Fish and Chip Fridays

In my childhood we always had fish and chips for dinner on Friday evening (although the meal was referred to as tea in those days).  My family ran a Convalescent Home and the choice of Friday food was because some of our patients were Roman Catholic and didn’t eat red meat on Fridays.  I understand this rule has since been relaxed and now applies only to Good Friday.

I’ve no idea where our fish and chips came from, and no recollection of collecting them  Maybe they were delivered as our groceries were.  Bread and milk were delivered early each morning and placed on the kitchen table.  This could be accessed through the side door which was never locked.

After our easy Friday meal my mother and much older brother would often go to see a film.  Basically it was Mother’s night off and I was left at home with our live-in housekeeper, although I always got a chocolate bar when they returned home.

At St Albans Primary School we were allowed to leave the grounds at lunchtime and an occasional treat was to queue up with our shilling at the shop on the corner of Cranford and Westminster Streets for a lovely hot lunch of fish and chips.

After Mother and I moved to Auckland in 1959 the Friday night treat continued.  We would take a bus into town, go to a cheap restaurant and see a film.  Sometimes we had Chinese food, but I also remember a cafe in Karangahape Road which served a roast meal, with a side plate of white bread and butter.  Memory suggests it may have been called The Purple Cow?

Fish and chips also featured in later days.  Sometimes Stephen and I would take our daughters swimming on a summer evening and eat fish and chips afterwards.  On a holiday trip we would stop at the Kaiaua fish and chip shop.  After moving to Christchurch fish and chips at Sumner became a favourite, sitting on the Esplanade and guarding our package from aggressive seagulls.

Groups of friends still meet occasionally to share a takeaway meal at someone’s home – an easy and cheap way to eat together.  Every few weeks Stephen and I will have fish and chips, usually on a Friday.  Since the earthquakes our nearest supplier is the North Avon Fish Fry, which provides generous portions of battered terakihi.  Stephen doesn’t eat fish but will happily have a sausage while I relish my piscatorial pleasure.  Half a scoop of chips between us is more than we can eat.

‘Their beautifully fried battered fish
is quite a favourite Friday dish.’