From exclusive items to portion sizes, we wanted to find all the differences between fish and chips in the US and UK. This is "Food Wars."
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00We're comparing fish and chips in the U.S. and the U.K.
00:02This is Food Wars.
00:03We got our food today from the Golden Chippy in Greenwich.
00:06For me, it's a pretty classic British fish and chip shop.
00:08For the U.S., we're using
00:09a few different fish and chip sources.
00:12Most Americans are familiar
00:13with the pirate-themed fish chain Long John Silver's.
00:17This is where we got a majority of the food today.
00:19We also got a fish and chips order from a local restaurant.
00:22All of the food that we ordered today
00:23came from a salt and battery here in New York.
00:26They seemed like the most close
00:28to a traditional fish and chips from the U.K.,
00:31and it got the hairy stamp of approval.
00:33The most popular fish and chip fish in the U.K. is cod.
00:35Our chippy offered it in two sizes, regular and large.
00:39At a Long John Silver's,
00:40the main fish they serve there is Alaskan pollock,
00:43and it comes in a bunch of sizes,
00:45starting down here, a one-piece, just a piece.
00:49Then you get a two-piece as a meal,
00:50a three-piece as a meal, and a six-piece as a meal.
00:53Now, there's also 12-piece family meals
00:56and 16-piece family meals.
00:58Let's weigh the U.K. cod portions.
01:00Our regular cod was 270 grams, and our large was 352 grams.
01:04How many LJS pieces of fish would equal that?
01:08Let's find out.
01:09One was 73.
01:10This is close.
01:11I'm gonna get it without breaking a fish
01:12and it getting kind of gross in here.
01:13So, this Long John Silver's Alaskan pollock pieces
01:18is 364 grams.
01:21Five piece of LJS equals
01:25a little more than one of their large cod.
01:29I also wanted to measure them to check the length.
01:30So, our regular cod is 10 inches long,
01:32and our large cod is 12 inches, a foot long cod.
01:34U.K. chippies are famously generous
01:36with their chip portion sizes.
01:37No, I'm not gonna call them fries in this episode.
01:39Our local chippy offers them in two sizes,
01:42regular and large.
01:43Here in America, we call those fries,
01:45yet we still call this fish and chips.
01:47So, the chips that came with this order will weigh right now.
01:51So, our regular was 682 grams,
01:53and our large portion came to 927 grams,
01:56almost a kilogram of chips.
01:58148 grams.
01:59Puck that dick.
02:00I just want to point out that this whole meal,
02:02while I'm here, 305 grams.
02:04Hey, I'll even weigh the lemon you don't eat.
02:07No thanks, 317.
02:10We can't cover all of the regional delicacies
02:12that you'll find across the U.K.,
02:13but we've picked a chippy that we think covers the basics.
02:15It's a similar deal here in the U.S.,
02:17where fish and other seafood are consumed
02:19all over the country in a bunch of different forms.
02:22We'll be covering classic fried fish options
02:25and using Long John Silver's as a baseline,
02:27or bass line.
02:28Get it?
02:29We'll start with the fish itself.
02:30The range can vary every day,
02:31as it depends on what's available at the market.
02:33The best fish and chip shops
02:34will be getting their fish fresh every day,
02:36rather than keeping things frozen for too long.
02:38Cod is the U.K.'s most popular fish and chip shop fish.
02:40It accounts for around 64% of the fish
02:42that we consume at Chippy's.
02:43Haddock follows that with around 19% of the market share.
02:46So, right now, the fried fish at Long John Silver's menu
02:48is pollock and, in some locations, cod.
02:51Here's the pollock from Long John Silver's.
02:52Here's a cod from our local fish and chippery.
02:55Now, Long John Silver's fish option
02:56seems to vary year on year.
02:59Cod was a permanent menu item,
03:00then disappeared for a while,
03:01but now it seems to be back.
03:07Cod is fluffier.
03:08This is really dense.
03:09I could, like, if you could see the pollock,
03:12it's flaking like fishwood, right?
03:13Gonna arm myself properly
03:14with some classic British chip shop forks.
03:17I mean, cod is the classic.
03:20Haddock is strongly favored by the north of England
03:22and most of Scotland.
03:24Haddock is great.
03:25It's very flaky,
03:26got quite a nice light texture to it.
03:28I kind of want to do, like, a side-by-side with the cod
03:30because I sometimes struggle to tell the difference
03:32between those two, to be honest.
03:33The haddock is super light, super flaky,
03:36almost like melts in your mouth.
03:37I'd say maybe the haddock also has
03:38slightly more of a fishy flavor than the cod.
