@@wanderingturnip I appreciate you mean well WT, wanting to support local businesses, however do you have no idea at all of what you are doing? ⌚ *2048 - WHEN THE OCEANS DIE - WE DIE*
"gentrification of a working class meal" as a Japanese citizen i feel this when i see what Westerners are being charged for ramen. Similar to fish and chips it was a cheap way to get at least some protein, particularly in the postwar era. Even when i was a kid in the 00s i could get a ramen& fried rice in Tokyo for 800 jpy, i reckon about 4 gbp at the time. Then i go to the West and pay $20 for no toppings or rice and it don't feel right
Went to a place in Brooklyn over the weekend, Tamashii ramen. Went to their website to see what they charged for what I ordered and it was $16. Live in eastern Massachusetts and usually pay $20 for a bowl in lowell or Boston. They kinda skimp on the noodles and always have to order extra noodles 👀👉👈
The issue with japanese food is that it's very trendy right now, which means restaurants can afford to charge a lot for it. In reality ramen is neither a work intensive food, nor are the ingredients especially expensive. It should be cheap.
Restaurant food is just more expensive in the US in general. For the size of the meal, 14$ Bowls of Ramen are relative to other types of restaurant food.
Yeah unless you live on the coasts of the US you get ripped off on the price of Japanese food. Especially the teppenyaki/hibachi places. Some of the smaller restaurants are competitive if they aren't selling you the experience of the hibachi style food.
definitely experienced the gouge on japanese food in the UK. It's trendy and there's not a ton of places doing it (at least near me), so it's easy for them to charge high prices. Often high quality and I'm happy to pay for it as a treat, but it's a lot for what you're getting. Tip to any Japanese food fans in the west though--shop at Asian supermarkets!! You can probably find all the ingredients you could want to make your own far, far cheaper.
Depends on the fish though, it might have been a cheaper fish they were selling which is why the portion was the price it was. And yes the portion looked small but with the chips, peas and gravy, you'd be full in no time.
I was a yank stationed at RAF Upper Heyford back in 1981. Trips to Oxford ALWAYS INCLUDED hitting up the street vendor for fish and chips in the local newspaper! Gosh, loved that so much!!!!!
My mum and dad owned a fish and chip shop back in the 80s which was also our home. The 1990s recession hit and they lost their lovely business and our home. I came home from school one day and the bailiff’s had taken everything from our house. I was only 15 and it was so upsetting to see my parents go through that. I used to go to school, then come home and put my apron on and help serve. My dad made the best fish and chips and I don’t think he ever recovered mentally from loosing his life. Keep up your great work ❤
@@boudika100 thank you for your kind words. He worked so hard for his family and for a good quality of living. The council gave us a flat and it reality hit us hard. He went back to being a plumber but he’s heart just wasn’t in it at all. I know he took it personally and he thought he was a failure. He’s now 83 years old and he is always talking about the ‘chip shop’ days!
That’s such a sad story; I’m so sorry. Those times were tough for many of us - and it seems those times are with us again, sadly. I remember buying fish and chips when I was young in the mid 1960s: it was cheap food then. Now my local chippy sells fish and chips “OAP” portion of smaller fish & chips costs £6:50. To be fair it’s good value, but for folk on low incomes, it’s no longer cheap for, say, a family of 4. We don’t live in a well-off area, and I know a lot of my neighbours are struggling.
@@Orwic1 thank you. Yes agreed the 90s were tough. Back then we were selling fish and chips for £1.40 and people were queuing outside most tea times, the atmosphere was so nice. My dad struggled to get a job after as they just wasn’t any. I started a YTS a year later on £25 per week and I got a bill for poll tax! I never paid it! I know everything is expensive now and it’s a luxury to have a take away dinner now. My dad’s favourite dinner is fish and chips to this day and always criticises the quality 😂
I am 82 years old when I was a lad we used to knock on doors for used newspapers then take them to the local chip shop and they would give us 4 pence worth of chips for them, happy days !
@@ZaynneThaWook Yes. I am from the north east, and as a kid in the 1960s, we would take our pennies to the fish shop, and they would give us scoops of batter, hot and wrapped in newspaper. We would sit outside, and eat it with our fingers. Deeeeeeeelih!
This video is absolute truth. My family have owned a fish & chip shop for 58 years and I can put it into perspective for you. Before the war in Ukraine broke out, we were paying around £80 for a freshly frozen (at sea) box of fish. After the war, that went up to £250 PER BOX. That then came down to about £170, but it was still double the price and that's only one of the commodities that skyrocketed. Add to that the fact that our electricity bill went up by THOUSANDS and it kinda tells you why fish & chip shops have had no choice but to raise prices. We HATE having to do it, but it's just necessary. Businesses like ours are dropping like flies. You're absolutely right. It's not profiteering - it's survival. Plain and simple.
Hey thanks for this 👍 it’s been great to hear from people within the business. I am actually going to be doing a follow up just on fish and the fishing industry, if you would be up for a chat do get in touch
Nice one, so your blaming the America backed war in Ukraine 👍 thought after you voted to leave Europe we could catch our own fish, in our own waters again?
I see no connection between the war in ukraine and raising fish price in britain. In germany fish is still cheap. But our most favourite food the döner kebap became also very expensive recently with 7 to 10 € per unit depending on where you live. 5 years ago we would pay 5€ and 10 years ago one huge döner would be 3€. There has to be a different reason or since when would britain get his cod from the krim? I say its Brexit and Brexit alone.
