In a Yorkshire Live piece entitled 7 great inventions and cool things Jewish people have given to Yorkshire, comes this surprising tidbit:
Fish and chips is as British as it gets, right? Well, it was actually brought into Britain and by extension, Yorkshire by Jewish immigrants.
Jewish immigrant Joseph Malin opened Britain’s first known fish and chip shop in East London, in 1860.
Sephardic Jews (those of Spanish, Portuguese and North African ancestry) would fry fish in batter and eat it cold on the Sabbath when cooking was forbidden. Malin worked out that it tasted great hot too, especially combined with fried potatoes – and his customers agreed.
The most British food there is….created by Jews! Could we call that ironic?
If you are palestinian Arab, you will no doubt call it a cultural appropriation.
Either way, the British should thank us for this invention…and for not making it something else.