03:40So, I have the haddock and the cod in front of me.
03:43I'm gonna try to see if there's any sort of difference
03:45in the way that each tastes.
03:47This is the haddock and this is the cod.
03:49Okay, let's start with the haddock.
03:54I don't feel like the haddock has a very fishy taste
03:57or a strong taste at all,
03:59but let me take a little piece of the actual fish.
04:02Very, very, very slightly has, like, a fishy taste,
04:05but you can barely taste it in the batter.
04:07It's really good, though.
04:11I like that less.
04:12I thought these were gonna taste a lot more similar,
04:14but they actually taste pretty different.
04:16I really do not like the taste of cod, I guess.
04:19I know Harry said that the haddock tends to have
04:22a stronger, fishier taste, but I disagree.
04:25I feel like this is a much more tame and subtle fish flavor,
04:29and this is, like, really in-your-face fish, fish.
04:33It actually reminds me of frozen American fish sticks.
04:37We're also able to get rock today.
04:38I wouldn't say this is a super common one.
04:40Rock actually refers to a species of fish
04:42called the rock salmon, which is also known as dogfish.
04:44The fun thing about this one
04:45is that it's actually a species of shark.
04:48I do find that this one has a much more, like,
04:51meaty texture to it and quite a strong flavor.
04:53You might look at the rock portion here
04:55and think, oh, it's a lot smaller,
04:57but I do think it's just, like, a lot more dense and rich.
04:59Just admire this piece of place real quick.
05:01As you can probably tell by looking at it,
05:03place is a much flatter fish.
05:05One thing I do love about place
05:06is that given how much surface area there is,
05:08that's just all, like, an opportunity to crisp up.
05:10The meat itself stays, again, nice flaky.
05:14Strong flavor to it.
05:15Next up, we have the halibut.
05:16You can already see, just from tearing that apart,
05:18that this has a bit of a denser texture to it,
05:20not quite as flaky.
05:21And then finally, we have skates on the menu.
05:23We actually got this one grilled,
05:24which is an option that you can have
05:26with all of the fish on the menu at the Golden Chippy.
05:29I will say having grilled fish on the menu
05:30isn't super common at fish and chip shops across the UK.
05:33This might just be a nice little bougie London option.
05:35So here we have two other seafood options
05:37from the same fish and chip shop.
05:39We have sole and we have some battered shrimp.
05:41I have never seen shrimp battered with the tail on,
05:46and the tail is also completely battered.
05:49Can't you just, like, accidentally eat that, I guess?
05:52Like, if you didn't know?
05:53It's huge.
05:54These are big shrimp.
05:58Yeah, this is really good.
05:59I've never hated a shrimp dish.
06:01I have had sole before.
06:02I've had Dover sole,
06:03and it was cooked completely differently, not battered.
06:06But let's taste it.
06:07It smells way better than the cod.
06:09It's definitely a fishier taste than the haddock,
06:12but not as fishy as the cod was, in my opinion.
06:15I think this is actually really nice.
06:17I'm gonna use this as an opportunity
06:19to try malt vinegar on fish for the first time.
06:22I've only ever had it, like, on oysters.
06:24This is really good.
06:25I really like it.
06:26Then we have what I'll call miscellaneous seafood options.
06:29Cod goujons.
06:30Goujon is basically a fancy French word
06:31for a nugget or a tender.
06:33I feel like goujon-ifying something
06:36is a good way to get kids to eat it.
06:37Scampi is actually an Italian word
06:39that refers to the tail of pretty much any kind of prawn.
06:42In the UK, however, it pretty much only refers
06:44to the tail of a longustine.
06:45A longustine is actually closer to a lobster than a prawn,
06:48with a long tail and claws.
06:50Despite the biological differences,
06:51in the UK, a lot of people do still use
06:53the terms interchangeably.
06:54A chain like Long John Silver's
06:55does offer a lot of varieties of shrimp,
06:58so all those varieties could be considered an exclusive.
07:00The Long John Silver's in Los Angeles
07:02does not, unfortunately, have those shrimp options.
07:05The only one we could get is the battered shrimp.
07:09In the US, size is one general indicator.
07:12Shrimp is the more common term,
07:13but prawns are sometimes used to describe larger varieties.
07:16Here, our shrimps are big-ish,
07:18and we also got shrimp tacos from a spot across the street.
07:23Here is one of our peeled scampi.
07:26I mean, these are pretty big-sized.
07:27No one's like, is this a prawn?
07:29So, yeah, I'd say probably more
07:30on the longustine-prawn side.
07:32Definitely not a shrimp.
