Lockies Fish & Chips*

Just 30* minutes north of Dunedin (by car, headed towards Christchurch), in a little town called Hampden, is a modest little shop that makes the best fish and chips that I've ever had. It's actually a residential house that has been partially converted - the rest of the house still looks like a home and I suspect that the family that owns the business live there, which makes it all the more endearing and authentic. Lockie's fish and chips are so good, that we actually went to the trouble of bringing our own tomato sauce (because we prefer it to the kind being sold there), to ensure optimal fish and chip chomping satisfaction. 

Initially, I found the bright (approaching neon), yellow colour of the battered fish a little unusual, but I quickly got over it as soon as I took my first bite. Delicious, large, plump, juicy pieces of perfectly cooked fish, encased in beautifully fried, light and crunchy batter. Simple food, done brilliantly well. What more can you ask for? There's nothing more satisfying than having a big bite of solid, good food. Don't get me wrong, I also enjoy refined, elegant, 'sit at the table with three forks and knives' dining when the mood strikes, and the food is usually excellent, but nothing quite compares to hands on, basic, comfort food. MMMMM! The beer battered chips were also excellent - thick, chunky and soft on the inside, with a tasty, crunchy coating. Enjoying all that sitting outside at a picnic table, on a beautiful, sunny, New Zealand day with one of your best friends = quiet bliss. The only thing that was missing was a cold, refreshing drink of homemade iced lemon tea. Ah, life's little pleasures.

Just remember, when you are placing an order, that one order of fish equals two* actual pieces of fish and one order of chips, is a lot of chips (we couldn't finish it all). You can't really tell from the pictures but the serving box is about the length and width of a sheet of A4* paper, i.e. the portions are agreeably large! And I love dipping my fish in both tomato and tartar sauce (even though the fish is great just on its own), so you may want to add a tub of tartar sauce to your order.

It's a gorgeous day out there today, so all of you hop into your cars and putter along to Lockie's for a good feed. It's right on the main street, so you can't miss it.

[*Edit 5:55pm: So after I wrote about this, of course I felt like having it. So, D and I went to Hampden, and thus, discovered several inaccuracies in my reporting. They are as follows:

1. From Dunedin city (proper), the drive to Hampden actually takes almost an hour, not 30 minutes. It is slightly under 30 minutes if you start timing from the Dunedin city border, but why would you do that?
2. They do sometimes give you two pieces of fish for every order of fish, but that only happens when the two parts of a blue cod fillet separate. Today we ordered 'three blue cod' and got three pieces of blue cod (shaped sort of like Vs, because that's how they are filleted).
3. OK my memory of the size of the serving box may have been a little distorted. It's not quite the size of an A4 piece of paper, maybe like one or two inches shorter in length, but it still makes for a large meal. We were just a little too full after today's tuck in.
4. The name of the shop is officially 'Lockies (sic) Takeaways' (as printed on the receipt). No apostrophe and no mention of fish and chips.

My apologies.]

Lockies Takeaways
30 London Street
Hampden