Fish & Chips for Good Friday

Can one wish a happy Good Friday? I love Good Friday, sometimes just as much as Easter. Because it's a bank holiday, at least in this country. And because every year I commemorate by "fasting". And by fasting, I mean I eat fish and chips.It has become a tradition since I live in England. We spent last year's Good Friday in York.It was our last night in the city. I bought these fish and chips in the nearest chippy. It tasted absolutely perfect, even though it stank up the place. I'm not sure where I will eat my next Fish and chips from.

Fish & Chips for Good Friday

Today is Good Friday. I always loved Good Friday: it's a holiday, it's generally a relaxing day and it means that I can, ahem, fast. By fasting, I mean stuffing my face with fish and chips. Since I live in England, it's not Good Friday without fish and chips. I often enjoy more the Good Friday meal than what we have at Easter. I had these ones last year in Belfast, at the hotel restaurant.

Fish & Chips for Good Friday

I took this picture at Billy Winters in Dorset. Iam sharing the picture today because it is Good Friday and as it is tradition for me and many others I had fish and chips tonight. Not as nice as these ones, sadly, as I bought them in the supermarket. That said, the fish and chips at Billy Winters did not impress me all that much. They tasted all right, but knd of gentrified, if that makes sense. The chips were more like French fries. The local chip shop make better ones. Cheaper too. I should have bought it from there tonight. Oh well, at least I had fish and chips.

Fish and Chips for Good Friday

First I want to wish a happy Good Friday to my readers. Even though it is meant to be an austere day. It is not austere to me, in any case. As it is Good Friday, I am going to have fish and chips today. You know, because fasting and all that. I don't know where I will buy the fish and chips. I had the ones on that picture in a pub of Sandown on the Isle of Wight. Not sure if I can find a cod as good as the one we can find on an island, but there's plenty of decent chippy shops round here. And I haven't eaten fish and chips in months, so it is long overdue.

Fish & Chips in the Isle of Wight

During our stay in the Isle of Wight, as we were by the sea, I of course wanted to try the local fish and chips. In fact, I was thinking to have an almost pescetarian diet. If I'm not mistaken, I hadn't had fish and chips since Good Friday. So it was long overdue. I had it on our second night, in the hotel's restaurant. I was not disappointed. It was more expensive than the local chips shop and, to be honest, maybe not quite as good or the portion as generous, but it was filling enough and delicious. So that was my first fish and chips, but I actually had the same meal another evening.

Fish & Chips for Good Friday

So this year again, because it's Good Friday, we had fish and chips from the local chips shop for dinner. Although when I say "we", I mean only me. My wife being vegetarian, she halloumi and Wolfie being Wolfie, even though he likes fish sticks, he had a cheeseburger. What can I say? My son is a heathen and does not care one bit about fasting. Which is so easy with the right food. Anyway, it was not completely unhealthy: some of the batter got stuck on the paper and I had mushy peas with it.

Catholic Fasting

I blogged two days ago about the fish and chips I had recently. The first fish and chips I had since last year. Maybe it was chance, maybe it was destiny, but yesterday I saw this meme online and it made me laugh a lot. I used to be a good Catholic boy when I was a child and I never gave up meat during Lent, but yeah, it shows why it's kind of easy to "fast" nowadays.

Fish & Chips

 Last Sunday, we went to the pub for the first time in six months or so. I wanted to eat a Sunday Roast, but since we went in the evening, they were sold out in Sunday Roasts (I should have thought about it). So I had fish and chips instead, which were quite good anyway. And not to be congnitively dissonant or anything, but entering the pub I could smell fried fish and that had gotten me in the mood for fish and chips anyway. It was also fitting: it is Lent after all. And as it is (fish) Friday, I am sharing this picture with you.

