For my last two years of high school lunch nearly every day was battered sausages, chips, gravy, curry sauce. The two latter items thick, shiny with grease and laden with inexplicable and...
Pie barms, Bolognese chips, red pudding, chip spice, and the Justin Bieber Haggis Supper
For my last two years of high school lunch nearly every day was battered sausages, chips, gravy, curry sauce. The two latter items thick, shiny with grease and laden with inexplicable and confusingly delicious gelatinous lumps of something almost but not quite exactly unlike food. Chip butty if we were feeling like taking the diet option, the cheapest white bread spread thickly with margerine and loaded with more chips than one would imagine could fit between two slices, drops of fat and heart-rending quantities of salt and vinegar tumbling down to leave school clothes stained for the rest of the day.
When I moved across the country for university I was genuinely shocked to not find a single chippy which served gravy. It's different these days, most have caught on. But nothing has ever come very close to the seemingly perpetual gravy pot blub blub blubbing away like some kind of primordial cholesterol thermal vent behind the counter at Greasy Gregs.
Battered sausages were a staple of my Scottish high school lunch too, late 90s. It was one item that was on every day, usually with a giant pile of chips. Unreal what they fed us in those days,...
Battered sausages were a staple of my Scottish high school lunch too, late 90s. It was one item that was on every day, usually with a giant pile of chips.
Unreal what they fed us in those days, I've heard they're long over though. The kids today likely don't know the appeal of whatever was in those beige meat-ish cylinders.
Canadian here. Fascinating read! My arteries are aching after reading this. It took me a bit to realize that battered sausages meant they were deep fried and not, I dunno, tenderized or chunked or...
Canadian here. Fascinating read! My arteries are aching after reading this.
It took me a bit to realize that battered sausages meant they were deep fried and not, I dunno, tenderized or chunked or something. Can you tell me what 'chip butty' and 'red pudding' are? Those I couldn't figure out
Battered sausages are dipped in batter and then deep fried. They are usually almost 30cm long. A chip butty is the perfect sandwich of fried carbs in a carb wrapper. Ketchup isn't my preference, I...
Battered sausages are dipped in batter and then deep fried. They are usually almost 30cm long.
A chip butty is the perfect sandwich of fried carbs in a carb wrapper. Ketchup isn't my preference, I like butter and salt. But you'll find anything. Best made with the cheapest bread you can find. This is not a foodstuff than should be artisan'd up with nonsense like sourdough and aioli (and heaven forfend anything green).
Red pudding I can't help with I'm afraid. Black pudding is a blood and oat sausage and is far more delicious than it sounds, white pudding is the same without the blood.
In my mind’s eye it would be a saveloy, but that definitely doesn’t fit with only finding it north of Fife. Also, this is very much a thread I want to come back and engage with properly, but on...
In my mind’s eye it would be a saveloy, but that definitely doesn’t fit with only finding it north of Fife.
Also, this is very much a thread I want to come back and engage with properly, but on the off chance I don’t get time I just wanted to say your top comment brought back a thousand happy memories of my teenage self and I thank you for that!
Yeah red pudding isn't saveloy, you will see them listed as separate items sometimes. My guess is it's similar, maybe just a different spice mix or extra dye or something.
Yeah red pudding isn't saveloy, you will see them listed as separate items sometimes.
My guess is it's similar, maybe just a different spice mix or extra dye or something.
In Scotland there's some regional variation. Edinburgh's "chippy sauce" is probably the most famous (nobody besides them and a part of Fife likes it) but the sausages change (smoked, unsmoked),...
In Scotland there's some regional variation.
Edinburgh's "chippy sauce" is probably the most famous (nobody besides them and a part of Fife likes it) but the sausages change (smoked, unsmoked), red pudding appears and disappears, white pudding sometimes becomes a mealie pudding (and nobody knows what the difference is), the infamous pizza crunch is normal in the West, rarer in the East (excluding Dundee) and unknown in many other places. Something called a Polony exists in one chip shop and the next will look at you like you asked for a battered house cat. There's also the enduring mystery of what exactly a "King Rib" is, where it comes from, what animal it is made from and what animal it is impersonating.
