CHIPS vs FRIES

ohhhhhh no

Never tried jellied eels. I expect them to be all salt and no flavour - true?

MOVING RIGHT ALONG much like the contents of my stomach right now.

Curry sauce for chips is A LOT like the sauce for Japanese katsu curry. I don't think I've ever had any that contained readily identifiable vegetable matter apart from perhaps a bit of onion.

oooh it's like katsu sauce? Okay that sounds like it would be good then
I don't understand it on fish and chips though

think i've been seriously remiss in not riding the curry + chips bandwagon. also, i haven't even eaten a single chip since i started this poll, wtf.

do people in the uk have the "three in one" in bad chinese takeaways? i never see it here but it's basically fried rice, chips, and curry sauce. it is one of the most amazing drunk foods ever, just so fucking stodgy.

if i saw curry sauce offered in a chinese takeaway i would be raising an eyebrow.

what? all chinese takeaways do curry sauce. all chinese takeaways ever do curry sauce.

*raises an eyebrow*

Chip shop or Chinese takeaway "curry sauce" is a bright yellow sludge which is flavoured with curry powder and nothing like anything you can get in an Indian restaurant. Similar to Currywurst sauce in Germany, if that helps any non-Britishers.

Our Chinese out in the provinces definitely does it, either as a "curry dish" or a tub on its own, and the chip shop will serve it with chips, but I don't think either will do it with chips and rice. Not as one item, anyway.

A takeaway box with half rice, half chips is a typical Chinese takeaway thing in Northern Ireland (where it's called a "half and half", and yes, you can have curry sauce on it) but I've never seen it here in the south of England. Someone told me they do it up north though.

what? all chinese takeaways do curry sauce. all chinese takeaways ever do curry sauce.

― Will.Have.Known (Local Garda), Monday, April 18, 2011 5:10 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark

poll!

IME Ronan otm. Chinese place curry sauce is awesome btw and is sort of similar to Katsu VG.

VG, re. this snack the curry sauce is never, ever served with fish and chips. Just with chips.

Curry sauce is always on the back page of the British Chinese menu with other 'extra' condiments like pancakes and additional tubs of sweet and sour sauce. It is also where you find the short list of English dishes for the food-insular. Plus the chips, which everyone eats. Without disparaging The Provinces or The Suburbs, the Chinese takeaway I associate with this menu is inevitably strip-lit and linoleum-floored and features foul versions of Cantonese food trends form the 1960s.

BTW an Irish coworker of mine in NYC in the '80s said that the Chinese takeaways in Dublin - the worst Chinese food she had ever eaten - found a way to include cabbage, carrots, peas and potatoes in ALL the dishes, regardless of aptness for the dish in question.

i will swear that there is no Chinese takeaway in the entire UK that doesn't do curry and chips. Chinese takeaway chips are usually pretty excellent as well, I assume because they have hotter fat than many regular chippies.

i will investigate my local.

yeah exactly...aren't you uk ledge? to me questioning there being curry sauce in a chinese takeaway is like doubting that they serve rice.

xxp my favourite local chippy is a place that's owned and run by a Chinese family.

curry sauce is never, ever served with fish and chips. Just with chips.

Had fish + chips + curry sauce for my tea last night. It was epic.

http://fuckyeahnouns.com/images/curry+and+chips

yeah exactly...aren't you uk ledge?

yeah but i think my eyes naturally avoid any part of a takeaway menu that doesn't deal in the actual ethnic cuisine of that specific establishment.

Perhaps the Chinese food you eat comes from higher-standard places without the 'English menu', like most places where I order takeaways. I have never ordered chips and curry sauce for delivery because the sauce would clag by the time it was delivered - it's definitely a drunken takeaway 'impulse buy'.

i never order delivery as i can't find any that's any good...

Oh katsu curry sauce of course. that makes a lot of sense. I actually think it'd be quite edible despite my earlier ew comment tbh. I like that generic Keens powder inna tub stuff when you make curried saussies with it. Oldstyle Aussie 70s comfort dinner innit.

Chinese takeaways here are quite their own thing. Standards are fried rice, sweet n sour pork, beef n black bean, mixed veg/tofu. All sitting soggily in bain maries. You'd never get chips or whatnot tho, those belong in burger/fish n chip takeaways.

my drunk food used to be fish+peas+curry sauce. I'm not sure how it started, but it was yummy.

steak sized chips are decent when cooked right. But love fries for the fact i can ram half a dozen in my mouth at a time.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=well+street+hackney&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=45.418852,71.191406&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Well+St,+Hackney,+Greater+London,+United+Kingdom&ll=51.544507,-0.046649&spn=0.008754,0.017381&z=16&layer=c&cbll=51.544591,-0.046589&panoid=l10AkZraPg3Wsx5WmG_WkQ&cbp=12,87.77,,1,5.74

is that one good?

