{"id":2033,"date":"2020-11-26T11:52:20","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T11:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eatmcr.co.uk\/?p=2033"},"modified":"2020-11-26T13:12:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T13:12:13","slug":"salt-pepper-northern-culinary-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eatmcr.co.uk\/culture\/salt-pepper-northern-culinary-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt and Pepper: The North’s Greatest Culinary Gift To The World"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Why wouldn’t you just have\u00a0salt and vinegar? Is this a southern thing, putting pepper on your chips?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s January, 2007, and I’m having a very confused conversation with a cockney university housemate about his upcoming takeaway order. We’re very swiftly making our way through the piercingly cold Mancunian air from Castle Irwell student village to Little China on Salford’s Lower Broughton Road, as he extols the virtues of their salt and pepper chips. In his brief four months up north, he’s seemingly become obsessed with them, while I have no idea what he’s on about.<\/p>\n

Fast forward 13 years and some form of salt and pepper dish will regularly make it’s way onto any order I make at a Chinese restaurant. Chips, chicken wings, ribs, tofu, I want that ferocious concoction of green peppers, onions, chillies, salt and spices on absolutely fucking everything. That fateful January evening in 2007 brought me up to speed with a cuisine that has been thriving in the North West for almost 30 years.<\/p>\n

It’s painfully ironic that a Londoner was the one to introduce me to this staple of Chinese chippy menus as, primarily, salt and pepper dishes are a North Western stronghold. Venture much further than Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire or Yorkshire and this sweet, savoury, salty sensation becomes a woefully rare sight on chippy menus.<\/p>\n

This is perhaps to do with the fact that the dish originated in Liverpool, the city with the oldest Chinese community in Europe and home to ‘the golden triangle of Chinese chippies’.<\/p>\n

Scouse native Gabrielle de la Puente<\/a> passionately extolled in a recent Vittles newsletter<\/a> that, “Around my Nan\u2019s in L8 alone has Kevins, the Lucky Star, Chius, KKs, Lee\u2019s, Leung Sang, Ringo\u2019s, Hang Fung; and more and more for days”, signifying the sheer density of Chinese chip shops that have cornered the fish and chip market in Merseyside since an influx of Chinese immigration to the city in the 1960’s.<\/p>\n

According to a 2017 Liverpool Echo article<\/a>, the addition of salt and pepper to chips was, much like all seismic cultural happenings – Joe Pesci’s year of Goodfellas and Home Alone, the birth of G-Funk, debut of the Premier League, Kappa popper trackie bottoms and, of course, the early Hollywood works of Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler – a ’90s phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Echo three years ago, Chinese restauranteur Kin Liu, owner of pan-Asian establishment Chamber 36<\/a> lifted the lid on his own family’s history with the dish, revealing to the local paper, “There were always demands for salt and pepper chicken wings and ribs, and due to picky customers the salt and pepper chips were created.”<\/em><\/p>\n

As with all inventions, the history of inception can be murky and contested, with Mossley Hill stalwart Chris’ Chippy, in operation since 1967, claiming they began selling salt and pepper dishes when ‘a master chef brought his recipe along in the 1960s’.<\/a><\/p>\n

Whatever the exact date and location, there’s no denying that the salt and pepper mix making it’s way from chicken and ribs to chips is one of the most seminal culinary moments in British food history. Might actually be tied for first place with the first time crisps were put on a sandwich. Either way, it wasn’t long before salt and pepper made it’s way down the m62 and quickly began to take over Mancunian chippy culture.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, ambling out of the rain on a freezing Friday night to await your usual assortment of battered goods lashed in salt and vinegar with a tin or two of Dandelion and Burdock became a spicier adventure. The glow of the flecks of chilli dotted across the sumptuous golden grease of freshly fried potato, patterned between translucent wedges of onion and deep green pepper, packing just the right amount of crunch in contrast to the pillowy innards of the chips. It became too much to resist even for the most ardent traditionalists.<\/p>\n

It was an added element of adventure, transforming the chippy tea into a more dynamic, exotic experience. The 3am beer soaker had an upgrade on the gut busting sledgehammer doner while hangovers were simply burned away. An all purpose, multi faceted marvel had landed in our city and it was embraced wholeheartedly.<\/p>\n

Manchester’s chippies weren’t exclusive to the phenomena, either. China Town sit down restaurants were awash with salt and pepper dishes on their menus, with the evolution snowballing through to the modern day with the arrival of the Arndale Market’s very own Salt & Pepper Manchester, opened by Chloe Tao and her brother Cash 18 months ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Cash, co-founder of Salt and Pepper MCR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ‘merging of the East and the West’ was, unsurprisingly, a smash hit upon opening, with instagram immediately awash with satisfied customers eager to show off their portions of sesame seed smattered sticky chicken, beef and prawns, sitting atop piles of fragrant Asian slaw and paired with extra crispy crinkle cut chips (the best type of chip, by the way. Disagree and we will throw hands. Name the time and place). Every brown box that dropped on the timeline was another verse in the siren song drawing city centre dwellers helplessly towards the south side of the Arndale for their fusion fix.<\/p>\n

“We grew up totally encompassed in the Chinese takeaway food industry, with our parents owning a takeaway as well as my grandparents before them,” explains Chloe, reminiscing over three generations of history and tradition. “We noticed that a lot of British Chinese kids were branching out of the industry and although we tried our hands at other professions, we kept coming back to food.<\/p>\n

“We wanted to keep the family legacy alive, but also use our western upbringing to elevate and modernise the Chinese fast food experience. Thus, Salt & Pepper was born.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It was during Chloe’s formative years in the takeaway industry that she came to know and love salt and pepper dishes, churning out a procession every weekend while working for her parents.<\/p>\n

“The first time I really came to notice salt and pepper was in the later years of my parents\u2019 takeaway. I used to work there on the weekends and all of a sudden, there seemed to be a huge influx in orders of salt and pepper dishes – my parents\u2019 salt and pepper wings were a favourite and I just remember having to wrap up seemingly never-ending portions on busy weekends.”<\/p>\n

But what of Chinese home cooking? Given that salt and pepper was thrust upon the North West as a chip shop hybrid, has the style of cuisine translated to family meals over the years?<\/p>\n

“We eat salt and pepper dishes at home, and we order them in traditional Chinese restaurants too. The flavours and ingredients are simple and classic Chinese staples, so it\u2019s a really easy and tasty dish to whip up for the family.”<\/p>\n

Of course, as with any rampantly popular cuisine, the next step is for customers to turn cooks and try their own hands at recreating the classics within the confines of their own kitchens. But mastering salt and pepper is no easy feat, as Chloe explains, balance is crucial<\/p>\n

“Well without giving too much away, you should focus on balance with the salt and pepper blend. You don\u2019t want any spice to be too overpowering and you want to keep it true to the umami flavour.<\/p>\n

“I would say one of the main mistakes people make is retaining too much moisture in the vegetables they use. Salt and pepper dishes are typically deep fried and crispy, so big chunks of vegetables can make the dish soggy – not really what you want.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was said sogginess which was one of the culprits behind Chloe’s most miserable salt and pepper experience, and perhaps goes some way to explaining why the North West is so synonymous with the cuisine, as further North in Scotland, everything was awry.<\/p>\n

“I had this really bad salt and pepper dish at a food market in Glasgow a few months ago. It was salt and pepper breaded prawns, but the prawns were really mushy and not fresh. And, like I was saying before about moisture, they had these huge chunks of onions and veg that were really soggy and just overall unpleasant. Plus, the seasoning was sweet for some reason.”<\/p>\n