Fish and Chips is one of Britain's favourite traditional foods. It is almost as traditional as Roast Beef and Yorkshire Puddings to many and is a much cheaper and better value alternative to other fast foods such as pizza or kebabs. And if you don't fancy fish with your chips, there is today a much larger choice of food available at the local chippy such as sausages, fried chicken, chicken nuggets, beef burgers and spam fritters. Many fish and chip shops these days also offer extras such as mushy peas, bread, gravy, baked beans and curry sauce.

A few facts about Fish and Chips:

Cod and haddock account for around 45% of all fish consumed in Britain.

In 1999 fish friers served up more than 283 million meals a year making it the most popular takeaway among the British population.

There are over 8,600 fish and chip shops in the UK who served up around 49,200 tonnes of fish last year.

The record for the most portions of fish and chips served up in one day by a fish and chip shop is over 4,000!

Apart from fish and chips being a delicious tasty dish, fish is very healthy being high in B vitamins and protein. Add potatoes (chips) to it and you've got yourself a nutritious, balanced meal. However, quite a lot of fat is used in frying and so eating bread or peas with your fish and chips will help to balance out the fat intake. Eating thick cut chips is much healthier than thin fries because they soak up less fat. Typically, thin fries contain around 15% fat compared to 7% in thick cut chips. However, many Fish and Chip shops use chips which have already been partially cooked and then frozen. The 'second' frying can increase the fat content to around 12%.

Oily fish such as mackeral, herring, sardines and pilchards are very good for you too. They are good sources of protein, vitamins and are also high in unsaturated fats. Health guidelines suggest eating oily fish at least twice a week...

油炸魚薯是最受英國人歡迎的經典菜肴之一，它幾乎和烤牛肉一樣傳統，而且相較匹薩、烤肉串等其他快餐食品相比，它又是價廉物美的不二之選。如果你不喜歡這種搭配也沒關系，在當地的油炸小吃店里還有許多其它食物供你選擇，如：香腸，炸雞，牛肉漢堡和肉末餡餅等等。還有不少小店現在推出了豌豆泥 ，面包，肉湯，烤豆和咖喱漿等小食。

炸魚和薯條的相關數據：

• 鱈魚占全英所有魚類消費的45%
  
• 僅1999年一年就有2.83億份油炸魚出爐，使之成為了最受英國人歡迎的外賣食品
  
• 英國有8600多家油炸魚薯店，僅去年一年就平均售出了近49200公噸的魚
  
• 一家炸魚薯條店一天銷售的油炸魚薯最高紀錄高達4000份
  

油炸魚薯不僅味美而且營養豐富。因為魚富含維他命B和蛋白質，加上薯條就組成了一道即營養又健康的美味佳肴。然而，因為是油炸食品，就難免會受到許多愛美人士的排斥，所以建議在享用的時候如果能配上面包和豆類的話，就能很好的平衡掉被吸收的多余脂肪。薯條相對厚一點比較好，這樣吸收的油就會較少一些，薄的炸薯條油脂含量約為15%，而厚的則只有7% 。不過在一般的油炸魚薯店里所用的薯條都是事先煮熟然后冷凍的，這樣二次油炸會將油脂含量增加到12%。

鯖，青魚和沙丁魚之類的油性魚也是不錯的選擇。它們蛋白質，維他命含量極高，也富含較高不飽和脂肪。健康專家建議人們至少一周吃兩次這種油性魚。


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