07:34You know what?
07:35After tasting it, that actually does have
07:36a much more lobster-y taste than a prawn-y taste to me,
07:39so they actually might be doing it by the book,
07:41at the Golden Chippy.
07:42I'm not impressed by big shrimp.
07:44They're meant to be small.
07:45We use the word shrimp to describe something small.
07:48Shrimps should be small.
07:51Put it on a billboard.
07:52Next up, we have cod roe.
07:53If you see cod roe on the menu at a British chip shop,
07:55what you're actually getting is kind of like a pressed,
07:58almost like pate version of fish eggs.
08:03It's actually not as bad as I thought it was gonna be.
08:05The texture's not brilliant, but it's also not terrible.
08:07It kind of just almost reminds me
08:09of the texture of like tuna or something, like raw tuna.
08:12And then here we have a fish cake.
08:13Generally speaking, it refers
08:15to a mixture of potato and fish.
08:18Yeah, this one in particular just kind of feels
08:20like a more grown-up fish finger, which I like.
08:23Moving away from the fish,
08:24there are lots of other staples on a British chip shop menu
08:27that might blow the minds of the average American.
08:29We'll start with some sausage options.
08:30Here we have a jumbo sausage.
08:33It is one of those kind of like very nostalgic
08:35chip shop greasy spoon sausages that they all seem to have.
08:38Here we have a battered sausage.
08:39It's literally one of those dipped in batter and fried.
08:41I love these.
08:43These were actually usually my go-to order
08:44when I was a kid and we would get fish and chips.
08:48And then this alarmingly red sausage on the end
08:50is a savoloi.
08:51Savoloi is a British classic.
08:53Traditionally, they were made with pig brains,
08:56although nowadays I think that has been foregone
08:58in favor of just regular ground pork.
09:00It's a heavily spiced sausage with a distinctive red casing.
09:03It gets this from being boiled in water,
09:05which has food coloring added to it.
09:07One thing I do love about these is the thickness
09:08of the casing and the kind of snap that you get.
09:11These have always kind of fascinated me
09:14because it's somewhere between
09:15like a standard British sausage,
09:17but also with kind of like hotdog elements to it.
09:19Yeah, I remember that sausage.
09:21It tasted weird.
09:22It tastes like a sausage that's wrong.
09:24It tasted like somebody guessed
09:26what a sausage was supposed to taste like.
09:27I was able to get a battered sausage
09:30and that's what it looks like.
09:33That's actually really good.
09:35I definitely understand now why Joe is always saying
09:38that UK sausages taste different.
09:41They do, but it's got a really nice crunch
09:43from the little casing and it tastes really,
09:47really good with this batter.
09:48I think the sausage brings a much needed saltiness
09:51to the batter.
09:52So Harry likes to compare this to an American corn dog.
09:57I just don't see it.
09:58I mean, I guess I kind of see it a little bit
10:00because it's a type of sausage inside of a batter,
10:04but that's literally where the comparison ends for me.
10:07The batter is completely different to corn dog batter
10:11and the sausage inside is not a hot dog.
10:13So it's just, it's a totally different taste.
10:15They're cousins.
10:16I'll give you that.
10:17Katya, please put a picture of a corn dog like right here
10:21and then tell Harry that he's crazy.
10:23Pies are on pretty much every British fish
10:25and chip shop menu.
10:26Here we have a steak and kidney pie and a Cornish pasty.
10:29Steak and kidney in terms of pie filling
10:31is about as British as it gets.
10:34I feel like often I will just lean for a full steak pie
10:37rather than a steak and kidney,
10:38but that's actually really good.
10:39You're not really getting full pieces of kidney,
10:41which is often what puts me off
10:42because the texture is a bit weird.
10:43We have sandwich options at UK Chippies as well.
10:45Firstly, we have a quarter pound of cheeseburger.
10:47Obviously this isn't what most people
10:48would go to a chip shop to get.
10:50We also have a chicken burger.
10:51I have a real soft spot in my heart
10:52for like a bad chicken burger.
10:54The patty in this one is kind of like a big chicken nugget.
10:56And then we also have a cod burger.
10:57This one of the three looks by far the best.
11:00The shop we went to today also sells chicken.
11:02I wouldn't say this is common across the UK.
11:04I think it might just be more of a London thing,
11:06but we were able to get some Southern fried chicken,
11:08a quarter roast chicken, and chicken nuggets.
11:10On the sides, here's a few sides
11:12you can get at Long John Silver's.
11:13And also we've got American chips stroke fries.
11:17Starting down here, LJS has green beans, corn,
11:22slaw, you know what it is, right?
