The great chip shop gravy divide.

[Gattopardo]

Gravy up north, my arse!  All you buggers can afford is a bag of scraps with a spoonfull of pea-wet on it   

(pea-wet, for the uninitiated is the liquid from mushy peas)

is that the same as Liquor as served with pie and mash in the East End? (I stuck to kebabs and Chinese take away when I lived there)

Its only flour, water and parsley.

Pie and mash is tops

Londoners have you chaps tried Olleys in Herne Hill?  Allegedly top 5 chippy in the country.

In total there are around 2000 top 5 chippys in the country

Hence alleged.

[Gattopardo]

Well, an google images search for cake.  This comes up with

cake


bread roll 

notice the difference.

[Martin]

Also where does the phrase "one of each" die out. In Yorkshire it means one portion of fish and chips (so you might order four of each for a family of four and so on).

As soon as you leave Yorkshire, I'm afraid....

I'm reliably informed that the correct term for a portion of fish and chips in Aberystwyth is (excuse my bad attempt at NoW)

"Woonse"

whilst we're on the NSD; at what point Northwards do people feel the need to pull beer through a shower head?

[Really Ancien]

whilst we're on the NSD; at what point Northwards do people feel the need to pull beer through a shower head?

I'm deeply conflicted on this issue, brought up in Lancashire, went to University in Kent, lived in Herne Bay, I find the idea of Shepherd Neame as a 'guest beer' pulled through a 'sparkler' as it is called, a distressing experience, Northern beers have gelatine added to enable them to sustain a head, it simply doesn't work with Southern beers, they're just different, I like both, but they have to be pulled appropriately.

Damon.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Gelatine in beer?!   

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Lynx, I think you ought to read this site The Great Teacake Debate Forum - Teacake Facts and if you still can't understand that having "cake" in the name of "teacake" doesn't mean it has to be what you think of when you think of cake, then I think you need to stay away from the internet.

[clarion]

Stottie Cakes!

I left the sainted Stottie Cake off my list because it is something different and special.

A chip stottie in Newcastle is a sheer delight!

OT on stotties:  When I worked at Newcastle Playhouse or the Theatre Royal Newcastle, I'd pop out at lunchtime (if I got a break), and buy a stottie and either hummus, cottage cheese, or a vegetarian pate.  I'd sit in one of the very many green spaces, or on the roof of the building, and create a big butty, which I'd eat as the world went by.  Great.

[Really Ancien]

Gelatine in beer?!   

Isinglas finings, a form of gelatine extracted from fish bladders is used to clear most British cask beers. I was also lead to understand that it was gelatine which made beers like Boddingtons have a tight head which stuck to the glass. An Internet search reveals nothing. There is something different about Northern Beers, perhaps it is the very soft water.

Damon.

[pcolbeck]

Beer has a head on it all the way from the Midlands to the north of Scotland so it's the flat southern beer that's in the minority

[Andrew Br]

Lynx, I think you ought to read this site The Great Teacake Debate Forum - Teacake Facts and if you still can't understand that having "cake" in the name of "teacake" doesn't mean it has to be what you think of when you think of cake, then I think you need to stay away from the internet.

 

[RJ]

Did marrie antoniette say let them eat cake?  She said it cos they had no bread.  It is not cake.  I am an authority on cake, apart from desicated coconut as its the work of the devil.

She (is supposed to have) said:  <Oxford Dictionary of Quotations> Qu'ils mangent de la brioche </quote>

Follow the link ...

[Gattopardo]

Gelatine in beer?!   

Isinglas finings, a form of gelatine extacted from fish bladders is used to clear most British cask beers. I was also lead to understand that it was gelatine which made beers like Boddingtons have a tight head which stuck to the glass. An Internet search reveals nothing. There is something different about Northern Beers, perhaps it is the very soft water.

Damon.

They use that stuff at the fullers brewery.

Great tour and free beer at the end.

[Gattopardo]

Did marrie antoniette say let them eat cake?  She said it cos they had no bread.  It is not cake.  I am an authority on cake, apart from desicated coconut as its the work of the devil.

She (is supposed to have) said:  <Oxford Dictionary of Quotations> Qu'ils mangent de la brioche </quote>

Follow the link ...

qui qui mon ami. Je conaise sa.

