2014 Chippy Challenge and Daily Tipple: January Review

For January:
The Daily Tipple/Haiku
And Chippy Challenge.

The Chippy Challenge map isn’t filling in very fast but I haven’t really been out very much since it started so mostly the venues have been near work (11 near the Uni) or home (8 in Swindon).  The initial rush is likely to subside, but if not and I stay on the current rate I shall hit 259 (or, if I go to the minimum of 1 every 7 days I will still visit 70 by year end).

There were fourteen chippies, shown here by date:

1	Wong Kee Fish Bar	Swindon, Wiltshire	01-Jan-14
2	Mediterranean Fish Bar	Oxford, Oxfordshire	02-Jan-14
4	Mr. Cod	Swindon, Wiltshire	04-Jan-14
6	Carfax Fish and Chips	Oxford, Oxfordshire	06-Jan-14
7	Posh Fish Jericho	Oxford, Oxfordshire	07-Jan-14
8	York Road Chippy	Swindon, Wiltshire	09-Jan-14
10	Saint John’s Fish & Chips	Swindon, Wiltshire	11-Jan-14
11	Super Fry	Swindon, Wiltshire	12-Jan-14
12	Covingham Fish and Chips	Swindon, Wiltshire	15-Jan-14
16	Westway Chippy	Botley, Oxfordshire	23-Jan-14
17	The Frying Fish	Swindon, Wiltshire	23-Jan-14
19	Sure Fry	Swindon, Wiltshire	25-Jan-14
21	Simon’s Fish & Chips	Oxford, Oxfordshire	29-Jan-14
22	Harbour Fish & Chips	Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire	31-Jan-14

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Amongst these you should definitely try to visit Wong Kee, Mediterranean, Mr. Cod, Carfax, York Road, Westway, The Frying Fish, and Harbour.  I would avoid Posh and Sure Fry and only go to Simon’s if you’re tripping your balls off.

Seven fish and chips were had in pubs:

3	The Four Candles	Oxford, Oxfordshire	03-Jan-14
5	The Castle Hotel	Devizes, Wiltshire	05-Jan-14
13	The White Horse	Oxford, Oxfordshire	17-Jan-14
14	Cepen Park	Chippenham, Wiltshire	19-Jan-14
15	The Eagle and Child	Oxford, Oxfordshire	21-Jan-14
18	Jude the Obscure	Oxford, Oxfordshire	24-Jan-14
20	The Royal Blenheim	Oxford, Oxfordshire	26-Jan-14

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The two that make the biggest deal about being ‘the best in the city’ (The White Horse and The Eagle and Child) were both dreadful.  The rest were okay but not worth seeking out, and the best of this bunch was the shockingly well done Four Candles.

There was one ‘other’ venue which, fortunately for you, is only imposed on Oxford employees:

9

Chemistry Research Building

Oxford, Oxfordshire

10-Jan-14

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Along the way, I also had supermarket sushi three times for breakfast and five for lunch, smoked salmon for breakfast at New Year’s Day, and fish in recipes for supper three times.  And, not one kebab.

There were, however, copious volumes of beverage and out of all of it I managed to choose one per day.  Brownie simultaneously came up with the idea for a Beer-A-Day challenge and I wish those idiots well but I actually drink even more wine and booze than beer and didn’t want to limit myself.  Re-sorting the progress by category, we have:

		BEER
DT #	Date	Name	Type	Venue
8	08-Jan-14	Punter (Upham Brewery)	bitter	The Four Candles
17	17-Jan-14	Doom Bar	bitter	The White Horse
24	24-Jan-14	Hardy & Hanson’s Kimberley Bitter	bitter	Jude the Obscure
31	31-Jan-14	Arundel Sussex Gold	golden ale	The Five Bells
3	03-Jan-14	Foster’s	lager	The Four Candles
15	15-Jan-14	Carling	lager	The Messenger
21	21-Jan-14	Bristol Beer Factory UPA	pale ale	The Eagle and Child
2	02-Jan-14	Loose Cannon Porter	porter	Gardeners Arms
14	14-Jan-14	Hobson’s Kiss Me Now Stout	stout	house
		WINE
DT #	Date	Name	Type	Venue
1	01-Jan-14	Champagne Pannier Blanc de Noirs	Champagne	house
9	09-Jan-14	Cooperative Chianti	red wine	house
10	10-Jan-14	Tesco brand Simply Claret	red wine	house
12	12-Jan-14	Conviviale Montepulciano d’Abruzzo	red wine	house
13	13-Jan-14	Marques de Carano Gran Reserva 2007	red wine	house
18	18-Jan-14	Rawnsley Estate Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre	red wine	house
19	19-Jan-14	Conviviale Primitivo	red wine	house
20	20-Jan-14	Sainsbury’s House Montepulciano	red wine	house
23	23-Jan-14	Cuvee Emile Fleurie	red wine	house
25	25-Jan-14	El Prinsapo Rioja	red wine	house
27	27-Jan-14	Les Cepages Oublies	red wine	house
28	28-Jan-14	Le Cru des Amoureux Saint Amour	red wine	house
30	30-Jan-14	Kumala Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz	red wine	house
29	29-Jan-14	Kourtaki Retsina	white wine	house
		BOOZE/MIXED
DT #	Date	Name	Type	Venue
4	04-Jan-14	Almond/Apple Bourbon toddy	booze	house
5	05-Jan-14	Cape Codder	booze	house
7	07-Jan-14	Vodka Tonic (V&T)	booze	house
11	11-Jan-14	Candy Apple	booze	house
22	22-Jan-14	Pom Selleck	booze	house
		CIDER
DT #	Date	Name	Type	Venue
6	06-Jan-14	Symond’s Founder’s Reserve	cider	The White Rabbit
16	16-Jan-14	Savanna Dry	cider	Oxford bus depot
26	26-Jan-14	Weston’s Scrumpy	cider	The Royal Blenheim

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The tendency seems to be to drink at home or on the way home or with (and not simply as) lunch.  Got to get out more, I reckon.

Oh, the haiku…if they take more than 30 seconds from topic to finished, they are dumped.  That said, I come up with some that make me laugh and don’t use them for a few days because more timely ones come up.  Some of the best just go past their ‘sell by’ date, as well.  I plan to continue these with the Daily Tipple for the near future (maybe the whole year).