11:24You can also get rice and cheese bites
11:26from various Long John Silver's locations.
11:29This right here, I've maybe mentioned this a few times
11:31on Food Wars or Food Tours episodes, our hush puppies.
11:34A donut hole is the best way I could describe it,
11:36even though it's not.
11:38It's a piece of dough that's deep fried.
11:39Let's take a look inside this guy, right?
11:41This is deep fried breaded ball.
11:44It's more savory than sweet.
11:47You have a bit of an onion and garlic flavor to them.
11:49Usually dipped them in a sauce.
11:51These are good when you're eating really greasy fish
11:54and even greasy fries, because they're dry.
11:56So they really like sop up that grease.
11:58These are fantastic.
11:59I could eat this whole tray.
12:00The fries you're gonna get at a US fish and chip spot
12:02or a Long John Silver's are going to vary.
12:05These are the ones we got today.
12:07Crinkle cut.
12:07I've been to the fish and chip spots in London
12:10and it felt like the fries, excuse me, chips,
12:13they were thicker, denser, and not super crispy.
12:18I think you guys like to just dump all your malt vinegar
12:20and stuff on the fish and the chips.
12:22Totally get it.
12:23I'm certain there are places in America
12:25that do more of the thicker steak cut fries
12:30with the fish and chips, more traditional.
12:32I just think when you're dealing with Americans in America,
12:34when they think of chips or fries,
12:36they're just thinking of French fries, a majority of them.
12:38So this is probably what you're gonna get
12:40at most fish and chip places.
12:42British chip shop chips, or chippy chips,
12:44as they're affectionately known, are fantastic.
12:46They're very distinct from the average chip
12:48or French fry that you might find elsewhere.
12:49You get potatoes, you peel them, you slice them thickly,
12:52which is very important.
12:54They're usually soaked in water
12:55to remove some of the starch.
12:56They're usually blanched in oil at quite a low temperature
12:58before being given a proper second cook
13:00at a higher temperature.
13:01The result really is quite unique.
13:03You get a thick cut chip, which when it's hot,
13:05can be a bit crisp on the outside,
13:06but because of how thick they are,
13:07you still retain a lot of that kind of soft,
13:09chewy, potatoey goodness in the middle.
13:11Not everywhere, but sometimes they are cooked
13:13in the same oil as the fish as well.
13:15So you get all these flavors kind of mingling together.
13:17And it really does produce
13:18just a very unique chip experience.
13:20I'm gonna try the traditional chips
13:22with some salt and vinegar.
13:25I actually think the vinegar tastes better
13:27on the battered fish than it does the chips,
13:29but that's just a preference thing, I think.
13:32I don't feel like it meshes really well with it,
13:35it just feels like I'm eating a wet fry.
13:37We can't talk about British chip shop sides
13:39without talking about mushy peas.
13:41These ones are, I would say,
13:42pretty representative of a UK mushy pea in general.
13:45They have this quite, almost alarming green color to them.
13:48And there's just something about them
13:49that pairs really well with chip shop chips and fish.
13:53I'd say that's very much like a don't knock it
13:54till you've tried it food,
13:56where it might look a bit intimidating or a bit weird
13:58until you try it, then you try it,
13:59and you're like, oh, I get it now.
14:01That's not terrible.
14:02It's definitely got something extra in there.
14:04It's not just mashed peas,
14:05but I'm gonna dip one of the chips into the mushy peas.
14:09Harry said I had to try it this way.
14:11Bottoms up.
14:13That's actually really good together.
14:15I like that combo.
14:16The chip shop we went to today
14:17offers baked beans as a side.
14:19Maybe not one you'll find everywhere across the UK.
14:23These are just as yummy as I remember.
14:24I just feel like the portion is so big.
14:27I can't even imagine eating this big of a bean portion,
14:31but the sauce is so good.
14:33A pretty common thing to find on a UK chip shop menu
14:35is just a bread roll.
14:36The type of bread that you get varies.
14:38This is kind of more like a crusty bread roll,
14:40but I've definitely seen kind of softer,
14:42more bap style on the menu as well.
14:44This one comes buttered.
14:45The main reason why they offer bread rolls
14:46at fish and chip shops
14:47is so you can craft your own chip butty at home.
14:50I had no idea what a chip butty was,
14:53and never could I ever imagined
14:55it was just two pieces of bread with chips inside of it.
14:59I don't get this one.
15:01I'm gonna need Harry to explain this one to me.
