside the traditional flour-based batter. In the United Kingdom batter comes as the standard coating, with breadcrumb-coated fish unavailable in many outlets.
Fish-and-chip suppliers in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland often include ''scraps'' of batter that fall into the fat and get fried (also known as ''batter'', ''scratchins'', ''scrumps'', ''scraps'', ''scrobblings'', ''gribblings'', ''bits'', ''fishbits'', ''crimps'', ''fishcrimps'', ''crispy bits'' or ''batters'') free on request. In the United States of America, some fish-and-chips aficionados refer to these as "cracklin's" (distinct from fried pork-rind cracklins). Beer-batter, made with beer, has started to become popular in the United Kingdom. The carbon dioxide in the beer lends a lighter texture to the batter, and also an orange colour.
Originally consumers did not actually eat the batter. Instead, it served to encase the fish for steaming before being discarded.

Choice of fish

In England, haddock and cod appear most commonly as the fish used for fish and chips,^[11]
but vendors also sell many other kinds of fish, especially other white fish, such as pollock or coley; plaice, skate; and ''rock salmon'' (a term covering several species of dogfish and similar fish). In some areas of northern England and Scotland haddock predominates. Indeed, one part of West Yorkshire, in an area between Bradford, Halifax and Keighly, is known as the 'Haddock Triangle' and it is practically impossible to find a shop there with cod on its menu. In Northern Ireland, the most common fish sold as part of a fish supper are cod, plaice or whiting.
Consumers in the Republic of Ireland eat mostly cod and plaice today. Dublin has a long tradition of eating fresh ray-wings with chips, with a lesser tradition of rock salmon. In the city of Galway (in the west of Ireland), chip-shops commonly offer a wide selection of fresh fish with chips, including monkfish, hake, coley, haddock, skate and scampi.
Australians prefer reef-cod (a different variety than that used in the United Kingdom) or flake, a type of shark meat, in their fish and chips. Victorians tend to prefer flake, whereas Australians in more northern states generally favour reef fish. Increasing demand and the decline of shark stocks due to overfishing has seen flake become more expensive and — as in the United Kingdom — other white fish (such as barramundi) will often replace it. Australian fish-and-chip shops provide a wider range of fish (such as squid) than that commonly available in other countries.
New Zealanders prefer snapper because of its superior taste, but warehou and hoki offer an inexpensive alternative. The use of lemonfish has encouraged the use of the popular local synonym for 'fish and chips' - 'shark 'n' taties'. (Kumara chips, sometimes with sour cream, may supplement potato chips.)
Canadians use a wide variety of fish, including cod, halibut, haddock, pollock and bluefish. Fresh-water species such as yellow perch, walleye and smelt have also become quite popular in Ontario. In Vancouver, wild Pacific salmon has become a popular choice of fish.
In the United States, white fish occur most commonly by far. Salmon can, however, appear on occasion. Southern New England "clam shacks" typically use cod fillets in their Fish & Chips offerings. Minnesotans often use walleye — not necessarily branded as "fish-and-chips" but as "fried walleye", and involving similar preparation. In the Pacific Northwest, halibut commonly appears.
South Africans most commonly use hake (''Merluccius capensis'') for fish and chips. Snoek (''Thyrsites atun'') has also become popular in Cape coastal areas. Kingklip (''Xiphiurus capensis'', known as cuskeel internationally) offers a less common and generally more expensive alternative.
In Denmark, deep-fried, breaded plaice fish fillets served with french fries (Danish, ''pomfritter'') probably outsells other cooked fish - just about every restaurant in the country serves this dish. Traditionally, it has an accompaniment of remoulade sauce and lemon-wedges.

Accompaniments

In the United Kingdom, fish and chips usually have an accompaniment of free salt and vinegar ("salt & vinegar"). ^[12]Suppliers may use ''malt vinegar'' or ''onion vinegar'' (the vinegar used for storing pickled onions). A cheaper product called "non-brewed condiment" (actually a solution of acetic acid in water with caramel added for colour) substitutes for genuine malt vinegar in many fish-and-chip shops. Scots tend to prefer white vinegar to malt vinegar.

