Boxing my way to the BEST fish & chip shops in Yorkshire

I like a lot of people who enjoyed my Saturday night takeaway while watching Sport on TV and of course boxing. 

This week has been solid with the Tyson v Usyk fight, hosting a Rugby League All Stars charity event and Leeds’ memorable win. While I may have missed my calling to become a professional sportsman because I’ve been too busy flexing my tastebuds, sports and food are quite similar in that they bring people together. You experience t’good t’bad t’ugly. You can’t beat grassroots sport just like you can’t beat eating homemade comfort food.

 Before my career as a presenter on Rate My Takeaway, I worked for a butchers and volunteered as a qualified rugby coach for Morley Knights. 

Talking about meat by day and rugby by night. 

I’m finding these two loves, food and sport, have stayed with me. Now I’m able to share takeaways with sports people and find out what they like to eat which is the best way to hear their story. Food sparks memories and recently I experienced a taste of nostalgia. 

I got in the ring with boxer Callum Simpson in West Yorkshire in an agreement we would do a sparring session then a review together at the fish and chips shop which I used to visit with my nan called Mermaids in Barnsley. My Nan and I used to grab a cone of chips as we walked through the town centre.

I wondered if she’d be looking down on me now with Callum, the pair of us sat in the town centre around my camping table. 

I had been in Callum’s comfort zone at his gym, struggling to climb through the ropes to get into the ring,  now I was in my home comfort, the chippy. I had tried to take him somewhere healthy because he’s training for a fight at the moment but unfortunately people don’t enjoy watching me eat a salad and I’m not used to them either. 

For many years my mum and dad owned a fish and chip shop called Talk of the Town, also in South Yorkshire.

 These days I have found several favourite fish and chips shops closer to my now home such as Miners in Morley, Bearded Sailor in Pudsey, Murgatroyd’s in Yeadon and The Kingfisher in Wakefield.

One of my favourite places to visit is York for the Shambles but also Millers Fish and Chips in Haxby is outstanding. 

I love quirky combinations too, such as Lakis in Barnsley which do fish and chips with kebab meat on top and bright green mushy peas. Pip’s Fish on Grimsby Road served me a Cheetos mushy pea fritter, fish and chips, a battered sausage and cheese sauce. It was weird but delicious and certainly memorable. 

You can’t beat old fashioned fish and chips though like Upton Chippy, which is probably the last remaining fish and chips shop. 

When it comes to cheap and cheerful Pollard’s Plaice, Hull was bang on, sometimes they do deals for fish and chips for 99p. 

When I went I got fish and chips, a red Leicester and mozzarella cheese pattie, a traditional pattie with mushy peas, a small sausage, and peas, gravy, curry sauce, and a can of dandelion and burdock pop, costing £14 because the deal wasn’t on but it was still cheap as chips. 

I’ve got to say you can’t beat eating chips at the seaside, I’d recommend Magpie’s in Whitby and Whiteheads in Hornsea.