I've always wondered how these sometimes hyper-regional differences came about. Ultimately none of it really matters if you're looking for actual battered fish and chips but it seems like Scots got bored of that a long time ago and the - sometimes horrifying - and highly variable array of items on the average chippie menu is testament to that.
I remember reading a story about a Canadian who had decided to move from England to Edinburgh on a whim, had arrived at some late hour during some typically dreary Scottish winter evening and was hungry. Finding the nearest chip shop they entered and saw "cheeseburger supper" on the menu which seemed familiar enough until a dripping, battered disk was plucked from the fryer...
Never, ever order the cheeseburger from a Scottish chippie.
A couple of Scottish lads I used to know on Teamspeak would insist that they go for an 'Italian Fish n chips'. I don't recall why it was an Italian Fish n Chips, but it always makes me laugh. They...
A couple of Scottish lads I used to know on Teamspeak would insist that they go for an 'Italian Fish n chips'. I don't recall why it was an Italian Fish n Chips, but it always makes me laugh. They really loved it and were surprised us down south didn't really know what it was :)
I'm in Falkirk and we get chippy sauce as well (I'm assuming it's the same thing as in Edinburgh, a mix of brown sauce and a lot of white vinegar)? It's my favourite part of getting a chippy,...
I'm in Falkirk and we get chippy sauce as well (I'm assuming it's the same thing as in Edinburgh, a mix of brown sauce and a lot of white vinegar)?
It's my favourite part of getting a chippy, sucks when you go somewhere else and get a chippy and they give you packets of HP brown sauce instead of lashing of chippy brown.
Pizza crunch is wonderful but definitely a once or twice a year treat. Can actively feel your arteries harden eating one.
In Northern Ireland we say Fish and Chip. Instead of asking for chips, you ask for a chip. My mum told me that when she was a teenager in the 70's visiting London, she went in and asked for a...
In Northern Ireland we say Fish and Chip. Instead of asking for chips, you ask for a chip.
My mum told me that when she was a teenager in the 70's visiting London, she went in and asked for a chip. They gave her a single solitary chip. hahahahahaha
I'm imaging her asking for a "fish and chip" and getting a single piece of chip and a really small fish, like finger size, hahaha, thaks for the imagery.
I'm imaging her asking for a "fish and chip" and getting a single piece of chip and a really small fish, like finger size, hahaha, thaks for the imagery.
My Ma said she was totally scundered (Northern Irish for embarrassed). hahahahaha made for a good story even decades later though :) I moved to Manchester for uni in 2005. I cannot tell you how...
My Ma said she was totally scundered (Northern Irish for embarrassed). hahahahaha made for a good story even decades later though :)
I moved to Manchester for uni in 2005. I cannot tell you how many times saying the word mirror to the English has caused problems, left me right scundered. When I try to say it with an English pronunciation it comes across like I'm trying to mock people with a speech impediment. hahahaha
You know the actor Jamie Dornan? He was my cousin's mate at school in Belfast. I saw an interview where he talked about his problem with mirror in England, god the validation hahahahaha
This was such a fascinating read, thank you for sharing! I love hearing about differing interpretations on shared dishes and the number of variations for what I just considered "fish and chips"...
This was such a fascinating read, thank you for sharing! I love hearing about differing interpretations on shared dishes and the number of variations for what I just considered "fish and chips" has blown my mind. This article has me craving something I won't easily find on this side of the pond, but it has certainly changed some of stigmas about UK food. The author's humor was a great touch in embracing that fried food culture and I'm left wanting a Spice Bag now.
The stigma around UK food is disappointing. The UK has and always has had a vibrant culture around food. It was sadly affected quite badly due to rationing during and after WW2. Rationing didn't...
Exemplary
The stigma around UK food is disappointing. The UK has and always has had a vibrant culture around food. It was sadly affected quite badly due to rationing during and after WW2. Rationing didn't fully end until the 50's in the UK so 15 years or so of rationing seems to have tarred the food of a collection of cultures that have existed for thousands of years.
