Tag Archives: The Dolphin

Chips at Sutton on Sea

Day 138

We went to the seaside today. It was the first time we’ve been out since we went to Leeds for Christmas Dinner last year. We had chips and cake and saw a Wheatear. This may take a couple of posts.

You wouldn’t thank me for a description of our preparations, which involved breakfast at McDonalds, blowing up the tyres and buying expensive fuel. (Strange how Breakfast at McDonalds didn’t make it big in either film or music, whereas Breakfast at Tiffany’s did.)

Nor, I feel would you benefit from a description of the journey through Lincolnshire, which is a little like a voyage through the mid-twentieth century whilst staring at the back of a tractor. We also got stuck behind a caravan and a motorhome. This is the advantage of travelling in spring – we only had one caravan, one motorhome and two tractors  – as the holidays and harvest really get going there will be many more hold ups.

Dolphin – Sutton on Sea

We finally arrived at Sutton on Sea and The Dolphin, expecting to sit down to a fish and chip special and use the toilets with the great tiles. (This is quite important at my age.) Unfortunately the various lockdowns have not been kind to The Dolphin, and it is now just a takeaway. It was the same last time we went, but it now seems permanent. I’m not saying this is the worst thing about lockdown, but it is certainly a major change for the worse. I’ve been going there for 34 years, and am sorry to see it go.

We ate in the community garden just round the corner, chatted to a couple with electric bikes, and watched a starling pounce on a butterfly. I’ve never seen that happen before. Even with high magnification I couldn’t identify the species of moth.

Starling Sutton on Sea

Fish and Chips from the Dolphin

Fish and Chip Review – The Dolphin, Sutton on Sea

It’s been so long since I last had fish and chips at the seaside (13 months?) that I’ve forgotten how I used to do the titles and whether they were part of the Scone Chronicles or not. I have forgotten so much in the last year…

We had Fish and Chips from the Dolphin in Sutton on Sea yesterday, They aren’t always as good as they could be and we keep saying that we will try a different chippy, but we’ve been going there for thirty plus years and it seemed wrong to desert them after lockdown. We had to queue outside and use the takeaway side, but they were very good. Possibly better than eating in. W had cod, because there was no haddock and it was very enjoyable. I may go back to cod for a while. The word succulent comes to mind.

Succulent Fisha nd Chips

It is only frozen Icelandic cod, which is the same as we would have in Nottingham, but eating it where you hear the sea and the gulls seems to make it taste better. Talking of which, we didn’t see many gulls around. I wonder if a year of no easy pickings has persuaded them not to hang round in seaside resorts.

Though the fish was excellent to the point of succulence, the chips didn’t quite measure up. They were a bit thin and floppy. That was how people used to describe me when I was in my teens. Sadly, the chips will be unable to grow out of their thin and floppy stage as they didn’t survive being my lunch. Despite my comments, I ate every one and left nothing but a greasy stain…

A better photographer would have photographed his wife next to the chips and titled the photo “Two of my favourite Things” . Unfortunately the photo did not work out. And I totally forgot to take a picture of the succulent flakes of cod as I was too busy stuffing them into my face.