{"id":22752,"date":"2017-11-05T01:00:18","date_gmt":"2017-11-05T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=22752"},"modified":"2017-10-30T20:54:24","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T06:54:24","slug":"the-perfection-of-fish-and-chips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=22752","title":{"rendered":"The Perfection of Fish and Chips"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the British may have originated the dish, they did not perfect it.<\/p>\n

\"Ono<\/a>
A perfect portion of ono fish and chips at Quinn’s, Kailua-Kona<\/figcaption><\/figure>Before you go and tell me I have never experienced true British fish and chip, realize I lived for three years in England, with fish & chips available everywhere.<\/p>\n

I tried little shops in fishing ports and beach-side resort towns, I had fish and chips in pubs and from London street vendors. I went out of my way for the proper dish, one of my favorites since I was very young.<\/p>\n

My regular stop was an itinerant truck that set up each week on a roadside pullout just north of the air base I was assigned to. Buying his fish each morning in King’s Lynn, each day he set up in a regular spot. Thursday’s were my fish and chips day, when I would stop on the way home for a newspaper wrapped portion.<\/p>\n

North sea cod was the usual, but I tried sole and whatever else he had. The grease soaked through the newspaper and the whole car would smell of goodness on the drive home.<\/p>\n

While British fish and chips is good, there is better. The world has taken this quintessential British dish and improved upon it immensely.<\/p>\n

The first issue? The classic English choice of cod is not the best option for the fish to be found under that batter. The world’s oceans offer better fare.<\/p>\n

\"Ono<\/a>
Ono fish and chips at Lava-Lava Beach Club, Waikoloa<\/figcaption><\/figure>Here in Hawaii the choice for fish and chips is ono, offering a lightly flavored, white meat that is much less oily than cod. Called wahoo<\/a> by much of the world, the Hawaiian word ono is synonymous for “good to eat” so desirable is the flavor.<\/p>\n

Along the Pacific coast the even better choice is Pacific halibut. Again the fish is a lightly flavored white meat with very little oil. Both halibut and ono provide the perfect base for exquisite fish and chips.<\/p>\n

The batter is also critical. While some prefer a simple flour and water batter, my preference is for a beer batter, the carbonation and flavor of the beer creating a flakier, lighter batter. Of course the choice of oil is also critical.<\/p>\n

The final issue I need to raise is the insistence of malt vinegar as the proper splash on top of the fish. With the heavy flavor of cod I might understand this addition. For better fish, you need a lightly flavored sauce that adds to the dish, not to cover up a heavy fishy flavor. Creative tartar sauces, aioli, tzatziki, and similar sauces are a better choice.<\/p>\n

After writing this I am really going to have to find a good portion of fish and chips to deal with my watering mouth. Fortunately I have several choices to choose from nearby… I will have the ono please!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the British may have originated the dish, they did not perfect it. Before you go and tell me I have never experienced true British fish and chip, realize I lived for three years in England, with fish & chips available everywhere. I tried little shops in fishing ports and beach-side resort towns, I had … Continue reading “The Perfection of Fish and Chips”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[1464,2502,132,796],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22752"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22863,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22752\/revisions\/22863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}