NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Patty Hirsch. And I'm Adrian Ma.

Who in the world does not have a favorite comfort food? Maybe yours is a chicken soup

or mac and cheese.

Maybe it's rice and beans or sausage and cabbage.

The comfort foods are often dishes with humble origins.

They're usually made of inexpensive staple ingredients, and they're easy to make or cheap to buy.

In the UK maybe the most iconic comfort food is also something a lot of people consider

Britain's national dish, fish and chips.

That is, for the uninitiated, battered and deep white fish with fries.

It does make me wonder why they don't call it fish and fries, because it is kind of catchy also.

And it's not that catchy. Plus, fries are French, and you know, we don't hold with the French in Britain.

Okay, okay, fair enough.

But the important question here is, Patty, how do you actually like to eat your fish and chips?

Well, I'm actually pretty traditional.

I like cod with a sprinkling of salt and chips. Well I'm actually pretty traditional. I like cod with a sprinkling of

salt and vinegar on the chips, although sometimes I do go a little wild with a squirt of

Thousand Island dressing. You know what? I don't like to yuck anybody's yum. Well how about you?

I can get down with a little tartar sauce action. Yep tartar sauce?

Traditional, yeah. Fish and chips is kind of a staple in the UK or it has been in

the past but the aftermath of the pandemic

and raging inflation is really changing that. Fish is now expensive. Thanks to rising energy prices and interest rates,

the cost of running a fish and chip shop is soaring and those costs

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