In Scotland, preference for accompaniments divide the East and West sharply, with Scots in the East (for example in Edinburgh, Fife and Stirling) preferring a brown sauce known as chip-shop sauce (in response to the question "Salt and sauce?") whereas those from the West (for example in Glasgow) will have salt and vinegar. East-coasters requesting "salt and sauce" in the West would probably end up with tomato ketchup — to their dismay. However, "salt and sauce" features largely only in Edinburgh, Stirling and in parts of Fife; salt-and-vinegar occurs more commonly further North along the east coast. The vinegar in the sauce and used for the chips commonly comes from jars of pickled onion; pickled onions or pickled eggs serving as common accompaniments. "Chips and cheese" have also become a popular combination in most parts of the United Kingdom (compare the Canadian dish poutine).
In Northern Ireland salt and vinegar makes for a popular choice, though many people will pour either brown sauce or tomato sauce over the food, and "chippies" (or "chippers") frequently offer these options.
American diners that offer fish and chips typically provide a side of tartar sauce or vinegar (intended for the fish), with ketchup and mustard usually available on request free-of-charge (sometimes in bottles already on the table). Canadians commonly prefer white, cider or malt vinegar on the chips; and squeezed lemon on the fish.
In Australia the use of chicken salt on chips has become quite widespread; so much so that even fast-food chains like KFC no longer carry regular salt and use chicken salt by default. Vendors usually include a small slice of lemon free of charge: the purchaser can squeeze the slice in order to release the juice as dressing.
Other popular dressings include:

★ Salt and vinegar

★ Barbecue sauce

★ Brown sauce

★ Burger sauce

★ Curry sauce

★ Gravy

★ Cheese (often with gravy/Poutine in Canada)

★ Chili sauce

★ Garlic sauce

★ Mayonnaise

★ Ketchup or Tomato Sauce (in Australia)

★ Summer Savory turkey stuffing and gravy (Eastern Canada)

★ Lemon slice (United Kingdom, Canada, Australia)

★ Thousand Island Dressing

★ Tartar sauce

★ Salad Cream
Other accompaniments include:

★ Baked beans

★ Bread and butter

★ Bun/Barmcake/Cob/Muffin/Teacake

★ Coleslaw

★ Mushy peas

★ Pickled onions, pickled eggs and/or gherkins.

★ Steak and kidney pudding

★ Potato cake (in Australia)

★ Dim Sims (Australia)

★ Chicken Nuggets (Australia)

★ Souvlaki (Australia)
In Holyhead in North Wales, all of the six current chip shops serve 'Peas Water' free of charge - water strained from the mushy peas. This practice allegedly occurs only in Holyhead. The inhabitants of the Wigan and St. Helens areas refer to this product as "Pea Wet". "Pea Wet and Scraps" comprise a free meal of the pea water and pieces of batter and chip ends rescued from the frier.
"Wet" can also refer to whether to serve the chips with gravy or not. (Often as a question at serving-time: "Wet?....")
In many parts of Lancashire, the name "split" refers to a serving of chips with a portion of mushy peas.
In Preston, once reputed as the most Catholic town in England, chippies regularly serve butter pie as an alternative to the Catholic practice of eating fish (as opposed to meat) on Fridays.
In Sheffield, chip shops often supply free the locally-produced Henderson's Relish - made of vinegar, sugar, spices etc and resembling Worcestershire sauce — which in Worcestershire is commonly found in chip shops as a dressing.
In Kingston upon Hull and certain other areas of East Yorkshire, chippies commonly offer chip spice as an accompaniment: this product appears rarely in other areas of the United Kingdom. In Peterborough and other selected places, chip-shops sometimes offer a cajun seasoning as an accompaniment to fish and chips.
Around North America's Great Lakes (for example, in Buffalo, New York or Chicago), the popular tradition of Catholics eating fish on Fridays (especially during Lent) has resulted in a codifying of a particular sort of "fish fry", which includes a piece of whitefish (often haddock), a plentiful amount of french fries (generally thicker-cut "steak" fries), potato-salad and/or macaroni-salad, and coleslaw. This dish has become so well established that some supermarkets in the area sell it from their seafood departments, and many local bars serve fish fries every week. In Ontario, Canada, a popular variant consists of freshwater perch or pickerel (walleye) — typically sold at lakeside resort towns.

