Fish and Chips
A deep fried culinary travelogue
Sunday 19 July 2015
The Seacroft, Treaddur Bay near Holyhead
As a Holyhead lad I was a frequent visitor to the Seacroft in my youth. It is a handy watering hole near the stunning beach at Treaddur Bay and it seemed a good place to turn a visit home into a mini-break. In former times there was a separate bar and restaurant - now it is almost all dedicated to The Anglesey Grill.
When my favorite meal appears on the menu as ' "Fish & Chips” - fresh Timothy Taylor beer battered haddock £12-50 with chunky chips, crushed peas and sauce tartare', I start to worry. Why the quotation marks for the fish and chips and the mix up with the words tartare sauce? And maybe why £12.50 as well.
The meal didn't start well. Before the traditional eating part could begin I first of all had to remove the watercress from the plate and put it to one side. Then I had to carefully remove all the flakes of salt that had been generously dropped on top of the fish.
The fish was tasty but sadly far too watery. The water in the fish made the bottom of the batter pretty wet pretty quickly and therefore a little unappetising. The batter, made with Timothy Taylor beer, was OK but lacked any strong flavour. I was tempted not to use the lemon as it was so damp.
I had actually gone for fries on this occasion, just for a change, and they were really enjoyable with a great texture and taste.
The peas had a lovely minty hint to them which didn't dominate them. The tartare, although a bit too finely processed, has a good balance of flavours.
Salt and vinegar - which were straightforward to sprinkle and pour were provided on the table.
Unfortunately the plate was cold when it arrived and as I'm a slow eater the food was luke-warm by half-way through the meal which didn't help at all.
The ambiance of the place was very pleasant with just the hum of conversation on a busy Saturday night.
The menu also appears in Welsh - the translation of fish and chips is "Pysgodyn & Sglodion" but I suspect the fish would still be too watery.
Thursday 11 June 2015
The Greyhound in Tong
Tong village sits on the outskirts of Bradford and is probably best
known for its large garden centre. The Greyhound pub is in the middle of the
village and sits in a lovely setting in front of Tong Cricket Club.
The pub itself has grown over the years and has a large extension to
cope with the number of diners who come for its pub grub.
We were out for a Sunday lunch with family and were all ordering from
the lunch menu that could do me two courses for £12.95. Unfortunately I’ve only
ever got enough room to eat one.
Being a good Yorkshire pub I had expected to be surprised by the amount
of food on the plate but when it arrived I was underwhelmed. During the week
they have a choice between ‘The Whale’ at £11.95 or ‘The Tiddler’ at £8.50 and
I think I know which one this was. It was a surprisingly small piece of fish or
it may have been two even smaller pieces stuck together. It just didn’t taste
of much at all and certainly didn’t have that distinctive fresh fish taste. The
batter was OK if a little too greasy.
The chips had clear evidence of skin on and although they were well
cooked they also were a little on the oily side.
In contrast to the fish the mushy peas portion was enormous and had a
really good classic mushy pea flavour and texture, but for me, there were
simply too many on the plate when considered in the context of the size of the
fish.
The tartare came in a little pot and looked and tasted as if it had
been decanted from a catering pack with a dull, formulaic, mass produced taste.
No lemon – and the vinegar, as is becoming more and more the case these
days, came in a dispenser which needed more concentration and dexterity than
should be necessary to add a dash of acetic acid to some fish and chips.
The meal was washed down with a pint of Leeds Best which was just OK.
For me it felt like the food was being dished up without too much
thought and care for the ingredients and that the quicker we could be fed and
watered the faster the table would become available. But maybe the staff were
just being as efficient as they could be.
I did pass my thoughts on to the management who were genuinely apologetic
about the experience and were good enough to provide a token for another meal.
They admitted that they struggled at Sunday lunchtimes, due to the pub’s
popularity, to provide the ‘home-cooked’ food that they have a reputation for.
So maybe I’ll have to try another time – and try and combine it with a Tong
Cricket Club home match.
Labels:
Bradford,
fish and chips,
greyhound,
lemon,
tong
Location:
Bradford, West Yorkshire BD4 0RR, UK
Saturday 28 March 2015
Midnight Bell, Leeds
Leeds Best Battered Haddock, Pea Puree, Handmade Tartare Sauce and Home
Twice Cooked Chips £11.95
A meeting of friends and family brought me to Leeds for a late Sunday
lunch and we ended up at the Midnight Bell. The pub used to be the Leeds
Brewery tap, but their official tap is now at another pub near to Leeds station.
And very near to the fabulous Friends of Ham.
It’s a little out of town in the urban village of Holbeck. It appears
every city needs to have an urban village these days.
We arrived just in time to order and therefore the Sunday lunchtime
crush had settled down and we were able to grab a quiet corner at the back of
the ground floor. The staff were brilliant and made sure we were all sorted and
could enjoy the afternoon in the pub.
The fish was lovely and the batter was outstanding. The big chunks of
fresh fish were elegantly surrounded by a perfectly seasoned beer batter. Really
pleased to have a beer batter that had been cooked with such care.