15:04Chip butty, for those who do not know,
15:06is an iconic British dish where you take a bread roll,
15:09you take chips, you put it in the bread roll,
15:12Bob's your uncle, you have a chip butty.
15:13You can optionally add other things.
15:15You can add some mushy peas in there.
15:16Might wanna vinegar that.
15:17You might wanna maybe put some fish in there as well.
15:20Create a sandwich, but in its simplest form,
15:22that is a chip butty right there.
15:23That's butty, B-U-T-T-Y,
15:26which is a regional word for a bread roll.
15:28That is another one that can change all over the UK,
15:30depending on where you are.
15:32You might hear the word balm.
15:33You might hear bap.
15:34This just looks like it would be
15:35the driest, starchiest bite in the world,
15:38so we're gonna skip that one.
15:40Almost all fish and chip shops in the UK
15:42will have a range of pickles on offer.
15:43I would say we have the big three right here.
15:46We have a pickled onion, a pickled egg,
15:48and of course, a pickled gherkin.
15:49These are understandably a bit divisive.
15:51I feel like pickle things in general,
15:53you either love or you hate.
15:54I don't eat these things a lot, I'm gonna be honest.
15:57I think the main thing about it
15:58that does put me off is the texture,
16:00but the flavors are really good.
16:01I've definitely had pickled red onion before,
16:04but never a whole pickled baby onion.
16:08I don't even know what kind of onion this is.
16:10I've never had this.
16:15It's not like a far jump from a red pickled onion,
16:18but I also would never eat just like,
16:21I'm not popping a whole onion into my mouth.
16:23This is a little, it's too much.
16:25Pickled egg.
16:28I was about to praise them,
16:29and then I just got a whack of it in the back of my throat.
16:30It's not my favorite thing to pickle.
16:32So inside, it's just kind of like a hard-boiled egg,
16:34but obviously with a lot of that
16:35vinegary flavor on the outside.
16:36I think the egg is it's so over,
16:39and the gherkin is we're so back,
16:41because who doesn't love a nice pickled gherkin?
16:43A pickle we can all get behind.
16:46All of America, maybe they would like these kind of beans,
16:51since beans are already part of barbecue culture,
16:53so this wouldn't be a huge jump.
16:55But the mushy peas, the chip buddy, that's confusing.
16:59Then we're on to what I like to call
17:00the we have a fryer section of the menu.
17:02In this category today, we have a vegetable spring roll.
17:05We also have onion rings, and also garlicky mushrooms.
17:08I do like a garlic mushroom.
17:10Now it's time for sauce talk.
17:12Sauce talk.
17:14Here's a wide variety of sauces we can get
17:16at Long John Silver's and other fish and chip spots.
17:19Malt vinegar, let's go.
17:20Yeah.
17:21That's fine.
17:22Curry sauce is found pretty much all over the UK,
17:24and it's a personal favorite of mine.
17:25They add a lot of thickeners to the mixture,
17:28because they always have such a gloopiness.
17:30They're quite glossy.
17:31It just pairs really well with chips.
17:32There's like a sweetness to it.
17:33It's well-spiced.
17:34Some places, like the place we got
17:35the cod fish and chips from,
17:37will provide their own sauce, their own signature sauce.
17:41Some places, they'll just be generous with something
17:43that may be their own recipe, because I'm telling you,
17:45the fish and chip game is as follows.
17:48Have the best tartar sauce possible.
17:51We'll forgive how the fries are.
17:52We'll forgive how the chips are.
17:54If the sauce is on point, and this sauce, hang on,
17:59this is a very good sauce.
18:00Yes.
18:01I would frequent this place based on this sauce.
18:03Our local chip shop in London also has gravy on the menu.
18:05This thing is gloopy and gelatinous.
18:07Chips and gravy, typically more of a Northern thing
18:10here in the UK, rather than a Southern thing.
18:13Tastes very much just like a Bisto gravy,
18:15but it's good.
18:16I like it.
18:17Here, they got a cocktail sauce.
18:20Yeah.
18:21Ooh.
18:21Long John Silvers.
18:23Your cocktail sauce is fantastic.
18:25Oh man.
18:26Jenner's with the horseradish.
18:28That's what I'm talking about.
18:29Obviously, we have the classic condiments,
18:30including ketchup and mayo.
18:32Long John Silvers also has ketchup, ranch,
18:34honey mustard, barbecue sauce, hot sauce, lemon juice.
18:37And of course, we have that tartar sauce from before.
18:39This one is homemade, and honestly,
18:41one of the better ones I've had.
18:43Really tangy.
18:44Yes, this is a Long John Silvers tartar sauce,
18:45but in the US, a lot of places are gonna throw at you
18:48packets of some sort of tartar sauce, you know?
