Complex Numbers

Fish and Ships

Just some fun historical trivia today.

How Fish and Chips Migrated to Great Britain  
The fried fish was introduced by Jews fleeing religious persecution.

I could list a few dishes that became generally popular due to Jews fleeing religious persecution. The Irish-American penchant for corned beef and cabbage on St. Partick's Day, for starters.

The powerful pairing of fish and chips has long been considered a British staple. Dubbed “the undisputed national dish of Great Britain” by the National Federation of Fish Friers, it’s been enjoyed on the island for over a century, with an estimated 35,000 chip shops in business by 1935.

I made sure to eat plenty of fish&chips when I was in England, though I was unaware of its historical origins. The best I had was in this little town on the east coast called Whitby, where they go out and catch the fish in the morning so it's all ready for lunch.

From the 8th to the 12th century, Jews, Muslims, and Christians lived in relative peace in Portugal, known as Al-Andalus under Moorish rule.

I'm guessing that was the first and last time.

As religious violence worsened, many fled Portugal and resettled in England, bringing with them culinary treasures founded in Sephardic cuisine—including fish.

There were two main branches of European Judaism: the Ashkenazim in the east, and the Sephardim in the west. Culturally, they were quite different. It was mostly Ashkenazim who immigrated to the US, bringing with them such things as corned beef, bagels, and latkes.

The dish of white fish, typically cod or haddock, fried in a thin coat of flour, was a favorite particularly among Sephardic Jews, who fried it on Fridays to prepare for the Sabbath, as the Mosaic laws prohibited cooking.

Hence why it's called "FRY day."

That's a joke. Friday was named after a Norse god, like most of our days of the week.

But the Friday-night tradition was likely chipless until the late-19th century. The general popularity of the potato bloomed late in Europe, and it wasn’t until the late 1800s that the tuber was accepted, due especially to the promotional efforts of a French scientist.

And yet what we call French fries and the British called chips were, if my sources haven't failed me, a Belgian invention.

There are also competing theories about who created the pairing of, as Churchill called them, “good companions.” Most trace it back to the early 1860s, when Joseph Malins, a Jewish immigrant, opened up a fish and chips shop in London. Others point to John Lee, a man living outside of Manchester, who ran a “chipped potato” restaurant that sold the beloved pairing.

Because London and Manchester need another excuse for a rivalry.

British natives and immigrants alike began slathering their cod in batter and frying up husky chips. Industrialization in the 19th and early 20th centuries launched the fish dish to even greater heights, as it became a favorite for factory and mill workers in London and beyond.

One of the great things about food, besides being necessary for continued existence, is how different cultures adapt and expand on other cultures' cuisines. Some call this cultural appropriation. While that's not impossible, for the most part, I see it mostly as a beneficial thing. I've mentioned in here before that certain Italian cuisines, based off of pasta and tomatoes, couldn't exist without noodles from Asia and tomatoes from the Americas. The potato itself, of course, was a New World plant as well.

We live in a time when we can sample foods (and booze) from all over the world, and as far as I'm concerned, that's a wonderful thing.

What really matters with food is not where it came from, but how delicious it is. And it's hard to get more delicious than fish and chips.