The chippy

The chippy is another way of saying "fish and chip shop".  Otherwise know as the "chipper".  What exactly is it?  The chipper is the place people go to to get what used to be the favourite "takeway" meal in Britain - fish and chips -  and, of course, Scotland.  Fish and chips have been taken over recently by curries and Chinese takeaways...Here we have a nice little article telling us all about the chipper's history and what it sells....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_and_chips.  And down below we have a picture of a typical chipper which doesn't only sell fish and chips but, apparently, in Scotland other delicacies like deep fried Mars Bars!

We used to have fish and chips every Friday at home and it is very popular with late night revellers i.e. people coming out of the pub and feeling a bit peckish.  When we were living in Glasgow, my grandad used to bring us our fish and chip supper in with a carton of Italian icecream as a special treat.

Of course, you can go a bit more up-market and eat this in restaurants all over Britain.  And you can even cover your fish and chips with tomato ketchup, brown sauce, or if you are a bit more upmarket tartare sauce...  Fish and chips used to be served in a poke i.e. a paper bag which was covered in newspaper - perhaps to stop you getting covered in grease - and before you left the chippy you used to douse your fish and chips with salt and vinegar.  Another favourite of mine was a "white pudding supper" which you can see above. The secret of all of this is really the batter i.e. what you dip the fish in before deep frying it but I will tell you about that another time.