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The tiny shop had been bought by Wyse's father using money from the sale of a family fishing boat. There were nautical portraits on the walls. A peg-letter menu listed eight unchanging menu items, one of which was described in its entirety as "FISH".
这家小店是威斯的父亲卖掉家里的一艘渔船后买下的。墙上挂着航海图，钉子板菜单上一直都是这八道菜，其中一道菜的全称就是"鱼"。
Working together, Wyse and Murray unloaded sacks of potatoes from the lorry, carrying them inside on their shoulders. A mile along the shore from Pittenweem, in the smarter harbour town of Anstruther, Murray parked his lorry outside a fish and chip shop called the Wee Chippy.
威斯和默里一同从卡车上卸下一袋袋土豆，用肩膀把土豆扛进店里。离皮滕威姆海岸一英里远的是更时髦的港口小镇安斯特拉瑟, 在这里，默里把卡车停在了一家名叫"小薯条"的炸鱼薯条店门外。
Founded by Ian Fleming, a 64-year-old seafood trader with a tattoo of a shark on his forearm, the Wee Chippy stood across from a seaweed-covered strip of beach and a cobbled jetty.
这家店是64岁的伊恩·弗莱明开的，他也卖海鲜，前臂上绘着鲨鱼纹身。小店对面是一片布满海藻的沙滩和一条铺着大卵石的防波堤。
Fleming later told me it ruined his marriage, this fish and chip shop. "The hours," he growled in explanation.
弗莱明后来告诉我，他的炸鱼薯条店毁了他的婚姻。"（开店）太耗时间了。"他低吼着解释道。
Daily operations had long since passed to his business partner, a chef in his 40s called Chris Lewis. But Fleming kept a close eye on the Wee Chippy, which had absorbed such a big part of his life.
店铺的日常运营早就交给了他的生意合伙人：40多岁的厨师克里斯·刘易斯。但弗莱明一直密切关注着"小薯条"，这家店占据了他生活的很大一部分。
Leaving Anstruther behind, the tattie round almost done, Murray swung his lorry inland, in the rough direction of Dundee and a fish and chip shop called the Popular. Bright and cramped, the Popular had an eye-catching facade that was painted brown and baize green, making it resemble a snooker table turned on one side.
离开安斯特拉瑟镇，默里运送土豆的这趟路基本上就跑完了，他开着卡车拐弯驶向内陆，朝着敦提市一家名叫"超受欢迎"的炸鱼薯条店的大致方向驶去。这家店虽然明亮，但空间却很狭窄，被漆成棕色和深绿色的店面非常吸引眼球，看起来像一张翻过来的斯诺克台球桌。
A family concern, the Popular was staffed six days a week by a man called Graham Forbes, his wife Angela, and their two adult children. Though Forbes was in his mid-70s, he was the one who rose early to let the tattie man in.
"超受欢迎"由一家人一起经营，店里每周六天都有员工，店员包括格雷厄姆·福布斯，他的妻子安吉拉，以及他们的两个成年子女。虽然福布斯已经70多岁了，但每天早早起床给送土豆的人开门的依然是他。
He liked to get started at about the same time the sun came up, feeding potatoes into the Popular's rumbling peeler.
他喜欢在太阳升起的时候开工，把土豆塞进隆隆作响的削皮器里。
These three businesses – the Pittenweem Fish Bar in Pittenweem, the Wee Chippy in Anstruther, the Popular in Dundee – shared not only a potato supplier but the near-religious devotion of the communities they serviced.
这三家店----皮滕威姆村的"皮滕威姆炸鱼吧"，安斯特拉瑟镇的"小薯条"，敦提市的"超受欢迎"----不仅有同一个土豆供应商，而且还都对自己服务的社区有同样的近乎宗教般的忠诚。
They were run by men and women who had thick skins, literally so when it came to their fingertips, which had become so desensitised to heat that they could be brushed against boiling oil to better position a fillet of frying fish or test the readiness of chopped potatoes as they fizzed and crisped.
经营这几家店的人，不论男女都皮糙肉厚。当说到手指时，这里指的是字面意思的皮厚。他们的手指对高温已经变得非常不敏感，可以触碰到翻滚的热油，把油炸鱼排的位置摆好，也可以在土豆还炸得嘶嘶作响时用手测试土豆的熟度。
But these people were not invulnerable to strain. By the following summer, two of the three businesses would be gone, forced to close against their owner's will.
但这些人并非不会受到压力的影响。到第二年夏天，三家店中的两家将不复存在，店主将被迫关门歇业。
