Alun Callender
British cuisine is often the butt of jokes, but one thing the Brits do so well that it’s spread throughout the world is fish and chips—battered and fried fish, served with deep-fried potatoes. But as the BBC reported in 2009, the number of “chippies,” the shops where Brits buy what is often considered the U.K.’s national dish, had dropped to about 10,000 from a high of about 35,000 in 1929. And by 2023, NPR would report that in the aftermath of the pandemic and high inflation, shops were closing all over the U.K., and “one of Britain’s favorite foods is fast turning from a staple into a luxury.”
