to balance out writing about what i miss from america (as well as make up for skipping a couple days), i figured i should also write about the things i enjoy here that i cannot get (or at least not as good) back home.
the premise is simple enough: battered, fried fish filets served with sliced, fried potatoes. every country seems to get it right but america. oh sure, you'll see fish and chips on many menus, especially "pubs" (i put it in quotes because they're not pubs, they'll claim to have be english or irish pub but aside from having fish and chips on the menu and guinness signs everywhere, they're not). but they don't give you fish and chips, you're getting fish and french fries. it sounds pedantic but there's a huge difference.
for starters, the batter is all wrong for the fish. it's not supposed to be very flavourful, and the batter should be smooth. you can get crumbed fish at our local place but to me that's not fish and chips. usually the fish itself is okay, as long as you pick a mild whitefish though you'll be on the right track. so again, it's usually the batter that is wrong.
secondly, and most importantly, is the chips. this is where every single place in america fails. they don't give you chips, you get french fries. they're always too thick or too thin (usually the latter). there's a very specific thickness for a chip. just think of any other type of fry out there. let's take shoestring for example. this is popular in diners and fast food (mcdonald's and burger king uses this). too thick and they're not shoestring anymore. surely everyone can agree mcdonald's and wendy's fries are not the same thing since they're of different thickness. it sounds silly to think that the thickness of a fry makes it taste different, you'd think fried potato is fried potato. but somehow it does matter.
also, there's the serving of the food. it's meant to be wrapped in paper (or newspaper if you want to be traditional), not plastic-lined paper and definitely not just on a plate. how else will you soak up all the grease? the blotches of grease that get on the paper i definitely don't want in my belly. one bar near my house in america serves "fish and chips" on that sort of plasticy kind of paper with newspaper print on it. ridiculous.
finally, there's the accompaniment. i'm simple, i just like ketchup tomato sauce with it. it's got to be wattie's, heinz isn't acceptable in this case. (the two have very different flavours, wattie's is much sweeter and because of its distinct taste they can't be substituted for one another.) some weird people like to have tartar(e) sauce with their fish, but that's gross.
since america doesn't even sell wattie's (though if you know a sweet kiwi, they can always post you some) they fail on all accounts of serving fish and chips. not to mention the sheer expense over there, they try to charge $15 for a couple filets and fries. please! here, $15 gets me enough chips to serve four people comfortably and three pieces of fish - way more than one person could eat.
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