Plymouth, England is a port town a mere 3 hours Southwest from Oxford by train. If you are an experienced drinker, you might also know it as the birthplace of Plymouth Gin, and a tour of their facility may be reason enough to go. The tour takes place in a 16th century Black Friar monastery that houses a factory, but the first thing they tell you is that the building hosted the Mayflower men. No, that isn’t an English gay rock band. In 1620 the real Mayflower stopped into Plymouth for repairs and the men and boys stayed in the Black Friar building, whilst the women stayed down the street. It was probably unseemly for men and women to sleep even one night in the same building. And yet it didn’t bother anyone that they were spending two months together on a 100-foot long boat.
Our £9 tour garnered dozens of interesting facts about the making of both Gin and Sloe Gin, as well as the origin of the word “proof”. This education prepared us for an entire year‘s worth of cocktail party conversations, until the tasting samples turned us into children and we started playing with juniper berries.
Famous as Plymouth Gin may be, the purpose of out trip was to taste southwest UK’s award-winning fish and chips. We researched diligently and planned this trip for weeks. There was no doubt the Harourside Fish and Chip Shope would be worth a three our train ride and we had waited weeks to see if it was true. But after our gin tour, we were weren’t sure we could taste anything and thought it best to have fish for lunch. Instead, we dropped into the nearest pub for the local crab and a beer.
The next morning we started the day with a traditional English treat, crumpets, which when slathered with butter seemed like upscale English muffins. After knocking back a few crumpets and a two pots of coffee, our palates were open and our heads were finally clear. It was time for Harbourside Fish And Chip Shope’s award-winning dish. With high expectations and having just eaten breakfast, we entered a tiny corner restaurant and ordered one fish and chips with a side of peas.
It was awesome! Served in a simple, traditionally inspired dish – a plastic basket with a paper liner – the contents were fresh, hot, perfectly seasoned, and bountiful. Whilst the peas were certainly not the highlight, the mushy lumps were last summer’s English peas mushed together and served in a gravy boat. Yet, they were rather tasty. The chips were a far cry from McDonald fries. These fried potato pieces were hot, unsalted, and appeared in a variety of sizes, shapes, and textures, as if they recently came from a genuine potato.
But the highlight was certainly the fish. What was most surprising to me was in fact; the fish was fish. I should not have to clarify this but based on prior experiences with Arthur Treacher’s, Mrs Paul’s, and Gorton’s Fisherman, the fish tasted as if it had been caught that very morning. It was light, flakey, and moist and the coating was not greasy, but just a golden coating to add crunch to each bite.
Just like Starbucks, we could order our size, small, medium, or a large basket. In the fish-stick world, to which I am accustomed, choosing a size would automatically dispense a pre-fab portioned patty from a box, ending with a satisfying plop into a fryer. But here, a bloke in the kitchen cut portions of fresh caught cod fillet then dredged it in batter before frying them golden and crispy for order.
My fish was not purchased from Whole foods, Sam’s Club, or reconstituted from unspecified fish parts pressed with sawdust. In fact, whilst we savored our catch, the bloke from the kitchen walked over to a map on the wall and moved the word ‘cod’ to a different location. Either he was getting continuous updates from the captain of the fishing boat and the high winds that were tormenting us had blown the boat further into the Atlantic, or the chef was now cutting into a new fish caught from a different area. Either way, Harbourside Fish And Chip Shope’s has my vote for best Southeast fish and chip. But now I want to know, how does they compare to the Southwestern fish and chips?
