JOHN MACLEOD: Could 急に上がるing prices mean the humble fish supper has finally had its 半導体素子s?
I 大打撃を与える 負かす／撃墜する the west 味方する of 吊りくさび, 動揺させるing into Shawbost over the cattle grid. I’ve been coming here for as long as I can remember.?
Past peaty Loch na Muilne, the tweed mill, the tiny 地位，任命する office. Past the 解放する／自由な Church, the きびきびした 勝利，勝つd pummelling at my car ? and 権利 at the 十字路／岐路.
But never, till today, for a fish supper.
負かす／撃墜する the brae, past the beach ? fishermen still wetted their longlines, from 幅の広い open boats 開始する，打ち上げるd from the surf, when I was small and ヒース／荒れ地 was PM ? where the 大西洋 不平（をいう）s in 泡，激怒すること.
There have been no boats in １０年間s. But, opposite the 廃虚s of a 伝統的な blackhouse, there whips a rainbow 旗 outside a little cottage, 塀で囲むs and パネル盤s and 盗品故買者ing likewise in an array of cheerful colours.
The fish 最高の has no sugar, is low in fat and 十分な of ビタミンs
Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge serves fish and 半導体素子s at Harrods ? for a princely £37
This is Mollans Takeaway. Run by a warm English couple, way out on the 辛勝する／優位 of Europe. The most northwesterly chippie in Britain ? and the smallest in Scotland.
Run, too, to exacting 基準s. Rachel and Julie detest 過程d food. Loathe waste ? 特に plastic. Nothing comes from tins, packets and sachets.?
All is 用意が出来ている from scratch. They only open for two or three days a week, and Rachel can only cook four suppers at once.?
Yet such is their food that folk come many miles to enjoy it. Somehow this unassuming pair hang on ? at the extremity of a 貿易（する） ますます in 危機.
At its 頂点（に達する）, around 1930, there were 35,000 chippies in the 部隊d Kingdom.?
So central to life that in neither World War did 政治家，政治屋s dare put fish and 半導体素子s ‘on the ration’.
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth sent 慎重に out, now and then, for fish and 半導体素子s, chomping them happily out of newspaper at the Palace with the little Princesses.?< /p>
１０年間s later, and if not entertaining, our late Queen, on holiday at Balmoral, now and then would order a fish supper from Ballater.
Though we might choose to tiptoe past outrageously 定価つきの travesties of our 週末 扱う／治療する, such as chef Tom Kerridge’s £37 ‘fish and 半導体素子s’ at Harrods.
Today there are but 10,500 British 半導体素子 shops. And, against 急に上がるing costs, 新規採用 difficulties and 深い 不本意 to break the £10 障壁 for what has always been regarded as a cheap and cheerful meal, they buckle all around us.
In August 2022, Andrew Crook ? 大統領，／社長 of the 国家の 連合 of Fish Friers ? 警告するd of a ぼんやり現れるing ‘絶滅 event’.?
Last July, he said a third of our chippies could の近くに in the next five years. Two-thirds have already 削減（する） 支援する their hours; others have 引き上げ（る）d their prices ? or dolefully retired.
It’s the war in ウクライナ共和国, a prime source of cooking oil. 関税s our 政府 heedlessly slammed on 輸入するd ロシアの fish. Last year’s woeful 収穫; potatoes yet rot in the 国／地域.
An awful, sodden spring that may mean no 2024 収穫 at all. General public belt-強化するing ? and ballooning energy costs.
The price of electricity 事柄s when you have friers fizzing all evening.?
The cost of ディーゼル has mashed fishermen’s 利益（をあげる） 利ざやs. And, as we all 強化する our belts, many wonder if that Saturday night fish supper is still 価値（がある） it.
Saturday, because it was the one evening of the week when, beset with many 義務s ? washing her hair, giving the children their 週刊誌 bath, 準備するing their ‘repetition’ for Sunday school ? Mum usually 辞退するd to cook. Her one hot meal day off, save for the 半端物 王室の Wedding.
Dad ? and it was usually Da d ? was sent out for fish and 半導体素子s which, until banned in the late 80s, were wrapped in newspaper.
