Product Code Database
A fish and chip shop, sometimes referred to as a chip shop or chippy, is a business which specialises in selling fish and chips. Usually, fish and chip shops provide takeaway service, although some have seating facilities. Fish and chip shops may also sell other foods, including variations on their core offering such as battered sausage and burgers, to regional cuisine such as Indian food.
Variations on the name include fish bar, fishery (in Yorkshire), fish shop and chip shop. In most of the United Kingdom including Northern Ireland, they are colloquially known as a chippy or fishy, while in the Republic of Ireland and the Aberdeen area, they are more commonly known as chippers.
The second contender for first shop is a man named John Lees . While visiting Tommyfield Market in Oldham (now Greater Manchester), Lees saw a store selling fried chips. Putting the idea together he went back to his hometown of Mossley (also Greater Manchester) and from a wooden kiosk at a marketplace, began selling fish with chips. In 1863 he moved to a permanent store. He even had a sign that said
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> "Lee's Chip Potato Restaurant: Oldest Estd. in the World’". A blue plaque now hangs in Tommyfield Market proclaiming it as the origin of fish and chips. However, "We don't really know who was first. Several places popped up around 1860 and nobody knew at the time that something important was beginning,” said Professor John K. Walton, author of Fish and Chips and the British Working Class, 1870-1940.
In the 1870s, the development of steam-powered Trawling made the availability of cold water white fish, like haddock and cod, available in unprecedented quantities. Plus the invention of icemaker allowed for train transport of fresh fish to all parts of the UK. Fish and chips became a staple of factory and mill workers during the later industrial revolution because it was so ubiquitous and cheap. Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor of 1865 estimated that there were around 300 fried fish sellers in London, mostly operating from carts or tiny shops where "a slice of bread ... is sold or offered with the fish for a penny. The cry of the seller is 'fish and bread a penny'". By 1910, there were around 25,000 chippies in the UK reaching more than 35,000 at its peak in 1927, compared to only 10,500 by 2013.
In 1928, during the interwar peak of the fish and chip shop boom, Harry Ramsden's fast food restaurant chain opened in the UK. It became the best known fish and chip chain in the UK. It earned a place in the Guinness Book Of Records when, on a single day in 1952, a shop in Guiseley, West Yorkshire served 10,000 orders of fish and chips.
Fish and chip outlets sell roughly 30% of all the white fish consumed in the United Kingdom, and they use 10% of the UK potato crop.
In Ireland, many "chippers" are operated by Italian immigrant families, all native to the Province of Frosinone in Lazio. The Italian chip shop tradition began with Giuseppe Cervi, who took a boat to America in the 1880s but instead disembarked at Queenstown (modern-day Cobh in County Cork) and walked to Dublin, establishing a takeaway at 22 Great Brunswick Street (modern-day Pearse Street).
A number of fish and chip shop condiments exist, including salt and vinegar (very often actually non-brewed condiment) across the UK, mushy peas and curry sauce in various parts of the UK, chip spice in Hull, Hendersons Relish in Sheffield, chippy sauce in Edinburgh, gravy across much of the UK, mushy pea and mint sauce in Nottingham and Derby, and gravy and cheese in Yorkshire. In Canada, most shops offer malt vinegar or the option to add gravy, usually for a small charge.
There are also regional variations with the oil used to cook the fish and chips. Traditional frying uses beef dripping or lard; however, vegetable oils, such as palm oil, rapeseed or peanut oil (used because of its relatively high smoke point) now predominate.
There are also a number of other offerings at fish and chip shops that do not involve fish, such as the battered sausage. It is now generally rare to find a fish and chip shop that offers no main course besides fish and chips in the UK. Burgers, pies, pasties, pizzas, sausages, kebabs and chicken (all of which may or may not be served or bought with chips) are all regular menu items in many outlets. Many also offer chips with topping options such as cheese, mushy peas, gravy or curry sauce.
In Australia, a common variant of the fish and chip shop is one that sells charcoal chicken in addition to the usual battered fish and related foods, and two dishes to come from this culture are the "burger with the lot" (or "Aussie burger") and the halal snack pack in stores that sell doner kebab meat or use shredded chicken meat.
|
|
