While on a 25-hour-U.K.-layover en route to India in June 2008, I determined to eat nothing but fish & chips. Of course, I busted out of Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus as fast as possible after being conned out of 10-quid for carcinogenic strips of twice-dead fish and limp, stale-tasting fries.
A quick and pleasant train ride brought me to Brighton & Hove by 10 a.m....given the overcast weather and the early hour, I was practically alone for a perfectly eerie stroll down the Palace Pier and along Madeira Drive parallel to the pebbly beach, lapped calmly by the slate-colored water. I passed up soooo many fish &c hips places on this strip, holding out for what looked like the perfect purveyor.
Mind you, I'd idealized this simple dish for years and years after reading English stories that always featured descriptions of hot, crispy cod chunks nestled in a bed of fries - I mean chips - all wrapped up in a cone wrapped hastily from pages of the morning's inky newspaper...and all through my New England childhood, I knew that the overblown and overpriced American renditions at sit-down just weren't the thing.
So after walking up and down practically the entire strip, I found a place right ON the beach, adjacent to a lonely looking miniature range called "Crazy Golf," In caps, the sign on the rooftop blared: FISH CHIPS with MUSHY PEAS. I figured I couldn't go wrong with such a single-purposed name, and gave my order to a girl with an accent so strong that I couldn't quite understand when she asked if I wanted the mushy peas.
As I sat alone at a picnic bench snacking away, the server and her work partner talked softly about life and relationships, topping off my U.K. fish & chips experience with a scene fit for a BBC indie-romance. When the conversation turned more and more private, though, I felt bad listening in, and made my way back towards the boardwalk, at which point a SEAGULL swooped down upon me gaffed the rest (and the best) of my cod!!! Fish & chips, the darling of humans AND animals!!!
I don't know, I'm not a native of England, and surely the natives must have a lot of opinions (do let me know!) of where the best fish & chips can REALLY be found. However, this was definitely the closest I have gotten to whatever ideal I'd spun up in my mind after so much folklore...and the electric green mushy peas were an excellent complement to fries drowned in lip-puckering malt vinegar. Ohhh, FISH CHIPS with MUSHY PEAS!....but for the lack of a newspaper cone, you had five stars from me... read more