Fish, chips, and mushy peas

It’s Friday, which here in the UK means fish for lunch and/or dinner (unless you’re vegetarian / vegan / don’t like fish / just don’t fancy it today). There are of course many delicious and healthy ways to enjoy fish, but for the average British person the very best way is dipped in batter and deep-fried, served with deep-fried potatoes: the much adored national dish which is fish and chips.

And that’s exactly what I had for lunch, with mushy peas. (If you don’t know what this is, it’s a special type of pea that is larger and more floury than your typical garden pea, cooked until soft and then roughly mashed. Or you can just buy them in a tin, which most people do and was probably the case with the ones on my plate.)

The batter on the fish was CRONCHY: at first tentative stab with a fork it shattered, sending fragments of deep-fried deliciousness across the tabletop. Once those had been chased down and tidied up, I ate the fish and… hmm. Good batter, but the ratio of fish to batter wasn’t quite right: in fact the fish was pretty much indiscernable. I couldn’t begin to tell you what kind of fish it was. 🤷‍♂️

The chips were also nice and crunchy, just as I like them. (Some people actively like soggy chips. I am not one of those people.) No condiments were offered, so the packets of salt, ketchup, etc which were laughed at by the staff member who did an inventory of my belongings when I arrived yesterday proved their worth. The mushy peas were probably from a tin, as noted above, but that’s fine because I love tinned mushy peas.

As I crunched away at my lunch (and oh, how I missed eating crunchy things while in hospital, where nearly everything was served soft to be easy to eat) I noticed a slick of oil oozing its way from the battered fish across my plate. The fish tasted (or mouth-feeled) oily, too: I’m not sure if it was cooked at too low a temperature, or not dried / drained sufficiently after cooking, but something definitely wasn’t quite right. Not not quite right enough to stop me eating it all, though, obviously!

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One thing that has been in noticeably short supply here in the rehab unit is anything resembling fruit or vegetables; yesterday the only fruit I could get was that sadly unwell-looking banana, and no veg at all. So when the nurse on duty brought me my morning meds I made a desperate plea for something fresh. It was noted as a “special requirement” (which is worrying in many ways) and, a few hours later, I received a delivery:

So ‘pudding’ today was a fresh pear (underripe so it was crunchy and dry rather than soft and juicy, but it was sweet and I enjoyed it anyway), then an apple because it just looked so tempting lying there beside me. Maybe because I haven’t eaten a lot of fresh fruit recently, or maybe on its own merits, it was the single best thing I’ve eaten since getting to the rehab unit. I don’t think I like what that says about the catering here, but at least I have five more apples just like it to fill any gaps.

Scores:

• Fish and chips: 7/10 – nice and crunchy, but rather oily and lacking in the fish department
• Mushy peas: 10/10 – there’s a reason very few people cook their own when the tinned variety is this good.
• Pear: 6/10 – I know my own impatience is at fault here and they’ll be better when ripe
• Apple: 10/10 – absolutely perfect, the platonic ideal of what an apple should be
• Overall: 8.25/10