Twenty-two guns and a side of tartar

Returning to London, we were hungry and not particularly inclined to be running over each other in the kitchen, so Beth, Chris, and I paid a visit to The Golden Hind, a well-recommended fish and chips restaurant just at the east end of Blandford. Named after Sir Francis Drake's galleon that circumnavigated the globe in the late 1570s, the restaurant offers an elegantly simple menu of seven types of fish (steamed or fried) and about as many sides (including chips and mushy peas). Keeping the menu even simpler, the restaurant recommends that customers bring their own beverages. (I ran over to Tesco for a Newcastle brown ale for myself and a bottle of Petit Chenin for the ladies.)

Never the enthusastic fish-eater, I greatly enjoyed my piece of fried haddock, which was breaded to perfection and truly delicious with a splash of malt vinegar and a dollop of tartar sauce. The chips tasted fresh, and even the garden peas surpassed my expectations. The fat in the breading and fries, I'm sure, should keep me from returning too often, but I doubt I'll be able to resist the temptation for much more than a month.