Edinburgh is well known as the home of salt ‘n’ sauce.
The latest fishy story over the last day or two is that one of the city’s fine takeaways has decided to charge for tomato sauce although not for the chip shop sauce which is still free, and the establishment has been branded ‘racist’ by one of its customers.
To go for a fish supper and ask for salt’n’sauce designates you as someone who hails from the Capital. If you like vinegar or tomato sauce, curry sauce or heaven forbid, mayonnaise, as your preferred condiment then clearly you are from elsewhere, and perhaps a very far flung place at that.
In the first place salt’n’sauce means that you adorn your fish supper with more than just a sprinkling of salt and then load it with brown chip shop sauce which is said to be a mix of malt vinegar and sauce… But what else can it mean?
There is a Salt ‘n’Sauce Forum where most of the chat is about football, including both Hearts and Hibs. You can also follow them on Twitter. Their Facebook page is a little less populated.
There is a holding page for a Salt’n’Sauce website, clearly held by someone wishing to cash in at some stage on the fact that they own the domain which some chippie might be after.
Tommy Sheppard who has run the Assembly Rooms Fringe and Spiegelterrace on George Street this year and last has a company called Salt’n’Sauce Promotions which is well known to those interested in comedy, as it started off with The Stand venue in Edinburgh. It is familiar now to those following the Fringe in the city centre. Sheppard said at the launch of this year’s Assembly Rooms Fringe that he wants the heart of the Festival to come back to the city centre.
Edinburgh Sauce were supplying brown and red ‘chippy sauce on Amazon and eBay where each bottle retailed for under a fiver plus postage and packing earlier this year, although it is not quite clear if they are still in business or not.
The Federation of Fish Friers tell us that fish and chips originated in 1860 either in London or Manchester, and had an hoonourable mention in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities in the previous year.
So how do you like your fish and chips and where do you get them from?
Some of the fine establishments where you can get your hands on the national dish in Edinburgh are listed here and shown on the map, but if we have forgotten yours then do tell us! We would like this to be the comprehensive list of salt ‘n’sauce!
Franco’s Chip Shop 5-7 Comely Bank Road T 0131 332 3557
Gorgie Fish Bar 136-138 Gorgie Road T 0131 337 5199
Pacific Fish Bar 61 Mayfield Road T 0131 668 3890
Tailend 14 Albert Street T 0131 555 3577
Deep Sea 2 Antigua Street T 0131 557 0276
Benes Chip Shop 162 Canongate T 0131 557 1092
City Restaurant 33-35 Nicolson Street T 0131 667 2819
The Newington Traditional Fish Bar 23 South Clerk Street T 0131 667 0203
L’Alba d”Oro 7 Henderson Row T 0131 557 2580
Cafe Piccante 19 Broughton Street T 0131 478 7884
The Chip Inn 234 Oxgangs Road North T 0131 441 1940
Rapido Fish Bar 77-79 Broughton Street T 0131 556 2041
Carlos 227 Portobello High Street T 0131 669 3010
Clam Shell 148 High Street T 0131 225 4388
Gold Sea 243 Ferry Road T0131 554 2195
Salvatore’s 16 Roseneath Street T 0131 299 4087
Aquamarina Fish and Chips 3 Yeaman Place T 0131 229 3981
L’Aquila Bianca 17 Raeburn Place T 0131 332 8433
Angelo’s 8 Lochend Road South T 0131 661 7706
The Codfather 305a Sciennes T 0131 629 6492
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