Fish & chips in Quebec City

My parents are in Quebec City and they sent me a few pictures. They had fish and chips (they did not tell me where), so mum sent me this pic of her meal (and her thumb). Now I find this particular plate of fish and chips a bit odd (a salad?), but all the same, it looks good enough. And it struck me that I did not had fish and chips since Good Friday. Today is Friday, it should mean Fish Friday, so maybe I should have some tonight.

The Nation's Favourite Fish&Chips

It's Friday, therefore Fish Friday, so I thought I would blog about fish and chips again. When we ordered them from the local chips shop last Friday, the meal came into this bag, which made a strong impression on Wolfie: he thought it was a lovely bag, a beautiful bag and he did not want me to put it into the recycling. It was the claim on the bag that caught my attention: "THE NATION'S FAVOURITE Fine FISH & CHIPS." It might be a bit presumpuous to say this, as it is just a local shop, and from what I know it is not a part of a chain, but it is one of my favourite fish and chips shopsin England and they have been consistently reliable in produt and service quality. So yes, even though we live pretty much inland and you'd think the best fish and chips would be closer to the sea, maybe it deserves the claim that this is the nation's favourite.

Fish & Chips for Good Friday

I haven't had them in ages, not since 2019 if I'm not mistaken (scary how this pandemic postponed things), but this is what I had for this year's Good Friday: fish and chips. A personal tradition since I have been living in this country. Ordered from the local chips shop, the best around here, via an app. The app is of course used for safety reasons due to the pandemic, otherwise we'd ordered them directly at the till. There were many more chips, which I shared with my vegetarian wife. She had hers with a veggie burger, my boy had a fishcake, but I had the real deal. I am a very happy man, even though right now I'm stinking of grease and cod.

Christmastime at the fish and chips shop

You can see here the picture I took of the window of a small fish and chips shop in a nearby little village. We were not going for fish and chips, but we have been a couple of times there before and they do great fish and chips, maybe the best of the area. But I always pictured it otherwise as a nondescript fish and chips shop like they are so many here in England. I never thought they could be so creative and so festive. It is by far the best window I have seen for the season. Evocative of a Christmastime long gone in this country, when there was actually plenty of snow. On such a cold and snowy day, this fish and chips shop would certainly have been a haven. I never thought I would associate fish and chips with Christmas, but it kind of makes sense, since it is a time for comfort and fatty food. In any case, I am now craving them and imagining myself devouring some after a walk through the snow to this shop.

The Fish & Chips of Good Friday

Well, it is (and soon it was) Good Friday, and since I could not get proper Montreal bagels to go with smoked salmon, I had to go for the best local aquatic delicacy: fish and chips. Old traditions must make way to "new" ones. That said, I am very lucky when it comes to fish and chips: we have a local chip shop that makes great fish and chips. So this is what I had tonight (I decided to share the picture to create a food porn moment). The cod was large size. I was afraid to grow hungry otherwise. Fish and chips really put the good in Good Friday.

Fish & Chips for Good Friday?

In a week time, it will be Good Friday, which for me became a day nearly as much celebrated as Easter in a way. I mean that I usually stuff myself with something delicious. As like last year I don't have proper bagels, I think this year I will have fish and chips. I have been craving them again and last time I ate some was in February. But from where? I took this picture in a local pub, one of the many posh gastropubs this town has. It was a bit too fancy: the chips were not really proper chips, more like barely fried potatoes and the fish was a bit small. It tasted a bit too healthy for a proper fish and chips and worse, it left me hungry, which for me is a cardinal sin when you have fish and chips. So I will try to convince my wife to go to the local chip shop, or go to another pub where they serve the real deal.

Hungry for fish&chips

I took this picture months ago in the nearest pub (or one of the nearest pubs) from our home. These were not the greatest fish and chips I had, but they were quite good and like I expect fish and chips to be in a pub, fatty, with some lemon, tartar sauce and mushy pea to give it a bit of... fruits and vegs? I am blogging about it today because it has been months since I did not eat good fish and chips and I am hungry for them. And it is most likely what I will have for lunch. We are meeting my wife's sister and her boyfriend today in another pub and unless there is something else that catches my attention, I will have fish and chips. Sometimes you just know what you want.

