Hooked Fish & Chips

This blog has moved to http://multiculturalmelbourne.com/



Multicultural Cuisine of... Seafood

Hooked Fish & Chips
384 Brunswick St, 
Fitzroy
(03) 9417 7740

Visit Website

Wow, a LOT has been happening in the life of this little food blogger lately...

I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I'm doing with my life, and whether it's making me happy or not; after many turbulent years dealing with my own inner demons and unhappiness, a few years ago I made a decision that I deserve to just be happy, and to really, truly enjoy my life. It sounds basic enough, doesn't it? But as anyone else who has suffered from depression will attest, it's just not as simple as "being happy."

I spent plenty of years being quite miserable and just dealing with life and getting through the day. I wanted to be happy, I really did! I just didn't know how to! Making some beautiful friends along the way, meeting and marrying my best friend, Sous-Jeff, mending some strained family relationships, and playing "mum" to my beautiful dog, the KitchenBug, have all made an immeasurable difference. Another thing that has reaaaalllly helped me get through has been food.

I'm not talking about comfort eating, or binge eating, or anything like that. I'm talking about cooking and baking. I'm sure it sounds insane to a lot of people, but cooking relaxes me. It's how I enjoy spending my down time, and I certainly don't see it as a chore. I love reading cook books and watching cooking/travel shows on TV. That's one of my other passions - travel. I want to see the world and explore every culture I can (hence, "Multicultural Melbourne!"), learning about their food traditions, something that's been spawned on by being brought up with a strong Italian heritage.

SO, with all of that said, this week I decided to resign from my health and wellness based job after six years in the industry, and am super excited to be starting a new career adventure in a few weeks, as a travel consultant! I'm really excited to be following another one of my passions, alongside my cooking classes with Amore Cucina, and my food blogging! Wow, all my Christmases at once :)

Which takes me to this blog post... after officially resigning and officially accepting my new job offer (which came about awfully randomly - will tell you more about it later!), Sous-Jeff took me to my favourite fooding-and-drinking hole to celebrate - Naked for Satan (You can read all about one of my many adventures to Naked for Satan here)! After a few celebratory cocktails and pintxos, we decide to meander on down Brunswick St for something a little more substantial for dinner, maybe a shared pizza or something. I also decide we'll be heading to Shocolate for dessert (macarons... YUM!), so we won't need to eat a heap. And then, we stumble upon this A-frame...

Melbourne's best chips? Well, our hands are tied. We are somewhat connoisseurs of the deep fried, crispy delights that are hot chips, and are quite well-versed on what constitutes a good chip.

In we walk, to find an absolutely adorable little set up, of wooden picnic tables and benches, and old, weather-boarded walls with framed fishy pictures. Cute! We looked to the counter to see a giant blackboard with the "catches" of the day. And we notice some more information on the board to the right of the counter... Why healthy seafood, you ask? Well, let me tell you...

The delicious food here are low in fat, low in cholesterol, high in protein, vitamins and minerals, rich in Omega-3, and no frozen chips! You can read more about their fabulousness here. The tables were set with Sicilian rock salt and wooden boxes containing cutlery and serviettes. We were ready. Give us the chips.

After a wait of a mere 10 minutes, our chips arrived. Oh my. They look verrryyyyy impressive, hand cut, golden, crisp potato chips, topped with even crispier, deep fried sweet potato chips on top. Wow. And for our extra 90c each, our sauces look very generously portioned.

Regular Chips, $5.90 with Basil Salsa Verde ($0.90) and Sweet Chilli Sauce ($0.90).

Now, having eaten more hot chips than we'd like to admit, we have extremely high standards of anywhere claiming to have the best chips. We were bitterly disappointed by Lord of the Fries after their claim to being the best, so we are a little more cautious now. Upon tearing into these chips, we decided that they were delicious, they were better than your average chip, but they still weren't the best chips we've ever had. That honour goes to Eltham's Burger Lounge, to be reviewed very soon. 

There was certainly nothing wrong with these chips - they were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, well seasoned, and we looooved the addition of the crispy bits of sweet potato on top. But there just wasn't anything EXTRA special that grabbed us... They were yummy, but fairly standard. Upon walking out and seeing another customer's piece of fish, we are however quite keen to get back and try the seafood out!

Over to you guys now - where can we find your favourite hot chips? And, what passions are you currently following?!

Would rate it 6 out of 10.