The Tuesday Taste: Halibut House's Haddock and Chips

 

 

Well, we can't take it this week

And her friends don't want another speech

Hoping for a better day to hear what she's got to say

All about that personality crisis

you got it while it was hot

But now frustration and heartache

is what you got

 

Hey we're back, in a non-pizza edition even! This time we're tackling a classic greasy dish I've never reviewed before, a personal favourite of this particular fastidious UK chef lad... Fish and Chips! 

I'm not confident Chef Ramsay would be particularly impressed by this week's offering, but I'm a bit more forgiving in these matters than a world class chef would be (unless it's Pizza Pizza or Beaches N'Cream... then you shall feel my ghastly wraith). 

Fish and chips isn't a dish I have much experience with. When I was a kid my dad would get frozen battered cod and bake it in the oven. A true quality fish and chip though? It likely wasn't until I first had Chippy's across from Trinity Bellwoods, which is that even still there? Long gone?? I'm not on Queen West ever anymore.

For badness sake, in my Drake Hotel days I tried Harbord Fish and Chips and did not enjoy that. The fish tasted like it was caked in thick grease and the newspaper holding it was drenched and dripping. Once I moved to the east end of Toronto in 2012 I tried Duckworth's near Main and Danforth and found a similar issue with the greasiness, although that fish at least was still very tasty beyond the excessive lubrication. I have to wonder if the Kingston Road location is better... maybe worth an attempt and review some day. Honestly, as long as it isn't this.   

Anyway enough backstory (if you've been reading my reviews for a while you know I love the self-indulgence) so let's talk about Halibut House. Founded in 2004 by a refugee couple from Cambodia, Halibut House now has 32 locations throughout southern Ontario, most of them beyond the GTA. Their website excited me at first with a FAQ section, but unfortunately some of the potentially helpful questions for a seafood non-expert like myself ("What's the difference between Halibut, Cod and Haddock?") aren't directly answered. That said, the website is useful in terms of providing information about their own products, such as mentioning their batter doesn't contain eggs, dairy or beer (which I assume makes it vegan beyond any meat residue/contact trace in the frying oil), and also that their coleslaw is vinegar based. 

Going into a place called "Halibut House", I obviously got the haddock. Duh. There are two very good reasons for this: first is again as a seafood non-expert I really can't tell much of a difference. Second: they have a Monday special on haddock and I'm a cheap-ass mostly unemployed dude. The fish itself... quite nice! As I've said before there is a special circle in hell for those who serve dry breaded fish (it's right above people who blast dubstep on the subway) and Halibut House thankfully provides a tender, slightly flaky fillet with a nice thin encasement of light crispy batter. It's cooked in (according to their website) soy bean oil and while I'm even less of an expert on that than maybe anything else that has ever existed... the results are an oily but not heavy texture and taste. There's no lard-like aftertaste or gross coating on the roof of your mouth (my biggest problem when I tried Harbord Fish and Chips 12 years ago). 

This is a very light main attraction... at least within the context of eating a deep fried and battered thing. My only complaint is I wish there were more fish within that dish! It's not exactly all batter or anything, just that the tasty stuff within is a bit thin. Geez, I gotta stop rhyming.

As for the chips... they're fine. Somewhat stiff at points and crispy in others, as though they were cooked unevenly, but they taste like potatoes, are huge (as they should be for fish and chips), you get a ton of them, and aren't overly greasy beyond the oil of the fish seeping into them. They don't season their fries at all and are proud of it, as per their website "we want our guests to enjoy the great potato flavour and salt them at their own discretion". This makes them somewhat bland when solo, but they're not lying when they say that rooty earthy potato flavour is there.

I also went for a side of coleslaw, which like the fries was a portion I had to save the majority of for another meal. Creamy coleslaw is my usual preference, but this vinegary one genuinely won me over. It's simple, slightly sweet with a hint of acidity and enjoyably crunchy. A terrific compliment. 

The biggest disappointment is the tartar sauce, in my opinion a crucial component for any fish and chip. The disappointment is simply that they don't have an in-house tartar sauce... instead offering packets from Ventura Foods Canada. Ugh fine, I don't expect a place like Wendy's or A&W to mix their own ketchup at every location... but tartar sauce is so damn easy and cheap to make. Get some mayo, some relish, some lemon and you're basically there (though there are far better recipes, obviously).

Overall... this was a modestly pleasant surprise. I wasn't sure what to expect since I'd never tried Halibut House before and these kinds of things can break badly and fast. When I tried a Big Mac a couple months back I seriously didn't think it would be that bad. Frankly though, Halibut House was good enough that I'd consider going back some day. As I said earlier: the light batter, lack of heaviness to the fish and consistent soft texture of the fillet speaks to a solid level of quality. The fries aren't amazing (Chippy's, RIP I assume, really had supremely good fries) but at least here they taste real and if they are actually pre-frozen, implicating their website as an underwater cauldron of lies!!!! ...well then they fooled me. A genuinely decent fish and chip chain in Ontario.  

 

Burnt Ends -- Hey I'm finally up to things again! If you missed it, check out my review of local food truck/stall/van/nightmare box by the boardwalk Beaches N'Cream. It's a fun and different review than usual because (spoilers!) I did not, would not, on train or on a plane ever ever go back there, Sam I Am. Hoo boy would I not. It was a fun write-up for all the wrong reasons. 

Otherwise... I have another article queued up for either tomorrow or Thursday, it depends how much editing I feel like doing when I get home Tuesday night. I'm also starting a look at The Smiths discography, a band I have a growing attachment to but is a hard one to write because I was already in my 30s once I started listening closely to their records. Artists like Beck, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Spoon, Zeppelin, The Strokes, QoTSA... for me they go back to those formative late teenage years and so always hold that unique place in the heart. I'll try my best, but it likely won't quite have the same kind of passion.

Speaking of records and artists that capture us at such a precious young age in such precise moments of time, my dear dad wrote a fabulous look at the catalogue of Bruce Springsteen. I still don't quite "get" Springsteen myself. I respect the obvious talent and showmanship but the music has never reached me at that certain level... but however you feel about The Boss this article is worth a read just for his opening tale of listening to Springsteen's second album for the first time when it came out and being so enraptured by it. That is the unshakeable power of music... oftentimes we (me) can't remember what freaking day it is, but we all have certain bands or albums or songs to which we can vividly recall those moments of being introduced to something that just changes everything. Now this exists within my own existence, and everything is better for it. Definitely give it a read. 

 

Tuesday Tune -- Oh man... it would've been so easy and fitting for the song this week to be "Fish and Chip Paper" by Elvis Costello, a terrific song on his great semi-overlooked album Trust. Nah. Instead...after talking British New Wave and Bruce Springsteen... lets have some early 70s American glam rock/proto punk because it's my show damnit! 

 

 

Hey that's it for me. I've been light on the political rants lately because so much of that stuff is frankly exhausting. Combined with my own personal difficulties it is an endless hill to climb and gather the energy to fight the glaringly obvious injustices or willful ignorance and infinite stupidity that populates nearly every moment of every day. I'll have my moments of wanting the microphone on serious issues, but regardless I still encourage anyone reading this to have more fortitude than I... we can protest against an unfair system while also recognizing we are individual human beings and as long as most of us are at least willing to listen and acknowledge something true and uncomfortable... there can be hope for a better future. Just don't spill that mustard though.