We all know Fish & Chips.
The dish instantly associated with the United Kingdom, and not without a reason. Fish & Chips shops are everywhere here and they are immensely popular. Young and old. Rich and poor. Pundits and amateurs. Apparently everybody likes to have the good old fast food, allegedly brought here by Jewish communities.
Of course, when a dish is this popular there have to be some rivalry regarding the best Fish & Chips in the country. I don’t know of any fish-and-chips animosities, but I know that there is a one little town in the North famous for having the best Fish & Chips in the whole of Great Britain. Even Jeremy Clarkson from the original BBC car show “Top Gear” shares this opinion.
I’ve heard about this place quite often when I lived in York. Each time there was a hotter day both locals and tourists alike would flock to the Coastliner buses and head across the Yorkshire Moors right to the Seaside.
To the famous town of Whitby*
Which on its own is a really beautiful place, with dramatic cliffs, impressive ruins of a medieval abbey and quirky architecture. But people want to have a Fish and Chips first here. The most popular place serving the legendary dish is Magpie, with its very characteristic black and white sign board. It is easy to find because of the huge queues in front of its main entrance. Many people believe that this is a place to go when you look for the deep fried wonders of British soil. But I thought it was far too costly and we decided to find a better place.
Lead by the simple rule-of-thumb that we always use when traveling, we looked for another place with long queues. It was surprising that even though Whitby can be quite crowded, there wasn’t any such establishment except of the Magpie that had any queues outside of it. But then, in one of the backstreets we found people standing in line in front of a little, blue-painted building. At last we found it!
We quickly joined the line and soon entered Siggy’s Fish & Chips. At first we were shocked but then we absolutely loved the place. It didn’t look too touristy, in fact it was very genuine and looked more like a place for the citizens of Whitby rather than for passers by. There was a strong smell of malt vinegar and fried oil in the air, long counter with an exhibition of freshly fried haddock and cod, scampi and squids. What was startling was that all the takeaway dishes were wrapped in a grey paper. We shocked the waiter when we said that we want 3 cods and no vinegar on chips, also some chips without salt. He was baffled as literally everybody in line before us poured a generous amount of vinegar on their chips. I tried it once and absolutely hated it, so in this matter I would not recommend following Brits. But there are some things you should definitely follow them when it comes to eating Fish and Chips. Especially the northerners know how to do it properly.
To enjoy it’s most Northern taste order it with mushy peas and gravy, the best if both things are on chips. I know it might seem a bit weird to do it, especially when you’re used to mayonnaise or ketchup with your chips, but in my opinion it is well worth giving it a try. And when it comes to fish this one is huge! Gigantic! Enormous! It really is big, it’s easy to eat and really greasy. Exactly like Fish & Chips should be. They are all beer battered and freshly fried. So they might be quite hot.
You can easily feed two people with one portion and the ones offered at Siggy’s can be even ￡5 cheaper when compared to the Magpie place! That’s why we absolutely loved it.
In fact, we liked it this much that we were eager to come back three years later. The place had a bit of a refurbishment, but it kept the same colours outside. It looked totally different inside, with a slightly more friendly interior, some marine themes on the walls and new tables. It was way more pleasant know. However, I was glad to notice they still wrap takeaways in grey paper and there was the same smell in the air as previously.
This time we decided to have haddock and cod, and I took a curry sauce also. It was a nice spicy addition to rather neutral tastes of gravy and mushy peas. The fish was huge again, fried golden, and exactly as tasty as earlier!
And this is a change I like to see: maybe some different looks, but the same quality inside!
That’s why when you want to have some of the best Fish & Chips in the UK go to the famous Whitby and pay a visit to Siggy’s place. You won’t regret it.
Some extra information:
I would totally recommend taking ‘children’ portions of smaller cod and chips, which is still really big, but it costs slightly less.
You can try also some famous ‘pickled eggs’ at Siggy’s place. I did not have the guts to do it. It is somehow disgusting to me, I don’t know why though…
*I will try to right a bit more about Whitby soon, so stay tuned!