I've been to England several times in my life, I'm a native of Louisiana. Last time I went back in 2010 I took my son and went spent a week in London and a week around the countryside and up to Scotland. The absolute best Fish and Chips we ever had was 100% by mistake. We got off the wrong tube station on the way back to our Hotel which was just outside Hyde park. We wandered for about an hour in a residential area, and it was getting late, probably close to 7 or 8pm. My son said hey let's just get something to eat and ask where the heck we were. Around the corner was a small Fish and Chips shop, completely not for tourists. We went in, and after the guy behind the counter after rightfully getting a bit frustrated with us finally understood what we wanted to order (we have traditional Southern Louisiana accents so I'm sure he was probably thinking where the heck did these two loons come from) we got our orders and proceeded to keep walking as we realized the futility of asking him to give us directions and we ate as we went. The fish came in the traditional newspaper and was to this day, some of the best non-Louisiana fried fish I have ever eaten. I loaded it up with vinegar before i left. The chips were amazing too. Eventually we wandered back to the tube station we accidentally exited from and made it back to our hotel. My son and I still mention it to this very day when we eat fish in a restaurant or something, "Hey remember when we had that amazing fish and chips in whatever-that-place-was somewhere in London?" Was a great memory.
This guy is more than a decent presenter, who would kick half the wannabee's on the box. Natural, engaging & genuinely authentic. Keep doing what you're doing.
I was born in Australia to two parents from Oldham, lived in Oldham, my daughter was born in Oldham. Imagine my happiness when Tommyfield Chippy came up on a random RU-vid clip. I miss Oldham and Saddleworth, where Diggle Chippy rules the roost. The winds of change are around in the UK at the moment, and I hope all come through it better and stronger. Thinking of Oldham always.
He said "Remoulade sauce-which is French btw.A more accurate German equivalent would be Erbsenpuree which can be translated as mushy peas-Not the first time an English man like me has to teach a German correct use of his own language.haha.They even say "Home Office" to describe working from home-duh.
@@romber58 It is spelled "Püree" not "Puree" or if you can't use "Umlaute" then use "UE" instead -> "Pueree". I'm curious to know what's wrong about "home office", please explain.
@@LibertyDino Yeah, because “mushy” sounds like „Muschi” in German (= brit. “fanny”) and “peas” sounds like… well, I guess I don’t need to go on here … 😂😂😂😂
As a fish & chips shop owner myself it's good to see someone shedding light on our industry rather than just complaining about prices without context. It's always been the go-to food for working class families, and still to this day the vast majority are owned/run by working class families, you will find very few chains/franchises. There is definitely no profiteering going on, hence why so many shops have closed. Unfortunately it's a severe case of cost push inflation and I'm hoping the labour party can give our industry the help it needs, as it's another thing that working class families are losing!
I paid £11for fish and chips, mushy peas and a soft drink yesterday. It's become a treat; when I was a young child in the 70s my family had fish and chips for lunch every Saturday. Although the industry is struggling it's refreshing to know most of the fish and chip shops are independent family businesses.
@@geoffpoole483 I said same in my comment too, it's crazy prices now, and I'm not blaming the chippies for it, I'm guessing they're having to put their prices up so much now to cover the cost of running the places, just a shame that it's pricing working class people out of having it now unless for a special occasions.
@@geoffpoole483 unfortunately those days are long gone and it's definitely more of a treat now. Though I still find ourselves to be cheaper than other takeaways like chinese, indian etc.
Working class food has long been gentrified to be something that the wealthy can only afford and exotic poor man's dinner you from abroad you end paying a bomb for.
I coined that. Gentrification of fish n chips. You can blame high rents for shops for much of this. A stall on the high street not even a shop might be paying £700 or more per week. A small shop might be paying +£1000 per week on the high street or more than +£600 per week way out of town. After wages and electricity etc how is anyone making a profit? No wonder shops come and go. And why so many are empty. Real working class food? Houses that were built for the working class. Little 2 up 2 downs. Now house doctors. Professional childless couples with a labradoodle. And students and migrants living multioccupancy.
That implies big business has driven the price up. It’s our deteriorated relationship with the eu that’s driven the price up. Also…chicken is better I’m sorry. It has to be said
@@Thedarkknight2244oh really? So the prizes have been going down for the last couple of years huh?...you might wanna ask people in the fishing industry what they think of brexit
I used to own a chippy, but it shut down during covid. The price of fish was around 80 quid for a box, then it more than doubled to over 200 quid and sometimes hit 210. Everything was getting increasingly expensive. I couldn't keep up with it, so I had no choice but to hang the blue apron for the last time. It was fun to do, but the price increases forced me out, and I bet it's much worse for the people who have been running their shops until now. Thanks for the video. :)
I'm from NZ but I've been in the US for most of my life. Fish and chips are not very good here on average. I found a decent pub that's owned by an Englishman who uses recipes and techniques that are the nearest to what I had as a kid. Food prices here are insane as well, I pay over 22 USD for the meal. I still pay it because it's the best I've had in all my years here but damn...it hurts to hear that even in the land of fish and chips it's no longer a cheap meal. In NZ when I was a kid it was a weekly meal and the shops would use whatever the boats brought in, it was truly amazing. Helped to have a fisherman for a Dad. All the best to you guys over there, it sounds rough all over. Also, when I was growing up in NZ they still used newspaper in some chip shops. Not sure if they still do, but that was back in the late 80's!
Don't get them often in newspaper, i did go to greymouth in 2018 and they used newspaper, its about $14 for 2 scoops chips and and two fish in christchurch so it's more than 1/4 the price of UK, fish is never as good as UK though, unless you ask for a special fish. and sometimes chips can be frozen chips fried if depending on where you go.
Brit here, I've eaten from many a fish and chip shop when travelling around NZ and they were mostly pretty below average compared to British chippies, for a start many of them sold frozen chips rather than making their own!
