Real fish and chips

 You know sometimes when you just want fish and chips. You know when you wake up and all you want is crispy batter, even before you've had breakfast. Then you base your entire day about finding said fish and chips then eating said fish and chips, then going online to write about said fish and chips to prolong the pleasure and relive the experience like the self indulgent tragic trait that psychopathic serial killers have which always seems to get them caught. Well today I had one of those days.

  Due to being a reduced to a hobbling mess after burning my foot, doing normal things has been very hard recently. I've been having to think like an old person when it comes to doing anything outside of the flat. How far is it from the car park? For example, is something that never really bothered me until now. So in order to get some Autumn air we took a drive out past Loch Lomond (and the disappointing mushrooms) to visit the Jail at Inveraray as I wouldn't have too far to hobble. What my wife didn't know was that I had woken up wanting fish and chips.

 Thankfully fish and chips is what we had and more than that it was accompanied by my other great love in life. Real ale! Now here comes a minor rant, so be warned. As an Englishman living in Scotland I am often perplexed about the direness of Scottish pubs, particularly Scottish country inns. For example take the Lake District national park, a beautiful part of the country, a major tourist attraction blessed by a good dusting from the proper pub fairy. Almost all the villages and hamlets no matter how small or stranded up a tiny lane they may be have at least one pub, more often than not two or three, usually serving a good pint of proper local beer. Now look at the Loch Lomond and Trossachs national park, equally beautiful, equally attractive to tourists, slightly larger even, but totally barren of places to get a decent pint. Instead as with most of rural Scotland you will mainly find wanky golf club bistros and those massive uninviting Victorian hotels often with a bad flat roof extension done sometime in the 70's that only coach parties of old ladies and Americans go to.

The proximity to the main road gives excellent access for
coach loads of grannies well catered for by our 'soft foods' menu.

 

Anyway...... (ranting panting pause)...... Therefore we were pleasantly surprised when we stepped foot inside the George Hotel in Inveraray in hunt of lunch. It was a Sunday and it was very busy full of depressed looking dads, rich looking mums and wailing babies (with the odd oh so troubled and like totes embarrassed teenager for good measure) but apart from that it was a proper nice old inn. Old oak antiques which were actively used and not just there for style magazine deco purposes, real fires, cosy nooks, flagstone floors and dingy lighting. All signs of a good traditional drinking establishment. There was no 'contemporary' styling makeover either where the 'old red lion' becomes 'the lion at <insert village name>' with the old sign replaced by a minimal placard in silver or grey.

     We were seated by a person who worked there which nodded to their focus on being an eating pub as opposed to a drinking pub and were handed a very standard but classic pub menu. To their credit they avoided doing the self indulgent thing that some similar pubs do by referring to items on the menu as having some special merit because, low and behold they actually made the food they serve by saying things like 'Steak with 'Old Red Lion' chips' etc. Meaningless and annoying. We were very tempted by the roast of the day but when I read 'all items are fried in animal fat' there was no argument.

  So the fish and chips arrived with no mushy peas! Just fish and chips, but again I forgive them as boy was it good! Proper soft centred but crunchy chips and sweet fresh haddock with a tasty batter thanks to the lard or dripping used for cooking. It was washed down by a brilliantly fresh pint of October Gold (not sure who brewed it but possibly Fyne Ales as there are just up the road?). Healthy? No. Tasty? Oh yes! It really hit the spot. Fish and chips vary greatly and so do the positive attributes needed to judge them. Some fish and chips are great because the batter is super light and crispy, some because the batter is a bit stodgy but rammed full of flavour like a Yorkshire pudding soaked in gravy. Same goes for chips. This particular fish and chips fell into the proper chip shop category so being able to have this style of frying along with a pint and a log fire was a real winner.

 It must be noted that on leaving I checked out an impressive range of whiskies and some interesting gins too, possibly something to do with having a great whisky shop over the road (loch fine whiskies) behind the bar and the pictures of the rooms looked amazing. We left, satisfied.

Fuck, am I becoming a food snob?