- [Jeff] Time to get my fish out.
- [Pops] Be very careful.
- [Jeff] Oh no!
I'm so sorry! I broke it!
Ugh, I ruined it!
(upbeat guitar music)
Hey, I'm Jeff, I have lived in London for three years now,
and embarrassingly, I've never tried fish and chips.
Not really a fish fan.
So, we're trying it today, it should be pretty interesting.
Not only am I gonna try fish and chips,
I'm gonna learn how to make fish and chips.
And as someone that doesn't cook,
what could possibly go wrong?
All this crazy memorabilia.
The queen!
And this place is lined with all these,
this coffee riding thing, which I still have
no idea what it is.
But someone's gonna get elephant drunk tonight I guess!
1730, that's older than the U.S. even!
I think?
(giggle)
(upbeat bass guitar)
I'm with Pops, the owner and boss man
of Poppie's Fish and Chips.
So Pops, why does Britain love fish and chips so much?
What's the deal?
- In the war, it wasn't rationed.
So, people could eat freely if they had the money.
- Okay.
- And they did.
Really, it's the first real takeaway there ever was.
- Yeah, that's a good point.
What exactly, what is fish and chips?
- Well, it's fresh fish, you dip it in rice crumb,
then you take it to the batter,
you dip the batter and you lay it instantly into the oil.
You lay it, and not drop it in,
and that way the batter stays crisp.
And chipped up potatoes, and that's what fish and chips is.
It's simple, really, but at the same time,
you've gotta have that love of doing it
if you're gonna do it right.
And that's what Poppie's got about a lot of people.
Don't get me wrong, there are other
good fish and chips shops, but I don't think anyone
could out strip Poppie, anyone.
- I've never had fish and chips before
so I'm coming here for the first time,
what is the order that I have to get?
- It would be haddock and chips or cod and chips.
- Okay
Oh I didn't know there was a difference.
I thought all fish and chips was just one fish, no?
- No, no, no, no
- Oh
- No
- I had no idea
- What we do skate, we do um, rock
- Rock fish?
- Rock fish
- I've never heard of that haha
- And there's a lot of additives that go with,
traditionally go with the fish and chips,
like the samaloys.
- What is that?
- Samaloy its like a boiled sausage.
My personal is cod and chips with a wally.
- What's a wally?
- Wally is a pickled cucumber
- Okay
I mean you're telling me a lot of these things
but I still don't fully understand all of it.
So if you could show me the ropes,
show me how to cook some of it,
show me what, the different fish are.
- Yeah
- Let's do it
- Yeah come on
(circus music)
- Look at all these french fries
Yeah I can't be behind the counter without wearing,
a Poppie's apron.
This way, yeah?
- Yeah
- Oh I feel so official
- He really doesn't know, this American, how to put on-
- I wasn't sure if it was supposed to go the other way
That's a doctor's coat isn't it?
First of all, all these french fries I'm surrounded by,
they're not even fried and they look so good.
I
love, I love fries.
- And by the way, they're chips not fries.
- Chips
- Yeah
- Okay
- Don't, you've loaded us up with tomato sauce,
don't try and take away our chips.
- Uh, I definitely wanna try some,
but I also wanna learn how to make it.
- Right, there's not many people
that fry Poppie's fish n' chips,
so you should be highly honored.
- Wow
I mean I am, award winning fish and chips.
Award winning deep fryer
(clicks tongue)
- Not yet
(laughs)
Open the fridge
- First I'm gonna grab the fish
- Yup
- Alright
- Okay grab your fish is cod
- One of these
- All right
- Going in the rice crumb
- In the rice crumb
Alright then you go into the batter.
- Now its batter time baby
- Hold it, yeah that's it.
Now lay it into that batter, do not let go.
- Lay it, do not let go, no pressure
- No
Make sure
- [Jeff] Get the other side too?
- [Pops] Turn it over yeah
- [Jeff] How do I get this part?
- Right you twist your hand.
- Got it
- Okay now bring it out
- Now I gotta bring it up and lay it flat
- Hang on, let it drain a bit
- This gets heavy
- Right now, in you go. Just lay it into the oil.
- Okay, lay it, lay it, lay it, lay it, lay it,
and let go.
- That's it
- Woohoo
How long do you let it fry for?
- These are the , like that, seven to eight minutes
- Seven to eight minutes
- [Pops] That's it
- Where do I put it?
- Lay it to dry here
- Here?
- The cabinet
- Here?
- Yup
- Woohoo
Poppies's!
- You're a fish fryer
(video game coin sound) (clapping)
- Hi, welcome to Jeff's fish and chips
Who wants some?
5000lbs for this girl right here. Who wants it?
All of them?
- [Pops] Yeah all of them.
- At the same time?
