Yeah, the only reason for going to LJS was that the breading and fat was more addictive even than a burger. They were the platonic opposite of healthy food. You’d have to go to a midwestern state fair and buy deep-fried sticks of butter to do worse. There’s one Arthur Treachers in town and the one recent review on Yelp reads “The worst fish and chips ever. The fish is just frozen pre-battered unknown fish species.”
I’m not saying I don’t miss them. But if I want to give myself a heart attack I live a half-mile away from Captain Jim’s, the best fish and chips place I’ve ever been to. Why would I go elsewhere?
They did start offering some healthier grilled options. But yeah, when I think of Long John Silver’s, I think of fried food that does not leave me feeling like I just ate something healthy.
If that’s the case, then it took them a while to die, because I remember them in my childhood, and I wasn’t born until 1977.
And deep-fried food doesn’t have to be high fat, if you do it right. The oil is supposed to stay in the fryer. But a lot of deep-fried fast food seems to take a perverse pride in how greasy it is.
I’ll have to disagree with you there. McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish is my favourite fast-food fish sandwich.
No. I know people do it, but it just seems ‘wrong’. It would be like putting cheese in a chorizo burrito.
American cheese (American Pasteurized Process Cheese) is perfect for several sandwiches. APPC (e.g., Kraft Deli Deluxe)is real cheese, just mixed and emulsified, as opposed to Pasteurized process cheese food (e.g., Kraft Singles), which only has (at least) 51% cheese.
Mix some tarragon into the mayo. (We don’t have an air fryer, so I use the oven.)
HA!
When I make fish & chips, I like to use haddock. Unfortunately, haddock is impossible to find around here so I just use cod.
Yes, I don’t remember him myself, but my husband does. There was an Arthur Treacher’s a few miles from us which closed last year, and several times when we were driving by it, my husband would say that he remembered him from TV.
And to answer the OP, it seems that some people are becoming afraid of real food that shows that it came from an animal–witness the popularity of “boneless wings”. And they’re afraid of fish that tastes “fishy”. I don’t understand it myself since I love fish, but there’s no explanation for tastes.
“Fishy” doesn’t refer to the flavor of fresh fish. Fish ages a lot more poorly than mammal meat, and when people refer to “fishy flavor”, they mean the flavor of fish that’s starting to go bad.
Fish chains were never that popular in Canada, although larger cities have Red Lobster, considered fairly upscale. There are plenty of decent chippies and some very small, local chains. Prices have gone up substantially, but I enjoy a good fish meal.
I’ve seen Tugboat locations around town. I’m actually partial to Captain (far as I know, they’re not part of a chain), close to my apartment. LJS gets pretty heavy-handed with the salt (or the seasoning mix they use on grilled items, to the point that one cannot taste fish), Captain doesn’t.
There’s a LJS/KFC on the way home from work. I should probably stop there and see what the fish side is like these days. There are times when only deep fried fish and sides will do.
Here in Columbus OH, the birthplace of Arthur Treacher’s (and Wendy’s), we still have one. They changed the name but nothing else. Still has the original grease traps. The sign boards are the same, there are pictures of the restaurant and notes on its history by the registers.
I live a couple miles from a stand alone LJS. According to their website, there are 55 locations in Indiana, 64 in Ohio and #1 Texas with 85.
On the South Side of Chicago, into NWI, there are several Fish and Chicken chains. Sharks, J & J (the J’s are hooks in the logo), Captain Hook, Captain B, and many other independent take out places.
Slightly off-topic, I had the new White Castle Panko breaded fish sandwich recently. It was awful, the breading is just that, it tastes like bread and had very little crispiness, so it was a fish filet wrapped in slightly fried bread between two pieces of bread. I want that textural contrast of bread, crisp breading and soft fish, and maybe that piece of gooey “not cheese”. I may give it one more try.
Red Lobster falls into the “casual dining” restaurant segment (sit-down service, waitstaff, usually with alcoholic drinks available), making it at least a bit different from the chains like Long John Silver’s, which are probably more akin to the local/mom-and-pop chippy shops – though that’s a term that’s not widely used in the U.S., I don’t think, and there probably aren’t many of those here, either, other than probably in coastal cities with fishing/seafood traditions.
One thing about being up here, everyone serves fish & chips. There are three restaurants down the beach from here. They all have fish & chips, and they’re all $19 for cod. One place has halibut & chips for $23, and another has salmon & chips for $22. In Blaine (about four miles away) the Mexican restaurant we go to has fish & chips ($15). Probably other places to too, but we just go to the Mexican place, the Thai place, or the pizza place. By the freeway, Bob’s Burgers & Brew has fish & chips Seasonally, there’s a fish & chips truck up at the marina. There’s really no need for fish & chips chains here.