(do you have a good brioche recipe)

[HTFB]

Teacake? It's not a roll, it's a bleedin' bun innit.

Sainsbury's and Tesco both sell hock Ross buns year-round, at a substantial mark-up over the teacake price, to people who haven't worked this out.

[Gattopardo]

Lynx, I think you ought to read this site The Great Teacake Debate Forum - Teacake Facts and if you still can't understand that having "cake" in the name of "teacake" doesn't mean it has to be what you think of when you think of cake, then I think you need to stay away from the internet.

It the english thing to confuse foriegners isn't it.  Up there with silent letters.

Shall we have a chip shop recommendation?

[Really Ancien]

I think we probably need to examine the Muffin in detail, I'll open with the Oven Bottom Muffin,
oven bottom muffin, bakers, family, independent, Sheldon, Lancashire

Damon.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I'd have to know you a lot better before I let you examine my muffin.

[Gattopardo]

I think we probably need to examine the Muffin in detail, I'll open with the Oven Bottom Muffin,
oven bottom muffin, bakers, family, independent, Sheldon, Lancashire

Damon.

Bottom muffins are available in Tescos.

[microphonie]

Right: back home in Rotherham we have:

Breadcakes
Fish & chips once/twice etc
Gravy
Curry Sauce
Mushy peas
Scallop=battered & fried potato/fish/potato 'sandwiched' together
Fish cake=fish in breadcrumbs

Now, where do crumpets diverge from being called pikelets?

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Now, when did crumpets diverge from being called pikelets?

About 1875.

[pcolbeck]

Right: back home in Rotherham we have:
Scallop=battered & fried potato/fish/potato 'sandwiched' together

A rare and delicious thing. You sued to be able to get these in and around York but I haven't seen one for years.

[Really Ancien]

Now, where do crumpets diverge from being called pikelets?

We have both, a crumpet is about an inch thick, a pikelet about a third of an inch. Leyland is the Northern limit of the Staffordshire Oatcake.

Oatcake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Damon.

[clarion]

Now, where do crumpets diverge from being called pikelets?

*goes to fetch well-worn soapbox*

Is it a pike?  Is it a fish or a long weapon?  No.  Not even a small one.

It is a pie-clate, whatever them soft southern illiterate know-nowt jessies who run the stupidmarkets want you to believe.

Pie-clate.  And love your heritage!

*chest swells with Yorkshire pride - the best sort*

[Really Ancien]

I just remembered that the dish of Meat Pies, Chips and Gravy in a tray with a fork, only came into being in the mid 1970s with the introduction of polystyrene trays capable of containing the gravy and providing a stable support for the newly created little blue plastic fork to dismember the Hollands Meat Pie. Before then gravy had to be carried away in a little carton and the meal eaten at home. Initially the tray and the fork each cost extra. The tray also meant you could eat the steak and kidney pudding  stood up or in a van or brew cabin. Gravy then is probably associated with areas of high female employment as it formed part of a meal bought at the chippy and consumed at home. Perhaps in other areas chip shops catered for passing trade and workers who would eat their meal without plates or cutlery.

Damon.

[peterh]

I just remembered that the dish of Meat Pies, Chips and Gravy in a tray with a fork, only came into being in the mid 1970s with the introduction of polystyrene trays capable of containing the gravy and providing a stable support for the newly created little blue plastic fork to dismember the Hollands Meat Pie. Before then gravy had to be carried away in a little carton and the meal eaten at home. Initially the tray and the fork each cost extra. The tray also meant you could eat the steak and kidney pudding  stood up or in a van or brew cabin. Gravy then is probably associated with areas of high female employment as it formed part of a meal bought at the chippy and consumed at home. Perhaps in other areas chip shops catered for passing trade and workers who would eat their meal without plates or cutlery.

Damon.

Ah, Hollands pies I've fond memories from a Lancashire childhood of 'meat pie and chips in a tray with gravy' - eaten standing outside the chip shop, of course!

Anyone here a fan of Peter Kay?  I saw him a couple of years ago and remember a sketch about the difference between northern and southern chippies and the general lack of gravy etc in the latter - leading to the wonderful line 'have you got owt moist?'

From much earlier, I remember being sent to the local baker to get hot pies straight from the oven for dinner (aka lunch ) with a tupperware cup to bring the gravy back in.