Fish and Chips - NE Style.
 

With Athens restaurant closed, we're looking for another place to get really good deep fried fish (haddock or maybe cod) and chips. Athens was the best we'd found around here; so now we're looking again for a reliable spot for a Friday fish-fix. Sam St. Johns is ok...but would like to find a golf cart accessible place.

Lighthouse?

I don't know anything about NE style fish and chips but the best I ever had was in Scotland in the early 60's at a fish and chips place right across the street where I rented a flat for about a year in a town called Auchenblae. They were given to me wrapped in a newspaper as is a British tradition for probably a hundred years or more, and poured over them was their malt vineagar. The "chips" were NOT cut like french fries but in chunks.
If you find a good place, please post it here so I can try it.

What is New England style ? I love fish fries especially with haddock or cod. Battered and deep fried.

Haven't tried their fish & chips yet, have you, any comments...will give it a go.

The NE style, which can vary quite a lot not just from Maine to Connecticut...but from 1 establishment to the next in the same town; so I guess it's a bit ambiguous to say there is 1 NE style...given that subjective approach, your description above is similar in some ways to a couple of my favorite fish joints as far as packaging for take-out. It's probably easier to say the NE fish & chips style I preferred closely resembled what was served at Athens on SS square. Deep fried light flaky fresh haddock, a crispy breaded crust (maybe corn meal or some other type of flour beer-batter coating)...cooked to a texture where the fish easily flakes apart, not dry, not oily, not overcooked. Some places served this up a little soggier and heavier than others, but still quite tasty. Typically the cooked haddock easily filled at least 1/2 of a standard dinner plate, and at least 1 inch thick. Seems like it should be an easy meal to crank out consistently good, when you start with a decent fresh piece of fish...but much dining on f&c all across the NE states (& Florida) proves otherwise. And chowder...that's another whole dilemma...anyway, the search continues.

Hope my previous post helps describe...as an added note - it's got to be haddock or cod. Never pollock or scrod (whatever that is) or some of the nasty whitefish in abundance down here like tilapia or swai.

grayesun: The deep fried haddock presented by Athens was good, but could never match the fried haddock served up by Doug's in Skaneatles New York in size and quality
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Having said that I have never found a place that could match Athens in this area. Never

I really like the fried fish at the Rose and Crown at Epcot.

John

Oh yeah. And the stand outside.

The Lighthouse is the closest we've found in The Villages. NE Maine Lobsters on Friday nights. They have fried haddock or baked. Lobster tails on Sat nights. They have stuffed quahogs on the appetizer list. I was told the owners are from MA as are we. Their clam chowder is good too.

In Michigan, it was usually cod, haddock or lake perch. YUM !!!! Sometimes pollock, but I like that too. I'm not a big tiapia person.

Went to Scotland 5X...
 

for work @ 2mo./trip....had the fish and chips twice....worst I've ever had...greasy, bony and tasted like fishy lard...nothing like the slight taste of newsprint to leave and unwritten impression.

Also interested....I remember as a child getting halibut and chips in newsprint, smothered in malt vinegar from take-out Windows on the street. Yum....
For the interest for the unitiated, the malt vinegar cuts the oil on the coating.

School kids used to line up at lunch time at those windows and get an overflowing amount of chips for 15 cents. What a treat!

Try Hacienda Hills Friday fish fry and Honest John's.