NOTHING beats the smell of salt and vinegar mixed with the tang of sea air.

Like a fishing rod, it hooks you and reels you helplessly in until you find yourself hunting down the fish and chip shop responsible.

Once located, you won’t leave until you’re laden with a red-hot parcel of food.

Visiting North Wales at the weekend, my family and I decided to try the Galleon on the main street in Conwy. It was early evening and we thought it wise to ring ahead and book if necessary.

My wife made the call and reserved a table.

We arrived at the agreed time and were met with blank faces when we said we’d booked a table earlier. The lovely chap behind the counter was mystified.

“But we haven’t got a phone,” he replied.

We were just as baffled until my wife realised she’d called the Galleon fish and chip restaurant in Colwyn Bay.

So apologies to that establishment – I hope you weren’t too disappointed at the non-arrival of a family of four at 7pm on Saturday.

The Conwy Galleon displays a sign to the effect that theirs are the finest fish and chips you will ever sample.

After a plate of their cod, chips, mushy peas, bread and butter and pot of tea, I can’t argue with that claim.

The batter on the fish was so light it melted in the mouth like butter.

As I devoured my supper, my mind wandered and I wondered how fish and chips became the staple meal of the British Isles.

Deep-fried fish were introduced into Britain in the 1500s by Jewish refugees from Spain and Portugal. In the second half of the 19th century, thanks to the success of North Sea trawl fishing and the dominance of railways in connecting ports to major industrial cities, fish could be rapidly transported to heavily populated areas. Fried fish and chipped potatoes consequently became the stock cheap meal of the working classes.

Charles Dickens made one of the earliest references to ‘chips’ in A Tale of Two Cities, where he talks of ‘husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil’.

Fried potatoes were first sold in the north of England, Oldham recorded as the first town to do so.

But the first fish and chip shop – where the two components were sold together – was opened in London in 1860 by Joseph Malin.

The days of fish and chips wrapped in newspapers might have passed, but for one night only I urge you to go out and treat yourself to some. Make sure you devour your portion from a page of this very newspaper and preferably the one that has my column on it.

I like to be of use.