And yet, I understand, fish and chips was invented in your neck of the woods. Here's a excerpt from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or "Wikipedia", as it's known today:
The tradition in the UK of fish battered and fried in oil came from Western Sephardic Jewish immigrants from Holland.[4][2][5][6] Originating in Spain and Portugal and settling in England as early as the 16th century, they would have prepared fried fish in a manner similar to pescado frito, which is coated in flour then fried in oil.[6] Fish fried for Shabbat for dinner on Friday evenings could be eaten cold the following afternoon for shalosh seudot, palatable this way as liquid vegetable oil was used rather than a hard fat, such as butter.[6][7] Charles Dickens mentions "fried fish warehouses" in Oliver Twist (1838),[2] and in 1845 Alexis Soyer in his first edition of A Shilling Cookery for the People, gives a recipe for "Fried fish, Jewish fashion", which is dipped in a batter mix of flour and water before frying.[8]
Fish and chips, served in a paper wrapper (greaseproof paper inner and ordinary paper outer), as a "takeaway"
The exact location of the first fish and chip shop is unclear. The earliest known shops were opened in the 1860s, in London by Joseph Malin[9] and in Mossley, near Oldham, Lancashire, by John Lees.[10][11] However, fried fish, as well as chips, had existed independently for at least fifty years prior to this, so the possibility that they had been combined at an earlier time cannot be ruled out.[12]
""A hard fat such as butter" my pink, fluffy R-se. ... such as lard would be nearer the mark!