The chips had a fantastic taste and were definitely twice fried but not
quite as crispy as I had hoped. Although they has been pre salted, this wasn’t
over the top and I did add a little salt and vinegar.
The pea puree had been generously distributed on the plate and formed a
base for the fish and chips. It had a good depth of flavour and a texture that
worked well.
The green leaves didn’t need to be on the plate and just served as a
distraction especially when a stray leaf made it onto my fork. This sadly
happened more than one.
The tartare was good in terms of both flavour and texture and had big chunks
of gherkins.
No lemon – and I did have to ask for the vinegar.
The meal was washed down with a pint of Leeds Pale which was just OK.
Good friends in a good pub with good fish and chips and some fantastic music
in the background on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Perfect.
Monday 1 September 2014
No sleep ‘til Douglas – The official fish and chips story of the Isle of Man tour 2014
The tour was the annual get together of a few friends who agree a
location to spend a few days chatting, walking, cycling, eating and drinking.
This year’s venue was the magical Ellan Vannin. A place that feels gloriously
peaceful with little of the histrionics that seem to invade our daily lives.
Our first night was spent in Peel in a pub that is an institution in
the town, The Creek Inn. I love the Creek Inn. Good beer, a ‘sun-kissed’ beer
garden to the front and just a great bustle of people from all over the world
enjoying their time on the island.
I waited for my fish and chips (£12.50) trying to ignore a nearby diner’s
lamb shank which hummed with the smell of mint sauce. I’d had brilliant fish
and chips from the Creek a few years earlier so was very excited about the meal
to come.
When it came it looked OK and the fish was OK. Just OK. A little too
dry and without a lot of flavour but not bad either. The same could be said of
the batter which was fine but didn’t tickle the tastebuds yet it did have a
good clean, crisp crunch to it.
The chips were homemade but were overcooked and the flavour of the
potato had been completely removed from inside the outer crispy shell. The
other problem was they had taken on too much oil and I could see them oozing
fat when forked which didn’t make them terribly appetising.
The peas seemed to have come from a packet and had little if any taste.
The tartare was also from a packet and had a harsh acidity which was far too
overwhelming to make it enjoyable. There
was far too much tartare and far too few peas.
A piece of lemon was provided but the vinegar had to be requested.
So my initial excitement was well and truly deflated by this start to
my fish and chip exploits on the island. To top it all off the meal was washed
down with a very average Oakham Citra.
The end of the following day’s cycling from Ramsey to the Point of Ayr
and back was a return bus to Peel and the Peel Fisheries chippy.
We could smell
the chip shop when we got off the bus and it just got better as we made our hungry
way through the back streets of Peel. It’s a small corner chippy with some
seating outside and they were just at the start of frying for the evening
shift. With the sun beginning to fade over the Manx hills it felt very, very
right.
The fish was cooked to order and without being remarkable was enjoyable
and along with the fantastic batter it was a fine balance of taste and texture.
The batter was perhaps a tiny bit oily.
The chips were glorious. A great clean potato taste and a perfect level
of crispiness. The best I’d had in some time.
The peas didn’t have a lot of flavour but at least they did have the
classic chip shop consistency.
There was no need for anything else as they had added the right amount
of salt and vinegar.
There are fewer better things in life than sitting on a bench next to a
back-street chippy with the cars and buses of Peel trundling past and the good
people of Peel popping in to get a cheeky Tuesday treat. The meal was washed
down with fresh air.
The final fish and chips of the trip were at Tanrogan in Douglas which
came as part of their two courses for £15 set lunch menu. Tanrogan is widely
accepted as one of the best restaurants on the island and the ambience of this
fine looking eatery was only disturbed by a group of ‘ladies who lunch’ chatting
far too loudly.
The fish was fantastic. Superb intense fresh fishy flavour in big
chunks of perfectly moist meat. Happy days. The fish was encased in very crisp,
very brown and very tasty batter and they worked elegantly together to give me a
deep-fried taste sensation I hadn’t had in some time.
The chips were as good as the battered fish. They were bloody big
things but crispy on the outside and a stunning floury flavour from some high-end
potatoes.
As anticipated from the rest of the food, the tartare was excellent with
big chunks of gherkin and capers in the mayo creating a cracking cut-through
freshness against the fish.
I wasn’t surprised by the size of the lemon, but I was by the numerous pips
that came out of it when squeezed.
The drinks that accompanied the meal were a bottle of Swiss 1936 beer and a glass of Nostros Sauvignon Blanc.
Great food served with very good service and attention to detail in
every aspect of the experience. Highly recommended.
Afterwards it was off to the ferry for Liverpool.
Thank you Isle of Man.
Labels:
creek inn,
douglas,
fish and chips,
isle of man,
oakham citra,
peel,
pips,
tanrogan
Location:
Isle of Man
Sunday 24 August 2014
Castle Chippy, Clitheroe
According
to many on TripAdvisor the Castle Chippy is superb. More evidence that TripAdvisor
isn’t always the most reliable place to get recommendations.
