ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff
Salt Takeaways owner David Wright is on a health kick this year. But fish and chips remain firmly on the menu at work, even if they’re off it at home.
Fish and chip shop owner David Wright’s weight gain and a health scare were enough to make him decide to follow a healthier diet – even if it means avoiding the very food he serves up five days a week.
Wright, 61, said his New Year’s resolution included a diet of “salad and proteins only – very little carbs”.
“I’ve got a bet going with the kids – who can lose 10kg first.”
Before moving to Christchurch in September 2021 from Auckland, Wright said he was “fighting fit”, going to the gym six days a week.
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But a new city and different lifestyle led to more than just putting on a few extra kilos.
Just weeks before Wright opened up his fish and chip shop in Diamond Harbour, Salt Takeaways, he woke up one morning feeling “a tight chest pain … like indigestion”, he said.
The sensation “radiated out towards my arms”, but he said he shrugged it off as he was still carrying out work on his new store before opening day.
“Driving through the Lyttelton tunnel, I felt this indigestion again; then it happened once more.”
ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff
The launch of his new takeaway joint, Salt, was delayed for a couple of weeks while he recovered from an angina attack that landed him in hospital.
He laughed as he explained how his next move was to pull into Diamond Harbour Four Square for a meat pie and a custard tart, while the tight feeling continued to ebb and flow.
Wanting to “get something for the indigestion”, he rang his GP who, after hearing his symptoms, told Wright to get to the doctor straight away.
Within the hour, he was sent to hospital in an ambulance.
What Wright was experiencing wasn’t indigestion, it was an angina attack – which happens when the heart isn’t getting enough blood, usually because of narrowed coronary arteries.
He said he had an 80% blockage, and a stent was inserted into an artery to open it up.
“The doctor said, ‘Take a lot of rest’, and ‘blah, blah, blah’, and I was opening [Salt] two weeks later. You can’t hold up progress, can you.”
Salt Takeaways opened a fortnight later than planned, on February 23 last year.
“If I went by doctor’s orders, it would’ve been at least a month over.”
Nearly a year since his health scare, Wright said he’s well and aiming to get back down to his Auckland weight of 95kg.
He said he used to be “really excited” about trying the batter on his fish – “any excuse to have a feed” – but these days, only dips in a very small piece of fish for the taste test.
Wright said word of mouth had spread that Banks Peninsula is home to a great little chippy, and people drop by after getting recommendations from friends and family.
“Some people say it’s the best fish and chips they’ve had in a long time.”
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