- [Pops] No no no, like this
- Oh okay
- Take that. - Take that
- Yup - Yup
- Be very very careful, and they're drying
- Ay cod bites, order up.
Whoops
- [Pops] Be careful
- (laughs)
- [Pops] Don't lift your things up like that,
you'll burn yourself.
- So much harder than I thought it was gonna be.
There is oil all over the floor.
- Ill get that cleaned
- There's so many rules
- You got to do it quick but you got to do it clean.
- Right, and I have no idea what I'm doing
so its not quick or clean.
- I don't know what I'm doing
- (laughs)
- Should we give him a job Tom or not?
- [Tom] Yeah yeah yeah
- [Jeff] I think I'm doing great for a first time
- You think he's got a future with us yeah?
- [Jeff] Before you know it,
its gonna be Jeff's fish and chips.
I'm gonna be your newest competition.
- I've noticed the shop's got busier since you came
- I know, I draw a crowd what can I say?
People wanna try my fish and chips.
- Hear him?
- What's that?
- People wanna come and have his fish and chips.
- Yeah
- I'm glad I waited this long to not,
to never have fish and chips.
Because now I feel like the one that I get to eat
is the one that I made which just makes it that much better.
So yeah I'm really excited.
- How's his fish doing in there?
- How's my fish? How's my fish?
- How's his fish?
- Time to get my fish out
Middle of it
- Try not to break it
because it doesn't look nice on the plate broken
(game over sound effect)
- Oh no
I'm so sorry, I broke it.
- [Employee] Its alright, it's alright
- [Pops] Don't worry mate that's a bit overly
- Ugh I ruined it
- [Employee] You can have this
- Please don't bother to apply for the job,
you're out of here
- I'm already fired
- You've already killed your chances
That's your special piece of fish
I won't give it to a customer because its broken
- I know
- You're gonna put the chips on the plate
And you're not gonna throw it all over the shop.
Come on Jeff
- Yup, fry time, chip time
- Yup
- How much?
- Bit more - More?
- Bit more.
- Yeah
My very own fish and chips
I made this, I broke it but I made it
Working was really stressful,
if you break it, if there's too much pressure,
if you don't hold it at the right angle,
if you grab a small bit, like there's I,
there's like a science behind it which I had no idea,
I thought it was just a deep fried fish,
what happen, what else could be?
(southern rock music)
Ooh its time to eat
Ooh there it is
Aright again I've genuinely never even had
fish and chips before.
I've lived here for three years, I've never even tried it
`Um, but now I'm gonna try the one that I made,
how cool is that.
We gotta dash it with vinegar yeah?
- Yeah
- And the chips of course how could I forget
Alright now some salt
Lemon squeeze
- Yeah - Yeah?
- On the fish
- Remember, any complaints, you cooked it.
- I know I cooked it.
Are you nervous? Are you nervous for me?
- Oh no I know you're gonna like it
- Okay, oh that's the attitude I like
Try my fish
My fish, I made this, I deep fried this, I broke it
It is, its so good
The batter is like delicious and crunchy,
its so good, and its even better knowing its mine.
Poppie's needs to like have new Jeff menu item
where it just breaks in half anyway
and you just charge triple the price.
Oh that was a really good bite,
I mean its delicious.
- Do you like it?
- I do really like it
I'm actually really surprised by the taste,
I thought it was gonna be like
chewy, almost like a frozen fish finger type thing,
but its like, even as a not fish fan,
I can tell that this is fresh fish.
Also,
chips,
delicious, so good
I think the American in me loves the extra deep fried bits,
um, but the addition of vinegar, the salt, the lemon even,
its, its, its really good so, I'm really impressed
I'm a changed person, I like fish and chips now.
I never ever ever thought I'd see the day.
It'd be interesting to see America's version of this,
I think it'd be a lot more deep fried but um yeah.
I'll give you this one.
How could you not? Its deep fried in batter.
Like even if you don't like the fish itself
but the fish itself actually is amazing
(upbeat southern rock)
- Yeah he was okay, um
Might just a lot of professionals behind him
and he did manage to break the fish but um
- Am I hired?
Do I have the job Poppy?
- Yeah but you'll have to go through my training program
now getting through that is different than giving you a job.
- I think I already went through your program,
I clearly, I clearly smashed it
- No, no you didn't mate
- Yeah I did
- No
You're okay, you're okay but you're not the main deal.
- I'm not at Poppie's just yet
- Yeah you're not there yet
- Right
- Yeah
- Like Pop Jr
- Yeah okay
- I didn't think he was gonna say that
I actually really enjoyed the fish and chips a lot more
than I expected.
I was kind of nervous this morning
but obviously I was gonna give it my all
and I actually really liked it.
I'm actually really impressed by fish and chips
I thought it was gonna be kind of gross
but it was actually really good so
Fair play UK, I get it.
(upbeat southern rock)