Chumley Warner's

Lunch was a little haphazard yesterday....We had the lunch specials at Thai River which was just next door to Chumley Warner's. While we were eating, we couldn't help but peek continuously (stared shamelessly rather) through the tinted windows at those unwrapped paper packages of battered fish & chips with gravy and mushy peas...That's not to say that our Thai meal was bad. In fact we were delightfully surprised, the Red Curry and Tom Yum (all ~ $8) were some of the better tasting ones around...sorry no pics!

Anyway, after shopping for some traditional British boiled lollies, chocolates and frozen Kidney Puddings at Britain on the Bayside we were lured back to Chumley Warner's and had our 2nd lunch of the day. Miss food hunter had the Battered Cod and Mr food hunter had his eyes set on the Faggots (thats the name of the food NOT what you were just thinking)!

Miss food hunter loves Cod but till today she is unsure why the cod from the fish & chippery is vastly different from the cod prepped in a restaurant. Variety perhaps? It is the texture of the flesh that is different, with the restaurant's fillet having more succulent 'bite' to it. The batter is indeed different and reminded me of the batter of a Goreng Pisang which is a deep fried battered banana; a popular street snack in Singapore. The cod has an uneven coat of light crunchiness, ending with a somewhat 'tad-sticky' grind through the teeth (alright i know i am not describing it right!) A little seasoning of coarse salt and malt vinegar eaten together with Mr food hunter's gravy chips, made it another complete meal! Oh yah...we didn't think we'd like soggy chips but those traditional British potato-ey chips worked for us ;p

The Faggots as we found out later, are a traditional British meatball type dish made from off cuts of beef and particularly pork seasoned with some herbs.  The meatballs were quite generous in size and were probably the moistest meatballs Mr food hunter had in quite some time.  There is a slight liver taste in the meatballs from the off cuts but pairs nicely with the herbs and seasonings used.  I just loved the way the whole dish worked together, nothing fancy but merely eating it, really gives you that sense of being in the UK.

There will be more stop-overs at the Aquatic Paradise Centre for sure when we next bring the dogs out for a swim at Wellington Pt.

Chumley Warner's Traditional British Fish & Chips
Aquatic Paradise Centre
Shop 8 190 Birkdale road
Birkdale
Opens Tuesday to Sunday
http://www.chumleywarners.com.au/index.html