Fish And Chips appears as a signature dish in 1 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
New England fish and chips · Boston
New England fish and chips is beer-battered or breadcrumbed haddock or cod, deep-fried until crisp, served with thick-cut fries and tartar sauce. The Friday-night Catholic-Irish staple in Boston since the 1880s.
Cod was the foundation of Boston's pre-revolution economy: the dried-salt cod trade with the Caribbean financed the city's merchant class through the 1700s. The Sacred Cod, a five-foot pine carving, has hung in the Massachusetts State House since 1784 to memorialise the fish. Boston's Irish-Catholic immigrant wave after the 1840s built Friday-night fish-and-chips into the standard family meal, supported by the church's no-meat-Friday rule. The dish reaches the table breaded or beer-battered; haddock has replaced cod as the kitchen-side default since cod stocks collapsed in the 1990s. Union Oyster House, Legal Sea Foods and South End Buttery keep the classic plate on the menu year round.
Where to eat in Boston:
- Union Oyster House
- Legal Sea Foods Long Wharf
- South End Buttery
- James Hook & Co