My Kind of Food

The 26th of December, Santo Stefano, is known in England as Boxing Day which was traditionally the day on which servants and tradespeople were given their Christmas-box (a Christmas gift) or the day on which alms were given to the poor.  These days its the first day of the ‘January’ sales and a lot of people take to the shops to bag themselves a bargain.

As far as food goes maybe its a good day to eat up meat left over from Christmas lunch (cold-cuts) with bubble and squeak (fried leftover vegetables) and chutney.  English friends may well have eaten turkey yesterday or maybe goose, supplemented with boiled, baked or roasted ham.  Roast beef is another popular alternative for those who find turkey a bit dry as it can be.  This is the time of the year when the British home-cook can produce a vast array of delicious home cooked food.

The less well-travelled of my Italian friends here think that the British live on Fish and Chips and see it as our national dish (whereas in fact it is curry!).

Last week when I was visiting family in the North-East of England I availed myself of that great national treasure, fish & chips.  Its available in almost every town and village in the country in places run by native Britons, Chinese, Indians and even Italians (especially in Wales and Glasgow) and whilst the concept is pretty fixed, the quality can vary.  There are national competitions to find the best fish and chip shops (chippies) and one, whose origins are in Yorkshire, has even become a national brand with franchises in airports and service stations.

I found a local chippy very close to the hotel where I was staying, in a former mining village called Blackhall on the Durham coast.  It’s called Riley’s and I had the most delicious fish and chips I’ve tasted in a very long time.  I asked for it ‘open” that is served to take away, on a bed of paper (when I was a child it would have been yesterday’s newspaper).  In that way it’s possible to eat it immediately, sitting on a park bench or by the sea or in my case sitting in the car.  I’d given the whole thing a generous sprinkling of salt and doused it in malt vinegar.  The batter surrounding the cod was crisp and golden, the fish soft and moist and the chips fluffy on the inside and crisp on the outside.  Perfect!

Anyone reading this blog who thinks that my kind of food is only-high end and expensive should think again.  There is nothing better on this side of heaven than really good fish & chips.  Maybe I should open a fish and chip shop in Italy?