Chippy Tea?

Growing up in Yorkshire, Friday was generally "chippy tea" night.

We were lucky to have some decent chippies in the village where I grew up. My parents' house was at one stage about 2 minutes walk from the XL Chippy which was decent and did scallop fish cakes - which any northerner will tell you is NOT a fishcake. 

I checked on Street View and it's now a seafood restaurant upstairs.

Image: Alan Parkinson

I've got a reasonable collection of food-related books that reference the cultural importance of fish and chips as part of our identity, but also a meal that we owe to migrants: Portuguese and Jewish amongst others, as well as the arrival of the potato from South America and the risks taken by fishing boats in the waters around Iceland or even further north.

It's worth exploring the story of Fish and Chips.

I've produced a resource on this topic, which I've shared previously elsewhere.

It needed a little update for the 2026 situation.... and I've now completed that.

Fish and Chips - Have They Had Their Chips - 2026 by Alan Parkinson

There's an associated sheet here.

   

Fish and Chips by Alan Parkinson

A new resource which includes more details on the enquiry around this topic will be released in a few months' time as well.

Fish and Chips - ONS report

We explored the rising cost of take-away food in previous lessons towards the end of the year as part of our food topic. This has now been the subject of a report from the Office for National Statistics, picked up by the BBC News page.

Fish and chips and migration

 

My wife went to Margate last weekend and got me this postcard from Turner Contemporary, as she knew I'd been working on a resource based around Fish and Chips. She was there to see Nile Rodgers and Chic do a gig at Dreamland.

The postcard features an instantly recognisable drawing by the illustrator Olivier Kugler.

It shows the global spread of Fish and Chips.

It relates to a commission for some art to be placed in 2021.

The background:

The commission shares everyday stories of migration connected to Kent’s most celebrated high street food.

For the ‘Kent Fish & Chips’ Project Kugler and Humphreys have interviewed owners, staff and customers at Fish & Chips shops across Kent. Migration and displacement are central themes.

Fish & chips can be traced back to Huguenot and Jewish arrivals in the UK and people from all over the world continue to be central to the farming and fishing industries and the high street shops.

Featured Fish & Chip shop owners are:

Beach Buoys, Margate: Nadine and Simon Morriss
Best Fish & Chips, Tankerton, Whitstable: Elvan Bodur
Ossie’s Fish & Chips, Canterbury: Ramazan Altun
Reliance Fish Restaurant, Gravesend: Jack Kamenou
Walmer Fish & Chips: Giancarlo and Carolina

The artwork was exhibited on Turner Contemporary’s terrace (16th June- 26th September 2021) as the central part of the Kent Fish & Chips Project.

You can see the various artworks on this website here.

I've captured these while I can to think about doing something similar with my own school in the new academic year around our work on food, I can see this would have some cross-curricular interest.

Fish and Chips and Gary Lineker... and refugees

Used in the lesson this week - remembered it from when it was first created... the importance of refugees in what many consider to be our national dish...

New Fish and Chips resource

I've developed this activity for Year 7, as part of our unit on food geographies called 'Food for Thought'.

It's shared here without commentary or additional resources, which we've developed to help steer the lesson.

It explores the rising price of food by focussing on one meal - a classic of UK food culture. It connects with conflict, climate change, globalisation and so much more.

Card Sequencing Activity Sheet for an exploration of why Fish and Chip prices are going up so much.

Read the cards and classify / sequence / group them.

Card Sequencing Follow up Sheet - to help answer the question...

Fish and Chips - card sequencing summary from GeoBlogs

Had their chips?

We have been covering some of the reasons for the current food inflation which is causing real concerns for many of the poorest in society, as food prices are rising well above the rate of what is already a high rate of inflation...

In a recent issue of the Guardian there was a piece on the growing price rises facing consumers and business owners, and the impact of potato prices in particular (on this occasion).

Fish and Chips.... not so British

Thanks to Follow the Things for the tipoff to this site and initiative. It was National Fish and Chips Day on Friday... I celebrated by having them twice...

And a slightly longer version of the same story:

The Story of Fish and Chips

Food and Geography combined...