@@AA-hg5fk that's a shame! I'm not sure it was like that when I was a kid, but it sounds like I'll have to make a pilgrimage to the UK and see what you're on about!
There's good Fish & Chip shops in America, they're just all located in the upper East Coast and maybe Seattle. It's just kinda hard to locate a more niche food item far away from it's home origin that's made from traditional recipes. It's kinda like trying to find good Mexican food in the UK. It's not impossible you just gotta dig real deep to find it.
@@FelipeJaquez I've not made it out to the east coast. If I do ill be sure and take a look. I've found at least one decent shop in Oregon, and I hear there's more on the coast. As you say, just have to dig!
I'm old enough to remember fish and chips wrapped in newspaper. I grew up in Birmingham in the 60's and sometimes my nan would send me to the chippy for fish and chips, though I can't remember how much they cost, but I do remember the newspaper. She would pop them still wrapped in the gas oven to keep warm, how they didn't catch fire I don't know! We haven't bought fish and chips for many years now, there's four of us so it's too expensive. Pre Covid there used to be a mobile chippy that would come round every Thursday evening, but Covid was the end of that. Great video, thank you 😊
I'm from Australia and I remember the newspaper - we never even considered the unhygienic aspect of the newspaper - We are not far behind you in terms of cost of fish and chips. Love from Australia.
According to Paul McCartney in the song Penny Lane, the fish and finger pie was 4 old pence (around 1.5 new pence) in 1967, when the song was released. I'm old enough to remember when the fish was 1 shilling (5 new pence) and the chips were 6 old pence (2 1/2 new pence), thst would be around, or just after, decimalisation of the UK currency in February 1971. Fish and chips from the chippy are now a luxury for many. In the same way, people now drink more beer at home, as pub prices, even at 'Spoons, are still relatively high, and are pricing themselves out of the market. The takeaways for Chinese and curry houses are now better value for money than a chippy.
@@missinterpreted4923 I dont ever remember fish and chips in Aus in news paper it was always butchers paper. The one exception I can remember was either butcher paper or grease paper on the inner with newspaper as the outer. Asked my and he seems to think that it was the late 70's when they went from news paper to butchers paper
"It's all work, work, work, just to pay the bills, and there's nothing at the end of it, is there?" This holds true here in the states also. It's horrible how much everything has gone up and keeps going up, but wages are mostly stagnating.
I'm mexican and I live at the border, last time i went to the US was in December 2019, then i went again on this year and I was baffled at the prices, some things even doubled in price and shrunk in size.
@@Goochen Depends, it's a weird comparison. It's probably better to be working class in the UK but it's definitely better to be middle class in the states.
It all stems down to corporate greed, there is no inflation! These costs could all be absorbed by multi billion dollar companies but they are too greedy to do so, so they pass it down to small business and us
I am a tourist in the UK staying with friends for a few months. I am from S. E Asia and I cannot get enough of these fish and chips. I get large chips, large cod drowned in vinegar. The local shop people are so nice and I'm much happier for my tourist budget money to go to these small family run places vs. a McDonalds etc. Its sad they are facing tough times, I wish them well and I will dearly miss fish and chips when I go home!
My memory of our nearest fish and chip shop in the early 1960s was that it only opened on a Friday and Saturday evening. They would put up a blackboard outside with "Frying Tonight" and a time - usually 6 or 7pm. - You went there at that time and there would be a queue of 50 to a hundred people outside. The owner would come out at opening time and quickly count up the number of people waiting and then go back inside. 5 minutes later the shutter would go up (you queued and were served outside, served through a hatch) and they'd start serving. The fish and chips were in two big cauldrons full of fat, heated by gas rings. Even with 100 people in the queue, everyone was served within 10 to 15 minutes because there were only three choices - Fish, Chips and a pickled egg. All wrapped in newspaper. No waiting around for strange orders or sauces or anything like that - it was really FAST food. At the back of the queue would always be a few lads hoping to scrounge the bits of batter left over, known as "bits", after that the shutter would come down and the shop would close up. Obviously, it cut costs because they were only open for half an hour at most and would have only had to heat the fat up for an hour, cutting fuel costs. Most people hurried off to eat their fish and chips at home, but youngsters in their late teens and 20s would sit on the benches nearby and eat theirs before getting the bus into town for a night out. They stacked the newspapers neatly by the side of a bin on the green nearby with a stone on top. The people from the prefabs nearby would come out and take them to put on their coal fires as extra fuel, an extra clean sheet might get torn up to use in the lavvy- nothing went to waste. I seem to remember Mum buying fish and chips for 3 with a ten shilling note (50p today) - but that still seemed an awful lot in those days, when a working man probably got only 15 to 20 pounds a week. It's certainly not something we could have afforded to do more than once a week.
Reminds me years ago of the time when my miserable but good local chippy was only 50 yards from the pub and it still closed at ten (pubs shut at 10.30 then). The landlady used to let the locals buy their supper and keep them warm in her oven so they could eat them when they got home after leaving at closing time. One Christmas day one of the locals wives stormed in with his Christmas dinner cos he was late for lunch! Who can afford Pub beer and chips nowadays though!
If the ink from the paper hasn't left some absurd headline on that pickled egg, it really isn't the real thing. I presume as the economic decline of the UK continues, the old iron ladies are going to have to fire up those cauldrons again some day for 2-pound fish n' chips - wrapped it in advertising paper this time!
Cheap fast/street food meant to fill one's gut, on the run to/from work has become some sort of exquisite gourmet shit. Hot dogs, fish&chips, hamburgers, Turkish kebabs and all the other stuff are meant to stop hunger, not be an expensive delicacy. They are for the working man, to keep him going through the day. We don't have many places like that remaining. In my country McDonalds which used to be obscenely expensive was surpassed in prices by the local market. Part of it is ingredient prices, part of it is greed.
