fish and chips

French Fry Diary 671: Yorkshire County Fish Shop 2015

Glenn Walker bacon, british, cookes of dublin, epcot, fish and chips, french fry diary, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, raglan road, scotland, walt disney world, world showcase, yorkshire fish and chips

Ever since I visited this place a few years back I have wanted to return. Considered a quick service on the Disney Dining Plan, this tiny little counter tucked away in the United Kingdom section of EPCOT’s World Showcase is indeed a little treasure. And their outside dining area is the perfect place to see Illuminations, or just chill and listen the Brit Invasion bands across the way.

So I got my chips and sat down, as seating was at a premium I sat at a table with a couple from Wales. They immediately wanted to know why I was taking pictures of my chips with my phone. I explained about the blog, and we had a nice conversation about accents, and chips, and fries. The gentleman called up French Fry Diary on his phone and was reading some of the entries. It’s true, he had notes for me.

These chips at Yorkshire, or Cookes of Dublin or Raglan Road for that matter, aren’t authentic. They are just what Americans think British chips are. I’m the victim of a tourism conspiracy. Real chips come from chip trucks or holes in the walls. And as far as fish for fish and chips, real fish is cod or haddock. As I was getting schooled, an older Scottish couple joined us at the table. This is what is so great about Walt Disney World – you can make friends quickly.

The conversation turned to accents and language again, and the two couples teased me by speaking real Welsh and Scottish, proving that neither is anything like what Americans would call English. The new couple agreed about the chips, not authentic at all – quite good, mind you, but inauthentic. Next we talked about American food – what is American food anyway? It’s all stolen from other countries. We have good bacon, of that everyone was in agreement, but let’s face it, bacon is Canadian.

I had a wonderful afternoon eating chips and chatting with new friends. This was great. So if you want to talk authentic chips, the Yorkshire County Fish Shop is the place to be.

French Fry Diary 593: Weight Watchers Smart Ones

Glenn Walker chicken strips, crinkle cut, diets, easy fries, fish and chips, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, microwave, natural cut, Ore-Ida, ranch dressing, shoestrings, smart ones, the bride

I’m not a good diet guy, besides the obvious fact that I write a French fry blog, I think many diet versions of foods lack fundamental taste. I don’t mind low fat pancake syrup. Regular Jell-O is better than the no sugar stuff but I’ll still eat it. Of course, on the other hand anything other than whole milk tastes like flavorless white water, and surely urine is yummier than Diet Coke.

Anyway, I’ve done Weight Watchers before, and didn’t do too bad at it. The Bride currently does a steady diet of WW Smart Ones and Lean Cuisine microwave meals. While shopping for her I found something of interest to both me, and the blog – Smart Ones French fries.

The two meals in question are Chicken Strips & Fries, and the more traditional Fish & Chips. It should be noted that these aren’t the regular TV dinner style nukables, but microwave trays like the Ore-Ida Easy Fries use.

The Fish & Chips included ‘salt & pepper crinkle cut french (sp) fried potatoes.’ Pretty standard crinkle cuts with duh, salt and pepper. The Chicken Strips & Fries included ‘ranch seasoned french (sp) fried potatoes.’ Other than Weight Watchers’ insistence on not capitalizing the word ‘French,’ these were pretty good. Natural cuts that were somewhere between regular cuts and shoestrings, these were a little limp but still good. They needed seasoning, so obviously I didn’t taste the ranch seasoning. These were not bad at all.

Sarah Goes to Rehoboth Beach

Glenn Walker bacon, blogger, delaware, dogfish head brewery, fish and chips, guest blog, onion rings, random pic, sarah hawkins miduski, somebody else's fries, south jersey writers

This entry is part guest blog, part Somebody Else’s Fries, and part Random Tater Pic of the day. Very cool blogger, fellow writer, FFD contributor, and friend Sarah Hawkins-Miduski recently visited Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.

Here is her blog entry about her trip and the delights she saw, including a cool fish and chips place, and the Dogfish Head Brewery with their amazing fries and bacon-stuffed onion rings. Enjoy!

French Fry Diary 473: Bobby’s Potato-less Ireland

Glenn Walker ballymaloe, bobby flay, cafe paradiso, cookes of dublin, cork, darina allen, english market, fish and chips, food network, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, irish, leo burdock, potatoes

This Food Network special starring chef Bobby Flay takes a look at both the traditional and the new wave of Irish cuisine. Predictably, Bobby puts the poo-poo on traditional Irish fare. In other words, meat and potatoes are bad.

Darina Allen, one of the most celebrated chefs in Ireland, head and founder of the Ballymaloe Cookery School, is one of the forerunners of the new food movement in Ireland. Early in the program, she makes Bobby pick potatoes (for his first time) on the farm that provides food to the school.

