Cheap as chips?

If you can, go to a fish and chip shop where you can eat in.

Why?

Because everything will taste so much better if you eat it as soon as it's whisked from the fryer, rather than steaming crisp batter into a soggy mass by wrapping and transporting it home.


And don’t even think about plating and reheating in a microwave. You may as well buy a frozen ready-meal version from Tesco.

My favourite chippy in Auckland is the Fish Deli in Parnell. The set-up’s pretty basic – a white-tiled wet fish counter with plastic stools at the open windows. A perfect backdrop for enjoying hot crunchy batter straight from the fryer. The chips are always good, too.

You can feast on battered fish of the day, normally hoki - a relative of cod - and chips for $6.50. A bargain in a basket with a wedge of lemon and parsley garnish.

Though I've just looked up hoki on the Best Fish Guide and it falls into the Red category - the Worst Choice. Apparently it's massively over-fished and by-catches in the trawlers' nets are often seals and albatrosses.

According to the Best Fish Guide The Fillet’o’Fish sold at McDonalds in New Zealand is hoki.

Once caught, hoki must be covered in ice within six hours or it'll go off. It used to be that catches of hoki were sometimes pulled up faster than they could be iced and so excess fish were thrown back into the sea. Presumably dead or dying. Maybe this still happens.

So in future I'm going to upgrade from hoki and buy, well, I'm not sure, as there's nothing in the Green category. Apparently nothing qualified. I'm going back to the fish market in a few days, so I'll ask around there and let you know...