It's not gentrification. It's multiple wars against you that you fail to grasp. Covid tyranny was a war against you. Climate hysteria is a war against you. Globalization is a war against you. Censorship of "hate speech" is a war against you. Letting countless people into your country who hate you is a war against you. You're being destroyed and you call it "gentrification"?!
My mom used to work in a fish and chips shop. She made us fish and chips in a bag the old-fashioned way - they weren't just put in the newspaper, they were put in a cone of waxed paper, then the newspaper was wrapped around the waxed paper to serve as insulation to keep the food hot. As a cone, you could eat the food from it while walking around, without burning your hands holding it. Thought you might like to know this.
I’m 57 yrs old. Chips cost 5p a bag when I was a kid, and they were always served in newspaper. I love chips. I now live in Ecuador and I am known as the kings of french fried (chips) by my friends. I learnt how to make them from my Greek chippy owner friends. I also make curry too. My friends say they’re blessed. I know I am to still have this wonderful dish here in south America 🤣👍
I’ve been running chip shops for twenty five years or so. Thanks for making this. You’ve nailed it. As an extra note, cod and haddock prices went through the roof post Brexit. Both the UK and EU had to renegotiate quotas with Greenland and Norway which is where a lot of it comes from. The only super trawler left in Hull was stuck in port for months and prices nearly tripled.
Yea well Europe helped UK with the war, and post war redevelopment and the citizenry forgot all that and the massive trade benifit and opted for brexit. Enjoy.
EXACTLY, you don't see Farage now mentioning the crap he talked about how Brexit was going to be great for our fishing industry - or anybody holding any of those Brexiteers to task about it.
@@shelldie8523I’m convinced Brexiteers voted out of pure racism or misinformation. I genuinely see no other reason why anyone could have voted for Brexit
@@ramengurung9913They absolutely did. They tried to downplay it by saying it was about trade, but since Brexit they're all going "Oh we had no idea there would be economic downsides!" So they knew nothing about the economic side when they voted. They only cared about "keep foreigners out" and now they're stuffed
@@ramengurung9913 It's not "racism" when 30% of your country's children are born to foreign mothers and over 40% of your capital city is made up of non-English/British ethnic groups. The Cockneys are all but gone and we all know it's because they've been pushed out by migrants coming into London.
I’m from Australia, but the cost of fish and chips here in Melbourne is ridiculously high! It’s almost $10 for a flake, when just a few years ago, you could get a flake, minimum chips, a potato cake and a dimmy for $10. Now it’ll cost around $20 for the exact same meal… $25 if you want to throw a soft drink in too. Fish and chips are no longer the , “poor man’s food” … it was a sad day, when I realised I’d been priced out of something I used to get once a week 😢
From someone who remembers very well when fish and chips came wrapped in newspaper (long before they were colorised) you’re doing a grand job and keeping my faith in the next generations. Your positivity, obvious love of tradition and history of your local and wider areas are infectious. Keep up the good work! Here’s to a slightly brighter next 5 years 🫡
Thing is you can get food from 33 different cultures delivered to your home in 30 minutes now. I wish chippy was still asleep cheap as it used to be. '99 grabbing a big bag with all my mates chipping in 30p each between five of us😂 but i do understand the general way its progressed. If Britain kept the fish from its waters rather than selling the majority of them I think that'd help.
This is so British, love it! You must preserve your heritage and way of life. Surely, the government can make big tax discounts on such local businesses, which are living country's heritage.
I'm glad I was a student in the UK during the 80s when a portion of chips wrapped in newspaper cost 20p and a fish and chips around a quid. But then, everything hovered around a quid. A pint of bitter, a donner kebab and egg fried rice. You could down 10 pints and have a curry after for a tenner up north. 😮
I'm French but I have an English mum, back in the 60's we used to spend a lot of time with grandma in Tenterden Kent. The fish and chip shop was just off high street towards the train station, we used to go there and wait for our fish and chips to be ready and wrapped in a piece of newspaper which got greasy immediately. But it was heaven when we ate it back at grandma's. Great memories. Now I cook my own :)
Wow, never thought I’d see my literal home town be mentioned here. That fish and chip shop near the train station is still there by the way! I go there every few months.
@@DARKINBLADE. Great! Our house was Chancery house, down High street on the left a few yards before the old pub that used to be there (the William Caxton, if it still is?). Had a huge towering cedar tree that was chopped down by the following owners in the early 80's. Long long time ago...
@@patrickdemarcevol William Caxton went a few years ago, there's a new pub there now but I haven't tried it. Really unique houses honestly, they always caught my attention when driving past. Should definitely make a visit here again, it's not really the thriving place it once was but then again what is in Britain haha
I recall eating fish & chips with my fingers out of paper in front of a Frenchman. At the end he looked totally disgusted and exclaimed "I can't believe you just... ate it!"
£15 for Fish, chips and curry sauce is expensive. I normally pay £8 or £10. Normally, tourist areas are that pricey. Glad you went back to the market chip shop, they were so friendly and £4.90 for fish n chips is a bargain 👌 😋
I'm Dutch, and I do remember eating fish and chips off a newspaper in England long ago, when I was a child. It was horrible. All the typing actually transferred onto the fish and chips. It was all rolled together so the chips were soggy and tasted of fish. It put me off fish and chips for a long time.
