Mark Mason

The deep Britishness of fish and chips

Fish and Chips: A History, by Panikos Panayi, is frustratingly academic and lacking in vinegar, but still full of fascinating facts

issue 01 November 2014

During the D-day landings, members of the parachute regiment, finding themselves behind enemy lines at night, needed a way of telling whether someone nearby was friend or foe. Their solution was a pair of codewords: one man would call out ‘fish’, the other replied ‘chips’.

Brits seem to reach for the words as easily as we reach for the food itself.

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