Modern British cuisine draws on our history and the melting pot of cultures that live here to create exciting dishes both new, old and a eclectic combination of the two.
Historic regional foods found in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland like Rarebit, Welsh Cawl, Haggis, Cullen Skink, Smokies, Butteries, Soda Bread, Ardglass Herring and English Afternoon Tea are still popular for good reason, they're tasty!
Curries developed and invented for our pallettes here in the UK like Tikka Masala, Balti's and Kedgeree were created by immigrants to the UK from India and Pakistan. This is no different to food cultural exchange throughout the rest of the world, Bahn Mi in Vietnam is due to French colonisation of the region, Bagel and Lox and Deli sandwiches are a direct influence of Jewish immigration to the US, burgers and pretzels from Germany, fried chicken from Scotland and Africa, Apple Pie from England, Gumbo from the Creole people, and New York Pizza and American Lasagne from Italy.
Britain's biggest contribution to global gastronomy in my opinion, the Beef Wellington, is delicious and one of the most famous fine-dining meals for good reason.
Beans on toast, which always seems to be the go-to for people saying British food is bland or gross is a simple comfort that a lot of us grew up eating as children and is super easy to make for a quick lunch. Even better with a sprinkling of cheese on top, cooked under the grill (broiler) to let the cheese melt and brown and then dashed with a few drops of Worcester sauce.
Hopefully I've helped dissuade some more of that stigma for you.
Fun fact: The British did actually use the spices found in India and across the world and it was British sailors that introduced the ever popular curry to Japan.
Faggots and chips, get that in my face. I'm from the East Midlands and you see this in a few chippies that way. London is just a travesty on the chippie front.
Faggots and chips, get that in my face. I'm from the East Midlands and you see this in a few chippies that way.
I once asked for peas in a London chippie and they gave me a little pot of very expensive sweet garden peas!? I didn't bother investigating further, I wasn't expecting much (where's the haddock?)...
I once asked for peas in a London chippie and they gave me a little pot of very expensive sweet garden peas!?
I didn't bother investigating further, I wasn't expecting much (where's the haddock?) but if they can't even get that right I want no part of their chippie culture.
Not a beef dripping filled fryer to be seen for miles around, and even the noble haddock sometimes feels few and far between. In a city with such an amazing food scene, proper northern fish &...
London is just a travesty on the chippie front
Not a beef dripping filled fryer to be seen for miles around, and even the noble haddock sometimes feels few and far between. In a city with such an amazing food scene, proper northern fish & chips is one of the few things I genuinely miss.
Ahh the deep fried Mars bar. I heard about these one day from our local chippy. It’d finally made its way from Scotland to Somerset - almost the other end of the UK. I was enraptured. Obsessed....
Ahh the deep fried Mars bar. I heard about these one day from our local chippy. It’d finally made its way from Scotland to Somerset - almost the other end of the UK. I was enraptured. Obsessed. Fantasising day and night about the sweet melted chocolate. I asked mum, begged when she said no, pleaded until finally, finally she relented with a “don’t blame me if you’re sick!”
Lads, it was glorious.
Sickly sweet in all the right ways, warm and melty, comforting, delicious. I was Augustus Gloop, that day, stuffing my little face with chocolate dreams.
Before waking that night and being spectacularly sick all over my bed. Mums always know best, don’t they?
For my last two years of high school lunch nearly every day was battered sausages, chips, gravy, curry sauce. The two latter items thick, shiny with grease and laden with inexplicable and confusingly delicious gelatinous lumps of something almost but not quite exactly unlike food. Chip butty if we were feeling like taking the diet option, the cheapest white bread spread thickly with margerine and loaded with more chips than one would imagine could fit between two slices, drops of fat and heart-rending quantities of salt and vinegar tumbling down to leave school clothes stained for the rest of the day.
