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Sandsend NotesA coast notebook, Staithes to Robin Hood’s Bay

Section · 4 notes

At the table: two foods with a documented history

Two notes, no rankings. The smoked herring that made the port’s name, and the fried fish supper that outlived it.

Herrings hanging in rows on hooks inside a dark timber smokehouse with pale smoke drifting between them

This section is short on purpose, and it names no businesses. Two foods on this coast have a documented history worth reading: the kipper, a herring split, salted and cold smoked over oak, and the fish supper, which grew out of the same fishing fleets and the same cheap frying fat.

Both notes explain the method and the history. Neither recommends where to eat, and neither carries a rating.

The 4 notes in this section

At the Table
  1. Whole fresh herring laid on greaseproof paper on a scrubbed wooden counter beside a knife and a halved lemon

    · Food note

    The kipper: a herring split, salted and smoked over oak

    Not a species and not a recipe but a method: split, brine, hang, and cold smoke until the fish keeps.

  2. Battered white fish and thick cut chips wrapped in paper on a harbour wall with fishing boats blurred behind

    · Food note

    Fish and chips: how a fishing port ended up eating them

    Fried fish from one tradition, chipped potatoes from another, joined in the nineteenth century and carried inland by rail.

  3. Waymarked coastal path running along the top of a grassy cliff bordered by hedgerow scrub

    · Food note

    Sloes on the coastal path, and what they were for

    The last wild harvest on this shore: a bitter plum, a spiny hedge, and the uses a farming coast found for both.

  4. A shaded breakfast terrace above a small Aegean harbour at about eight in the morning, white cheese, olives and tomatoes in small dishes on a metal tray, tea glasses catching low side light, the moored boats soft and out of focus behind.

    · Food note

    Cooking on the Aegean coast: a short guide

    Aegean coast cooking rests on three things: what is in season, what the boats bring in that morning, and how much oil and charcoal a kitchen is willing to use.

The other sections of the notebook: Shore & Village, Stone & Trade, Paths & Rails.