18:51They don't think much about it.
18:52Now, Long John Silvers was smart to package their own.
18:54I'm hoping that it's not just a generic brand
18:57that they slap their name on,
18:58that they actually have a recipe for it.
19:02It tastes like they do.
19:03I've just been informed that the UK
19:05spells their tartar sauce T-A-R-T-A-R-E.
19:08We spell ours T-A-R-T-A-R.
19:11The tartar, with no extra E,
19:13is the word that we also use to describe dental plaque.
19:17You might have heard that Brits love to put salt
19:19and vinegar on their fish and chips,
19:20but you're only half right.
19:22What a lot of Brits are actually adding to their chips
19:24is this, it's a non-brewed condiment.
19:26For something to be called vinegar,
19:28it actually has to be fermented
19:29to produce the acetic acid that gives it that tang.
19:32The trouble with that is that it takes time and money.
19:34What you'll find on many fish and chip tables across the UK
19:37is therefore this non-brewed condiment.
19:39Functionally, it's exactly the same as vinegar.
19:41We also have an onion vinegar,
19:42or a onion non-brewed condiment.
19:44Finally, the drinks.
19:45These will obviously vary
19:46depending on the location you're at,
19:47but typically you'll find things like Coke, Fanta,
19:50and standard soft drinks.
19:51What I wanted to call attention to
19:52were some of the more traditional British soft drinks
19:54that fish and chip shops in particular
19:56have really stayed loyal to.
19:57Firstly, cream soda.
19:58I'm not sure if this is something that's drunk in America,
20:00but this is definitely a classic British soft drink.
20:02The fact that my granddad used to love cream soda
20:04is mostly why I'm basing that on.
20:05I was actually able to scrounge up
20:07quite a few traditionally British and also Scottish drinks.
20:12So first up, we have Ben Shaw's Dandelion and Burdock.
20:17I don't know what any of this means.
20:19It smells like cream soda.
20:21Yep, that's literally just cream soda.
20:24That's good.
20:25Here we have a personal favorite of mine.
20:27It's Dandelion and Burdock.
20:29Dandelion and Burdock is actually a drink
20:30that has been consumed in one form or another
20:32since the Middle Ages here in the UK.
20:34Back in the day, it was a form of mead
20:36made with fermented dandelion and burdock roots.
20:39Bit different nowadays.
20:40It's just a pretty standard carbonated fizzy drink.
20:42Cheers.
20:44It's just good.
20:45Next we have White's Lemonade.
20:47I believe that lemonade in the UK is carbonated,
20:51so that's definitely different.
20:52Here it is not.
20:53Traditionally carbonated.
20:55It kinda tastes like cleaning liquid.
20:57Okay, next we have,
20:59I don't know if this is pronounced Tizer, Tizer?
21:03Tizer doesn't sound right.
21:04But if it is right, I'm sorry.
21:06But on this can, it says it's the Great British Pop,
21:09so I wonder if it tastes like cola.
21:12Oh yeah, it kinda smells like Coke.
21:13But it's not, oh, is it red?
21:17It does not taste like Coke.
21:18To me, it tastes like
21:19it has some sort of citrusy flavor in there.
21:23I cannot put my finger on it.
21:25Next we have Iron Brew.
21:26I believe this is a Scottish beverage.
21:30I mean, this has much more of a medicinal aftertaste.
21:34This is better.
21:35So the flavor of this is supposed to be citrus and vanilla.
21:38I'm not really getting a ton of citrus notes.
21:41Definitely maybe some vanilla.
21:42It just tastes like cream soda.
21:45It's a little too sweet for me, but it's pretty good.
21:47And then finally, we have a Bitter Shandy.
21:49Bitter Shandy is another British classic.
21:50Traditionally, it's a 50-50 mix of a bitter beer
21:53and a sparkling lemonade.
21:55The type of Bitter Shandy that you get in cans
21:57usually isn't the same.
21:58It's less alcoholic.
21:59I think this one is 0.5% alcohol by volume,
22:01which is the same as most non-alcoholic beers.
22:04I'm not much of a bitter drinker myself,
22:05but that is really good.
22:06They've diluted it to the point
22:07where even I am like, yeah, that's really tasty.
22:09We couldn't find Club Shandy,
22:11but we did find this Bar Shandyade.
22:14I think they're supposed to be similar.
22:17That was really bad.
22:18It smells like beer, but it doesn't taste like beer.
22:21In the US, shandies are typically beer
22:23mixed with some sort of lemonade.
