Hake

Simon Hoggart, writing his column on TV in The Spectator, said that rather than eat something that those "wonderful" chefs had concocted, he'd settle for sausage and chips.
I agree. Some of these fancy chefs seem to be more concerned with elegant presentation than taste, as if they are producing works of art.
I like plain food. I think there are good sauces but there are few chefs who can produce them. I recall Bernard Levin, in a series of radio broadcasts on his favourite Euroopean restaurants, mentioning that just after he'd finished a coarse the waiter went to take his plate away; "No," said Levin. "Bread please for the remaining sauce." But in many cases the sauces are so strong that the real flavour of the fresh food is suppressed - my father always maintained that curry was used in India to cover up the smell of rotting meat.
Today I bought some hake and it was delicious. No sauce, just fried hake and chips (and not your oven-ready kind which are often reconstituted potatoes formed into chip-like shapes). And how much did it cost for two of us? £3.35.
In Ashton's fish stall in Cardiff's market they sell hake in three forms: fillets, cutlets and whole young hake. The fillets and cutlets are about £20 per kg whereas the whole hake is about £5 per kg. The whole hake is filleted, topped and tailed by the fishmonger so there's nothing to be done when at home except cook it.
So why do people buy the dear fish instead of what I buy, the whole hake? No doubt they must feel that work would have to be done on the whole fish: it's simpler to buy one or two cutlets.... Crazy.
As for sausage and mash, one has to be particular in choosing the best sausages - or, rather, those one likes most. Not continental ones of course. When Graham Greene was asked what he missed most about England he replied "sausages".