By Elizabeth McQuillan
Scotland has its fair share of quality fish and chip shops. Atlantic Fast Food in Coatbridge fought off all other UK competitors in 2009–10, and the Anstruther Fish Bar triumphed in 2008–09, to win the coveted industry-awarded Seafish Fish & Chip Shop of the Year title.
Forget the BAFTAs and the Oscars, it’s the humble fish supper that takes centre stage here.
Judged in true Simon Cowell fashion (“I think you have to judge everything based on your personal taste – and if that means being critical, so be it…”), the chippies on trial must convince a panel of judges, endure rigorous taste-testing and shine for impromptu kitchen inspections. Nose-picking teens, or grimy fingernails handling your cod piece, would result in instant elimination for any aspiring chipper.
Entries to the national awards are scrutinised by a judging panel composed of a mix of the National Federation of Fish Friers, the National Edible Oils Distributors' Association and Seafish, together with a variety of independent industry experts. Sadly, the creative naming of the chippy doesn’t assist in placement, otherwise Hector’s Plaice in Kyle of Lochalsh would be in with a shout.
Also on the wall of chip shop fame is the Townhead Cafe, Biggar (2007) the Bervie Chipper, Inverbervie (1997) and the West End Cafe, Rothesay (1994). For chips alone, Moore's Chip Shop in Castle Douglas gained a Choice Chip Award for 2012 and the current Scottish Fish and Chips of the Year award is held by the Bay in Stonehaven. We salute you!
Entries open soon for the 2012 awards, and my vote goes to… the Dunkeld Fish Bar. This friendly chippy counter has heroically and consistently supplied fantastic hot and crispy fish suppers on many a grueling A9 road trip.
National Chip Week UK (20–26 February) may have passed you by unnoticed, but this was a celebration of all things deep-fried potato, applauding the 277 million portions of chips sold in UK fish and chip shops per year. Despite suggestions that all this chip-munching correlates to the increase in obesity, there are actually fewer chip shops in the UK now than in the 1920s. The fad for battered and deep-fried pats of butter, on the other hand, won’t be helping the health and obesity statistics in Scotland.
The National Federation of Fish Friers is looking at ways to offer healthy alternatives to customers, and a reasonably recent innovation is the introduction of gluten-free fish and chips for customers with coeliac disease. Chippies as far afield as Plockton, Angus and Shetland offer this alternative.
If only we could just get rid of the cardboard boxes that now encase our favourite takeaway dish, and return to the fish supper wrapped in brown paper then folded into newspaper… Authentic, with a health nod to paper recycling, the sauce-soaked paper (I’m an Edinburger) was always worthy of a good sook and the contents just tasted better.
Chip trivia – ● A 2011 survey showed that fans of wedges are most likely to dip them in barbecue sauce, and ketchup is most popular with those who prefer oven chips and French fries. ● Chris Verschueren from Kastel in Belgium holds the world record for the longest french fries cooking marathon. He cooked for 83 hours, serving 15,000 portions. ● The first fish and chip shop was reported to have been opened in the 1860s in London by Joseph Malin – although it was also claimed that premises near Mossley, near Oldham in Lancashire, were first. ● A quarter of all potatoes grown in Britain are made into chips – that’s around 1.5 million tonnes each year, or nearly the same weight as 125,000 full double decker buses. ● The record number of chip portions sold in a fish and chip shop in one day was 4,000. ● The chips eaten in Great Britain each year come from potatoes weighing the equivalent of nearly 2.9 million Formula 1 cars. Laid end-to-end, those chips would take you around Silverstone circuit over 1.5 million times – equivalent to more than 26,000 British Grands Prix. ● During world war two, chips were one of the few foods not rationed. ● The world’s largest fish and chip portion was made in July 2011 at the Wensleydale Heifer.
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