The Chinese chip shop

5 weeks ago by @tunecat

Liner Notes

I don’t know about you guys in other countries but I remember my first ‘Chinese’. These lines are inspired by that and by the chippy in sidmouth that had the sort of menu that took me back to my seventies childhood. Chips and Chinese curry sauce.. nothing on the menu that you’d expect a ‘real’ Chinese restaurant to serve and yet it filled me with a comforting nostalgia.

Erm not my greatest ouvre .. and again I i I d of ran out of steam and I’ve just cobbled the last bits together in order to post

Lyrics

The Chinese chip shop

We have chips and we have rice
We have curry sauce to smother
We have broccoli and onions
And omelette and loads of other

English Chinese dishes.
You know what they are
The things you used to eat
Exotic - from afar!

We have cabbage labelled seaweed
Crispy to a tee
We used to love its texture
Crunchy luxury !

The bamboo shoots and bean sprouts
And mushrooms hitherto unseen
Once new delightful elements
An unknown foreign Cuisine

English Chinese dishes.
You know what they are
The things you used to eat
Exotic - from afar!

A childhood in the seventies
full of flavours that were new
Sweet and sour and black bean sauce
Replacing Irish stew.

We ate our staples daily -
spuds and veg and meat
And to try anything other
Was a risk and / or a treat

No tofu ( unless it’s called bean curd)
No chicken feet no schzchuan
No satay no water chestnuts
No radishes shaped like a fan!

But we still had tripe in several forms-
Pigs trotters and dripping. Sweetbread.
Liver, gizzards- kidneys
Whelks and cockles: mmm. We were well fed.

English Chinese dishes.
You know what they are
The things you used to eat
Exotic - from afar!

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