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!

Why does this bother you so much?! Nobody’s saying you have to do this. It’s a suggestion, not a diktat.

It’s just a thing some people like to do at the seaside, that’s all. It doesn’t have to be an ‘experience’ and of course people aren’t doing it every night. But it’s a traditional thing to do at the seaside, like building a sandcastle or paddling in the sea or spending an hour in an amusement arcade or having a snack from a seafood kiosk that does crab sandwiches and cockles and whelks. Nobody’s saying you have to do those things, but obviously they’re things people associate with a day at the seaside. Fish and chips on the promenade is just another thing like that.

I don’t like eating while walking along, personally. I do love eating fish and chips by the sea, though.

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I like fish and chips by the sea. It’s nice to watch the ocean and smell the sea while eating fish and chips. We tend to sit on the prom somewhere.

So much misery to unpick but my children are in their late 20s and 30s we always had fish and chips although one only had chips on a seaside holiday, they now do the same, "making real memories" is not staged they are planted, i mean i am sure you have some nice memories from childhood or maybe for your own children if you have any or are you to cool for all that nonsense?

You’re missing out on one of life’s great joys.

Fair enough - of course I do that. Maybe my problem is with the twee smugness of the language around the planning.
I have a problem with 'welcomed a little girl' too, so it could well be that.

Also, if its constructedness is all out there front and centre and a bit performative-in-advance, the possibility for authentic loveliness seems likely to be reduced. It often seems to be about the family selfie.

Love an indoor chippy with plastic chequered table cloths.

We eat them by the sea in the winter too. Part of the ‘experience’ will be walking by the seafront, looking at the harbour, view, people watching etc then getting the food (and drink) sitting by the sea and depending on the timing stay and watch the sun go down.

Sitting on an uninhabited island with no-one else in sight just me and DH eating fish and chips with a bottle of wine watching a beautiful sunset was an amazing experience which has stayed with us for years. As I said earlier @PyongyangKipperbang you are doing it wrong!

Its just a long standing British tradition, like a roast for Sunday lunch.
We live by the sea and occasionally will walk down, get fish and chips, and sit on the prom or the beach and watch the sea. Its lovely. However it's maybe twice a year. If I'm having a meal out or a takeaway f&c would not be my first choice.
It's a nice seaside thing, probably a treat for the kids, but it's not compulsory.

Sorry?

Once lost mine sitting on a harbour wall… bloody gull! 😂

Live in Cornwall so basically this

I’ve no complaints about eating fish and chips by the sea, but I agree, it’s not an activity!

Then again, the vast majority of MN’s can’t have a hot chocolate unless it’s ’cosy’….perhaps that’s any activity too.

Add in a bottle of champagne and a picnic blanket- now you’re talking 😊

You're taking the whole thing too literally @PyongyangKipperbang

The reality is often finding a seat or a sea wall and eating F&C there.

It's really about sea/walking/ fish/chips but not always at the same time.

I don’t like fish and chips.
i love seafood… lobster, salmon, fresh tuna, mussels etc. I don’t like battered fish, and I’m not a huge fan of chips! My kids don’t like fish and chips either.

@PrettyLittleRose well said! I love seagulls too and think it only fair that they should have their 10% of fish and chips - after all, humans have stolen their fish from the sea. I always feed the gulls my waste food. Plus they are doing a service by cleaning up the streets. I've only been mugged once for an ice cream in Port Isaac. Hate the demonisation of such lovely birds!

A fancy chippy we used to treat ourselves to used to do scallops (as in the shellfish) and chips with added chorizo. Lush!

It's special if you're the type of person who can appreciate the simple pleasures of life.

It's all about attitude. If you're hard to impress, you're hard to impress.

Begging’ yer pardun, missus fer me ingnerunce

It’s not special to you. That doesn’t mean it’s not a nice activity or something that many people enjoy.
For lots of people it can elicit feelings of nostalgia.

My DS and the kids we were on holiday with specifically asked to do this. It was on their list of things we had to do because it’s tradition. Along with other activities we do every year as part of our UK seaside holiday.

Oh dear, something else we do often….

Just out of interest, what are your suggestions for holiday activities?

Might as well admit all ours in one go:

• Picnic at the park
• Fish and chips and walk by the sea
• BBQ in the garden with friends
• Film on the sofa with snacks
• A picnic in the woods
• The zoo
• Possibly a theme park
• A bus into town and a touch of window shopping
• Um read, play and maybe the odd bit of arts and crafts?

Perfect. And I would add that a pasty for lunch on the beach after a reviving morning in the sea is also one of my favourite things when in Cornwall...

Same. It just has no flavour to me…

But the seagulls help to stop overeating. If you are faffing about with your meal or sitting down lazily eating a seagull has as much rite as any wild animal to hunt its prey or gather its provisions. Yes Trad fish and chips only tastes right if walking along your breezy old prom with a can of shandy. Extra vinegar may help with the gulls