Fish and chips or fish 'n' chips, a popular take-away food, consists of deep-fried fish in batter or breadcrumbs with deep-fried potatoes, traditionally sold wrapped in newspaper.
Popular tradition associates the dish with the United Kingdom; and for decades fish and chips dominated the take-away food sector in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Fish and chips also has considerable popularity in parts of North America (New England, the Pacific Northwest and Canada generally), the Republic of Ireland and South Africa. establishments in Denmark and in some coastal towns in Norway serve fried fillets. In the Netherlands, the popular deep-fried, battered fried fillet dish called lekkerbek sometimes served with chips.
The modern fish-and-chip shop originated in the United Kingdom, although outlets selling fried food occurred commonly throughout Europe. According to one story, fried-potato shops spreading south from Scotland merged with fried-fish shops spreading from southern England.