Hook, line and sinker

Fried fish is a local favourite in Japan and India, Britain's national dish, and a taco filling in Mexico. But who invented it? The answer swims all round the globe

- VIR SANGHVI

If you are a non-vegetarian, here is a dish that I am sure you have tried, even though it is not necessarily a part of Indian cuisine. It is now so ubiquitous that it turns up on many restaurant menus and nearly every hotel room-service menu. No matter which country you go to, its ubiquity will follow you. That dish is fried fish and is notable for many reasons.

First, many countries lay claim to it and yet none can claim convincingly to have solely invented it. And secondly, it is possibly the only dish that is regarded as a local food in England, Japan and India.

Let's start by demolishing the greatest myth: That it was invented in England, where it is a source of culinary pride on par with Spotted Dick and Chicken Tikka Masala.

The dish did get to the UK, but it was the creation of immigrants, rather like Chicken Tikka Masala. (The Brits can treat Spotted Dick as their own; nobody else wants it.)