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And then I'll kiss your salty lips
Yesterday evening I was sitting on the sea-front at Ramsgate, eating fish and chips. They were pretty good fish and chips, actually. However, the menu bewildered me...
The "sundries" section. Right there. Curry sauce? Fair enough. Mushy peas? Well, I'd rather not but I hear some people like that kind of thing. Pea fritter? You what? I mean, I understand the concept, but since when has that been a thing that you get in a chippy? Pickled onion, fine. Pickled egg, ditto (whatever![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dmh tells you). Pickled... wally?
I'm also faintly alarmed that the curry sauce isn't vegetarian. What's it got in it? I'd have assumed the basic list of flour, water, oil, curry powder and radioactive waste (with local variations to taste).
Oh, and a roll and butter? Not bloody likely. I'm in a chip shop. The sort where you sit down at a formica-topped table and drink tea that dissolves the enamel off your teeth. If I want bread and butter with my meal, I want sliced bread, pre-buttered for me (or possibly even pre-marged) and cut diagonally. I'm not saying that's better, I'm saying that that's what happens in chip shops. This roll nonsense is just messing with the natural order of things[*].
When I first moved to Oxford, I was horrified to discover that the Carfax Chippy - an otherwise decent emporium - didn't serve scraps. And indeed were completely confused when I ordered them (initially as to what it was I wanted, and latterly as to why I wanted such things). Scraps are the drips of batter which have fallen off the fish - basically little blobs of deep-fried batter. No, of course they didn't serve them. They threw them away when they cleared the oil out. They also didn't serve baby's heads.
So, what are your expectations of a good chip shop? Do you expect pea fritters? Would you order a pickled wally? Am I the only person south of Scotch Corner who likes scraps? What can't you get where you now live, that was a stand-by where you grew up?
As a side note, my parents (if not paying proper attention) will inadvertently order "a fish and six". This is, apparently, a fish with 6d-worth of chips. Whether they get a sensible answer depends largely on the age of the person serving. Is anyone else familiar with this?
(A wally, for those who want to know, is a gherkin. I asked on the way out.)
[*] Chip butties are an exception. I'm talking about the bread served with your fish and chips in a sit-down eatery. But even for a chip butty I don't want a roll, I want a flat, soft bread bun or bap. Which may have been what they meant. See also: bread, confusing regional terminology for.
The "sundries" section. Right there. Curry sauce? Fair enough. Mushy peas? Well, I'd rather not but I hear some people like that kind of thing. Pea fritter? You what? I mean, I understand the concept, but since when has that been a thing that you get in a chippy? Pickled onion, fine. Pickled egg, ditto (whatever
dmh tells you). Pickled... wally?I'm also faintly alarmed that the curry sauce isn't vegetarian. What's it got in it? I'd have assumed the basic list of flour, water, oil, curry powder and radioactive waste (with local variations to taste).
Oh, and a roll and butter? Not bloody likely. I'm in a chip shop. The sort where you sit down at a formica-topped table and drink tea that dissolves the enamel off your teeth. If I want bread and butter with my meal, I want sliced bread, pre-buttered for me (or possibly even pre-marged) and cut diagonally. I'm not saying that's better, I'm saying that that's what happens in chip shops. This roll nonsense is just messing with the natural order of things[*].
When I first moved to Oxford, I was horrified to discover that the Carfax Chippy - an otherwise decent emporium - didn't serve scraps. And indeed were completely confused when I ordered them (initially as to what it was I wanted, and latterly as to why I wanted such things). Scraps are the drips of batter which have fallen off the fish - basically little blobs of deep-fried batter. No, of course they didn't serve them. They threw them away when they cleared the oil out. They also didn't serve baby's heads.
So, what are your expectations of a good chip shop? Do you expect pea fritters? Would you order a pickled wally? Am I the only person south of Scotch Corner who likes scraps? What can't you get where you now live, that was a stand-by where you grew up?
As a side note, my parents (if not paying proper attention) will inadvertently order "a fish and six". This is, apparently, a fish with 6d-worth of chips. Whether they get a sensible answer depends largely on the age of the person serving. Is anyone else familiar with this?
(A wally, for those who want to know, is a gherkin. I asked on the way out.)
[*] Chip butties are an exception. I'm talking about the bread served with your fish and chips in a sit-down eatery. But even for a chip butty I don't want a roll, I want a flat, soft bread bun or bap. Which may have been what they meant. See also: bread, confusing regional terminology for.
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Worse, I'm pretty sure I've been told in the past and can't remember :) I think it's something to do with proteins, and whatever it is is present in cow-milk but not other-milk. So she eats goats cheese or buffalo mozarella, etc, but not any cow-dairy. To make it mildly more complicated, her husband is also dairy-intolerant but in a different way.
I know her favourite brand: for preference they both drink "fresh" Alpro soya milk in tea/coffee. Which is fine, I can get that in if I know they're coming. Of late, I've had a few "we're in the area, can we pop in" calls when the UHT stuff has had to come out the cupboard. My big local Tesco and Sainsburys (and small local health food shop) don't stock small-size cartons of any brand - I've been looking. Unless you buy strawberry or chocolate flavour, which I think would definitely make tea and coffee unpalatable. Or at least a bit weird. However, if these small cartons do definitely exist I shall continue seeking.
Sometimes (especially if arriving on low notice) they import their own milk, but I'd like to be slightly better provided Just In Case.
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Alpro discontinued theirs last time I checked, but other brands still exist.
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I'm pretty sure that's normal to forget. Or at least typical.
Hardly anyone remembers that I'm DF, not lactose free. And if they know someone who is lactose free, you can bet your bottom dollar they'll forget what part I can't eat!
Fresh Alpro is surprisingly nice. Especially compared to UHT stuff. Probably worth a go freezing it.
I think it's something to do with proteins, and whatever it is is present in cow-milk but not other-milk.
She's (relatively) lucky then.
When my allergist figured out the dairy issue, I asked about other animal milk, and got told the proteins were sufficiently similar to still cause issues for most people* (though t'interwebs does say that some people can, just as some people can manage heat treated dairy products if it's only the heat-denaturable proteins that they can't have).
*I couldn't tell you what "people" actually means in that context. People with atopy? People that have been having a bad response to dairy? Adults going to see an allergist? All people who have an immune response to dairy protein**
**AIUI, that group would mostly be infants.