When a staple becomes a luxury

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When a staple becomes a luxury : The Indicator from Planet Money

 

SYLVIE DOUGLIS, BYLINE: NPR.

(SOUNDBITE OF DROP ELECTRIC SONG, "WAKING UP TO THE FIRE")

 

PADDY HIRSCH, HOST: 

This is THE INDICATOR FROM PLANET MONEY. I'm Paddy Hirsch.

 

ADRIAN MA, HOST: 

And I'm Adrian Ma. Who in the world does not have a favorite comfort food? Maybe yours is chicken soup or mac and cheese. Maybe it's rice and beans or sausage and cabbage.

 

+ comfort food : (콩글리쉬) 소울 푸드

 

HIRSCH: Yeah, comfort foods are often dishes with humble origins. They're usually made of inexpensive staple ingredients, and they're easy to make or cheap to buy. In the U.K., maybe the most iconic comfort food is also something a lot of people consider Britain's national dish - fish and chips. That is, for the uninitiated, battered and deep white fish with fries.

 

+ staple : 1. 주된, 주요한 2. a commodity for which the demand is constant  

+ uninitiated [ˌən-ə-ˈni-shē-ˌā-təd] : 특별한 지식(경험)이 없는 사람들

+ batter : (특히 심한 손상이 가해지도록 계속) 두드리다, (명사) 튀김옷, 반죽, 케이크 반죽

 

MA: It does make me wonder why they don't call it fish and fries, 'cause it is kind of catchy also.

 

+ catchy : 기억하기 쉬운

 

HIRSCH: Oh, it's not that catchy. And plus, fries are French and, you know, we don't hold with the French in Britain.

 

MA: OK, OK. Fair enough. But the important question here is, Paddy, how do you actually like to eat your fish and chips?

 

+ Fair enough : (생각이나 제안에 대 한 동의의 표시) 괜찮네

-> 애초에는 상대방의 의견이 이해가 안됐지만 (= 동의하지 않다), 듣고 보니 어드정도 수긍이 간다.

 

HIRSCH: Well, I'm actually pretty traditional. I like cod with a sprinkling of salt and vinegar on the chips, although sometimes I do go a little wild with a squirt of Thousand Island dressing.

 

+ cod : 대구

+ sprinkling : 약간 뿌리는 양, 드문 드문 있는 수 
(ex : Add a sprinkling of pepper = 후추를 약간 뿌려라)

+ squirt : (액체, 가스 등을 가늘게) 찍 짜다, (~에 대고 물줄기를) 쏘다, (작은 구멍으로 액체가) 찍 나옴

 

MA: You know what? I don't like to yuck anybody's yum.

 

+ yuck : 윽(역겨울때 내는 소리)

 

HIRSCH: Well, how about you?

 

MA: I can get down with a little tartar sauce action.

 

+ down with : 동의, 허가의 뉘앙스
(ex : I'm down with it = 괜찮네요)

 

HIRSCH: Yep, tartar sauce - traditional. Yep.

 

MA: Yeah.

 

HIRSCH: Well, fish and chips is kind of a staple in the U.K., or it has been in the past. But the aftermath of the pandemic and raging inflation is really changing that. Fish is now expensive. Thanks to rising energy prices and interest rates, the cost of running a fish and chip shop is soaring, and those costs, of course, are being passed on to customers. The result - fewer people are buying fish and chips, and fish and chip shops all over the U.K. are closing. And this means that one of Britain's favorite foods is fast turning from a staple into a luxury.

 

+ aftermath : 여파(후유증)

 

MA: So on today's show, the demise of the great British fish and chip shop - why these restaurants in particular are feeling the squeeze right now, and what happens when a staple of a country's diet becomes a luxury? That's coming up after the break.

 

+ demise [ di-ˈmīz ] : (기관, 사상, 기업 등의) 종말, 죽음, 사망

+ squeeze : (재정적인) 압박(축소), 긴축

 

HIRSCH: By any measure, fish and chips are an integral part of the British culinary landscape. Twenty-two percent of Brits visit a fish and chip shop every week, and Brits spend roughly $1.5 billion on fish and chips every year.

