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Welsh Chippie (Fish & Chip Shop) Is Best In Britain – Again!

By Ken Thorne, Food Editor, Ninnau.

Welsh seafood is riding the top of the wave again this year! Announced January 2004, the Welsh chippie Finnegan’s Fish Bar, Bridgend, South Wales took top honors for 2003/4 making it the second time a Welsh chippie won in three years! Allports Fish & Chips Restaurant, Pwllheli, North Wales was the 2001/2 winner. Of course, “chips” are the Brit equivalent of French fries.

Finnegan’s Fish Bar

The wildly successful chippie, started from scratch by Welsh born husband and wife team, Huw and Sara Jones adopted a curiously Irish name. Apparently, it’s a name they saw while vacationing in Ireland – they just become hooked on it!

            The Joneses are famous for their “batterless fish.” Not only is it now culinary fashionable to minimize the batter, but it tastes wonderful and there is just enough batter to hold the fish together during the frying process. The secret formula for the batter allows them, by a deft use of thumb and finger to remove most of the batter from the fish before frying. Fresh from the fryer, a delicious crispy thin crust covers delicately cooked, moist tender fish – yummy!

            One staff member said, “Huw believes in buying the best quality and freshest ingredients available.  It may cost the customer a few pence more but they know they are getting the best fish & chips available and it’s still very reasonable. We offer a very broad selection of fish, such as, haddock, tuna, scampies, cod, plaice and hake. Cod is our best seller with haddock next. We also sell pies, sausages and chicken curry.”

            The staff member continued, “Before winning, we have always had good business but now serve about 3000 customers a week. People are calling from seventy miles away. Our customer care does not finish with the cooking; our presentation is first class also. We use a nice corrugated box with a greaseproof liner to hold the meal, add a slice of lemon, wet wipe and a plastic fork. We also give you all the malt vinegar, ketchup or mustard you want.  The box is covered with a lid so the food stays warm for the customer.”

            Americans are fascinated with the image of fish and chips wrapped in newspaper! Sold for the first time, fried fish and shaved potatoes, wrapped in newsprint appeared in the alleys of London in the 1850s. So, it is possible at that time, that headlines and stories may have been imprinted on the fish and chips along with a little lead from the ink! There is one reference to the use of greaseproof paper in 1931 in Wolverhampton , England but it could have been in use earlier. My remembrances from the early 1950s are of a greaseproof bag or sheet, then a white paper liner being used to separate the fish and chips from the newspaper. Today, the meals are commonly wrapped in multilayers of white liner paper – except at Finnegan’s and Allports (polystyrene box)!

            In an interview with Tryst Williams of the Wales ’ Western Mail newspaper Huw Jones, 42, said, “Fish and chips offer good value for the money and I defy anybody not to be full (sic. and satisfied) after a fish and chips meal.” Tryst says Huw’s motto is the real pithy, “We do not serve fast food, we serve food as fast as we can.”

            Perhaps what really may be the tallest fish tale of all, is the remark by customer Mike Doyle, “I have been using them for about eighteen months and the fish are so fresh they’re eating the chips!”

According to a report in Ananova Journal, the judges of annual fish and chip competition, which is in its sixteenth year, were ecstatic about Finnegan’s saying, “The couple won because of their commitment to innovation and quality.” At Finnegan’s London appearance, their winning theme was their swimmingly successful and calorie conscious “batterless fish.”  

            Allports Fish & Chips Restaurant

John and Sarah Allport crested out in 2001/2 by winning with their Pwllheli, Gywnedd shop. A location that had only been open a year!

In a very modest one-room office, he shares with his administrative assistant I talked to John about his business. He said, “After careful planning we opened our first shop in 1988 in Porthmadog and after another diligent planning period took over an old run down café in Pwllheli during 1999, renovated it and opened in July 2000.” Leaning forward in his chair with body language exhibiting barely concealed pride, John says, “Just a year later the new shop won the all British championship.”

Each shop is given an equal number of customer nominating ballots; a high percentage must be returned to the organizers for even a chance at the first round of competition. Using secret inspectors, the organizers determine regional winners for invitation to the London finals. Surprisingly, no cooking actually occurs at the finals since meal prep parity pretty much exists between the competitors at this point. The finals focus on who has the best marketing strategy of the year.

John said, “2001 was an Elvis Presley anniversary so we used an Elvis theme that year to promote our shops, our customers loved it and money just danced into our tills all year! Smiling, he said, “The London judges also loved it! Our Porthmadog shop had won the regional finals as the All Welsh Champion several times but never prevailed in London .” To continue using the championship title, all winners must meet certain standards and are also subject to future secret inspections. 

Both winning businesses emphasize the freshness and quality of all their ingredients including cooking oils. For example, Allports fish, frozen at sea immediately upon catch is hand filleted in their shop for best quality.

