Fish and chips

[don1]

My question was inspired by the one below this by katie.

Thirty years ago I used to thoroughly enjoy fish and chips and a couple of slices of bread and butter, but today where I live there isn't a chippy where the product could even be classed as edible, not to mention for a family of 4 you are paying around �13. In (about 1967) the same 4 times would have been ten shillings (50p)

Have fish and chips become the great british rip off? What do you think?

[Alibobs]

We have a decent chippy near us but you are right about the prices. Saying that wet fish is very pricy too.

My mother used to live on the North Yorks coast and the fish & chips were great - much cheaper than down south too

[shaneystar2]

We are lucky to live on the coast and have a great fish and chippy and a nice local fish market.. Mind you I am banned at the moment ,from the chippy.....dieting!
It 's not a cheap meal these days. I can remember getting fourpennorth of chips and some scraps and very nice they were too! I suppose it's because fish stocks are depleted now and what with fishing limits and so on. But it is expensive..more a treat these days and yet years ago we used to have fish and chips every Friday for dinner.
I think it also depends on what they are fried in.

[nickmo]

Shaney.. - I'm sure you are aware the best chippy uses lard to fry in....

Now back to the diet and deep fried mars bars with curry sauce.............

As for prices - how much do you pay for a burger and chips and do you think that is worth the money in a typical fastfood place? And just think that a burger van can buy 48 pre-cooked burgers in the freezer at a cash and carry and pay about �5 for the pleasure of it. These "chicken 'meat' with beef fat" patties can be flogged at �4 each - in a 5p roll. Stuffed with everything but good meat.

Fish and chips are proven to be a better buy on several levels (fat, sugar, additives, etc), but check where the chippy gets the fish - fresh should be the order, not frozen 'white' fish which could be really old and beyond reasonable use, nasty chips that are soggy before they get near the fryer etc etc.

And a donner kebab? A good one is brilliant, but the vastmajority use cheap meat residue with seasoning to stop it rotting, in a previously frozen pitta pocket, with chemical drenched sauce and unwashed lettuce - And getting on for �20 for 4? Thank the clientele for accepting that..

F & C I would say are still good value, and Don1 you must decimalise!! or were you brought up on lsd and just can't get the hang of this new stuff? (stupid foreign things.... never catch on...)

Incidentally, �13 for 4 is cheap compared to round me!

[shaneystar2]

Nickmo you are a sweetie ..but I will not be tempted !!
I am not over fond of burgers and kebabs..in fact I eat practically no meat at all these days.... would much rather have fish and chips.If they are cooked nicely. On our local market we have lovely chip stalls and they fry the chips in beef dripping.
Not that I can go within a 100 yards them..of course.!!

[joko]

about 15-20 years ago there was potato shortage - chips went up from about 25-30p to 70-80p.
when the shortage was over the prices didn't come down again - so the chippies are coining it in regards the tato

[nickmo]

Beef dripping eh shaney...now theres something people have given up.

Read this for a hovis moment (cue the music..) http://friendsofbeamish.co.uk/articles/butchersboy.html

If you get a nice chop under the grill, my dad always put a piece of bread under the chop to catch the drips and juices - and I never seem to find anyone else who did/does this.

Don't forget that the best roast tatties are done in goose fat or dripping, and what about cold dripping layered on white bread door steps!!! mmmmmmmmmm

And re fish prices, unless the EC wise up and do something really quickly, there are a whole bunch of problems with the fishing industry that are leading to wiping out the industry round Europe, that will only push the depletion of stock elsewhere. It takes 20 tons of white fish to get 1 ton of tuna (farmed in the Pacific) and 3 tons of white fish to make the meal to feed a ton of caged salmon, so where are the priorities?

If we want good fresh fish we should make some noises and tell the chippies and so on, and not accept the frozen unidentifiable things sold to us.

[ermintrude35]

..we are very lucky where I live as we have the best chippy in Wales and the best chippy in the U.K in the same town (3 -4 years back now I think)...anyway...fish on it's own is �2.80 ...cod prices have gone through the roof in the past 10 years, fish used to be the cheaper alternative to meat, these days it's the other way around. Eveb though I live on the coast , the fish is not local as we do not have deep sea fishing here, I had fantastic cod form a small chippy in Scarborough a couple of years back , and you could just tell the fish was brand spanking fresh and probably swimming around obliviously a couple of hours previously...

..I personaly would rather fork out for decent fish n chips than go for a burger at McDonalds etc..

[Jules001]

I've had a lovely portion of fish and chips tonight from my local chippy, cost �5.35 and I am absolutely full even now several hours after eating it, whereas if I had eaten any other takeway, I would be feeling a bit peckish about now. I think although it may seem quite expensive, it does represent good value for money but then I don't have it very often the last time was in December, so as a treat, I say hang the cost and just enjoy

[shaneystar2]

Oh stop it Nickmo !! I used to love bread and dripping ..with plenty of salt and pepper. Mmmm!
We are drifting of the subject here.!! We've gone from fish and chips to Hovis bread !

[nickmo]

Well shaney, if you still want a beefy flavour but not the beef - they've only gone and made Bovril spread vegetarian! - but not the drink, that is still 'with cow..'

Anyway, logical thread here - F and C - cooked in dripping - bread and dripping - hovis......<works for me. And nothing wrong with considering something you can't have, just don't succumb.......

[Gef]

don1, according to your figures a fish supper in 1967 was about 12.5p (about 2/6d in old money). A pint at that time was about 9p ie about 75% of the price of the fish supper. Today in Glasgow a pint is about �2.50 which is still about 75% of the cost of the fish supper.

If you can find a decent chippie I don't think it's a rip off. Some pubs are and some chippies are but I'm sure it's always been like that.

Fish is relatively expensive now but most of it is still "free range" apart from farmed salmon which I would never eat.

Sorry, must stop ranting but enjoyed your question.

[chinois]

I've had to boycott our only chippy because of the great ketchup scandal. Places that make you to pay for ketchup don't deserve to survive. 10p for a sachet that costs them 1p? And 5ml is enough for about 3 chips, woopy doo.