We’d sit around the kitchen （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する ? the one meal of the week you were 苦しむd to enjoy a fizzy drink ? stuffing ourselves to the delicious reek of Sarson’s vinegar (or, east of Harthill service 駅／配置する, brown chippie sauce). And then enjoy Doctor Who.
No one has ever definitively 設立するd who invented fish and 半導体素子s.?
Fish fried in 乱打する was almost certainly introduced to this island by Jews 逃げるing the Inquisition, and ‘frites’ seem to have first been enjoyed in Belgium.
That Scots still talk of ‘半導体素子 shops’ 示唆するs 半導体素子s were enjoyed 井戸／弁護士席 before haddock.
And, in an age before 抗生物質s, fish and 半導体素子s, cooked short-order in boiling fat, was not just an affordable meal, but a 安全な one.
If a paradox. 広大な 量s of sizzling oil, yes, but ? 適切に made ? fish and 半導体素子s are light, delicious fare. You don’t have that bloated feel you get after one too many cheeseburgers.?
One 部分 of fish and 半導体素子s 供給するs ビタミン C, B6, B12, アイロンをかける, zinc and calcium, 同様に as iodine, Omega 3 fatty 酸性の and important dietary fibre.
No sugar, either ? and remarkably low in fat: 9.42 grams of it per 100 grams. The 普通の／平均（する） pizza has 11, the typical takeaway curry 15.5 and a doner kebab 16.2.?
And the typical fish supper has より小数の calories than any of them.
Of course, you must shop around. Weeks ago, in 輸送 through a 確かな town, I joined the 列 at one （人が）群がるd chippie.
More 正確に, a 群衆. I had to wait half an hour, and the resultant 料金d ? 半導体素子s unevenly sized, many little bigger than fingernails; the haddock overcooked to a fare-thee-井戸／弁護士席 ? was a 広大な／多数の／重要な shame.
Last 週末 I stepped into a Stornoway 会・原則, the Church Street 半導体素子 shop. Recently come under new 管理／経営.?
Now a ticketed 顧客 system. Serene staff each had their unhurried part in a 熟達した 議会 line.
I had my fish supper within five minutes ? cooked to perfection.
Today, Julie 勧めるs me through a baby gate that keeps adorable spaniels （疑いを）晴らす of the 支援する kitchen and a chippie hut so small it would not 融通する a grand piano.
We’re in a cosy, lived-in room, each 塀で囲む painted a different colour. The silky eared dogs 退却／保養地 affably to their crate. A 襲う，襲って強奪する of tea is 圧力（をかける）d into my 手渡す.
‘A large fish supper is £14,’ Julie confides. ‘A small one, £9. Everything we sell is gluten-解放する／自由な except the burger buns and the macaroni.’
It’s hard work. ‘Rachel started yesterday, peeling and chipping potatoes.?
We have gadgets for it now. I used to do it by 手渡す, sitting 負かす／撃墜する with a 解雇（する）.’ Julie makes a 直面する. ‘But I got repetitive 緊張する 傷害.’
An overlooked part of the 職業 is the chore of ‘きれいにする 負かす／撃墜する’ after a day’s service.?
It takes Rachel an hour and a half, and she has to clean and sterilise everything yet again before the next 一区切り／（ボクシングなどの）試合 of frying.
静かに, Julie 詳細（に述べる）s the burgeoning expense. ‘A 25-litre tub of rapeseed oil used to cost £20. It’s now £40. Potatoes were £19 a 解雇（する）. Last year, it 攻撃する，衝突する £36.?
It’s started, this year, at £24. And each fryer 燃やすs five kilowatts a day. And we’ve four fryers, on all the time when we’re open, and you could go two hours without a 顧客.’ Mollans Takeaway has had surprising success with greylag goose and 半導体素子s ? birds lawful ly culled by 地元の crofters.?
They even make their own salt, from the pure 地元の seawater backwashing on the beach within earshot.
‘From six litres of seawater, you get 160 grams. 患者 work. And then, of course, there’s the other costs. We have to order in fish and 半導体素子 boxes, burger boxes, greaseproof paper. 配達／演説／出産 alone cost us £40 last time ? it would have been 解放する／自由な on the 本土／大陸.’?
And yet, with its loyal 正規の／正選手s, the takeaway 生き残るs. ‘Everything Rachel cooks is 調査（する）d. Fish, burgers, sausages must 攻撃する，衝突する an 内部の 気温 of 75 degrees.’