Fish & Chips Time

It is Friday, thus fish Friday, therefore time for fish and chips. Although ironically enough I did not have fish and chips tonight. This picture was taken a few weeks ago. During Lent, I had fish and chips every week or so. I thought I'd be saturated, and I was... Until now. I am really hungry for them again, the quintessential comfort food. You can have fish and chips in pubs and restaurants, but I prefer them from a chips bar like this one, with lots of malt vinegar. Talking of malt vinegar this is what I answered to the woman at the till when she asked how much of it I wanted on my cod: "As long as it can swim in it, I'm happy." I think this deserves to be a great unknown line. Anyway, I encourage everyone to eat fish and chips, Friday or any other day.

Fish & Chips Friday

It happens to me from time to time, it happened recently: I had a huge crave for fish and chips. It was satisfied yesterday, as we went to the best fish and chips shop in town (there are only two, actually) and I bought this meal for myself. On Friday, it is fitting to have fish and chips. It was delicious, but lacking in malt vinegar. A shame: I specifically asked to pour an ocean of malt vinegar on the dish. After all, you can't drown a fish, especially not when it has been deep fried like this one. And you need the malt vinegar to unclog your arteries with all the fat you eat in a portion like this one. Well, that is my rationale regarding it anyway.

So my fish and chips craving has been satisfied again, in spite of the disappointment regarding the condiment. It should not reappear for a few weeks. With any luck I will only crave fish and chips during our stay in York, where apparently, from what I once heard/read they make the best fish and chips of the country. I will try to have them on a Friday, just because it is fitting.

The Fish & Chips craving again

I took this picture near the sea in Paignton, during my time in Devon. It was the last time I had fish and chips. I had wanted to have fish and chips by the sea for ages and thought a town by the sea Devon was the ideal place for it. I was hungry so I enjoyed the food enough, as I always do when I eat fish and chips, that said it was overall a disappointing experience. The fish had a strange aftertaste of curry and Paignton may have been the most vulgar town I have ever seen. I guess this is what happens when you are looking forward too much for an experience: it ends up being underwhelming. And I had far better fish and chips, even though I had them far from the sea.

But anyway, it struck me tonight that this was the last time I had fish and chips. In the middle of August! And I am craving them again. It is Friday, so it would be a perfect evening for this kind of dinner, or at least customary. But I am trying to fight the craving. Soon it will be time for eating excesses, so I am trying to eat healthy, or at least not too much and too fatty food. All the same, I am craving fish and chips.

The fish & chips craving satisfied

I had been craving fish and chips for a while, I finally gave in last Saturday. This is not from the usual fish and chips shop I buy it, but it is in the same town. The shop I used last time was further away (the one I go to usually is about five minutes form home), but I had been curious about it for a while. It is a much cleaner, but they don't pour quite enough malt vinegar on it. The meal is certainly salty enough though. So this is what I had for dinner last Saturday, it filled me up, clogged my arteries and more importantly satisfied my craving. Next time I will eat fish and chips, it will most likely be in Devon. Because I want to try near the sea, where the fish is daily fresh and at its best. It will be one of my holiday treats.

Odin on my mind

I probably sound like a broken record, but there you go. Maybe it is because this month was our meeting anniversary, maybe because I see cats very often these days, but I am thinking a lot about Odin these days. I miss him a lot. I even started craving fish and chips, maybe because this is what I was carrying back when I met him. It struck me that he did not have yet his Viking's funeral. The ashes of my black cat with one eye are still on the bookshelf. I should really do it, make a nice ceremony and all, but I cannot bring myself to do it. Maybe only when I will leave this place. I have decided that when this happens, when I do leave the flat, I will then adopt another cat, preferably a black cat. For the reasons listed on this post. In the right time and the right place. Until then, and until I blog about him again, here is a still (I think) unpublished picture of Odin, when I gave him tuna for the first time.