Like me, you were no doubt quietly moved by the announcement that Hull,
in Yorkshire, has been named as UK City of Culture for 2017. I have never been to Hull, despite spending
much of my life living just 60 miles away.
They tell me it’s nice.
Culture of course is where you find it, but there’s evidence that the folks
in Hull might need to raise their game between now and 2017. Take a look at this Hull memorial to local lad Mick
Ronson – a slightly raised “stage” in front of a caff.
Mick Ronson was obviously a good lad and a good guitarist, but you
couldn’t help feeling he’d have been as happy in the local chip shop as he was
glamming it up on stage with David Bowie.
Here they are glamming it up on a train in Britain in the 1970s, eating
British Rail food in the restaurant car.
Given the circumstances they look a lot more cheerful than they might.
My Hull-connected friends tell me that one of the city’s great local
delicacies is something called “chip spice” – a dry mixture that you shake onto
your chips, usually bought at the local chip shop, though they’re also
available for home consumption and sold
as American Chip Spice.
The word is that it’s a tradition that dates back all the way to 1979
when a man named John Science introduced chip
spice at the Yankee Burger restaurant on Hull’s Jameson Street. Word is also that in the old days the flavor
was more complex than it is now.
Certainly the modern version doesn’t sound complex at all: Salt, Paprika, Tomato Powder, Monosodium Glutamate, Onion, Garlic.
It’s actual connection to America seems non-existent.
And now (above) a couple of likely Hull lads have developed a more
modern, MSG-free version that they’re selling under the name SPICE’IT. And no, I have no idea why they think they
need an apostrophe in there. The
essential ingredient in all three flavors seems to be dextrose.
I’m told that another Hull specialty is the “pattie” (above) – again available mostly
in fish and chip shops. There are
variations, but essentially it’s slab of mashed potatoes with onion and sage, sometimes
battered, sometimes breadcrumbed, and then fried. Obviously it’s a cheap substitute for those
who can’t afford fish, and it’s often served on a bread roil, in which case
it’s a “pattie butty” and in either case it usually comes with chips, just to
keep up the potato intake.
As an Englishman living in the States I have to take a certain amount
of flak about English food, but the all-potato diet strikes me as the kind of thing
a great many Americans would eat given half a chance. On the other hand, I’m not sure they’re quite
ready for this:
