2 nights down, 2 to go

I was up again until 2am last night, attending the ISO Photography Standards meeting being held virtually with delegates all around the world. I managed okay, staying alert for all of the technical discussions and contributing some comments. Which I hope were coherent and insightful.

So that’s two nights down, and tonight and Friday to go. I woke up this morning when my wife got up, and didn’t really manage to sleep in at all, so it was only about 5 hours sleep. I can manage on that for a few days, but it’ll all catch up with like a ton of bricks at some point. I just hope I can last to the end of the meeting first.

I’ve taken it a bit easy today, at least mentally. I went for a couple of walks to get some sunlight and fresh air, and I’ve spent a bit of time trying to write more comic scripts.

For lunch today I walked to the local fish & chip shop, and looking at their menu I decided to go fully retro and order stuff I haven’t had for years. I got a fish cake and a battered sav, plus some potato scallops. They even had Chiko rolls on the menu, but I didn’t opt for one of those. The potato scallops were excellent, but I understand why I haven’t bothered with fish cakes or battered savs for many years. I enjoyed it in a “this is nostalgic” sort of sense, but not so much in a culinary sense. Ah well.

New content today:

4 thoughts on “2 nights down, 2 to go”

  1. Intrigued to know whether the “battered sav” is in fact a saveloy in batter, given the image on the linked page isn’t what I’d call a saveloy, which in the parts of the UK where you can get them is closer to a frankfurter in texture, though with a thicker skin and a lot more seasoning. Sadly Scotland (where I live) rarely has such in chippies…

    The battered sausage is commonly available, though despite the claim in wikipedia I’ve never heard anyone include the “battered” in the order. Round here, you’d just ask for a “sausage supper”, and expect to get two battered sausages with chips. If you don’t want the chips, you’d ask for a “single sausage”, but would still expect to get two sausages in batter… Isn’t language great? A few of the local chippies also include “pensioner supper” on the menu, which turned out not to involve murdering old people, but merely meant a small portion of fish (normally haddock) with chips.

    While I’m on the subject of Scottish chippies, yes, they really deep fry mars bars, and most other chocolate snacks, in batter. I’ve never been tempted, for hopefully obvious reasons… I was also shocked the first time I encountered the “pizza supper”, which turned out to involve dropping the cheapest, nastiest frozen pizza in a deep fat frier, and then dropping the soggy, greasy mess on top of some innocent chips. Apparently some places batter the poor pizza first. No idea if that helps or not…

    If I’m reading the wikipedia page correctly, potato scallops seems to be what we call “crispy potato slices”, basically thin slices of par-boiled potato dipped in a light batter and then fried, possibly before finishing in the oven. If so, I might adopt the Australian term, as a considerable improvement on the rather clumsy one we use.

    Cheers,
    Graham

    1. Hi Graham! Yes, I believe we get real saveloys here when we ask for a “battered sav” – at least at any reputable fish & chippery. Your reading on potato scallops is correct, except they’re just fried – I’ve never heard of them being finished off in an oven. Confusingly, they’re often just called “scallops”, which can be a bit tricky when they’re being sold by a place that does seafood. My chippie also offers the shellfish called scallops on their menu, so it pays to be careful!

      1. don’t need to be too careful if you like both sea scallops and potato scallops! (Which I do!)

        The finish off in the oven version is generally sold by supermarkets, part cooked for finishing off at home. Works pretty well – they end up crispy and not as greasy. Chippies just deep fry them, as you’d expect.

        1. A final follow up on this. Talking to a friend from Barnsley (South Yorkshire) reveals that they also order scallops and expect to get deep fried, battered potato slices. Not a widespread thing – my wife’s family are from North Yorks and none of them had heard of this usage.

          Aren’t chippies brilliant?

          Cheers,
          Graham

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