We
parked up near the chip shop and I popped in for two portions of fish and chips
plus a large portion of peas which came to the incredibly reasonable price of
£9.50. Tragically what I saw coming out of the display section of the range
were two incredibly uniform pieces of fish that wouldn’t have looked out of
place in a Birds Eye frozen battered fish packet. I was feeling anxious!
The
chippy does have a small table but it was a wee bit cramped so we drove to the
car park next to the outstanding Swan with Two Necks pubs in the charming
village of Pendleton.
Thankfully
it wasn’t Birds Eye but fresh fish that just happened to be similarly shaped.
The fish itself had a good flavour and chunky flakes that on its own was good,
but it was let down by the batter which was far too oily and tasted like it had
been sat in the display cabinet for too long.
The
chips were pretty poor - both limp and anaemic. They did taste of potato but
the heavy flavour of oil overwhelmed any quality chip taste.
The mushy
peas on the other hand tasted of virtually nothing. They had been boiled to
within an inch of their lives and had lost the will to hold on to any flavour
some hours ago.
On the
positive side they had provided excellent plastic forks which meant that you
could avoid getting your hands too oily.
A
genuinely disappointing chip shop experience and I was reminded of its oiliness
for a few hours more as the meal sat heavily on my stomach.
One chippy
that’s definitely off the list.
Saturday 28 June 2014
Pier House Bistro, Beaumaris
My sister’s 50th birthday party was the reason
for this visit to Ynys Mon and as we’d made good time on the journey to
Beaumaris, there was an opportunity for something to eat before we headed for the
main event.
There was a difficult decision to be made. The Bistro had
fish and chips which sounded good but it was only a few metres away from the
Café Neptune chippy. The Neptune was a big modern proper chippy whilst the Pier
House was a posh looking place, but as the name suggests there was a great view
of Beaumaris’s charming pier and it wasn’t rammed with tourists. We decided to
go to the quieter venue.
I went for the “Pier House Haddock -
Fresh fillet of haddock coated in our very own gin & tonic batter, served
with chunky chips and crushed garden peas” for £8.95.
The haddock was
moist with a clean, fresh taste and had been cooked perfectly. This was supported
by the batter which was only let down slightly by the fact that it has cooked a
little inconsistently, but from the perspective of taste it was very good.
Couldn’t tell that the G+T had made a difference but it worked.
The chips
looked like they’d come from a bag in the freezer and tasted of absolutely
nothing. A real shame that this fairly crucial part of the classic combination
had gone so wrong.
The crushed
peas looked really good but the mint flavour was so overpowering I couldn’t really
taste the peas. As the mint tasted so vinegary I have to assume it came from a
jar.
The tartare had
all the right things in the right proportions but they sadly didn’t work as a
whole. The capers and the gherkins were too acidic and the cheap tasting mayo was
a perfect match for the overwhelming taste of vinegar.
The samphire on the top was a really nice touch and an
enjoyable salty surprise, the lemon was a good big piece and salt and vinegar were
readily available on the table.
A meal that got quite close to average, but a lack of
attention to detail in not sourcing better ingredients, cooking proper chipped
potatoes and checking to see what the food tasted like before it went out could
have improved the meal significantly.
The whole thing was washed down with tap water.
Wednesday 28 May 2014
The Closed Shop, Sheffield
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23112312@N08/2212880140/
I was out with 3 old friends for a few cheeky drinks around
the outskirts of Sheffield and needed a good start to the day. Our first pub of
the day was The Closed Shop on Commonside on the western edge of the city and
it did food so it made a lot of sense to have the fish and chips at £7.95.
The pub has been recently taken over and was very clean
but unfortunately on our visit the beer selection wasn’t anywhere near as
exciting as it had been on their Facebook profile recently, but this was just a
little bad luck on our behalf.
The fish was big and came with an equally large amount of
sturdy skin on it which has to be scraped away and discard before I could start
eating. The fish was pretty fresh if a little damp with some water coming out
of the flesh but was cooked consistently throughout. The batter had a good deep
colour and had a great flavour to match the fantastic crispyness.
The chips were yet again not chips but wedges. However,
they did have a great flavour although as usual with my taste in the fried
potato I would have left them in the fryer for another 60 seconds.
There are two images of the meal. This one clearly shows
the frozen peas that arrived on the southern side of the plate and were simply
dull. It also shows the overindulgence in the world of green leaves which was
simply over the top and wasn’t eaten. Unfortunately, the salad replaced the
lemon wedge which is a terrible shame.
The tartare was utter nonsense. Having has the stupid
deconstructed tartare at the Clive outside Ludlow this was almost as bad. It was
basically some sliced gherkins placed on top of a small, shallow mayonnaise container.
I did have some of the mayonnaise with my chips but it was another very poor
attempt at what should be a straightforward addition to a fish and chips meal.
The salt and vinegar was in packet form and the meal was
washed down with an uncomplicated standard bitter.
The second image is a long shot of the meal with a bottle
of Henderson’s Relish included. The object of the photo is really just to show
you a bottle of Henderson’s relish.
Labels:
beer,
Commonside,
fish and chips,
lemon,
salad,
Sheffield,
tartare,
The Closed Shop
Location:
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)