to think that "eating fish and chips" is just lunch/dinner, not a holiday activity?!

[PyongyangKipperbang]

Seen this on a few threads lately, and when I asked a couple of years ago about ideas of what to do in the evening on hols in the UK, this was the line trotted out most! "Walk along the promenade eating fish and chips". For a start I hate eating when walking, its messy and inconvenient and secondly, what about the other 6 evenings in a week or are we meant to do it every single night?

In most places these days you can't "eat fish and chips on the front" anyway because you get mugged by fucking sea gulls!

It’s like drinking hot chocolate in winter. Folks go on and on. Both are an activity thay would take you twenty mins max, prob closer to ten, people make out it’s their whole evening’s entertainment.

Um the fish and chips bit is like 10 mins.

It's the salt on the air that makes them taste better. Salt begets a need for more salt. Eaten at home or in a restaurant they are a greasy mess and a bit of an apology for a meal.

Heston Blumenthal would disagree with you, OP!

There are actually scientific studies that show sounds alter our perception of taste so sitting eating fish and chips by the sea, listening to the waves, or drinking whisky by an open fire can make them taste different. It’s called sonic seasoning 😂 Blumenthal uses it in his dish, sounds of sea, that has an iPod hidden in a conch shell on the plate playing the sound of crashing waves.

For me, the enhancing effects of “sonic seasoning” by the sea are cancelled out by having to eat with your fingers and fighting off seagulls 😡

Actually that’s not true, either the cincentration is so low it has no impact or if it’s high it has the opposite effect it dulls your olfactory senses making the food taste blander.

If you're only taking 10 minutes to eat fish and chips, you're doing it wrong.

And hot chocolate isn't supposed to be a massively time-consuming activity, it's meant to be an easy, cheap way to keep kids happy and warm on a day out in the winter.

Again this is about taste, the op is asking if it’s a holiday activity. I am with her, I don’t see how spending 1o mins eating some fish and chips is a whole,evenings activity.

actually for me on holiday. eating lunch or dinner actually is a holiday activity. Its not "what is in the fridge/freezer" its not "its late and I am starving" its not "I can't be bothered to cook" Its choosing and leisurely and just enjoing the moment

Because you don't just sit down, shovel the food in you and go home. You sit down, eat your fish and chips by the sea - have a paddle, play in the sand, look for stones or shells etc. Have a nice drink, a chat, enjoy the atmosphere.

I wouldn't because I've never done it nor do I ever see people doing it. I don't live in a seaside resort.

Eating fish and chips is a holiday activity. It's a meal but it's fun. We have had lovely fish and chips in the restaurants in Bispham (near Blackpool) and old huntstanton in Norfolk. I've had shit overpriced fish and chips picnicking amongst the rocks of Sennen Cove (the views made up for the quality, plus the wine in a can). We had awful chippy takeaway when we arrived in Cornwall and the Isle of Wight. If you've never eaten in the Old Keswickian fish and chip restaurant you haven't lived. I also had awful overpriced fish and chips in Llandudno. Its obviously hit and miss but we don't mind.

It’s 2 hours to the sea for us. Fish & Chips are definitely part of the experience, but not the be all and end all of the day out.
eta - but after a scary experience with some well trained and well organised seagulls in Bowness on Windemere, I eat my f&c inside these days.

You don't have to live in a seaside resort to enjoy fish and chips by the sea

I don't live in a resort-type area either, but I still love going to the chippy on a Friday after work and sitting down on the rocks overlooking the ocean in the sunshine for half an hour.

Bit of both

I certainly wouldn't walk around eating fish and chips.

I'm not a beach person at all but when on holiday in 3 weeks, I will have fish and chips on the beach. But it will be at the very end of the day after a hike. We will bring blankets, skim stones, look for sea glass, paint rocks and watch the sun go down. It's a very peaceful and pleasant high point and we've done it for over 40yrs. I used to be the child in the party but now I watch my own DC and their grandparents share the experience together.

It's what you make it.

We never had fish and chips when i was young (my parents were very money / health conscious).
But I do enjoy a lovely fish and chip restaurant by the sea now! Eating it outside sounds fun but is usually not what with seagulls, wind and rain .

But overall , it is fun and can be an ‘experience’.

i really hate the use of 'an experience' like this. Like it's a commodity or an achievement. Or, more likely, content.

Just.. take the opportunities that come up and enjoy them together, in the moment.

I love eating chips on the beach! It’s such a joy, sound of the waves crashing, bit windy and grey, loads of salt and ketchup, all wrapped up from the elements… bloody love it!
I don’t eat fish and chips unless I’m by the coast, and if I’m having it on the beach I just have the chips. It’s one of my greatest joys in the rubbish seasons. I’m not one for the beach in the uk summer time unless I’m going down mega early for a sea swim and plan to be home by 8:30. We are about 45 minutes from the coast!

Shoot me but I don’t even like fish and chips. I’m probably the only person I have ever met who doesn’t. (Blame my neurotically upward mobile mum).

Its definitely a seaside activity though!

cf "making memories" - eurgh. JUST DO THINGS THAT ARE NICE.
Don't try and construct future you.
There's no memories pension.
The things kids remember are rarely the staged ones.

I'm a similar distance from the sea but rarely go. If we do, it's on a grey and windy day and I like to wrap up and watch the tide and listen to the waves. It's such a comforting thing to do with decent chips and a flask of earl grey.

It isn't staged for most people.

It's planned and anticipated and factored in.

Raising my hand to join you. I absolutely love fish in most preparations, I love the sea, no objection whatsoever to eating outside, love a beach picnic. But I always find fish and chips to be so bland. By the time I've finished dousing it enough salt and vinegar to give it some flavour, it's soggy.

I grew up by the sea. A summer evening walk on the front, a bag of chips with plenty of salt and vinegar to eat on the way home. Magic 🥰