 

+ by any measure [ ˈme-zhər ] : 아무리 따져봐도, 아무리 생각해 봐도, 틀림없이

+ integral : (1) (전체를 구성하는 일부로서) 필수적인, 필요불가결한 (2) (따로 제공되는 것이 아니라) (포함되어) 있는, 내장된 (3) 필요한 모든 부분이 갖춰져) 완전한

+ culinary : 요리(음식)의

 

MA: That's a lot of potatoes. And there are more than 10,000 fish and chip shops in the U.K. The vast majority are independently owned, and most are these takeout joints where you just kind of take your meal out wrapped up in paper.

 

+ joints :  a place where two things or parts are joined -> 여기서는 문맥상 소매점, 가게를 뜻함  

 

HIRSCH: Yeah, the British call these places fish bars, and they often have these cute names like the Friar Tuck or the Oh My Cod or in the case of the one round the corner from my mum's house in Bournemouth, Chips Ahoy. Perry Godfrey is the owner.

 

PERRY GODFREY: This shop's been a fish and chip shop for nearly 70 years now. When I took over, it was very rundown and we built it up in the last 22 years, and thankfully we were very successful. And we keep going from day to day and keep improving hopefully.

 

+ take over : 인계받다, (정권, 정당 등을)탈취하다

+ rundown : 축소(쇠퇴), 설명, 묘사

+ thankfully : 고맙게도, 다행스럽게도, 기꺼이, 고마워하며

 

MA: Hopefully. Perry says the fish and chip business is coming under some intense pressure right now.

 

+ is coming under intense pressure : 문맥 기억하기

 

GODFREY: Economy at the moment - the prices have ranked up. Oil - just to open up per day, it cost me 50 pound just in oil. Fish - fish has doubled in the last - over the last five, six years. Energy, of course, we know all about energy. Packaging is another cost.

 

HIRSCH: Fish and chip shops are these small businesses that operate on razor-sharp margins in an intensely competitive environment. But over the last few years, the cost of every part of the fish and chip shops owners' business has soared.

 

+ razor sharp : 면도날같이 날카로운, 아주 날카로운, 매우 예민한

 

MA: Yeah, and there are a lot of factors to point a finger at here. There's the war in Ukraine, which drove up the cost of vegetable oil and also the fuel to heat that oil. And the U.K. government has also raised interest rates, which has translated into higher rents and more expensive loans.

 

HIRSCH: Yeah. Whatever the reason, over the last couple of years, all of that pressure has sunk dozens of fish bars all over the U.K. Perry says he's been able to weather the storm for a variety of reasons. His is a family business, and he's been able to pivot to making a lot of his own products, like coleslaw, that he used to buy. By far the biggest, though, is that he doesn't have to pay rent.

 

+ weather : 날씨, 일기 예보, * (informal)(역경 등을) 무사히 헤쳐 나가다(견디다)

 

+ by far : 훨씬, 단연코

 

GODFREY: I'm a lot luckier than most shops. I'm lucky to have the freehold of the building, which means I haven't got to pay the leasehold. Most shops do pay lease, and you have to pay your rent. And unfortunately, that price has got to go on to the menu board.

 

+ freehold : (부동산의) 자유보유권

+ leasehold : 임차권

 

MA: Yeah. In some shops, the price on the menu board has risen to eye-popping levels, though not at Chips Ahoy just yet. Perry has managed to keep the cost of a medium cod and chips to just under eight pounds, which is around 10 bucks.

 

+ risen : ˈri-zᵊn 발음 주의

+ eye-popping : 눈이 튀어나올 정도인, 깜짝 놀랄 정도인

 

HIRSCH: But I've seen fish and chip shops charging a lot more than that - in at least one case, double that amount - more than $20 a head. And that's for a meal that's traditionally been a staple of the British diet, eaten by people on low incomes.

 

DUNCAN WELDON: If you go back 25, 30 years, you know, fish and chips were very, very cheap.

 

HIRSCH: Yeah, this is Duncan Weldon. He's the Britain economics writer at The Economist newspaper. And, no judgement, he likes curry sauce on his chips.

 

MA: That sounds all right to me.

 

WELDON: If you compare the cost of fish and chips to something like the cheapest meals at a branch of McDonald's, they were very, very comparable in price 20 years ago. Whereas now you're saying you're spending 2 1/2, three times as much on buying your lunch at a fish and chip shop than compared to a McDonald's. You know, that takes it from being a staple to being essentially a luxury item.

 

+ comparable : 비교할 만한, 비슷한

 

HIRSCH: I have a friend who has a saying. It's - oh, it's as cheap as chips. I mean, but that's not the case anymore.