Fish and chip shops

In the United Kingdom and in Australia fish-and-chips usually sell through independent restaurants and take-aways, colloquially known as ''chippies'', ''chippers'' or as ''chip shops'' in the United Kingdom,^[13]
or as ''fish-and-chip[s] shops'' in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Occasionally in these countries stores use the term "Fish and Chippery". Outlets range from small affairs to the likes of Doyles at Watsons Bay in Sydney. In the United Kingdom, punning names for the shops, such as "The Batter Plaice" or "The Frying Scotsman" often occur.^[14] Fish-and-chip outlets sell roughly 25% of all the white fish consumed in the United Kingdom, and 10% of all potatoes.
Fish-and-chip shops vary enormously in the United Kingdom: from small back-street affairs to posh "Fish Restaurants" with seating and with waiting-staff. The UK has a well-known chain called Harry Ramsden's, which originated in Guiseley near Leeds, and now has thirty-one chain restaurants throughout the country (the company also opened an ill-fated restaurant in Hong Kong and in Melbourne, Australia). British fish-and-chip shops sometimes sell other take-away food products, such as kebabs, pies, burgers, Chinese food and pizzas; more frequently the other items sold will involve deep-frying in the same way as with fish and chips, as the establishments often highlight the cooking method (some very traditional British fish-and-chip shops refer to their opening hours as "frying times"). In fishing-towns fish-and-chip shops also commonly sell uncooked fish. Some fishing-town chip shops also offer to fry customers' own fresh fish, charging a fee dependent on the weight of the fish processed.

US fast-food restaurant chains that sell fish and chips include Long John Silver's, Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips, Captain D's, H. Salt Esquire (in California), and Ivar's and Skipper's (in the Pacific Northwest). Most of these chains refer to fish and chips as "fish and fries" or as "combo baskets", as opposed to "platters" (which include coleslaw, however the term "chips" still occurs frequently in the Northwest and Western United States when discussing this dish. (See Burgerville, which generally also serves its baskets with a lemon wedge. A Western United States "combo basket" will often include an additional side dish such as beans or coleslaw, especially in a pub setting.) In the 1990s, the perception within the United States of fish and chips as unhealthy led to a decline in consumption and to financial problems for Long John Silver's and Arthur Treacher's. Other restaurants have acquired these two brands, and the current growth-strategy of both of these chains appears to aim at combining fish-and-chips with other fast food brands to bolster them in the marketplace and to introduce new customers to the meal as a novelty. But some specialist restaurants prepare fish and chips in the full Commonwealth tradition — such as The Park Slope Chipshop in New York City. ChipShop NYC plans to spread around America by franchising. In Canada, Joey's Only Seafood Restaurants figure prominently in the fish-and-chips market with over 100 locations.
Fish and chip shops in the United Kingdom occur commonly near seaside resorts — where tourists and visitors commonly eat fish and chips as a "traditional" seaside meal — but also in both rural and urban settings, with most villages and towns having at least one shop, even in the absence of other fast-food establishments.
The existence of numerous competitions and awards for "best fish-and-chip shop"^[15][16]
testifies to the recognised status of this type of outlet in popular culture.^[17]

Packaging and wrapping

Fish-and-chips shops traditionally wrapped their product in an inner white paper wrapping and an outer insulating and grease-absorbing layer of newspaper or blank newsprint, though nowadays the use of newspaper has largely ceased on grounds of hygiene, and establishments often use food-quality wrapping paper instead - occasionally printed on the outside to emulate newspaper. However, many feel that newspaper enhanced the mouth-watering smell of fish and chips and that, hygienically, it remains perfectly safe to use. Note as a supporting point that midwives and emergency services often suggest the use of newspaper when delivering a baby in an emergency. In Northern Ireland, fish and chip meals once came wrapped solely with a couple of layers of newspaper, but concerns over ink poisoning meant the phasing out of this practice. Few chippies now wrap the food in this way in Northern Ireland.
The steam produced by fish and chips causes paper wrapping to emit a characteristic smell, and the close wrapping prevents evaporation, giving the food a moist texture which can last for some time if the parcel remains unopened. Polystyrene packing, usual in many other kinds of take-away outlet, sometimes appears. Even when the fish get wrapped in paper, an open polystyrene container often holds the chips. Purists maintain that it "doesn't taste the same" in polystyrene or cardboard, lacking the smell and moist, steamed texture. The United Kingdom banned the use of real newspaper in the late 1980s. Australian fish-and-chip shops, faced with a ban on the use of actual newspaper in the 1970s, substituted butcher's paper as the external wrapping, though a few shops continue to wrap their product in newspaper, especially in rural areas. Some shops in New Zealand still wrap their fish and chips in newspaper.