Chinese takeaways here are quite their own thing. Standards are fried rice, sweet n sour pork, beef n black bean, mixed veg/tofu. All sitting soggily in bain maries.

plz foreigners don't listen to the filthy lies being spread across ilx by mongxicans today

Ha! I speak purely of shitty chinee takeaways, I know there's better stuff around!

chinee takeaways

That be racist.daguerrotype

xp Ronan, I think Gourmet San delivers and it's one of the best Chinese restaurants in all London. IT IS EVEN ON BETHNAL GREEN ROAD. You may not have ventured there because it is Szechuan and hellaciously spicy, but you could have an amazing not-too-overspiced dinner from there by ordering half a dozen lamb skewers, rice and chilli green beans.

i actually am mad keen to check out gourmet san....just for whatev reason have never done so, i've never booked and it's always busy. i think i knew they delivered as my flatmate had a menu lying around, then i seem to have completely forgotten this.

is that one good?

the link wasn't a recommendation, let's put it that way. check out those houseplants in the window. the inside is the grimmest thing you've ever seen, like stepping into communist poland. there's one counter and five plastic chairs against the wall. two or three sullen people sit in them, clutching carrier bags. they may have been there for years. everything is indescribably dingy. a television can be heard faintly from the back. one of the fluourescent lights has gone out.

Yeah, Tracer, I can't imagine you frequenting that establishment.

The key to getting a table at Gourmet San via the walk-up method is to go at 7pm.

check out those houseplants in the window. the inside is the grimmest thing you've ever seen, like stepping into communist poland. there's one counter and five plastic chairs against the wall. two or three sullen people sit in them, clutching carrier bags. they may have been there for years. everything is indescribably dingy. a television can be heard faintly from the back. one of the fluourescent lights has gone out.

in every small-town Chinese takeaway ever thread coming up

must give that a go. i do have a soft spot for noodle king just a few doors up, not in any way going to challenge gourmet san for authenticity, but when i've been broke or jobless it is unbelievably cheap, 3.50 or so for a gigantic plate of rice or noodles.

x-post the chinese on globe road is the worst i've ever been to.

Noodle King is OK for what it is, but I made an ordering error there once by going off the noodles/rice grid for some seriously knuckly and flavourless 'hot and spicy' spare ribs.

'Houseplants' must be plastic to qualify for pride of place in such takeaways, which are not GANGSTA unless there is plexiglass between you and your server.

the singapore fried rice is the best thing in noodle king probably. the ribs do vary...they can be good but i know what you mean, gaping jaws of fat, shudder.

Speaking of authenticity and Chinese restaurants, even out here in the wilderness of Not London there are restaurants who put all the trad Anglo-Chinese takeaway fare at the front and then the main section of the menu trumpets its ~authenticity~

I have no idea how authentic these menus really are but there is usually some pretty interesting stuff in them

but if you order a chicken/duck dish from the "authentic" section, it's usually been diced with a cleaver while on the bone, leaving chunks and shards of bone in most of the slices, which are pretty hard to identify through the marinade and almost impossible to remove from the meat with chopsticks. So my question is, what is the proper way to eat these? Is there a nicer way than repeatedly picking bits of bone out of your mouth?

But back to fried potatoes, the best kind are called beach fries and you douse them in malt vinegar and they look like this http://blog.streaminggourmet.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/P1000133.jpg.

they look great.

yeah they look similar to the ones i had at Coney island

but if you order a chicken/duck dish from the "authentic" section, it's usually been diced with a cleaver while on the bone, leaving chunks and shards of bone in most of the slices, which are pretty hard to identify through the marinade and almost impossible to remove from the meat with chopsticks. So my question is, what is the proper way to eat these? Is there a nicer way than repeatedly picking bits of bone out of your mouth?

― dimension hatris (a passing spacecadet), Monday, April 18, 2011 8:31 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

put the whole chunk in your mouth and spit the bones out on the table as you go (honest to god)

Chinese takeaway chips are usually pretty excellent as well

cosign - my local Chinese takeaway does Salt&Pepper chips which are srsly good; seasoned to within an inch of their thick cut lives and covered in chopped red chilis.

Thanks dayo! Think I'll give the spitting a miss, but at least I know I'm not missing a trick.

those beach fries look mighty good, with a little cajun seasoning.