22:25This tastes nothing like that,
22:27if that's what they were trying to go for.
22:29Moving on to something I know very well,
22:32but I've never had this flavor.
22:33This is the Fanta Pineapple and Grapefruit.
22:36That sounds really yummy.
22:38This is delicious.
22:40Yum!
22:41Take that Shandyade taste right out of my mouth.
22:44We also have two beers,
22:45London Pride and the Boddington's Pub Ale.
22:48I feel like out of all of them,
22:50the only one I see Americans gravitating towards
22:53might be the Fanta.
22:55I mean, we do like cream soda here too,
22:57so the Dandelion and Burdock and the Iron Brew
23:00might fit that vibe a little bit.
23:02I did get a little extra special treat
23:05from Assault and Battery.
23:07They had this deep fried Mars bar.
23:09We're tasting that.
23:11This is good, but I feel like this type of batter
23:14is not my favorite with candy.
23:16It's like too thick, it's too much,
23:19but it does taste very good.
23:20A regular portion of cod from our local Chippy
23:22is 10 pounds when ordered to go.
23:24Non-Londoners might wince at that price,
23:26but honestly, that's a pretty good deal in the capital.
23:27A regular portion of chips from our local
23:29costs three pounds 50.
23:30So a complete fish and chip supper would total 13 pounds 50.
23:33A comparable option would be this Long John Silver's
23:36three-piece with fries combo meal.
23:38Comes with two sets of Hush Puppies.
23:40Sorry, I've been snacking on them all day.
23:41There should be more.
23:42And two sides for $13.99 American.
23:46Now this is less expensive than the UK meal
23:47and what looks to be more food, hmm.
23:51The price of regular cod and regular chips
23:53from Assault and Battery is 17.95.
23:5617.95 does seem pretty good
23:58for the amount of food that you get.
24:00The portion of fish was really big.
24:01The portion of chips was pretty big.
24:03So I can see myself being decently full eating that portion.
24:07I think seafood in general in America
24:10has some pretty big price discrepancies,
24:13at least here in the tri-state area it does.
24:15Shrimp can cost you anywhere from like 15 to $20
24:18at the grocery store.
24:20So this price seems pretty normal
24:22for a decent piece of fish.
24:25I think any cheaper and I'd be suspicious of the fish.
24:28The quality was great though.
24:29So I'd be fine with paying the $17.
24:32Fish and chip shops have come under some criticism recently
24:34for subjecting their customers
24:35to some of the steepest price rises in the UK food scene.
24:38Recent data from the Office for National Statistics
24:40found that the average price
24:41for a portion of fish and chips in the UK is now £9.88.
24:44That's up from just £6.48 in 2019.
24:47So a 52% increase in that time period.
24:49It's not that we're being gouged by fish and chip shops.
24:52They've just suffered a perfect storm of rising costs.
24:54Russia's invasion of Ukraine has driven seafood prices up
24:57due to increased tariffs on imported fish.
24:59Changing climates have affected potato harvests
25:01and caused potato prices to rise as well.
25:03And of course, this has all been compounded
25:04by the increased energy costs
25:06all Brits have faced in recent years.
25:07The vinegar maker Sarsons
25:09issued a stark warning to Brits last year
25:11that unless things improve,
25:12almost half of British fish and chip shops
25:14would close by 2025.
25:15They urged Brits to eat more fish and chips
25:17in order to save our chippies and protect our national dish.
25:20On average, Brits consume around seven portions
25:22of fish and chips each per year.
25:23Raising that to nine could give our chippies
25:25the boost they need.
25:26I've certainly done my bit today.
25:27There are some clear differences in the ingredients
25:29between US and UK fish and chip dishes.
25:31The most notable one, of course, is the fish.
25:33Cod is the UK's most popular fish
25:35when it comes to a fish and chip supper.
25:36There are several species of cod,
25:37but the one we typically consume here in the UK
25:39is Atlantic cod.
25:40Cod has had a rocky journey in recent history.
25:42A series of cod wars fought between the UK and Iceland
25:45from the 50s to the 70s drove its price up
25:48and severely damaged the UK fishing industry.
25:50In addition to that,
25:51the Northwest Atlantic cod fishing industry
25:52completely collapsed at the start of the 90s
25:54after years of overfishing.
25:56Cod stocks had dropped to 1% of historic levels
25:58in the Northwest Atlantic.
26:00This led to the Canadian government
26:01imposing a complete moratorium on cod fishing
26:03in order to save the species.
26:05The moratorium came into place in 1992.
26:07It was only supposed to last just two years,
26:09but stocks didn't recover as expected,
26:12so it stayed in place.
