Tuesday 29 March 2011

Days #8: The one with the fish and chips!

For the last week, our mission has been to find London's BEST fish and chips! When we got up this morning we decided our day would be dedicated to laundry and fish. Let us tell you...both easier said than done :) Laundry started like this: separate piles into color categories and place a pile in the wash. Laundry continued like this: break each pile into three sub-piles because our original piles were too big to fit in the washer that is located next to our refrigerator. Laundry commenced like this: wash each sub-pile three times each because we couldn't figure out how to dry the clothes and every time we tried, the wash would start again and the door would lock. And so the cycle continued - no pun intended!

The laundry was enough to completely stress us out so we decided to just 'put the detergent down!' and place our efforts into a more worthwhile task...fish! Since arriving last week, we have been surveying the fish and chip variety that the brits are so famous for. Here are the categories we have noticed:
1. Sign outside of local pub that says, "Best fish and chips in all of England!" and the people eating there are American, Canadian, or in some sad cases, the restaurant is vacant. Little red flag going up here...if it's the best in all of England, where are the british people?
2. Pub on the corner has no sign at all and you are thinking this is a good. Dark and dirty pub full of locals probably = great fish and chips! WRONG! They bring out a plate with mashed peas and a perfect little square that looks like a Friday's brand mozzarella stick that you would buy in the frozen food section of Von's! We aren't dissing the fried cheese, but we certainly don't want to mistake our fish for it!
3. You walk into the Tesco Express (cross between Trader Joe's, Von's, and a gas station convenience store) and pick out a box that says, 'Fried cod, microwave for 30 seconds on high.'

We needed to locate the fish and chips to write home about. So we turned to our friend, the computer, and googled "the best fish and chips in London." Believe it or not, number three on the list from urbanspoon.com was located a mere mile away from our front door. With a smile on our faces we set off down to road to Master Super Fish (true story!)

Let us set the stage: We walk into a shoe box and find 50 british people crammed in little tables covered in plastic linoleum table clothes. There is a table full of men, each weighing 450 pounds plus, and on the walls are dollar bills from all over the world...WINNER, WINNER, FRIED FISH DINNER! And they did not let us down. For 8 pounds each we feasted on complementary prawn cocktail (including eyes and legs - HA!), fish that was shaped like fish and deep fried in the most incredible melt-in-your-mouth batter, and chips that were not served in a Ruffle's potato chip bag. Rest assured, when you come to visit, you too will be visiting the Master Super Fish.

Laundry lesson learned: Each wash/dry cycle can take over three and a half hours if you do it properly. If you do it our way, a t-shirt and 3 pairs of under-roo's (is that british or australian?) can take over 9 hours.

Lesson Learned: Wear scrubby clothes to the Super Fish. You leave the place smelling like fish and grease and, as stated above, you will not be washing your clothes anytime soon!

1 comment:

  1. No LJS for our fish enthusiasts! Was dinner severed on the newspaper?...Is this a 3 pint course?...when in doubt Google or Bing!...Hand wash your clohtes and get you some rope for drying, sounds like the plan!

    ReplyDelete