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Fish and chips (introduced to the UK by Jewish immigrants in the 1800s) (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/wikipedia@lemmy.world
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[–] -3 points 1 week ago* (16 children)

I've never been in the UK and this dish is confusing to me on so many levels, and the article doesn't really help me. How are the chips an essential part of the dish? What's special about the fish? Is it just that it's battered? If the fish is special, shouldn't we just say that chips are the traditional accompaniment, but there's nothing special about the chips?

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  • [–] 26 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    It's fish and chips, of course the chips are essential, without them it's just fish.

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  • [–] 9 points 6 days ago (7 children)

    Peanut butter and jelly

    Spaghetti and meatballs

    Get it?

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago

    No way, that's not at all the same thing. You don't serve a glob of peanut butter next to the sandwich and the meatballs go into the pasta.

    The equivalent is burgers and fries. Bacon and eggs. Soup and crackers.

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  • [–] -2 points 6 days ago (4 children)

    Almost. It still feels weird somehow.

    Peanut and jelly, I would consider that too simple to be a dish, but it's an emblematic pairing. Maybe if "fish and chips" were presented as an emblematic pairing rather than a dish, that would make sense. I mean, do you consider "hamburger and fries" to be a dish? Or is the hamburger, the dish? I certainly think of the hamburger as being a dish (or rather a template with many variations), and the fries to be the traditional accompaniment.

    Meatballs are a prepared ingredient. One that you normally put on spaghetti.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 6 days ago (3 children)

    A dish is merely an emblematic grouping of ingredients which we give a name

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  • [–] 0 points 6 days ago* (2 children)

    I don't consider chana masala, fagioli all'uccelletto, shepherd's pie, tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean or crepes to be merely groupings of ingredients which we give a name. They all have a varying set of ingredients with a set of steps, and it gives a final result that's better (or at least different) than putting each of those ingredients next to each other.

    That's my main issue with considering "fish and chips" as a dish. Unless I'm missing something, it sounds like you're just putting battered fish next to chips, and they're not interacting or integrated in any way.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 6 days ago (1 child)

    They go together really well, and a piece of fried fried cod or pollock feels lonely without some chips to sop up the excess fishy flavor. The oily flavor of the fish is spread further by the crispy absorbent starch of the chips. They are almost always paired together in the UK and elsewhere because they are very complementary. Beans and toast are similarly popular in the UK as a dish, but haven't been adopted more broadly. You're entitled to your somewhat esoteric and clearly strong opinion. Please contribute to the respective wiki entries for "fish" and "chips" with these points and see how they are received.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 6 days ago (1 child)

    If I had just the fish, I would miss the chips. And apparently chips were popular in the UK before the fish, which came later. So really the chips are more than just an accompaniment. The fish, meanwhile is special because people like it.

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