Growing up in England, the chippies I went to all served fish and chips wrapped in the same paper that is used for newspapers, just not printed with anything (with a small square of greaseproof paper inside). Some places still do that, although most seem to have switched to cardboard boxes, which I don’t like nearly as much, as I love the way the paper steamed the chips and made them go a bit soggy.
Indeed. Back in the '90s, when I worked at the Ren Faire, I’d often order fish and chips from one of the food booths for lunch. They wrapped the food up in that exact wrapper – which was not, in fact, newsprint paper, much less being an actual newspaper.
Seconded. And not just fish 'n chips places.
You’re talking about nearly every single fast food restaurant in the US…but I agree.
I was in San Francisco in the summer of 1969, and we used to go to a fish n chips place on Geary and Larkin run by British ex-pats. They used real newspaper.
Also, the best f & c I’ve ever had.
Best I’ve had was in Iceland at Keflavik NAS.
About every other month the USO people would go down to the docks at four or five AM and buy about 500 pounds of cod off of a cod boat that was just coming in. Since it was from the top of the hold it was the latest fish caught. Returning to base they’d fillet the fish then start selling them around noon, battering and frying them as the orders came in, until they ran out sometime around two.
The chips were fresh cut and a bit smaller than American steak fries and of course, malt vinegar was available. Any fish and chips I’ve had stateside has not been as good.
Yes, I agree. A proper chippy wouldn’t be caught dead (well, you know what I mean) using that corny fake newspaper stuff. At least, not in my opinion!
Same publisher as the Daily Growl.
For your information, The Daily Growl is the only newspaper that’s not afraid to say how great this country is." Reddit - The heart of the internet
Many large chains don’t. In-n-Out, Five Guys, Chic-fil-A, Wingstop. Not that you’re wrong, Just a shout out.
It used to be one of the minor frustrations of a night out that you could get your chips wrapped in a scandal sheet you’d never admit to actually buying, and start reading about some errant vicar and his organist, only to find that the juicy bits were “contd. p 7”
Freezing pre-fried french fry sticks is a purposeful part of the cooking process, not just some lazy shortcut. They are vastly better than trying to fry freshly cut potatoes (IMHO). Freezing lowers moisture content and the ice crystals break down cells, the combo leading to crispier outside and fluffier insides.
My son uses peach tree butcher paper(it’s a faded red color) when he fries fish or does a crawdad boil.
He used to use unprinted news paper with layers of my saved newspapers underneath.
The peach tree is 10 times as absorbant. Like using brown kraft paper, but food safe.
I can see why the newspaper wrap was outlawed. It kinda didn’t work very well.
Really, the only thing that recommended it is that it was free.
When Arthur Treacher’s opened in America in the 1960s, they served their f&c in hygienic fresh cardboard cones, with the inside blank and the outside printed with a fac-simile of the Times of London from eighteen-ninety-something.
I mean, short of slapping it in their hand or a shoe I guess it was a great success story in food service.
Oh, look it’s outlawed.
Still better than Red Lobster. RL serves their F&C on a piece of paper so thin that it starts disintegrating the moment the grease from the food touches it.