Are all chip shops across Ireland interchangeable? Ask the residents of any town, village, or city in Ireland and they will have their particular preference and discerning scale of their local chippers and their provisions.
Not all chip shops are created equal, and digging deeper into the deep fryers you will often find hyper-local, historic and even downright unusual delicacies in different parts of the island.
From time-honoured menu items to inventive servings, here is a selection of some of the most unique Irish chip shop orders — how many have you tried?
Potato Pie & Mushy Pea Pie, Cork
The potato pie is as Cork as Barry's Tea, Ballymaloe Relish or Beamish. Woven into the comfort food fabric of the city, these are not actually a 'pie’ — neither in the pastry nor the shepherd sense.
Rather these little fist-sized balls consist of herby mashed potato, dunked in batter then deep-fried until golden. There is also a cheesy version in some outlets, too, while a mushy pea pie is a newer, novel addition to the chip shop scene in the Rebel city.
Not to be confused with ‘spud balls’, of course, a local delicacy in Carrick-on-Suir in Tipperary, which are very similar.
Warley/Wurly/Worley/Werley Burger, Dublin
Imagine a hamburger with its beef patty middle, now replace that middle with a batter burger, golden, crisp and fresh from the fryer. Now, you’re tucking into a ‘Wurly burger’, sometimes also spelled ‘Warley’, ‘Werley’ or ’Worley’, which adds a crisp, crunchy layer to the regular hamburger and usually comes with all the expected salad and sauces atop, in a seeded bun.
Rissole, Wexford Town
A wholly Wexford Town thing, the rissole is a fried puck of leftover chips, mashed with a handful of herbs like thyme, sage and parsley, then shaped and either battered or breaded before being fried. Check out this The Curious Ear mini doc from 2011 on the uniquely Wexford delicacy.
Pink Pasties, Northern Ireland
What the rissole is to Wexford is dyed pink and appears north of the border — the pink pastie is available in many chip shops across Northern Ireland and is a similar mix of leftover chips, some herbs and spices, sometimes chopped onion, sometimes sausage meat, the recipe varies but they are always formed into rounds, battered and then fried.
What is very different though is the food colouring added to give it a vibrant pink middle. A non-dyed ‘white’ pastie is also often available.
Potato Scallop, various
Some like their chips skinny and really crisp, others prefer fat stumpy ones with fluffy interiors. Whatever your preference the potato is more often than not found hand-cut to varying sizes in chip shops across the land but why break a potato down into batons when you can slice it into gigantic rounds?
The potato scallop, not to be confused with the shellfish, is one giant slice of super-sized spud, battered and deep-fried so you get way more surface area to season with salt and vinegar.
Though its origin story is scant it seems to be served in different pockets from Louth all the way along the eastern seaboard to Waterford but is also a surprisingly popular order in chip shops Down Under.
Sausage Roll Bap, Derry
Sometimes a sausage roll is not quite enough on its own. Enter: the sausage roll bap. Wildly popular in Derry but also popping up in other parts of Northern Ireland, this is quite simply a floury bap or roll, buttered generously, with a sausage roll (yes, pastry and all) sandwiched in the middle. Some enhance with the addition of sauce but many keep it classic and simply enjoy it as it comes.
Spice Burger, various
"A mysterious blend of beef, onions, cereals, herbs and spices coated with a crisp golden crumb," this RTÉ News report from 2009 explains. In Hot Fat, our own cookbook which features a spice burger recipe, we write "born in the 1950s in Dublin, the spice burger fast became a chipper classic available in many parts of the east of Ireland — we have such vivid, fond memories of this deep-fried delicacy that’s heavily herbed and spiced with its meat-meets-breadcrumb bouncy texture and hockey puck heft".
Not solely the reserve of the chip shop, either, you can now buy pre-made spice burgers in many supermarkets to make at home.
Sloppy Foley, Cork city
A Cork institution we can all thank for creating, the ‘Sloppy Foley’ of Murphy's Chip Bar in Blackpool was apparently named after manager Paul Foley who imagined it and consists of taco chips (chips, taco-spiced mince, taco sauce and cheese) but one step further: served in a rolled-up tortilla wrap, just in case you wanted your taco chips hand-held to eat on the go.
Super Chip, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland’s answer to poutine… sort of. Not so much a menu item but a menu elevation, ‘super chip’ consists of chips covered in a delectable sauce sitting somewhere between chicken gravy and pepper sauce. Friar Tuck’s’ in Newry is a particular popular iteration.
The Boardsmill, Co. Meath
Originally created at The Castle in Trim but now available in a number of takeaways across Meath, a Boardsmill (named after the townland) is not necessarily a unique product but rather a unique serving of a battered sausage with onions and slathered in tomato ketchup. A battered sausage with the volume turned up.
Chicken Box, Derry
The spice bag has taken hold across Ireland but in Derry they do chicken and chips a little differently. The Derry chicken box is sort-of like a chicken version of a kebab plate, loaded chips topped with sliced chicken, rather than breaded or battered chicken, cheese and a variety of different sauces.
Stonner Kebab, Clondalkin
What do you get when you combine a battered sausage with a donor kebab? You get the Stonner, which is a pork sausage, wrapped in ‘elephant leg’ kebab meat, then battered and deep-fried. Legend has it that it was originally invented in Glasgow but it has made its way to these shores by way of The 9th Lough in Clondalkin, which is well-remarked for having a number of unusual, lesser-spotted items on its menu. Here, the addition of a cheese layer creates an oozy middle.
Christmas Chip, Northern Ireland
Fries come dressed in all kinds of things these days, from cheesy chips and taco fries to gravy-drowned Poutine, but in Northern Ireland you can have your Christmas dinner on your chips and eat it too. ‘Christmas Chip’ is the seasonal order heard ‘round the place which usually starts being served post-Halloween and right up to Christmas. It’s sliced turkey and ham with cocktail sausages and stuffing on warm chips, drizzled in gravy. In some spots you can add on cranberry sauce or even peppered sauce.
There are many more chip shop curiosities across the country, from stuffing on your chips in many Kerry chip shops to Ollie bowls (a sort-of chicken Caesar salad-dressed chips) in Cavan, filled pittas like the King Creole in KC’s in Cork to freshly grated truffle on your fries at Marsellas in Finglas and blaas for buns in Waterford.