When I moved across the country for university I was genuinely shocked to not find a single chippy which served gravy. It's different these days, most have caught on. But nothing has ever come very close to the seemingly perpetual gravy pot blub blub blubbing away like some kind of primordial cholesterol thermal vent behind the counter at Greasy Gregs.
Battered sausages were a staple of my Scottish high school lunch too, late 90s. It was one item that was on every day, usually with a giant pile of chips.
Unreal what they fed us in those days, I've heard they're long over though. The kids today likely don't know the appeal of whatever was in those beige meat-ish cylinders.
Canadian here. Fascinating read! My arteries are aching after reading this.
It took me a bit to realize that battered sausages meant they were deep fried and not, I dunno, tenderized or chunked or something. Can you tell me what 'chip butty' and 'red pudding' are? Those I couldn't figure out
Battered sausages are dipped in batter and then deep fried. They are usually almost 30cm long.
A chip butty is the perfect sandwich of fried carbs in a carb wrapper. Ketchup isn't my preference, I like butter and salt. But you'll find anything. Best made with the cheapest bread you can find. This is not a foodstuff than should be artisan'd up with nonsense like sourdough and aioli (and heaven forfend anything green).
Red pudding I can't help with I'm afraid. Black pudding is a blood and oat sausage and is far more delicious than it sounds, white pudding is the same without the blood.
In my mind’s eye it would be a saveloy, but that definitely doesn’t fit with only finding it north of Fife.
Also, this is very much a thread I want to come back and engage with properly, but on the off chance I don’t get time I just wanted to say your top comment brought back a thousand happy memories of my teenage self and I thank you for that!
Yeah red pudding isn't saveloy, you will see them listed as separate items sometimes.
My guess is it's similar, maybe just a different spice mix or extra dye or something.
In Scotland there's some regional variation.
Edinburgh's "chippy sauce" is probably the most famous (nobody besides them and a part of Fife likes it) but the sausages change (smoked, unsmoked), red pudding appears and disappears, white pudding sometimes becomes a mealie pudding (and nobody knows what the difference is), the infamous pizza crunch is normal in the West, rarer in the East (excluding Dundee) and unknown in many other places. Something called a Polony exists in one chip shop and the next will look at you like you asked for a battered house cat. There's also the enduring mystery of what exactly a "King Rib" is, where it comes from, what animal it is made from and what animal it is impersonating.
I've always wondered how these sometimes hyper-regional differences came about. Ultimately none of it really matters if you're looking for actual battered fish and chips but it seems like Scots got bored of that a long time ago and the - sometimes horrifying - and highly variable array of items on the average chippie menu is testament to that.
I remember reading a story about a Canadian who had decided to move from England to Edinburgh on a whim, had arrived at some late hour during some typically dreary Scottish winter evening and was hungry. Finding the nearest chip shop they entered and saw "cheeseburger supper" on the menu which seemed familiar enough until a dripping, battered disk was plucked from the fryer...
Never, ever order the cheeseburger from a Scottish chippie.
A couple of Scottish lads I used to know on Teamspeak would insist that they go for an 'Italian Fish n chips'. I don't recall why it was an Italian Fish n Chips, but it always makes me laugh. They really loved it and were surprised us down south didn't really know what it was :)
No clue! The only thing I can think is a lot of chip shops in Scotland were started by Italian immigrants and many have Italian names to this day.
I'm in Falkirk and we get chippy sauce as well (I'm assuming it's the same thing as in Edinburgh, a mix of brown sauce and a lot of white vinegar)?
It's my favourite part of getting a chippy, sucks when you go somewhere else and get a chippy and they give you packets of HP brown sauce instead of lashing of chippy brown.
Pizza crunch is wonderful but definitely a once or twice a year treat. Can actively feel your arteries harden eating one.
In Northern Ireland we say Fish and Chip. Instead of asking for chips, you ask for a chip.
My mum told me that when she was a teenager in the 70's visiting London, she went in and asked for a chip. They gave her a single solitary chip. hahahahahaha
I'm imaging her asking for a "fish and chip" and getting a single piece of chip and a really small fish, like finger size, hahaha, thaks for the imagery.