 

+ the case : 사실

 

WELDON: Yeah. You know, cheap as chips - a bit of a misnomer nowadays.

 

+ misnomer : 부적절한(부명확한) 명칭(단어)

 

HIRSCH: Fish and chips used to be so essential to the British diet that during the First World War, the government made safeguarding supplies of fish and chips a priority. And during the Second World War, it was one of the few foods not restricted by rationing.

 

+ safeguard : 보호하다, 보호 장치

+ ration : 배급량, (군인 등에게 나눠주는) 배급량, 식량, (특히 식량 등이 부족할 때 공급량을) 제한하다, 배급을 주다

 

MA: These days, though, the government is not so inclined to provide that same degree of support. Fish and chip shops are besieged by competition. Their supply lines are not being guaranteed or subsidized.

 

+ besiege : 포위하다, 에워싸다, 둘러싸다

+ subsidize : 보조금을 주다

 

HIRSCH: Brexit hasn't helped. The two types of fish that the Brits prefer dipped in batter and fried are cod and haddock, most of which are fished outside of British waters these days and have to be imported.

 

WELDON: We catch a lot of mackerel in British waters, but the British people have never particularly liked mackerel. And, you know, importing and exporting fish has become a lot harder after Brexit because of all of the sort of checks on fresh produce.

 

MA: And as the cost of cod and haddock has risen and been passed on to the consumer, those British consumers have actually sought out cheaper alternatives to fish and chips.

 

WELDON: The big thing you see on high streets now, which have really grown over the last couple of decades, is sort of cheap fried chicken places - often not Kentucky Fried Chicken, often something like Tennessee fried chicken or, you know, something not copyrighted, partially to do with the fact it's much quicker to cook. It's partially due to the fact that chicken is just a very cheap, easy to source item. Whereas, you know, fish is becoming more expensive.

 

+ high street : [영국에서 주로 사용] 도시, 상업 지구

+ to do with : ~ 와 관계가 있는, ~에 관한

+ source : 얻다, 공급자를 찾다

 

HIRSCH: More expensive to the point that it's now bordering on a luxury. This story of a staple becoming a luxury is not a new one. It happened to oysters in New York in the 1800s, to sushi in Japan, to caviar, brisket, lobster.

 

MA: Paddy, you just named, like, all the delicious foods. What's going on here?

HIRSCH: I'm just trying to make the point here that economics often drives long-term changes in diet and taste and that right now the U.K. is going through a big change with this staple - fish and chips. Duncan Weldon sees it too.

 

WELDON: My takeaway is that, you know, we are past a world in which you would expect every British town and every village of any sort of size to have a fish and chip shop. We're going to see far fewer than we used to. You know, they're going the way of banks, post offices and pubs, which you used to think of just the absolute staples of the high street, which are now becoming, you know, increasingly rare. And, you know, it's a big change in the fabric of sort of small town, village British life.

 

+ takeaway : 테이크아웃 음식, 테이크아웃 전문점, 핵심 포인트

+ past : (preposition) 지나서

+ high street : 시내 중심가

+ fabric : 직물, 천, (사회 조직 등의) 구조

 

MA: Now, before people go out and start, like, panic buying fried fish and chips, this does not mean that the fish and chip shops are going to disappear, like, overnight altogether.

 

HIRSCH: No, no. The dish is still hugely popular in the U.K., and the restaurants are kind of part of the fabric of the community in a way that fast food chain joints are absolutely not. In Bournemouth, Perry Godfrey says the customers who visit his fish and chip shop certainly see things that way.

 

GODFREY: They want to come in. They like a bit of a chat. And that's the atmosphere we provide. You know, you take some notice, interest in their lives. So it's not just a food product. It's all - you feel like a social worker sometimes because I help people with problems out there. That's probably what I do in my job.

 

HIRSCH: He's not exaggerating. You know, I sat outside Chips Ahoy for about 15 minutes on a Friday evening and watched more than 40 customers brave the pouring rain to get their fish and chip fix and to chat to Perry as he handled their orders. You know, they were all crammed into the place, laughing and swapping stories. It was like they were out for a night at the pub. And Perry, he looked as though he knew every one of them by name.

 

+ brave : 용감한, 용감히 대면하다

+ fix : a supply or dose of something strongly desired or craved = craving

+ cram : (좁은 곤강 속으로 억지로) 밀어쑤셔 놓다, (좁은 공간 속으로) 잔뜩 들어가다

 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)