@@freemason4979 thats true, but its also just the complete mismanagement of the government, and all of the mp's being in the pockets of gas / electric companies, while also doing nothing to combat the cost of living crisis, even though large retailers were making record profits during this period
@@freemason4979the problem ain't "big government" the problem is the tories are corrupt wankers who spent 14 years siphoning away taxpayer money into the pockets of themselves and foreign billionaires
This saddens me. I don't know if you know this, but in the United States, we also have regions that are heavily influenced by the "UK Chip Shops". Famous Chef Marco Pierre White made a point to show "Fish and Chips" in The UK. And I think the mainstaple of Fish & Chips is what keeps us all going, be it here or there. In the United States, the cost of fish had also risen. It costs us about three times the amount of price that it used to pre-Covid. And it's not nearly the quality that you get in the UK (I love your Chip Shops). All the best from across the pond...
The man is a faker, the over-produced video is fake, made by the government. It's using northern "working class" fish and chips to popularize re-entry to the EU, which the north never wanted, demonize Russia, (all of which he mentions), and to sell the phrase 'cost of living crisis" to hide the true cause of high prices - illegal food and energy sanctions on Russia.
Fish 'n' chips used to be a staple here in Australia when I was a kid but now they export so much of our fish that prices are so high that it has become a luxury.
The same is happening here in Quebec. In Montreal, you used to be able to get a poutine with two steamed hot dogs (very cheap food aside from the cheese) for like 6-7 CAD (5 GBP) not even 10 years ago, and now you're lucky to find that for 15 bucks in many places. Just crazy
My Grandad was a Widower with 5 children, his wife died in Childbirth, he was a Coal Miner and after his shifts he walked the streets selling chips from a barrow, his nickname was Chips.
I vividly remember getting fish and chips in newspaper. I was born in 1978. I honestly think it was better out of newspaper. Those cartons they use now trap the steam and everything goes soggy. This fish batter used to keep its crisp in newspaper
Yes, the last time I had a chippie it was in a cardboard box and the silly cow put it in a plastic bag! It was a pizza crunch which was more of a pizza squidg when I got it home, I’ll know next time to make sure they don’t put it in a plastic bag.
@@dansharpe2364 now you're making it painfully obvious you're a troll with nothing better to do. I'm telling you for a fact I had it in newspaper. Its absolutely possible that was just the outer layers and there was grease proof paper on the inside. But it's not a manufactured memory. Done indulging you now. You're probably a 90s or 2000s kid who's going purely on what you read. But anyone who was around in the early 80s will confirm what I am saying. Fish and chips was definitely still coming in newspaper (even if there was Grease proof paper on the inner layer) well into the early to mid 80s. Enjoy the rest if your day
@@dansharpe2364 I'm actually pretty sure I had fish and chips in newspaper in the late 80s to early 90s too when I did some work for my dad at the weekends. I have a memory of one of his van drivers fetching them and bringing back multiple bundles of fish and chips in newspaper for all guys. But again, it could be the outer layers which were newspaper for insulation.
Growing up in Fiji and being part of the British commonwealth, fish and chips was an amazing experience for $2 wrapped in new paper. This was early 90s where my dad used to get this on our weekend market trip in Suva . When we lived in Australia , we used to get 1 kg of chips from Coles for $5 and make sandwiches of it with white bread with the cousins after a cricket or footie game with neighborhood kids in black town (western Sydney ) . My first trip to London in 2014, this was my first meal at the Heathrow Airport coming in from US. It is a shame how the cost of everything has gone up everywhere and everyone is struggling , thanks for the sharing this and this video definitely brought back memories - cheers
@@seanmurphy2365Same could be said about America but the majority of Americans would tell you they’re struggling over the past 10-20 years. Obesity is caused in large e part by ultra processed foods, which people don’t rely on when they’re doing well.
Wishing you all the very best.. Fish and chips all the way out in Fiji.. They get about those fish and chips, don't they 😂 Food of the Gods.. 😂😂😂😂😂 💖💖💖💖💖
@@MsMesem I live in Cape Town. We love our fish and chips and they also used to wrap it in newspaper. But the ink comes off and it's actually toxic. Some places replaced it with fake newspaper but I think that was a bit expensive so they all use the polystyrene stuff.
@RiceCubeTech there was a fish and chips shop in Pietermartizburg in South afrca that used to do that, might still do it but I haven't lived there in years.
The best Fish&Chips I ever had was from my aunties shop in Skegness. Her partner was a chef in the army. The fish was either Cod or Haddock and the batter was homemade beer batter made up and cooled right down to a set temperature. Their potatoes were picked out by himself and were an expensive highest graded. Their chips were then blanched in water until part cooked in their centres. Then they were dried out in an oven. When ready the Chips were fried in very hot Beef dripping until golden. The fish was dipped in their very cold homemade beer batter and again fried in very hot beef dripping until it turned golden. The batter would expand evenly and the fish would be evenly cooked in its own steam pocket trapped by the batter in just a couple of minutes. No knobbly hard ends or uneven cooking or trapped oil deposits on the fish. Then their peas were had popped out of their pods and could be prepared either whole or mushy with lemon and white sauce condiments ect...The meal was dunked and cooked in like two and a half minutes and it was delicious beyond words. I could also have potatoes with their peels still on which was also delicious. I am not a foodie type guy but I would give good money to have that meal again. This is all over 20 yrs ago now. I think I will go and make my own meals in this way from now on.
