Fish and Chips

THIS MONTH I AM STARTING A SHORT SERIES OF OUR FAVOURITE TAKEAWAYS. THE FIRST ONE I AM LOOKING AT IS FISH AND CHIPS.

Firstly, we’ll look at a little history of takeaways. The origins of the takeaway date back to Roman times. In the ruins of Pompeii, there is evidence of thermopolia. These were cook shops providing hot food for those who didn’t own a kitchen or chose to have their meals there. They had a reputation for being patronised by the lower classes as the Roman upper-classes, had relatively well-equipped kitchens often operated by slaves.

It wasn’t until the 1880s in Italy when King Umberto and Queen Margherita received the first known pizza delivery, from the famous pizza maker Raffaele Esposito. The pizza, which was garnished with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella cheese, was named a Margherita after the Queen.
In 1890 in Mumbai, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started a lunchbox delivery service. His team of 100 men known as dabbawalas (pic left) would deliver an aluminium box of hot food to local workers. The empty boxes were returned and reused. This service continues today with approximately 200,000 boxes being delivered every day – that’s some delivery service!
So where did our traditional fish and chips originate?
One of two men, either Sir Walter Raleigh or Sir Francis Drake is credited with introducing the potato to Britain when returning to the court of Queen Elizabeth I, during the 1580s. Potatoes didn’t have a good start as they were thought to be poisonous. In fact, it wasn’t until 1772 that potatoes were considered fit for human consumption – before this they were only used as animal fodder. It was French botanist and chemist, Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (right) who promoted the potato and today any dish that is described as Parmentier contains potatoes. Before losing his head Louis XVI, gave Parmentier acres of land to grow crops; this encouraged people to grow them for themselves and potatoes became a popular food source.
Ireland suffered two potato famines, in 1845 and 1849. Scores of people emigrated either to the UK, across the Atlantic to North America or to the other side of the world, Australia. Here in Swansea, Greenhill was known as Little Ireland and was the focus area where the Irish settled.
A decade later in 1859, Dickens (left) publication A Tale of Two Cities, is credited with the first use of the word ‘chips’, describing them as ‘husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil’ (Chapter 5 – The Wine Shop).
Now we turn our attention to fish. The tradition of fried fish was brought to the UK, during the 17th century by the Jewish community, and it was their custom that the fish should be battered so it could be eaten cold on the Shabbat.
The fishing industry was a very hard life for those small fishing communities around the country, this is evident in the BBC programme ‘The 1900 Island’. With the advent and development of the railways, fish could easily be distributed around the country. Sadly, the number of fishing ports has been in a steady decline over the years, but fishing fleets are still to be found around the UK coast.
Fishing trawlers would have been at sea for days on end; when they came home the fish would be processed and packed and taken to a dockside warehouse. We turn yet again to Charles Dickens, who refers to a fried fish warehouse in Oliver Twist (1838) (Chapter 26 – In Which A Mysterious Character Appears Upon the Scene……….).
We have now got the two main food sources, but who is responsible for bringing them both together?  Both Joseph Malin, from London, and John Lees, from Mossley, near Manchester are credited with doing this during the 1860s.
Some families turned their front rooms into fish and chip shops. How many families did this, here in Swansea?
The typical ‘common’ fish served with chips, are cod, haddock, hake and plaice. During the Second World War, fish and chips were one of the very few foods that weren’t rationed as they were an invaluable supplement to a family’s weekly diet. Winston Churchill referred to them as ‘the good companions’.
During the D-Day landings, British soldiers identified one another by calling the word “fish” the response signifying an ally was “chips”.
Traditionally fish and chips were wrapped in yesterday’s newspaper, but during the late 1980s this practice was stopped because of concerns that the printer’s ink would contaminate the food!
Fish and chips remain a very popular takeaway choice in the UK although the number of shops has declined in the past 90 years from 35,000 to 10,500.
Copyright - The Bay Magazine, July 2019



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Swansea Church List

Remembrance Never To Be Forgotten

History of Pantomime