‘It’s only 72 degrees in England,’ 追加するs Rachel, who has just asked when I would like my fish supper. And with salt and vinegar?
The 広大な／多数の／重要な secret of good fish and 半導体素子s is the 乱打する. Every shop guards its 決まり文句／製法 fanatically. But Julie 強調する／ストレスs that technique is still more important, and it comes only from experience.?
The 乱打する’s consistency; knowing when the oil is at the 権利 気温; how many times to 下落する the fillet.
How Rachel must lower it into the fat at the 権利 速度(を上げる） (just chuck it in, and the 乱打する 落ちるs off).?
Keeping it on the move, with continued flicks of a long metal ‘spider’. Knowing when it is almost done, that it will continue cooking for a （一定の）期間 even out of that 180 degrees rolling boil, and then for how long it must drain.
Some tourists do kick up a strop when told they will have to wait about 20 minutes or so.
Julie says: ‘And we even had someone complain that the tartare sauce is too expensive. 井戸／弁護士席, I’ve made that sauce, just that morning.?
From scratch. Mixed the mayonnaise, lemon juice, capers, dill... But if you like, yes, I could give you a 汚い little sac het for 30p instead.’
A more typical chippie, be it in a 訴える手段／行楽地 like Largs or Crail or an 都市の ４半期/4分の1 with perennially hungry students, makes 需要・要求するs on vendors that have broken health and ended marriages.
Prepping starts at 夜明け; clean-負かす／撃墜する may 井戸／弁護士席 be after midnight. And, on 最高の，を越す of the 年４回の energy 法案 ? in 2022, the 月毎の costs for a typical 設立 急に上がるd from £600 to £2,000: that （一定の）期間d the end, just like that, of Macduff’s The Happy Haddock.
And there is the dread of 解雇する／砲火／射撃. It was a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 in the summer of 2022 that put paid to the Pittenweem Fish 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, to the 荒廃 of 地元のs.?
An 会・原則 for １０年間s, it drew ravenous 列s that stretched beyond the parish kirk.
But Julie reminds me, too, there are 危険，危なくするs どこかよそで in the 供給（する） chain. Fishing is one of the most dangerous 職業s in Britain.
I know lads with fingers 行方不明の. Could 指名する three Harris 青年s who ? an ankle caught for a moment in the rope ? went overboard with the ‘(n)艦隊／(a)素早い’ of prawn creels. Few years pass in the Western 小島s without a 悲劇.?
In 2016 the MFV Louisa sank while at 錨，総合司会者 off Mingulay as her 乗組員 lay sleeping. Three men died; one 団体／死体 was never 回復するd.
‘負かす／撃墜する on Pittenweem harbour,’ 新聞記者／雑誌記者 Tom Lamont last year mused, ‘two bronze statues ? a mother and a daughter ? 直面する the choppy water, memorialising all the 地元の people who have tried to make a living from the sea, 同様に as the 400 or so who have died trying since the 1800s.
‘Many, many people in the East Neuk have lost a friend, an uncle, a cousin. Fishing is a serious 事柄 here. Fish and 半導体素子s is a serious meal.’
All four of my 広大な／多数の／重要な-grandfathers were fishermen. But Rachel now brings my neatly boxed meal, printe d in jokey newsprint.
Contents 攻撃するd with vinegar; dusted in that 解放する／自由な-範囲 salt. 半導体素子s 削減（する） in perfect evenness. At once crisp and 産する／生じるing.?
And, if gluten-解放する／自由な 乱打する sounds about as 招待するing as wholemeal pastry, think again: Rachel’s 乱打する is for the angels. But this haddock...
‘It’s so fresh,’ I mumble, forking greedy mouthfuls again and again. ‘Unbelievably fresh.’
‘Landed in Stornoway just this morning,’ beams Julie.
They will not hear of 支払い（額）. And すぐに, after 感謝する words, I モーター 支援する up the brae.
My mother was born and bred in Shawbost. Long before the 広大な／多数の／重要な War my forebears were climbing for home up this very road, wet and 疲れた／うんざりした after their day’s 戦う／戦い with the sea.
I follow in their ghostly tread, guiltily replete with fish and 半導体素子s.
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