Fish and Chips .

For anyone who believes that British fish and chips should be made with cod. I am happy to say I have spotted both North Sea Cod and haddock fillets in the deep freezer at Makros. I haven't had the chance to taste them yet but a pack of two cod fillets was just 89bht . Not expensive I thought .

Alister Cook or may be Andrew Strauss !!

Doesn't matter what you use to cook them, you will NEVER get a half descent chip in Thailand.

The potatoes available in Thailand are not grown to produce chips. If memory serves me correctly, I think it was 1959 when the Thai Min Ag did tests on various types of potatoes and chose the varieties that would be allowed into Thailand to grow. ALL the varieties chosen were Dutch (probably cheaper or gave a bigger back-hander), and they are as far as I am aware still the only varieties allowed.

I'm not sure wazza, it is a long time since I have been in the Clock. Last I understood Steve had left to go back to UK for some pretty long term medical stuff - but that could well be just a rumor.....will try & get there soon.

Statto you are more or less correct about the Dutch involvement with Thai potatoes. I think the Thai & Dutch agricultural scientists got together to create a new strain of potato that was suitable to grow in Thailand. They came up with the variety that is now purchased anywhere in Thailand - I understand, only the 1 variety. Anything else is illegal to grow in Thailand. It could have been down to money changing hands (this IS Thailand) but Holland has a history of being a major investor in Thailand (number 5 country at the minute I believe) & also is pretty high up the producers of potatoes as well. Far higher than the UK, for example.
While I agree that the available potatoes do not make the best chips that I have ever tried, they are still so much better than the best frozen chips that I have tried to still make it worthwhile (in my opinion) for any restaurant to use them....

wazza once a potato 'strain' is registered then it can be purchased from any company, any country - same as a drug - & should be identical.
I have searched extensively & I although much of the data is historical (year 2000 & past) I can only find that 1 strain (2 sub-species of it) are permitted to be grown in Thailand. This is the one jointly developed by Thailand & Holland.
While I accept that 'this is Thailand' & that maybe, business to business, money changing hands, this could be flouted - personally I have only seen 1 variety of potato on sale to the general public - if in Udon, Chang Mai or even Koh Samui. If someone can point me in the direction of a King Edward then I am more than happy to eat humble pie (even by PM if it is not exactly something for the Forum ).

Well having revealed the whereabouts of decent fish I had better come clean on the chips. Bob is right on the varieties officially allowed to be grown here . (info from the Udon Agriculture College)However I have furtively tried to grow king teddies from seed spuds I brought back from the UK. After careful preparation of the ground I placed them in a shallow trench, same as I would back home. They were growing nicely and I kept covering them up until a ridge was formed. At this stage it was looking good, then we had an early hot/dry spell and despite constant watering, they suddenly bolted. The stems grew very tall, then wilted . Upon digging found plenty of small to medium size potatoes, but they were still green . They were okay for boiling but too hard for frying .The corms never seeded so couldn't try again next year.
Now the ones you can buy here . I tend to look for middle size ones, peel and cut them in half, then blanche in boiling water for about 10 minutes. After, cut them into chips and fry in a deep fat pan, using sunflower oil. The result , while I would never claim , to be the same as English chips, gives at least a quite passable alternative. I also use the blanching method when I make roast potatoes, successfully .