There is no better meal than fish and chips when they are made to crispy perfection. Trouble is you can go to most fish and chip shops hoping for a high standard and it is generally nowhere near. Greasy and stodgy and regret eating once finished
I've not had proper fish and chips in around 10 years. Thanks to this video, tonight I'm going to go down to my local chippy. It's gloomy weather but there's nothing more British than walking out of a chippy, with the classic blue (or sometimes white) chippy bag in hand, and then speed-walking home in the rain, hoping that the paper-wrapped food in the bag doesn't get completely soaked before you get home. I did check their menu online and a portion of fish and chips is £9. I specifically remember being able to go into that same chippy with a fiver and come out with a large portion of chips, battered fish, a pie and a drink. So that's a shame that its so expensive now, but nonetheless I WILL get me a classic chippy meal
@@anonymousanonym450 assalam alikom, when will brits realise that their foood is bland and boring. It wasn’t until eastern spice started cooking that any food in UK became edible
Sadly a lot of fish and chips are owned by Asian or Middle Eastern owners. Some of them are okay, but lots of them don’t know how to cook it. The batter is not crispy and chips are oily and mushy.
I'm 47 and this just brought back memories of sitting at my grandparents house every weekend getting fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, bring back the 80s✌️ Cheers for that mate.
I am a Vietnamese educated for 6 year in the UK. Fish and chips was one of my finest memory about my time there. It is sadden me alot knowing this, fish and chips shop were everywhere in the 2000s with very affordable price😢
@@rob5197 The reverse happened in the mid to late 1970s as regards tea and coffee. The harvest of coffee beans was terrible in 1976 and the price of coffee doubled in a year, so many people reverted back to tea. As I've always preferred tea to coffee, it didn't bother me. People now pay £3 plus for a cup of coffee, for something that can't cost 15% of that to make, rather than do the drink themselves.
@@Lepocoloco I was in Vietnam earlier this year and a good flat white, whilst still cheaper than in London (3 quid and some), was about 65000 VND and rising
We had two chippies in St. Andrews with long lines of students every Sunday evening. We got two generous pieces of fish, a generous portion of chips, all fried in lard, a little salt, a lot of vinegar, wrapped in brown paper, then wrapped in newspaper, for GBP 1.00 (one Pound). The year was 1984. Thank you for the video. It sure brought back memories! So much has changed in the UK since I was there.
Man, Fish and Chips! It always takes me back to my uni days in Salford. It was my go-to comfort meal after long days, and now, every time I have it back home (Malaysia), it brings back all those good memories - after a night out with my friends, that cozy little chippy around the corner. It’s more than just food; it’s a slice of nostalgia.
Because most of them are overpriced. Fish and chips is supposed to be cheap, it's very basic food, but now it seems to be a luxury. £15 for haddock and chips in Eyemouth (admittedly it's quite good). I'd rather pay £10 for a chicken tikka calzone from Waffles & Chill.
I was on holiday in Cornwall this year, so went to a local Fish and chips takeaway/restaurant with myself, my wife and my 3 year old. The bill came to £72 pounds for Large Haddock and Chips, Medium cod and chips and cod bites and chips. Plus the Haddock hadn't been skinned or boned and wasn't fresh, sadly I got the feeling they were trying to profiteer on the back tourists!
From an Yank perspective, hearing the Brits here speaking is interesting when compared to what's displayed on TV productions. In the US, fish-and-chips became popular in the 1960s with the "H. Salt, Esquire" fish-and-chips franchised outlets. The locations were small, with limited counter space to eat at; as they were primarily "take-out" fast-food places. I enjoyed them immensely as a kid in the 1960s.
Loved your video, I was born during WW2 and I remember in the early 50's it was my job on a Friday night to go and get our fish and chip super for the family, and give give Mum a night off from cooking. Three cod and one place and chips, for dad, I remember Dad giving me two half crowns or five bob and the change was my brother and I's pocket money. Wonderful days!!
My eldest son was coerced in to buying his mother's second fish and chip shop in a small town on the coast just north of Sydney in Australia. He ended up in all sorts of financial trouble, he was trying to juggle part time university with the shop and play in a startup band. The cost of having a full time employee was out of the question but casuals are on a higher hourly rate, the next blow was the cost of electricity (in the thousands of AUD per month) . As is with most fish and chip shops he also had to sell hamburgers and all the other foods that most takeaway shops sell. As a fish and chip shop he used to keep some stock of local fish (flat head, barramundi and others) but these were expensive and the customers rarely wanted to pay the extra. His main supply of fish was commonly called bassa or nile perch. Imported cheap fish from the Mekong Delta. The busiest day of the year was Good Friday and the shop would run out of fish.
@@janusjones6519 I love flake but it only seems to be sold in Victoria and Western Australia. Never see it in Queensland or New South Wales. Or when you do it's more expensive that whatever the regular fish is. Can't afford fish at all these days anyway!
Back in my day fish and chips was always wrapped in newspaper. Newspaper [clean] was a waste product so virtually free to the chippy owner and it had two very important advantages. Being virtually free they used plenty of it to wrap your meal so it provided excellent insulation to keep everything hot. Secondly it absorbed all the excess oil so your chips stayed crisp. I can assure you all , as an ex-printer, a bit of ink never hurt anybody !!!!!!!!!
It's funny to think that there was all that paranoia about the ink and now we're getting regularly dosed with microplastics from all the 'safe and hygienic' packaging , meanwhile scientists can't find a human sperm sample on earth that doesn't have microplastics. We know it's happening and nothing changes
I thought they used leftover newspapers that didn't get sold 😅 I don't want to imagine what some guys were doing to page 3 😱🤣🤣🤣 Extra fish for free! 😳😂😂
I would love to have some fish and chips now... The last time was 23 years ago, when we were on an excursion from school. We stayed five days in England. Is was great. Greetings from Germany.
The £4.90 chippy meal looked proper good. I remember being sent out to fetch chips on Friday nights for the family - queues were huge but you had a choice of several chippies to go to. Yes it was wrapped in newspaper, in fact if you took a pile of old papers with you, you might have got a bonus portion. Chips were 8/10/12 pence, the whole order for the family was less than £1. This would have been about 1978
@@grahampilkington252 Think it would have been more than that, I had left school and gone on the dole for a few months before my apprenticeship started, and that was £16 a week.
