Fish and chips – battered fried fish and French fries – have been popular in Great Britain for more than a century. For many Brits, Fish and Chips Friday is a weekly ritual. There are thousands of chip shops where people can buy the tasty meal. It has been called “the national dish of Great Britain.” But the story begins long before and in a different land. The fried fish was a favorite of Sephardic Jews who lived in Portugal centuries earlier. Forced to flee the Spanish Inquisition, many resettled in England, bringing the fish with them. The potato came to England even later, in the 1800s. Who first put them together? No one knows for sure.