Chip vans

Mobile fish-and-chip shops serve rural areas in the United Kingdom, although they can also occur in urban areas - particularly working-class housing estates. Van-operators may favour beef dripping rather than oil for frying in that cold dripping forms a solid mass and will not slosh around when on the move.

Other dishes

Fish-and-chip shops typically offer other fast food which customers may eat in place of the traditional battered fish. Typical alternatives offered in most English "chippies" include:
; Pies : In varieties such as meat-and-potato, steak and kidney, chicken and mushroom, mince and onion, or cheese and onion. Usually factory-made, unlike the pies in pie-and-mash shops.
; Sausages : Usually pork, deep-fried plain or in batter, or saveloys. Some chip shops use variations or combinations of other British sausages. In South Africa, standard sausages may include a Vienna sausage or simply a 'vienna' (wiener), a frankfurter, a Russian sausage or simply a 'Russian' (spicy pork sausage); all deep-fried or plain.
; Hot dog : Usually the sausage the shop uses, served in a bun.
; Fishcakes/Fish Fritter/Fish Slice : Fish and potatoes minced together and dipped in batter or bread-crumbs. In Yorkshire, a fishcake consists of a thin piece of fish between two large flat slices of potato dipped in batter and fried.
; Fish Pattie : Two slices of potato with a slice of fish (usually cod) in between, always battered. Sometimes also sold as 'Fishcake'.
; Scampi : In bread-crumbs.
; Chicken : Deep-fried, and sometimes available either plain or 'southern fried' in a flavoured, slightly spicy, batter-like coating.
; Chip butty : Chips served between two slices of bread, traditionally spread with butter (now more usually with margarine). The bread most commonly takes the form of a bun. Regional names for the bread bun create variations such as "chip cob" in Nottinghamshire and "chip barm" or "chip muffin" in Lancashire and "chip bap" in Staffordshire.
; Pineapple fritter : A slice of pineapple coated in batter before frying.
; Kebab/Döner compressed mince meat : Normally sliced from a rotating spit of meat held vertically.
; Patty/Scallop : Mashed potato, deep-fried in batter, usually served with chips ("patty and chips") as a low-cost meal, speciality of Hull, Yorkshire.
; Scraps : Leftover batter from the deep fat fryer, scooped into bags and served alone or as an accompaniment to fish and chips.
; Spam fritter : A slice of Spam coated in batter and fried.
; Rissole : Similar to a spam fritter, but composed of minced meat, usually coated in breadcrumbs.
; Burger : A minced meat (usually beef) patty, available either coated in fried batter or without.
; Cheeseburger : A dish of a fried burger with melted cheese inside.
; Rag Pudding : Minced meat wrapped in suet pastry boiled in a rag. Also referred to simply as "a pudding" when boiled unprotected. Popular varieties include steak and steak-and-kidney.
; Scallop/Smack/Slap/Special : A slice of potato, battered and deep-fried, in some places cooked without batter.
; Faggots or "savoury ducks" : A meatball or meat patty of pork-meat and liver. Such "faggots" occur most commonly in Wales and in the Midlands of England (especially in the Black Country); "savoury ducks" come from Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Scotland

Chippies (in some regions "chippers") in Scotland sometimes sell other deep-fried foods (including fruit), such as banana fritters and pineapple fritters and on a rare occasion even deep-fried Mars bars (first developed at the Caron Fish & Chip Shop, Stonehaven). In addition to fruit fritters, potato fritters occur fairly commonly: these consist of roughly 1-cm-thick slices of potato battered and fried. In Scotland the choice of alternatives further includes deep-fried pizza, smoked sausage (a variant of saveloy) either battered or un-battered, haggis, black pudding, red pudding and white pudding (the latter four served thickly battered in some locales).
In addition, Scottish takeaways offer minced mutton pies (known outside Scotland as "Scotch pies") and as a testament to changing tastes many establishments sell Kebabs and pakoras.
In Scotland (especially in the West of Scotland) chip shops often have Italian names referring to the Italian family that owns the chip shop. However this doesn't seem as common elsewhere in the UK.