You at least got the choice of the least busy one! As the bearer of similar responsibilities in my family, I'd get a clip around the ear from the old man or our kid if I didn't go to the one they preferred. (Laus Chippy off the High Street) Was probably only waiting ten or so minutes but it's different as a kid. Felt like I spent hours, days, weeks! waiting my turn in that chippy. Memories.
Business rates have killed a lot of F&C shops around my way. I'm from London and it's really sad how many pie and mash shops have closed, almost every high street in working class areas used to have one and now your lucky to see any still open.
Same here in Ireland, the price of fish in take aways is so expensive compared to everything else on the menu. Can't remember the last time I had it. Its crazy that like the UK we are surrounded by seas but fish is so expensive.
Yes, your not surrounded by seas but you're not surrounded by petroleum. You know who is up to their eyeballs in petroleum? Russia. Europe used to have nice gas pipeline that brought in cheap Russian gas, that is until the Americans blew it up. Enjoy being poor.
Mate, here in Mongolia we got cattle and sheep in tens of millions, enough to feed the 3.5 million population, yet the price of dairy foods is so damn expensive and still rising. Something needs to be done.
RU-vid just NOW decided to reveal this in the algorithm. How have I missed this?!? Some of the best content on the web! People ought watch this and learn.
@@poika22 mmmmm. An attempt at snark. A little limp noodled when considered in context, though. He’s been producing content for about a year and I, myself, find the content compelling. A more finely-tuned retort might have tickled me enough to giggle quietly (at myself) but sadly, you just come off as an a-hole. But thanks for playing. Hope you enjoy your stupid prize.
@@allhailthelegs This type of on the street reporting has been all over the the recommendations ever since youtube started recommending videos in like 2009, smooth brain. Maybe you just started watching something other than Mr. Breast so you're seeing it now too.
I am from Germany, but my mother has scottish roots. The best fish and chips you can get in Arbroath. Also the best smokie is made in Arbroath. I like this town so much.
As a new englander I love fish and chips myself. Sad to see our neighbors across the pond are losing their classic fish and chips places. Love from the U.S. 🇺🇸🏴
But we weren't until we started gobbling ultra processed foods. Fish and chips wasn't eaten daily. According to some writers on the subject of nutrition, vinegar helps us deal with the insulin spike caused by glucose.
In Germany we had Currywurst Pommes for ages as a very cheap tasty fast food. It was about 2-3€ for a grilled Bratwurst with Ketchup plus Chips with mayo 10 years ago. Today it costs 8€ in most places. Ridiculously overprized for 15g of Protein
I would agree somewhat. I live in Brandenburg amd go to berlin a lot. I would say that it's very venue dependent. There is some imbisses which a currywurst and pommes is still under 5euro. Bur go somewhere popular, or, like a venue where it's limited options. Then the prices can become stupid. But then that was always true. It's just do much more noticeable
The same is happening with Döner. When I was a child they went for 3 or 3,50 Euro. These days you have to pay at least 7,50 or 8 Euro to get the same - or sometimes even less. No offence to the shop owners though. Many of them tried to keep the prices low as long as possible and just adjusted their prices in the recent years.
Great video, not just the eating part which was great but the well researched history. And the rude old woman with a face like a bag of spanners has been called out for everyone to see. Brilliant
FACT< Fish & Chips in our local area and town cost £18 for two slivers of fish and a few chips for we OAP's. Both me and my wife now buy at one of our local seaside fish markets great quality fish of our choice. Then we both have what we call "A Fry In", mix our own batter, and fry our fish and chips in beef dripping, not chuffing oil.
Good on you. I love fish and chips and I won't pay 12 quid here on pure principle. The sooner people vote with their feet the sooner these profiteering fish and chip shop owners will lower their prices, develop some work ethic and lower their prices. Many (not all) have used this cost of living crisis and the COVID pandemic as a tool of pure extortion, and they deserve to go out of business. That fish and chip shop owner says he pays 18-19 quid for a sack of potatoes, if that's true he deserves to shut up shop. I can buy from my local Co-op 2kg of Maris Piper potatoes for 1.35, so imagine the buying power he should have. So I can buy 12 x 2kg bags of Maris Piper cheaper than that fish and chip shop owner. He must think we were born yesterday. You're doing the right thing. We know these guys are just extorting us so we vote with our feet. Sooner or later they will wake up and lower their prices and folk like us will go back.
Contrary to popular (and inaccurate) belief, using dripping is so much healthier than any vegetables or seed oil. Dripping has a high smoke point which makes it healthier to fry with than olive oil. Olive oil is healthy if unheated, when heated it changes the structure and turns into something I wouldn't even allow my dog to eat.
Same. Since lockdown I learned to do by own hand beer battered cod with triple cooked Maris piper chips. I’ve gotten a bit of a name for myself locally as the only place that’s better even by my own admission is a gastro pub that charges £19. However saying that, there’s many good quality fish and chips to be had across the UK for around a fiver. Rhyl in particular is littered with them.
@@SanderBelt-qz2ue That's very good value. I think most in the south and east are really ripping customers off. I can't see how fish and chips can be 2-3 times more expensive here. Sure, business rates may be higher, but that's a fixed cost so the answer is to open longer hours just as we ordinary folk had to make ends meet. My local opens 20-25hrs a week, so when they complain about how expensive things are, I have no sympathy for them. Frankly they desere to shut up shop.
I really hate when people make reviews regarding fish and chip shops and leave behind lows scores primarily for the price. When they fail to realize that a piece of Cod or Haddock are ludciorusly expensive. Like these people just don't understand how expensive ingredients are now a days.
