Scottish Soul Food

[Mike_Oettle]

Lachlan, those fish suppers are just like the fish and chips I get at my local chippie (owned by an Indian).
Haddock and cod are not on the menu, but hake is the standard fish. It’s convenient to eat, as it’s boneless, but it doesn’t have the flavour of my favourite, which is snoek.
I had to check on Google what snoek’s other names are. Its scientific name is Thyrsites atun, and in Australian and New Zealand waters, where the same species occurs, it is called barracouta. It is also caught in South American waters.
Quite often my wife decides that lunch on Friday will be fish and chips. She leaves me money to buy my own, and (because the shop owner is Muslim) I have to time my visit to avoid the Friday noon prayers.
Often I eat the stuff hot in the car. Dee-licious.
I eat it without salt and vinegar – my daughter once fetched an order for me and had it salted and vinegared, and it was not as nice.
The batter is beautifully crisp – but of course if the fish is left too long, the crispiness goes, and it is limp, even when re-heated.
Regards,
Mike

[Bugbear]

Thanks, Lachlan09. That's a funny red pudding story.

[Lachlan09]

Ach, awa ye daft Jambo! ;c) All us Jambos are crazees !

Dundee is only "Din-day" to people from someplace else, presumably Embro. To Dundonians of any heritage, it will always be "Dunnn-deeeeee". Sorry, my bad, it’s being a Mussaburry lad ! Never met a Dundonian, apart from DUFC !

You could purchase both by asking for "Twa bridies; a plehn ane an' an ingin' ane anaa'" (Two bridies; a plain one and an onion one also") How could I forget bridies ?!

rb

Alas and alack, as if this feast isn’t enough, the “if you can eat it, fry it” approach has made inroads into the chippie menu in recent years ! The infamous battered-deep fried Mars Bar is the biggest example, a joke which became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Another monstrosity is the deep-fried pizza, admittedly made from a highly forgettable frozen pizza, rather than my beloved traditional Italian pizza.

[macbheatha]

Another monstrosity is the deep-fried pizza, admittedly made from a highly forgettable frozen pizza, rather than my beloved traditional Italian pizza.

Agreed... I've also seen pies deep fried with a slit in the bottom edge of the pastry to let the grease drain out! <shudder!>

Wallace's also did a bean pie which was a meat pie with baked beans inside and another with beans and artfully-piped mashed potatoes on the top. Not really something for the chippie but certainly a meal in itself.

I don't recall you mentioning tattie fritters! Far better than a poke o' chips on a cauld winter's night...

Best regards!

rb

[Bugbear]

I suggest putting a "Scotch Bonnet" pepper in your haggis with a squirt of lime, Lachlan09.

[starbkjrus]

snip...

Another monstrosity is the deep-fried pizza, admittedly made from a highly forgettable frozen pizza, rather than my beloved traditional Italian pizza.

I grew up in the Southeastern United States -not very far away from the Scottish Tartans Museum- and have seen just about everything you can think of deep fried but DEEP FRIED PIZZA ?!

<shudder>

[Old Hippie]

DEEP FRIED PIZZA ?!

In a strange and unsettling case of parallel evolution, I watched a friend of mine invent such a thing with a kind of pathetic pride. Punctured of course when I directed him to the Internet. Shoulda let him enjoy it a little longer.

Anyway, it all started when he was faced with a classic Man Dilemma(tm): how to produce a hot meal when he was neither familiar with the kitchen equipment nor with the use of most ingredients, and the primary Food Maker was away on holiday. He managed to get the beer open, and reasoned that since pizza goes with beer, he should get a frozen pizza out of the icebox and cook it.

Deciphering the directions while moving his lips was my first clue that "Houston, we have a problem." Too many knobs to turn on the oven. He suggested the microwave. I explained about soggy pizza. He muttered and suggested cutting it into squares and putting them into the toaster. Beer came out my nose, I was laughing so hard.

"It has to be BAKED," I said. He rolled his eyes around the kitchen, on the verge of blind panic. Then he seized on the George Foreman grill, opened it up, folded the pizza in half, and slammed the lid on it. Voila! Re-invention of the calzone. Not too bad.

Flushed with success, he (some weeks later) moved on to a classic Man Cooking Experience(tm): Cooking with fire. Specifically, deep-frying a whole turkey. My wife says that men will cook if danger is involved. But first, we needed a snack. Out the door he comes with a frozen pizza in his hand, a "Hold my beer and watch this!" look on his phiz and 20 litres of boiling peanut oil on the burner in front of him. His wife immediately threatened divorce. They negotiated. She made some fairly stiff batter and slathered it all over the folded pizza to hold the ingredients in during the cooking process. Et voila. The re-invention of deep-fried pizza.

Perhaps one of these days I'll explain that boiling is really "deep-water frying" and we'll see what he does with that inspiration.

[Bugbear]

Na, you've got to put the pizza on a stick to be a "real man."

[auld argonian]

I would so love to find out how the experts rate the menu items at The Duke of Perth here in Chicago.*

http://dukeofperth.com/food.htm

I'd also like to say that I recently got my cholesterol tested and I basically have very little of the bad stuff and a reasonable amount of the good stuff. I credit this to my Trans-Northern European heritage. As my daughter says, "I can't understand it...you eat all the crap that people aren't supposed to eat and you STILL have no cholesterol!"

Best

AA

*Full disclosure...no, I do not have any financial interest in the Duke but I do have a bar stool that is formally considered "mine" now...and...the chef at the Duke is of Mexican-American extraction...how's that for the genuine article?

[Tony]

A thread on Scottish soul food with nary a mention of Mince n tatties or Stovies is an abomination.

Having said that, and drooling at the mince pie, man I'm hungry now.

as for deep fried pizza....if ye huvnae tried it, dinnae knock it