26:13It wasn't until this summer
26:15that the Canadian government announced
26:17that it was lifting the cod fishing moratorium
26:19after the report changed the fish's status
26:21from critical to cautious.
26:23Canadian fishing vessels are allowed to bring in
26:2518,000 metric tons of cod in the 2024 season.
26:30That's estimated to be just 6% of current cod stocks,
26:34so they're taking a fairly cautious approach.
26:37Some, including marine biologist Daniel Pauly,
26:39are not sure lifting the moratorium was the right call.
26:42He says the cod population was recovering
26:45in spite of all odds,
26:46and that it was rebuilding and now it won't be rebuilt.
26:50Ecologically speaking,
26:51the Alaskan pollock favored by Long John Silvers
26:54is in a much better spot than the cod.
26:56The Marine Conservation Society
26:57rates Alaskan pollock as sustainable,
27:00and it was also certified as sustainable
27:02by the Marine Stewardship Council in 2019.
27:05There's a strong case for fish and chips
27:07being the national dish of the UK.
27:08In terms of iconic status and widespread popularity,
27:11it's right up there with your Sunday roasts
27:12and your full English breakfasts.
27:13The most recent polling data from YouGov
27:15has fish and chips at an 84% popularity rating with Brits.
27:18Fish and chips, I think,
27:20is a more popular American cuisine than people realize.
27:22It's very popular, obviously, in the East Coast,
27:25and I would say parts of the West Coast as well,
27:27where there's access to fish more.
27:29Even in the Midwest, I mean, people love their fish fries,
27:33especially around Lent, and nuts.
27:34People might not think of it
27:35when they think of American cuisine.
27:36I mean, Long John Silvers is,
27:38I didn't even know it was still in business
27:39until we had to get the food for this video.
27:41Don't sleep on fish and chips.
27:43I'd give it the top 15, top 20 cuisines in America.
27:46Would I get fish and chips?
27:48Almost certainly not.
27:49I don't think I'd put fish and chips
27:51in the top 10 of cuisines you'd find in America.
27:54I don't even know if saying it's in the top 50 is super fair.
27:57We do have our fried seafood here,
27:59but I just don't feel like this dish
28:01in particular is as popular as it is in the UK.
28:04It's not as available.
28:06It's not super common.
28:08I think you have to look for it.
28:10There was, at one point in the 1970s,
28:12a chain called Arthur Treacher's that rivaled McDonald's
28:16for the number of restaurants in the United States.
28:18Now it's only down to two locations,
28:19both of which are in Ohio.
28:22You also potentially could have gotten fish and chips
28:24at a Red Lobster, which recently filed for bankruptcy.
28:27Hmm, I'm picking up on a trend here
28:31on fish-centric fast food spots.
28:34It's hard to pinpoint exactly when and where
28:36fish and chips became such a British staple.
28:38The general consensus is that fried fish
28:39really took off in the UK in the early Victorian era.
28:42Charles Dickens even mentions fried fish in Oliver Twist,
28:44which was written around that time.
28:46Some claim that Marlin's in Bow, London
28:48was the first place to intentionally pair fish with chips,
28:50around the year 1860,
28:52although it must be said that the Lee family near Manchester
28:54also claims this accolade.
28:56The number of fish and chip shops in the UK
28:57peaked in 1927 with 35,000.
29:00Nowadays, that number is closer to 10,500,
29:02according to research from Seafish.
29:04While that number isn't as high as it used to be,
29:05that's still more than McDonald's, Subway,
29:07Gregg's and Nando's combined.
29:09Finally, here are some of my favorite fish and chip facts.
29:11Fish and chips are actually most popular in Belfast,
29:13where 54% of residents report eating them
29:16at least once a month.
29:17The UK actually started a National Fish and Chip Day in 2015.
29:20This year is being celebrated on June 6th.
29:22Fish and chips were traditionally served
29:24wrapped in old newspapers.
29:25This practice was banned in the 1980s
29:27after people realized the ink was leeching onto the food,
29:30although you will still see people serving them
29:31in fake food-safe newspapers.
29:33The largest fish and chip shop in the UK
29:35is the Harry Ramsden's location in Bournemouth,
29:37which has space for 420 diners.
29:39Wow, another award-winning Food Wars.
29:41Just a reminder, we release a Food Wars episode
29:44every Sunday on this channel right here at Food Insider.
29:48Be sure to subscribe and also leave us a comment below
29:51of any type of food you would like to see us go head-to-head,
29:54a Food Wars episode you'd love to see, let us know,
29:56and maybe we'll do it.