For many years I've enjoyed eating fish and chips. Rarely at a table, usually in the street, wrapped in paper.
They just don't taste as delicious as they used to. Places I've eaten include Nash's (Leeds city centre. Ate at Nash's only last week), Bryan's (Headingley, Leeds), the extraordinary Brett's (Headingley again, very near the cricket ground), The Pride of Whitby (Halifax, West Yorkshire, an absolute favourite), The Magpie (Whitby; when you can get in!) Colman's (South Shields, Tyneside. Ate there only a month ago. They even name which trawler caught each variety of fish!) Anstruther Fish Bar (Fife), The Grove Fish and Chippery (Montrose, Angus), Burdock's (Dublin; in the days when Burdock's still had gas-fired fryers, now gone 
), Mary Jane's (Cromer, Norfolk), Stein's Fish & Chips (Padstow, Cornwall), the eccentric North Sea Restaurant (Bloomsbury, London), Geale's (Notting Hill, London). There must be some favourites there.
And I virtually always have the same order: large haddock, chips, mushy peas (though I sometimes now order the fish without batter).
But in all of them, I reckon the standard is slipping. The food is not as delicious as it used to be. Why?
Some suggestions:
1) The fish are younger and smaller. An excellent fishmonger once told me when buying fresh fish always buy the largest one or part of the largest one. Unlike veg, where small and young means sweeter and tastier, the large, mature fish are the ones with real flavour. Fewer of those about.
2) People now eat so little fish in the UK, and in particular so little fish from fish and chip shops, that either the skills have gone (how to prepare the chips, the temperature of the oil etc), the suppliers aren't as on-the-ball and/or the fish is less fresh.
3) The potatoes are now grown under such controlled conditions and doused in so much chemical fertiliser that the quality, especially the flavour, isn't as good. They're also kept in store for longer. And/or transported further.
4) The potato varieties used aren't as suitable. They're grown for long shelf life and robustness in transport ie to suit the big supermarkets, not to suit small (or even large) fish friers.
5) Someone's been messing about with the oil (health police? religious reasons? pressure from fish-eating vegetarians?) and the frying medium is less likely to be beef fat (as it always was in Yorkshire) and more likely to be vegetable oil (never produces top quality results). I'm sure this has happened stealthily especially in the past ten years. I very rarely get that deliciously rich beef-fat fried flavour and crispness, much more often the insipid, damp greasiness of veg oil.
6) There's less trade for fish and chips and fewer queues waiting for the next batch in the frier to be ready, so both the fish and the chips are less likely to be really freshly cooked when you get them.
7) Things went downhill when newspaper wrapping was banned and polystyrene trays and white paper appeared! Not nearly as good for keeping the food steaming hot and fresh.
8) The vinegar's changed. Rarely proper malt vinegar now; more often than not nasty acetic acid ie "non-brewed condiment").
9) Maybe I've changed. Either my tastebuds, my expectations, or both!
Thoughts?? As well as listing your favourite fish and chip shops!
Opinions on this crossword, please
