Fish ‘n’ Chips, Harry Ramsden’s, Brighton

I have watched you on the shore
Standing by the oceans roar
Do you love me do you surfer girl
Surfer girl surfer girl (Beach Boys)

No, I’ve not taken the lazy route of just posting lyrics with my pictures (actually I have). But the lyrics quite fit the picture, so it’s OK.

Trying to decide where to eat after a lovely day at the Brighton beach, we had shortlisted a few places and went from one to the other, just looking in to see what the dining possibilities were.

Option 1 – fish and chips at the local chippy (greasy breezy)
Option 2 – fish and chips by the beach in the shack (microwave ping)
Option 3 – fish and chips at Harry Ramsden’s

Seeing as we had all these varied and international choices to choose from, we decided on Harry Ramsden’s, purely based on the fact that it was (surprise) the cheapest. The dining-in prices were not cheap, but the takeaway (ie going to the counter, buying it in a takeaway box, and sitting outside) prices were cheap.

Divided by the restaurant wall, this option saved us about £10.

Looking good, like the counter at KFC.

If you’ve never had fish and chips before, you’re missing out. Although the chips don’t look great here (they actually look quite bad), they were surprisingly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. The fish was slightly more crispy than how I usually like it to be (soft batter is the way to go), and it felt as though the fish had been overcooked as it didn’t flake. Rather, it was kinda chewy, and if you can make cod and haddock chewy, you know you need more training with the fryer.

With fish and chips, you gotta have mushy peas. Made of peas, and mushed, lovely.

To conclude, it was a reasonable meal, not the best (hey, cheap options usually aren’t) but good enough to please these non-discerning diners.

Let’s drive to Brighton on the weekend – July ‘09

Looks like everyone had the same idea. Inspired by Bloc Party – Waiting for the 7:18 (band and a song, in case you were wondering). Nothing much to say, so I’ll let the pictures, lyrics, and some wit (infrequent) do the talking.

They’re not joking with this sign. The seagulls were bigger than any ducks / swans / geese I’d ever seen. I’m not even sure they were seagulls, to be honest. They could have been flying Labradors for all I know.

Waiting for the seven eighteen
January is endless
Weary-eyed and forlorn
The Northern Line is the loudest (Bloc Party)

Those coin machine things (the ones where you keep putting 1p coins in hoping to win 10p) really make me angry. You can’t even kick it or anything.

Sitting in silence in bars after work
I've got nothing to add or contest
Can still kick a ball a hundred yards
We cling to bottles and memories of the past (Bloc Party)

People sitting on the pebble beach, but from far enough, it looks like sand.

Grinding your teeth in the middle of the night
With the sadness of those molars
Spend all your spare time trying to escape
With crosswords and sudoku (Bloc Party)

Fudge

Fudge pot

If I could do it again
I'd make more mistakes
I'd not be so scared of falling
If I could do it again,
I'd climb more trees
I'd pick and I'd more wild
blackberries (Bloc Party)

Dining out while the weather is warm (slightly warm counts too).

Laffy taffy, and going slightly manic in a sweet shop.

Bought some lemon curd here, not realising that all 3 pots had the same expiry date – of 5 days later. Lots of lemon curd type recipes were used within those days.

Another colourful sight in Brighton.