My Ma said she was totally scundered (Northern Irish for embarrassed). hahahahaha made for a good story even decades later though :)
I moved to Manchester for uni in 2005. I cannot tell you how many times saying the word mirror to the English has caused problems, left me right scundered. When I try to say it with an English pronunciation it comes across like I'm trying to mock people with a speech impediment. hahahaha
You know the actor Jamie Dornan? He was my cousin's mate at school in Belfast. I saw an interview where he talked about his problem with mirror in England, god the validation hahahahaha
This was such a fascinating read, thank you for sharing! I love hearing about differing interpretations on shared dishes and the number of variations for what I just considered "fish and chips" has blown my mind. This article has me craving something I won't easily find on this side of the pond, but it has certainly changed some of stigmas about UK food. The author's humor was a great touch in embracing that fried food culture and I'm left wanting a Spice Bag now.
The stigma around UK food is disappointing. The UK has and always has had a vibrant culture around food. It was sadly affected quite badly due to rationing during and after WW2. Rationing didn't fully end until the 50's in the UK so 15 years or so of rationing seems to have tarred the food of a collection of cultures that have existed for thousands of years.
Modern British cuisine draws on our history and the melting pot of cultures that live here to create exciting dishes both new, old and a eclectic combination of the two.
Historic regional foods found in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland like Rarebit, Welsh Cawl, Haggis, Cullen Skink, Smokies, Butteries, Soda Bread, Ardglass Herring and English Afternoon Tea are still popular for good reason, they're tasty!
Curries developed and invented for our pallettes here in the UK like Tikka Masala, Balti's and Kedgeree were created by immigrants to the UK from India and Pakistan. This is no different to food cultural exchange throughout the rest of the world, Bahn Mi in Vietnam is due to French colonisation of the region, Bagel and Lox and Deli sandwiches are a direct influence of Jewish immigration to the US, burgers and pretzels from Germany, fried chicken from Scotland and Africa, Apple Pie from England, Gumbo from the Creole people, and New York Pizza and American Lasagne from Italy.
Britain's biggest contribution to global gastronomy in my opinion, the Beef Wellington, is delicious and one of the most famous fine-dining meals for good reason.
Beans on toast, which always seems to be the go-to for people saying British food is bland or gross is a simple comfort that a lot of us grew up eating as children and is super easy to make for a quick lunch. Even better with a sprinkling of cheese on top, cooked under the grill (broiler) to let the cheese melt and brown and then dashed with a few drops of Worcester sauce.
Hopefully I've helped dissuade some more of that stigma for you.
Fun fact: The British did actually use the spices found in India and across the world and it was British sailors that introduced the ever popular curry to Japan.
Faggots and chips, get that in my face. I'm from the East Midlands and you see this in a few chippies that way.
London is just a travesty on the chippie front.
I once asked for peas in a London chippie and they gave me a little pot of very expensive sweet garden peas!?
I didn't bother investigating further, I wasn't expecting much (where's the haddock?) but if they can't even get that right I want no part of their chippie culture.
I'm not a mushy peas fan myself, but the chips down here are ALWAYS fries.
Drives me spare.
Not a beef dripping filled fryer to be seen for miles around, and even the noble haddock sometimes feels few and far between. In a city with such an amazing food scene, proper northern fish & chips is one of the few things I genuinely miss.
Ahh the deep fried Mars bar. I heard about these one day from our local chippy. It’d finally made its way from Scotland to Somerset - almost the other end of the UK. I was enraptured. Obsessed. Fantasising day and night about the sweet melted chocolate. I asked mum, begged when she said no, pleaded until finally, finally she relented with a “don’t blame me if you’re sick!”
Lads, it was glorious.
Sickly sweet in all the right ways, warm and melty, comforting, delicious. I was Augustus Gloop, that day, stuffing my little face with chocolate dreams.
Before waking that night and being spectacularly sick all over my bed. Mums always know best, don’t they?