Thursday, March 10, 2011

Eating out the old way

In our recent wanderings we noted that although our southern region of the city has an enormous number of casual eating places, the old traditional fish and chip shops were getting hard to find.
So having seen that the Port Noarlunga fish and chip shop seemed to always have a lot of people going in and out, we decided to give it a try. An attempt to do it on Australia day had to be abandoned because the shop was so full of people waiting for their serve, it was nearly impossible to fit anyone else in.
Oh boy, fish is expensive these days, but having got over the shock of that I set about ordering what would have been fairly standard fare a couple of decades ago. Three large pieces of Butterfish and the minimum chips. Drinks caused the price to soar dramatically and the owner remarked that bottle and canned drinks were in his opinion, far too expensive.
Having received our bundle, wrapped in traditional newspaper style we headed for a nearby reserve to explore the content. There is something that is downright yummy about old style fish and chips. You know when eating it that the food is greasy but it adds to the enjoyment once you suppress all ideas of how unhealthy it probably is. As it was a rare event for us, my wife and I immediately forgave each other and got stuck in. Oh those chips. Really yummy and none of those frozen potato horrors one gets in some places. These had the full taste one expects and although far from crisp, they were certainly tasty.
The fish might have been expensive, but the size of each piece was good. The batter used was crispy, full of flavour and enhanced the taste of the very fleshy Butterfish.
A traditional Aussie meal that my wife and I no longer eat as often as when we were young, but delightful all the same.
Of course we also had to allow for that other Aussie tradition so we ate near the beach and threw some chips to the seagulls from time to time. We were happy, the seabirds were happy and if you want genuine old style fish and chips I can certainly recommend a visit to the old shop just east of the Noarlunga Jetty.

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