Northern Ireland

Some chippies/chippers in Northern Ireland, in common with Scotland, offer deep-fried Mars Bars (restaurants usually add banana and pineapple fritters to a Chicken Maryland). In common with the rest of the United Kingdom, other meals sold in chippies include "hamburger suppers", chip butties, chicken and chips, "cowboy suppers" and hotdogs. Uniquely in Northern Ireland one can purchase the ''pastie bap'' and ''pastie supper''. Most chippies throughout Northern Ireland also sell battered sausages.

The British Isles generically

In Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England the inhabitants speak of a meal of fish and chips as a ''fish supper''. Similarly, in Scotland one can order a ''haggis supper'', a ''steak pie supper'', and so on; ''supper'' means "with chips", in this context. A "single" order comes without chips. As sausages often sell in pairs, a ''sausage supper'' may mean two sausages and chips, while a ''single sausage'' can refer to two sausages (without chips).

Australia

Australians favour a range of various accompaniments to fish and chips: such as the ''"potato cake"'' in Victoria, known as a ''"potato scallop"'' in Queensland and New South Wales or as a ''"potato fritter"'' in South Australia. Quite distinct from the sea-scallop, it consists of a thick slice of potato, deep-fried in batter.
Other common accompaniments in Australia include an Australian version of Chinese dumplings known locally as dim sims; an Australian version of a spring roll called the ''Chiko Roll'', calamari rings (deep-fried rings of squid), "battered savs" (a saveloy coated in batter and then deep fried) and crab sticks (deep-fried imitation crab-meat), called "Seafood Sticks" in Queensland. Homemade hamburgers may come with a number of added extras including egg, cheese, salad and sauce. An increasing number of stores in Australia may also deal in Döner kebabs. The Döner Kebab has only recently become part of the fish-and-chip shop repertoire. Traditionally, Australians knew such kebabs as ''souvlaki'' or ''gyros'', as Greeks loomed large in the fish-and-chip-shop industry, and a döner kebab closely resembles a souvlaki. Many stores still refer to these as "souvlaki".

New Zealand

New Zealand vendors offer an accompaniment identical to the Australian "potato scallop", but known either as a "fritter" (as in Southern Australia), or as a "flip". This leads to the dish "flips and chips": historically a lower-cost alternative to "fish and chips", but now sold for its own merits, rather than for reasons of economy. "Marsic's" in Auckland serves a variety of fish, fritters and chips in packs, as well as Kiwi-style Hotdogs (sausages, on a stick, covered in batter).

Footnotes

1.
BBC News - "The chips are downtown", retrieved 2007-06-13

2.

3.

4.
BBC news article

5. Resources for Learning, Scotland: Rationing
6.
The Guinness Book of the Business World, Button, Henry G. and Lampert, Andrew G., , , Guinness Superlatives, 1976,

7.
Tradition Historic UK, Fish and Chips

8. http://www.scotsitalian.com/chippiescafe.htm
9.
Federation of Fish Friers (professional body)

10. Icons of England
11.
http://www.seafish.org/plate/fishandchips.asp

12. [1]
13.
Speakers of British English use the term ''chippy'' or ''chipper'' as a noun meaning a "fish-and-chip shop" or a "carpenter". Speakers of American English may use the word as a pejorative term for a prostitute.

14.
Shop Horror, Swillingham, Guy, , , Fourth Estate, 2005,

15.

16.

17.

See also

★ Fried fish

★ Fish fry

★ Tempura

External links

★ BBC News: Fish and chips invented in France?

★ My plaice or yours? - ''Guardian'' article detailing some chippy terminology

★ Far Flung Fish and Chips - historical article

★ The (UK) Sea Fish Industry Authority on fish and chips

★ The Lancashire Hotpots' song; 'Chippy Tea'

★ Fish and Chips song