The whole farm to table concept is the core of the school. Eventually the potatoes Bobby picked were boiled in salt water and served as is with butter. What no fries, I mean chips? This is Ireland, right?

Next Bobby takes his daughter to the English Market in Cork where they look at blood pudding, smoked salmon, oysters, and artisanal bread. Yep, just about everything you could imagine – except potatoes! Could it be that the new food movement in Ireland is solely because they’ve run out of potatoes?

His food tour continues with pork from Cork, and a tour of a vegetarian restaurant, Cafe Paradiso, and the farm that supplies it. Guess what? No potatoes there either. They did batter and deep fry flowers (squash blossoms), of all things, but not the one thing you would think the Irish would deep fry.

Moving on to Dublin, with the help of Irish chef and food star Clodagh McKenna, Bobby explores some cafes and pubs trying out ‘traditional’ Irish foods like porridge, soda bread, sponge cake, and ice cream.

Finally in the last ten minutes of the hour long show, almost as an afterthought, Bobby stopped at a place called Leo Burdock Fish & Chips, because “you just can’t leave Dublin without having some fish and chips.” Leo’s is apparently, based on the signage, Dublin’s oldest chipper. I was surprised he didn’t go to Cookes, but then again if the original Irish restaurant is slouching as bad as its WDW counterpart, that’s a good thing.

For a mere 8.95, Bobby gets a huge cod and a healthy portion of chips. He goes on to say what a big part of Irish cuisine fish and chips are. If that’s true, Bobby, why only a fraction of the show about them, eh? Well, if it’s any consolation, beer only got a few more seconds airtime than fish and chips.

Bobby Deen’s Fish and Chips

Glenn Walker baked, bobby deen, cooking channel, fish and chips, food network, healthy, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, paula deen, sweet potato fries, television

“Not My Mama’s Meals” is an intriguing concept for a Food Network/Cooking Channel program. It’s got Bobby Deen, Paula Deen’s son, turning out healthier spins on his mother’s recipes. So, leaner, lighter, with all the flavor, and not sooo much butter.

In the second season episode, “Boys’ Night,” Bobby tries his hand at his momma’s over 900 calorie fish and chips, bringing it down to roughly 300. Quite a challenge. His secret – he’s using sweet potatoes, and he’s baking them.

Check out the recipe here. Enjoy!

French Fry Diary 420: The Supersizers Go… Victorian

Glenn Walker breakfast, christmas, cooking channel, doctor who, fish and chips, fried potatoes, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, jewish, morgan spurlock, mutton, picky eaters, potato croquettes, queen victoria, supersizers

I caught this one on The Cooking Channel. “The Supersizers Go…” is a BBC show unfortunately inspired by Morgan Spurlock’s Supersize Me. The hosts, food critic Giles Coren and radio personality Sue Perkins, pretend to visit a specific time period each episode and basically bitch about the grossness and nutritional non-value of that era.

I discovered the Victorian episode while flipping through the channels and discovered them talking fish and chips. I was hooked, pun unintended. I set the DVR for record when it was repeated later in the evening so I could write about it for you fine folks.

I liked Sue right away as she was also a fussy eater, maybe not a catastrophically picky one, but still a non-adventurous pain in the butt after my own heart. The first mention of the favorite fried food was regarding breakfast. The Victorians ate fried potatoes for breakfast, among other fattening items, fun stuff like mutton cutlets and smoked mackerel with anchovies, all of which they noted the calorie counts.

Among the oddities and goodies I learned in the show include that despite her horrible diet, Queen Victoria lived to the grand old age of eighty-one. I guess fried potatoes every day are a bad idea. I also learned, and this one’s for the “Doctor Who” fans, that jelly babies, at least according to this show, date back to Victoria’s era. Maybe The Doctor introduced them early.

Something else I’ve gotten from the episode is that in Victorian England, despite the fried potatoes and jelly babies, they ate a lot of disgusting crap. I’m talking cow’s brains, heads, and ears, and that’s just for starters. Luckily though, after dinner, Giles and Sue went out to a chippie for fish and chips, a street dish that originated at this time.

Fish and chips, again, according to the show, comes from Jewish immigration to the UK from Poland and Russia. Jewish families could not light a flame after sundown on Fridays so they battered and fried their fresh fish to make them last longer for the weekend. Again, Sue steals my heart by saying fish and chips is one of the greatest inventions of all ages, even over and above the electric lightbulb.

Probably one of the few dishes they actually enjoy throughout the episode, they sit and happily eat their fish and chips, from newspaper cones, with their hands. Yeah, baby. Potato croquettes pop up later, as do many courses of garbage dinners, a trip to a pub, and a Christmas meal. Trust me, the fish and chips were the highlight of this fairly educational romp.