In praise of the freshly fried chip | Brief letters

Brief letters: Chippies at risk | Consciousness raising | Cupboard love | Student meals | Death of ties

In your article about the plight of fish and chip shops you barely mention the chips (Can fish and chip shops survive? ‘We made more money by closing than staying open’, 17 September). Almost all caterers now seem to use frozen chips, which they reheat. They are uniformly awful and I no longer eat meals with chips as a result. My uncle was a fish frier of great renown locally and he had his chipping machine in the shop by the frying range, chipping as needed. With the right potatoes, freshly fried chips are delicious. Not dry and powdery like frozen ones. Bring back real chips, I say.
Bill Cross
Exeter

• The original Turing test of “Can a machine pass for a human?” is not so testing any more (Letters, 18 September), so I propose an update: which will be first to get a slot on BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day – an AI with hallucinations about its maker, or a human atheist?
Angus Macdonald
Bo’ness, Firth of Forth

• Inspired by stories of student cooking (Letters, 17 September), can I add mine from 1974? Desperate scouring of kitchen cupboards produced: flour, eggs, rice, cabbage and some sort of fish. I fed seven on this “Sino-Polish kedgeree”.
Jonathan Hauxwell
Crosshills, North Yorkshire

• I’m amused by the letters regarding the cooking skills of students. As a student nurse I bought Cooking in a Bedsitter by Katharine Whitehorn and it became my “go to” for assistance and ideas. The book is still on my shelf today.
Sarah Akhtar
Stoke-on-Trent

• I am delighted that, should I be elevated to the House of Lords, I won’t be expected to wear a tie (Is the tie dead? Fashion connoisseurs hope not as House of Lords relaxes rules, 18 September).
Christine Walters
Buxton, Derbyshire

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