John Allport continued, “Our most popular meal is cod and chips. Customers also love our hake and chips. We offer several other fish selections including cod roe, haddock, plaice, shrimp and tuna.” The Pwllheli shop has both carryout and an air-conditioned restaurant in the same building. Both offer the same menu, which is very extensive. Asked about other popular items, John said, “Chicken and chips is our second best seller; we sell Southern Fried style as well as half chickens. Our chicken, cooked in a oil pressure cooker called a ‘Flash Boy®’ is delicious!” ‘Flash Boy®’ is equivalent to a ‘Broaster®’ in the US , its main user now being KFC!  John’s other menu items are burgers, curry, pies, pizza and sausages. The ubiquitous but delicious mushy peas are available with everything!

Allports’, because of its two busy locations they goes through a two-step chip cooking process. At a central location, they blanch their chips in moderately hot oil until color is about to appear, then the chips are then refrigerated. Shipped to the shops, the chips are cooked to golden brown. The Allports chip is crispy on the outside, moist and tender on the inside and would be reminiscent of a thicker version of our French fries. However, most chippies continue to cook their chips using the single frying method producing the traditional, soft chip.

I swear that Howard Evans’ Grandma Bevan from Skewen, South Wales invented the twice-cooked chip in the 1950s. Howard, who was my best friend in Neath Grammar School, and I liked going to the local dance halls in Neath and Swansea . Inevitably, we would miss the last bus and walk several miles home. Ma Bevan, knowing we would be dying hungry would partially cook the chips ahead of time. On our arrival, she reheated them quickly; serving them with a delicious steak and kidney pie or crispy busted-open Welsh pork sausages and a free-range fried egg. The chips, piping hot, golden brown, glistening, would soft crunch in your mouth. Perfectly moist on the inside, the chips were truly a taste out of this world! Thank you Ma Bevan – may God rest your soul.

Chippies must be in the Thorne genes. I remember my first fish and chips meal just after World War II. Emerging from the dark, starving rationed days of the war, chippie food was marvelous! After I had left for the States, my cousins, Len and Nancy Thorne bought the Ritz chippie in Skewen next to the cinema and ran it for a period in the seventies. Retired after a successful career as an insurance manager, Len, with wife Nancy now live in Caerphilly. They have never lost the old chippie touch and it still shows in everything that they cook, particularly home cooked fish and chips.

There are 8500 chippies in the UK serving about 280 million meals a year resulting in $1.7 billion in revenues. Fish and chips is the UK ’s most popular takeaway meal, out pacing Indian food two to one. Some people are fanatical about their fish and chips. There is a true story of a London couple, when they have a yearning, are chauffeured to Brighton in their Rolls Royce for fish and chips. Top class, they enjoy their fish and chips with champagne in the back of their car including iced goblets, their white linened fold-out table laid with silver flatware!

I enjoyed writing this article, doing research but best of all, the eating and tasting of very fine Welsh fish and chips. Listen up Allports and Finnegan’s, I will return and soon I hope!

            Finnegan’s Fish Bar is located in the Broadlands Shopping Centre, Bridgend, South Wales . Local phone if you are visiting from America is 011 44 1656 647 648.

            Allports Fish and Chips have two locations in Gywnedd: Y Maes, Pwllheli.  011 44 1758 612 641 and Snowdon Street , Porthmadog 011 44 1766 512 589. Very nice website: www.AllportsFishandChips.co.uk.

When next in Wales , treat yourself to Fish and Chips. If you are nearby one these winners, stop, introduce yourself and enjoy a great meal!

Mwynhewch Eich Pysgodyn a Sglodion– Enjoy Your Fish and Chips!

Visit: www.WelshFoodie.com website for color pictures.

Contact Ken Thorne: Email - WelshFoodie@aol.com or 440 255-2214

Copyright © 2004 Ken Thorne

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Recipe

Ruth Chris’ French Fries

(Similar in Style to Allports’ Chips)

Ingredients:

Idaho or Welsh (Pembroke) Chip Potatoes                                     as needed

Hot Oil                                                                                               as needed

Ketchup/Vinegar                                                                               as needed

Method:

            Cut potatoes in sticks approximately, 3/8 inch by 3/8 inch by 3 inches.

Deep fry in 250°F/120°C oil until lightly brown, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove and drain. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Allow to cool, refrigerate or freeze until required.

For service, deep fry the partially cooked potatoes in 350°F/180°C oil until golden brown in color and done. Add ketchup/vinegar to taste.

Source: Ruth Chris’ Steak House French Fries from “On Cooking” by S. R. Labensky and A. H. Hause, Prentice Hall, 1995.

Adapted by Ken Thorne, Ninnau Food Editor.

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