I am an American planning on visiting the UK later this year and it really is saddening hearing about the plight of these fish and chips shops. Enjoying a portion of authentic British fish and chips is one of the things I am most looking forward to during my trip to your country.
I’m from the US, the Great Lakes region (Michigan) to be exact. I’m surrounded on all sides by the largest sources of freshwater on earth. With that said, seafood and fish is incredibly important to so many people here. Fish and chips is very common but, sadly, more and more places are trying to go to that frozen fish type that’s already pre battered and they just drop it in the fryer. I try to visit the shops that still do it from scratch even though it’s becoming a bit more expensive. There’s really no replacement for fresh fish that gets the proper preparation and treatment. I hope one day I can try a true proper fish and chips over on your side of the pond, it would be like the equivalent of going to Italy to have a proper pasta dinner. Thanks for sharing this video and its history with us!
@@cykablyat1466 that beer batter that’s so hot and crispy when they bring it out of the fryer and immediately to your table ♥️ Surprisingly, one of the best places in my area to get fresh fish and chips are at Catholic Churches during Lent. They open the food halls and welcome all, even if someone isn’t religious. The prices are cheap, the food is all made by hand (including the chips, which they peel and slice on their own), and it’s fresh as can be.
I had my first fish and chips in Dulwich park in 1989. I had planned to stay in the UK for 6 months just to learn English but then ended up staying for 3 years. I returned later for another 10 years working in the city. I had THE best time. Never met an unfriendly Londoner! Europe will get through this!
I'm in the deep south US, but I've made it a point all my life to shop local. Even if it's a little more expensive than the big box stores. I'd rather my money to go to people from my town, people that I know, who's children I went to school with, than into the pockets of shareholders at large corporations. That being said, if I had a local chippy down here they'd have to shoo me out with a broom every night. It's one of my favorite meals of all time. Fried cod, fries, drowned in vinegar, little bit of homemade mayo on the side for the fries.
Coming from someone who's worked in UK pubs for several years I can tell you, the cost of cooking oil alone is one of the biggest factors especially for anywhere running deep fryers like a chippy. It's at least doubled over the last year or two. The same thing is happening to our pubs, lots of nice traditional local places simply getting priced out by the rising cost of running and staffing the place. They also have the same problem as the local chippies, beer's getting pricier to get in and they're having to charge more and more disproportionately to the rise in minimum wages. A lot of people can't go as often as they'd like these days. Sure, drinking and eating fried food less might not be the worst thing health wise but it's more than that, a nice local pub serves a huge social spot for locals and visitors alike and its as ingrained in our culture as fish and chips is. Same applies to loads of places really, locally run smaller shops of all sorts are struggling to stay open all over the country and it's a shame to see.
There is a popular misconception about fish and chips being directly wrapped in newspaper. When I was a youngster, in the 1950s and 1960s, fish and chips were, indeed, wrapped in layers of newspaper but the food never came directly into contact with the newsprint. A sheet of clean, white food-safe paper was always placed between the food and the newspaper, which was then wrapped around this as an insulation, whether or not the chips were being eaten straight away or if you had them wrapped to take home.
I can't believe how much this video brings out emotions. seeing all these amazing people with smiles on their faces, despite being crushed by a financial elite who hates them. it's not just war in Ukraine that makes everything expensive. it's a system that has been built like that for decades, in order to empoverish the working class and line the pockets of the elite. the UK used to be in the top 5 of every major industry : fishing, agriculture, electronics, information, heavy industry... What even _is_ Britain, now?
Canada here. My local fish and chip shop packaged their fish and fries in newspaper until the mid aughts. I still remember the day I noticed the change.
Your video reminded me of a trip I took with friends to Scotland around 6 years ago. Visited for 10 days and I think we ate fish and chips 3 times. Makes me want to make another trip back to the UK. Cheers from USA 🇺🇸
That is your equivalent of our cheese burger and fries... it is getting out of hand over on this side of the pond as well... and the salaries are not even remotely keeping up with cost of living.
I was born in '66, grew up having takeaway fish and chips in newspaper every Saturday lunch for years, in Ealing, West London. There doesn't appear to even be a chip shop there anymore. Last GOOD fish and chips I had was in West Bay, Dorset in the Summer of 2023, while on holiday. There's about 10 different booths selling fish and chips, which hopefully keeps the prices realistic. Now living in the USA, we can't even buy decent battered fish to cook at home, it's a close to real fish as a chicken nugget is to a roast chicken.
There was a place in Albany, NY called Bob & Ron’s Fish Fry. They used a fish called Cusk. Similar to a Cod but it is a meatier dense meat. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! They were there for decades until being taxed out by local & state governments.
In our village in the 1960s, we had a chip van came around 5;30pm on the day Corry was on so you could get the fish, chips and scratchings for about threepence or at the most sixpence, and be able to get home and watch it. great times..
It was based on religion I think. I was brought up Catholic and it was fish and chips every friday (see what I did there). I think there is somewhere that stated we catholics should not eat meat on a friday. (I'm not catholic now but can't afford fish and chips anyhow).
They say that tradition started because the fishing industry managed to get the Pope to declare that catholics should eat fish on Fridays. Of course, I can't verify a bit of that story. 😅
That woman was so rude who asked you why you’re filming . Talk to people with respect ffs . Last time I had fish and chips it was £11 in Leeds for medium portion . Best deal I found in Leeds about 2 yr ago was £7.50 fish chips curry sauce and a drink . Might of gone up £2 or so now . But id happily pay under 10er these days for all that .
I'm an American that was stationed in England during the 80's and I remember getting fish & chips in newspaper. Not all the shops did it, but some still did.
